Climate challenge

With reference to ‘Rich nations may have met $100b climate goal last year’ (November 17), the OECD data reveals bleak performance of rich countries in aiding the poorer nations financially to meet the cost of mitigation on climate change.

OECD’s concern that the $100-b target is far below the poor nations’ investment needs to be discussed at length by the stakeholders of the ensuing COP28 climate summit.

The OECD and any other independent body authorised by COP28 must monitor the progress of the mitigation activities of the beneficiary countries. Besides constructing seawalls to protect intrusion of sea waters, more focus should be on building the required infrastructure for renewable energy.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

Welcome SEBI move

The news report ‘Subrata Roy’s death not to halt probe against Sahara group, says SEBI chief ‘, is welcome. But more importantly how would ₹25,000 crore assets be distributed amongst retail investors and how much time will it take.

There are big lessons for the retail investors to not get carried away by these Ponzi schemes.

Bal Govind

Noida

Amend the law

With reference to “Due for change” (November 17), the apex court’s ruling covering waterfall mechanism in IBC resolution process may push tax dues of governments from fifth to second place to be on the same footing as secured creditors.

However, it could also impact the recovery chances of other creditors who are lower down in the pecking order.

As a social security measure, it would be logical for the state to forego a portion of tax dues in case of distressed companies and remain at same old fifth place to help the unsecured creditors to recover a small stake at least, who are otherwise forced to resort to endless private litigation based on their contractual agreements.

At the same time, an increase in the resolution costs to recover the losses to state, would jeopardise the investor interests. As aptly pointed out there is a need for tweaking the mechanism by amending Section 53 in synchronization with the court ruling.

Sitaram Popuri

Bengaluru

Save local palm farmers

Apropos “Edible oil imports up 17.39% in 2022-23 on low customs duty” (November 14). This is severely hurting domestic palm farmers who are unable to realise reasonable prices for the palm fruits, where the cost of harvest is high due to the thorny nature of plants.

An import duty cut sways the domestic oil manufacturers away from local farmers either without notice or effecting sudden collapse in procurement prices. The government must protect local palm growers by fixing a minimum procurement price without subjecting the farmers to the mercy of big players.

Rajiv Magal

Halekere Village (Karnataka)

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