The Government has partially lifted the ban on onion exports and permitted free export of potatoes in view of improved domestic availability of the vegetables. The export of two onion varieties — Rose and Krishnapuram — has been permitted. The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP) after a review of the essential commodity price situation. The maximum quantity that can be exported of this variety is around 20,000 tonnes.

ONGC-IOC equity swap cleared

The Centre has given the final consent for an equity swap only between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation, and a decision on including Gas Authority of India Ltd in the exercise is likely to be taken later. The two oil giants have decided to form non-Government operating companies — in which the holding by both would be less than 50 per cent — for jointly taking up projects in future.Several upstream opportunities in the country have been identified where IOC could join ONGC.

Registration process of NBFCs almost complete

Of the 37,478 NBFCs that had applied for registration with the RBI, only 8,802 companies had qualified on the basis of minimum net owned funds of Rs. 25 lakhs, as on December 31, 1998. Mr. V.S.N. Murthy, Chief General Manager, department of non-banking supervision, RBI, said almost 97 per cent of the NBFCs' registration work was over. Of the companies that had qualified, 600 had been allowed to collect public deposits, 184 denied registration and as many as 6,643 barred from collecting public deposits. The central bank would soon come out with the list of companies denied registration and those barred from collecting deposits.