UK s Cairn Energy Plc has offered to forego USD 500 million and invest that amount in any oil and gas or renewable energy project identified by the Indian government if New Delhi agrees to honour an international arbitration award and returns the value of loss it incurred because of being taxed retrospectively, sources said. The Scottish firm invested in the oil and gas sector in India in 1994 and a decade later it made a huge oil discovery in Rajasthan. In 2006-07, it listed its Indian assets on the BSE. Five years after that the government passed a retroactive tax law and billed Cairn Rs 10,247 crore plus interest and penalty for the reorganisation tied to the flotation.
The US stocks continued upward journey on Monday, 05 April 2021, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 surging to records, thanks to better than expected jobs reports and the services sector data.
At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index advanced 373.98 points or 1.13% to 33,527 and the S&P 500 added 58.04 points or 1.44% to 4,078. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed up 225.49 points or to 1.67% 13,706.
With the U. S. stock market closed Friday, it was the market s first reaction to the latest jobs report, which showed that U. S. hiring jumped in March. Employers added a seasonally adjusted 916,000 jobs last month. Investors were further encouraged by a report Monday showing that the services sector recorded record growth in March as orders, hiring and prices surged.
The oil ministry will seeks tens of millions of dollars from Vedanta s Cairn Oil & Gas after the Delhi High Court held that the firm was liable to pay higher profit share to the government in lieu of its Rajasthan oil and gas block license being extended beyond initial term, a top official said. In the interim, the firm s Barmer basin block licence, whose initial 25-year term ended on May 15, 2020, has been given an eighth interim extension, the official, who wished not to be identified, said. Now that the Delhi High Court has upheld the government policy, we will issue recovery notices seeking higher profit petroleum since May 15, 2020, he said. The exact amount is being calculated but it will be in tens of millions of dollars.
State-owned ONGC, which is often perceived as a drag on the crude oil and natural gas produced in the country, has actually seen its contribution to the national production jump to over 70 per cent from under 53 per cent a decade back, petroleum ministry data showed. While Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) maintained production levels, output by other operators has dropped, leading to an overall fall in India s output and a sharp rise in import dependency. Its standalone production at 47.51 million tonnes of oil and oil equivalent gas in 2010-11 was 52.8 per cent of a total of 89.91 million tonnes of oil and gas produced in the country that year, the data showed.
India is in the process of filing an appeal against an arbitration panel asking it to return USD 1.2 billion to British oil firm Cairn Energy Plc, sources said on Wednesday. If enforcement proceedings are initiated, India is confident to address them and will strongly defend its interests, the sources said, adding it is open to a constructive settlement of tax disputes within the existing legal framework. India is in the process of filing an appeal in the Cairn s arbitration award case, they said, adding in this case, it was well within India s sovereign powers to redress the situation of Double Non-Taxation and tax abuse.