Equity write-down at MCF

All shareholders in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers (MCF) will part with a portion of their holding, as the assets of the company do not support a bloated equity of Rs. 98 crores. This was disclosed to Business Line by senior managers in the company. The equity write-down is part of a package to be submitted to the the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). Meanwhile, for the first time, the BIFR has invited the MCF Workers’ Union for discussions to be held in New Delhi on the company's rehabilitation.

FCI rice for at open sale

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has decided to sell rice to exporters at the same price as the open sale rate. However, in 10 port towns the export price would be Rs. 100 more per tonne than the open sale price on internal sales. The port towns include Kandla, Rozi, Kochi, Tuticorin, Madras, Kakinada, Vizag, Paradip, Haldia and Calcutta. At these towns, there would be a ceiling of 50 tonnes per day under the open sales scheme.

Free import of newsprint allowed, strike move off

The Government has decided to liberalise newsprint import by permitting free import of the item at zero duty, conceding the longstanding demand of the newspaper industry. The quantitative control restriction which stipulated that newspapers have to purchase two tonnes of indigenous newsprint to be eligible for importing one tonne has been scrapped, a statement issued by the Commerce Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, said. However, the Government has kept its options open on imposing import duty if the landed cost of imported newsprint dips too far below local prices.

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