Reliance, Ispat appeal to state
Reliance Industries and the Ispat group have separately appealed to the state government to roll back the 30 paise per unit electricity duty imposed on generation for self-consumption by captive power plants. Top company soures said that Reliance will have to bear an additional burden of nearly Rs 53 lakh on account of the new levy.

MSEB in talks with TEC
The Maharashtra State Electricity Board is negotiating with Tata Electric Companies for the purchase of about 200mw of power-at a per unit cost of Rs 2.60-to overcome the peak demand shortfall in the state. MSEB sources said it would have to charge a per unit cost of nearly Rs 4.20 to low-tension consumers and Rs 3.50 to high-tension consumers after factoring in transmission and other costs.

Petronet's future in jeopardy
The revised Central India pipeline proposal submitted by Reliance Petroleum and Essar Oil is threatening to snowball into a controversy on the future of Petronet India. News in oil industry circles is that other companies, like BPCL and HPCL, will also adopt the same posture as IOC and RPL in executing pipeline projects on their own.

Aggregate sales of 100 firms up 31.7%
The profit performance of 100 companies which declared their unaudited yearly results last week improved significantly during 1999-2000. The operating profit of the firms rose substantially by 23.27 per cent, from Rs 14,669 crore in 1998-99 to Rs 18,083 crore in 1999-2000.

Motorcycle sales rise
The motrocycle segment continued its ride towards enlarging the market as sales went up sharply by 28.7 per cent in the just ended fiscal, contrary to the negative sales growth of 5.4 per cent posted by the scooter segment.

Licences to MF intermediaries
Markets regulator Sebi is considering to make the mutual fund industry more organised with plans to issue licences to mutual fund intermediaries, a top official said.

Rover sale talks
German car maker BMW AG said it would start talks with the UK Phoenix consortium early next week on the sale of Rover in a bid to save the loss-making British subsidiary from closure. BMW (FBMW) said negotiations would begin on Tuesday after the consortium led by former Rover chief John Towers reassured the Bavarian company that its had sufficient financial clout to keep Rover car production alive and save up to 24,000 British jobs.

-- Compiled by S Hariharan