Adani Enterprise Limited MD arrested by CBI, Granted Bail

Adani Enterprise Limited, the fastest emerging group of Gujarat is in trouble in the spate of Custom Duty evasion cases. In one such case Goa CBI issued arrest note to one of its Managing Director Rajesh Adani.

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Rs 30,000-crore diversified conglomerate, Adani group received a jolt on Saturday when the Goa wing of CBI arrested one of its Managing Director, Rajesh Adani in a two year old case of custom duty evasion of Rs 80 Lakh.

In the operation started early morning CBI arrested the younger brother of AEL chairman Gautam Adani. The transaction under the scanner is the import of naphtha and furnace oil worth Rs 50 crore by the petroleum division of Adani Export for Ganesh Benjoplast.

"Adani had in the year 2006-07 imported naptha, a petroleum product, and did not pay customs duty in Goa. A case was registered in January 2008 by the Goa Anti-Corruption Bureau of the CBI against him and nine customs officials. The case was also registered against Adani Exports and Ganesh Benjoplast. Adani Export is now Adani Enterprise Limited.

The alleged duty evasion involves charges of mis-declaration and falsifying information to evade duty among others. It could not have been possible without the involvement of custom department’s own officials. The CBI is looking into whether any other employees of the diversified group are also involved.

Adani Enterprises Limited managing director, 45-year-old Rajesh Adani has been involved with the group since its inception in 1988 and holds key positions in several other group companies like Adani Power and Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone and Adani Wilmar, besides handling crucial portfolios in AEL.

Later in the evening the company in a statement said,"Adani Enterprise Ltd petroleum products division had made arrangements, in the normal course of business, to import certain petroleum products in 2005-06 and 2006-07 on behalf of licence and permission holders." These licence and permission holders were responsible for fulfilling all formalities and payment of duties, it said. “Rajesh Adani was not responsible for any day-to-day business operation,” it added.

The group spokesman claimed that the CBI had issued an arrest memo for Adani without providing any reason or detail. The customs department had neither served any notice nor filed any case against either the company or Adani.

The Gujarat High Court Justice Rekha Doshi granted interim bail on the basis of habeas corpus after the group’s legal counsel moved a plea for interim bail. Mr Adani would present himself before a court in Goa for further proceedings.

Adani is also facing issues with Ahmedabad and Goa branches of Customs Department and Enforcement Directorate, Bangalore. Besides this AEL is also facing criticism from Gujarat Congress leaders due to their closeness to former Chief Minister and BJP leader Keshubhai Patel in whose regime Adani group got maximum approvals from the state government.

Please Stop Selling Medicines by Force

If you are feeling slight headache and are looking to buy one Saridon or Megadol tablet to get temporary relief, before going to the family doctor, then you can not do so until you agree to buy additional nine tablets.

 

Chemists in certain areas of the city like Ghatlodia and Thaltej compel the patients to buy full strip of the medicines, what ever be the prescribed dose by the doctor. Most of the patients are unable to protest to this forced sale.

Since the consumer law on the matter is silent and no one wants to go for the harassment of attending hearings, so the matter does not get high lighted. Medicine is not something which one should be advised to take in excess or be taken without the advice of the doctors.

Therefore, chemists should logically be directed to sale the quantity which is prescribed and required by the patient. Syrup and injections, which are in liquid form and can not be distributed further, are exceptions. In such a case smaller versions of these should be promoted more.

As far as capsules and tablets are concerned they can be easily cut into parts of the strip and given. Not only small chemists but the organised chains like Planet Health also follow such tactics. I myself have tried this on February 20 at the outlet opposite to SAL Hospital, where the sales assistant would refuse to cut the strip and give the exact prescribed quantity.

In the recent past the service side of the medical profession has diminished. With corporates coming up ordinary man is losing its basic right to get treated. Doctor’s nexus with the pathology labs and the drug manufacturers is easily visible. But there does not seem to be any checks.

When the entire system is corrupt the premium paid to get medical cover in true sense is extra payment made in advance to fill pockets of doctors and the insurance companies. The rates of treatment are different with and without the insurance cover.

Ahmedabad Mirror

Share market freezes again Sensex Down

Banking and Monitory regulation tightening in US and China has caused global panic in the share market. The markets all over has reacted sharply to the news.

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Nifty slipped below 5,000 as the market opened today in morning. The selling pressure which had started based on statements on banking and economy from the China and US. In the early hours the sensex lost 344 points and Nifty 105 Points. The China may further tighten its monetary policy after the double-digit growth in the last quarter. President Obama proposed new limits on the size and trading practices of big banks.

All 30 Sensex counters closed in reds on Thursday. Overall market breadth being extremely negative with 2,357 declines against only 557 gainers on the BSE. The volumes were high at Rs6,354.78 crore from Rs6,185.95 crore from previous day signifying rush to offload the stocks as early as possible.

FIIs are booking profit to pull out money from market ahead of the budget and may reinvest in upcoming mega follow-on-public offer (FPO) by the largest power generation firm, NTPC, which opens on February 3. Another factor is of the strengthening dollar and euro which acted as a dampener on the already weak sentiment.

Analysts said China, after its stupendous 10.7% GDP growth in the fourth quarter, will have to cool down its overheated economy through monetary and fiscal policy measures. This led to FIIs resorting to panic selling. Selling was across-the-board as all sectoral indices ended in the red between 5.15% and 1.42%.

Poor results of engineering giant L&T added to the negative sentiments.L&T is the top loser among the Sensex stocks, having shed 4.2% at Rs 1460. The engineering giant had lost 6% on Thursday. ONGC also disappointed market with its numbers and lost 2% of its value

Suzlon, JP Associates, Tata Power, ABB, Siemens, DLF, IDFC, ICICI Bank, Reliance Power, Tata Motors, SAIL, Jindal Steel and Hindalco were the other losers. The shares of FACT, NMDC, ITI and STC India fell 5% each. They had become favourite on the ce of dis-investment news.

The US markets earlier witnessed biggest second-day drop since June reacting to the statement of the President on increased bank regulation in US & tighter monetary policy in China. The Dow Jones lost 213 points or 2% at 10,390. The NASDAQ was down 25.5 points or 1.12% at 2,265 and the S&P 500 was down 21.5 points or 1.9% at 1,117.

Merinews.com

Adani Power becomes first CDM certified Project by UNFCCC

India’s private power projects are committed to Clean Development. Adani Power project has achieved a certification of its first super critical technology based upcoming project at Mundra from United Nations body authorized under Kyoto Protocol .

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Adani Power Ltd.(APL) has become the first mega power project to get registered as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project by the United Nations body authorized under Kyoto Protocol to register such projects after elaborate and stringent scrutiny.

This certification is awarded for two power plants of 660 mw each are being set up by APL at Mundra in Gujarat with super-critical technology. With this technology, coal consumption is lower and 10% more power is generated compared to the conventional technology. This criteria qualified the project to get the CDM certificate. The plant is expected to be commissioned during 2010-11.

APL got the certificate during the 51st executive board meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held at Copenhagen, Denmark in the first week of December 2009. The committee members reviewed the replies and various documents submitted by Adani Power during the meeting and approved this project as a CDM project.

Under the guidelines of the UNFCCC under the ACM013 methodology applicable to this project, the two units at Mundra will be eligible to generate 18,39,560 carbon emission reduction (CER) per annum for 10 years from the first year of generation. The current trading price of CER is at 12 Euro per CER. Thus APL will be able to generate revenues of Rs140 crore to Rs150 crore annually out of it.

The process of awarding CDM certificate is multistage evaluation process involving approvals from the Ministry of Environment & Forest in India, evaluation by Independent Validator of the Project Concept Note and Project Design Document, followed by review of Independent Validator’s report by Committee Members of UNFCCC with final queries being raised by UNFCCC committee members.

The super-critical coal fired power plants attract high capital investment compared to the sub-critical coal fired power generation. But the enhanced plant efficiency reduces emissions of CO2 and all other pollutants by consuming less fuel per unit of electricity generated. The efficiency improvements and thereby reduction in CO2 Green House Gas (GHG) using super-critical technology leads to registration of such Thermal Power Project as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project and earning of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) through the CDM under the Kyoto Protocol.

APL is setting-up 9,240 MW thermal power generation capacity; 4,620 MW at Mundra, Gujarat, 3300 MW at Tiroda, Maharashtra and 1320 MW at Kawai, Rajasthan. Out of this 8,000 MW capacity is based on environment friendly Super-critical technology.

The Adani Power stock has been trading in the range of 100 – 104 below the offer price. But the investment advisors have been rating this share above RPL. The volume of trading increased on Wednesday. The total traded quantity was 801528 compared to 2 week average of 937850.

Merinews 

SIT inching to Question Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

The Special Investing Team constituted by the Supreme Court to probe the post-Godhra communal mayhem in Gujarat is moving close to investigate the Chief Minister Narendra Modi. One of his ministers Maya Kodnani had to resign earlier when her name came up in Naroda Patiya Case.

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Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into 2002 riot cases appears to be moving closer to investigating the actions of chief minister Narendra Modi during the period of violence. The SIT had lodged a complaint on Tuesday with the Supreme Court that certain relevant documents relating to probe were not being given by the state government.

A bench of justices DK Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam directed Gujarat government to hand over all records of post Godhra riots including the transcripts of an allegedly inflammatory speech made by Chief Minister Narendra Modi after the Godhra train carnage.

The court rejected the state government's argument that the documents sought by SIT may not have relevance to investigations. "If SIT thinks Modi’s speeches were relevant for the purpose of the probe, why wouldn’t you give those to it?’’ the court asked.

The SIT headed by former CBI chief R K Raghavan was constituted under the directives of the Supreme court on March 26, 2008. The other members of the team were former DG of UP Police C D Satpathy and three IPS officers from Gujarat- Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia. The nine cases SIT is investigating include incidents of Gulbarg Society, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya and Sardarpura.

SIT on 1st May, 2009 had filed a chargesheet in a local court here in Naroda Gam case in which BJP leader and former state minister Maya Kodnani is one of the prime accused.

The charges had been framed under IPC Sections 120 (B) for criminal conspiracy, 302 for murder, 307 for attempt to murder, 395 and 397 for loot and 143 to 147 for rioting. Maya Kodnani, State Minister for Women and Child Welfare had to resign from the ministry.

In November, 2009 a key witness Imtiyaz Saeedkhan Pathan in the Gulbarg massacre case had told a special court that chief minister Narendra Modi had abused former MP Ahsan Jafri when he called him for help on February 28, 2002. Sixty-nine people were killed in Gulbarg Society including Jafri. A young Parsi boy, Azhar Mody, also went missing from his house, the story of which became a Bollywood film Parzania. This film was banned in Gujarat.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam said the apex court could also examine the idea of reconstituting SIT in the wake of a recent judgement of the court in Sheikh Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in which it had passed certain adverse remarks against Inspector General of Police Geeta Johri. She is one of the members of SIT.

The bench also declined to grant five months time sought by SIT to submit its reports and asked the probe team to come out with its report to the court by April 30. Earlier the team had to submit its finding report by 31st December 2009.

Merinews