Import duty on gold has been changed from flat Rs. 300 per 10 grams to 2 percent of the value of the import. The import duty on silver has been set at 6 percent of the value of the imports from flat Rs.15,00 per kilograms.

Rajesh Mehta, Executive Chairman, Rajesh Exports said, “For the domestic markets, this is definitely not good news because already we were seeing little slump in the domestic buying especially in the month of December and now in January we are seeing demand pick up a little bit… But with this increase in duty…gold would become more expensive. There would be some effect on the demand again…at least for the short period that is because of the sudden hike in prices customers would wait and watch.”

He reacted to the increase in import duty of gold bars and said, “This increase in duty would be passed on to the retail consumers by the jewellers, as the actual rate of gold itself would increase due to the increase in duty, as the bullion dealers would charge that much more to the jewellers.

I appeal to the government on behalf of the trade to roll back the increase in duty on gold and silver; going further the trade has been demanding the abolition of duty on gold and make import of gold duty free, which is the case with most of the countries in the world.”

Sebi Chairman U K Singh was noting that retirement and pension money is not coming in the market. He wondered why mutual fund houses are not launching funds aimed at attracting retirement money.

“Retirement and pension money is not coming into the market. It is legally possible that retirement money can be invested in the markets. Why are AMCs not able to launch pension funds?” Sinha asked during an India Investment Conference in Mumbai.

“We are passing through very difficult times. Margins and volumes and flow of fresh money are coming down. We need to start taking measures,” Sinha said, adding that level of participation in the markets by households is very low.

In the future, Sinha said, Sebi will be regulating alternative investments. “Currently we are looking at regulations on distributors and investor advisers.”

Around 50 percent of mutual fund business is done through distributors who are not regulated at all, he said.

Since the Nano car was launched in April 2009, only 1,30,000 cars have been sold so it has failed to fulfil the dream of its makers.

According to an article published in Firstpost, “The world’s cheapest car” was damned by being called that: a Rs 1 lakh car that aroused concern that maybe something was sacrificed in producing a car on the “cheap”. And no one likes being accused of owning a “cheap” car.

Though the sale of Nano is down but Tata Motors are upgrading it and they are promising to deliver an upgraded Nano with better fuel efficiency, a powerful engine and new interiors and all these features are being added without increasing its prices.

Today, the company said in their release, “Making the Tata Nano even more desirable, the car’s 624 cc engine has been made even more powerful delivering an impressive 38PS of power(earlier 35PS) and 51 Nm of torque (earlier 48 Nm).”

Now only time will tell if the upgraded Nano will help the company to sale the more of it.

Recently petrol prices were hiked and everyone criticized the government. But now Indian state oil companies will cut gasoline prices by 3.2 percent.

Now a litre of petrol in Delhi will cost Rs.66.42 rupees because latest cut in a litre petrol is 2.22 rupees.
India’s biggest fuel retailer, Indian Oil Corp has confirmed that it will cut petrol prices by 1.85 rupees a litre excluding local taxes.

“Basic price has been cut by 1.85 rupees litre (over 3 cents) and add a 20 percent value added tax in Delhi. It should be about 2.22 rupees a litre,” a company source told Reuters.

Recently state oil retailers like Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum hiked gasoline prices.

But everyone criticized it and raised their voice against it. Government was being opposed by the other political parties and even few members of the Congress party were also against it.

“The reduction has been possible as a result of favourable impact of the slide down both in the international prices of gasoline and in the Rupee/Dollar parity,” the statement said.

In the first fortnight of this month, the rupee dollar exchange rate came down marginally and remained more or less stable at around 49.30 rupees to a dollar, it said.

“If the Rupee/Dollar parity remains at this level or moves further away, its impact would get reflected in the next pricing cycle,” the IOC statement said.

Hyundai has come in the market with their new small car Eon. Hyundai Eon was launched on Thursday. So far Maruti Suzuki is known as a top seller for his small car Alto and now Eon will be seen as its rival.

Maruti is already facing problem due to long strike in one of his plants and now they have been hit by their rivals.

Starting price of the Eon is just Rs.2.7 lakh and it has targeted middle class of Indian family, for past seven year Alto was ruling over Indian’s car market.

Last year 3.47 lakh Alto cars were sold and it was known as the top selling car model on the earth. It took four years to Maruti Suzuki to be able to sell such a huge number of cars and now Hyundai is planning to sell around 1.5 lakh Eon cars in a year.

“We are looking at the sub-compact segment, which is a fourth of the total Indian market and ushers in the greatest potential for growth in the world’s second fastest market,” said Arvind Saxena, Hyundai’s director for sales.

Festive season is approaching and Maruti has temporarily stopped manufacturing Alto cars due to long labour strikes in his plant and contrary to it Hyundai has already delivered large number of new Eon cars to its dealers.

Though new Eon was launched on Thursday only but Hyundai already started to produce the cars from mid September to fulfil the high demand of festive seasons.

In the past many companies tried to enter in the territory of Maruti but Alto was untouched but now industry experts believes that Eon launched could bring the difference in Indian car market ruled by Maruti.

Earlier food inflation was 8.84 per cent but jumped up to 9.13 per cent for the week ended Sept 17. Mainly cost of potatoes, pulses and poultry etc. have increased.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is concerned about rise in food inflation he termed it as an area of “grave concern”. “(Food inflation)… is perilously close to double digits. These fluctuations are taking place and it is one of the areas of grave concern,” Mukherjee told reporters.

According to the Commerce Ministry data onions were selling at some reasonable price during the week but other essential kitchen items like gram, arhar, masoor, and poultry rates firmed up on an annual basis. .”Food prices are an area of major and grave concern,” Mukherjee said.

According to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation in some kitchen items like meat, eggs and fish eased to 13.17 per cent during the week as against 28.7 per cent, year-on-year. Potato prices hiked 15 per cent and price of onion was down to 17 per cent from 22 per cent last year.

Experts view are that food inflation may come down only later this year. “We hope that inflation number will come down during November-December period due to a larger base effect,” Standard Chartered Bank Senior Economist Anubhuti Sahay said.

“Global slowdown and RBI’s tight monetary policy will keep a cap on the non-food inflation numbers,” KASSA India Director Siddharth Shankar said.

Other non-food articles such as oil seeds, fibres and minerals are recorded an inflation of 12.89 per cent during the week which ended September 17, in previous week it was 17.42 per cent.

So far Fiat and Tata car used to sell their cars under the same roof. But Fiat India announced on Tuesday that they will no longer sell their cars under the same roof as joint venture partner Tata Motors. Now Fiat has planned to set up its own showrooms in around 20 cities of India in the coming next one-and-a-half years.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association’s (ACMA) annual summit , Fiat India President and CEO Rajeev Kapoor said the same dealers who were engaged by the Tata-Fiat joint project will now open separate showrooms for Fiat and Tata-brand cars.

“Fiat cars will now be sold separately and independently,” Mr.Kapoor said.

He further informed that in one-and-a-half to two years’, Fiat will have its separate showrooms in 20 cities of India.

“Also, we are opening two Fiat cafes, one each in Delhi and Pune, for promoting the brand by bringing’Italian-ness’,” he added.

In 2007 these tow company signed a 50:50 joint venture agreement and they agreed to a joint distribution network and back-end support system. They also decided to co-manufacturing of products at Fiat’s Ranjangaon facility, near Pune.

Fiat cars have not attract buyers as it was expected so now their relationship had come into question.

In an interview published in a report by market research firm JD Power, Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata had said the joint venture has not been as active as planned and the association needed to be critically examined to optimise its potential.

In August only 1,069 Fiat cars were sold in India and contrary to it 16,829 Tata cars were sold.

Maruti Suzuki has come back in the market with their new version of the Swift. Pricing the base petrol version of upgraded Swift is higher by Rs.13,000 and diesel version is higher by Rs. 18,000 from the existing Swift models.

Interior and exterior of the new Swift has been upgraded. Its petrol engine has been improved which will provide more fuel efficiency. The entry-level petrol version Swift costs is Rs.4.22 lakh and the base diesel Swift is priced at Rs.5.17 lakh. Engine capacities of the Swift are same.

While talking to reporters at the launch of new Swift, Maruti Suzuki India managing director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said, “The new Swift will create new benchmarks with its improved fuel efficiency, stylish and sportier looks and high performance.”

Considering the current situation, rising loan interest rates, fall in demand and increasing market competition, Maruti Suzuki decides not to tamper with the retail pricing of the car.

Company executives have indicated that aggressive price creates ‘general negative sentiment’ in customers and due to higher pricing they were unable to convert more inquiries into actual sales.

So far company has received bookings for more than 50,000 units of upgraded Swift in India. Now it is expected that monthly production of Swift will increase. Shinzo Nakanishi, MD of Maruti Suzuki , said, “We had a monthly average of 10,000-12 ,000 units last year. With the new model, we hope to take this up to 16,000-18 ,000 units monthly.”

However, company did not give any information about the launch of new version of the dzire (Swift sedan).

A Maruti Suzuki executive said that car market will pick up pace during festival season around October.

Maruti Suzuki India is planning to launch the new version of its premium hatchback Swift so that it can hit back at his competitors. Maruti Suzuki India said today that they will cut diesel engine exports to Hungary so that they can focus on the Indian market.

Due to the arrivals of new cars like Ford Figo, Toyota Liva and Vokswagen Polo, competition has been increased in the Indian market. Now they will increase Swift’s production. By producing 18,000 units a month, waiting period will be reduced. Honda’s Brio is coming into the market and it will too increase the competition.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), Managing Executive officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said, “We are reducing on export of diesel engines significantly to cater to the domestic demand. Currently we export about 35,000 to 45,000 units every year to Hungary. We will reduce it to almost negligible levels in the next six months.”

He said, their Manesar diesel engine plant currently produces 2.8 lakh engines per annum but for Indian market, about four lakh units are required.

“The additional engine that we get (after cutting exports) will go for the Swift in India,” Pareek said.

Now demand for diesel engine cars have been increased because petrol prices are going up day by day. New Swift will be manufactured on an all-new platform and for developing it; Maruti Suzuki India has invested over Rs.550 crore.

“Production of Swift will be increased to about 17,000-18,000 units per month, from an earlier 10,000-11,000 unit. Thus the waiting period will come down to 2-3 months from 3-4 months earlier,” he said.

They are expecting growth in the Swift sales. Currently Swift sales are around 12,000 units a month. Expected Swift sales are around 18,000 per month. Pareek said, “but we will try to push for 20,000 per month”.

He said so far, the company has received bookings for over 30,000 units and since its launch in 2005, Swift has clocked over 6 lakh units.

The new Swift will have the features of 1.2 litre petrol engines and 1.3 litre diesel engines.
Price of the new Swift has not been disclosed. Pareek said they will announce its price during its formal launch on August 17.

MSI’s Manesar plant will produce the car. In September operations of unit B will start with the production of the new Swift.

If one wishes to take a look at the new cars of Mercedes, for them Mercedes has released a few interior images of their B-class. Looking at them will definitely give an idea of attention detail and high quality of the overall interior package.