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Suzuki Motorcycle India today said it has slashed the prices of its superbikes — GSX-R1000R and Hayabusa by up to Rs 2.2 lakh on account of reduced customs duty on such bikes. The company has reduced the price of GSX-R1000R by Rs 2.2 lakh to Rs 19.8 lakh. It used to cost Rs 22 lakh earlier. Similarly, Hayabusa is now priced at Rs 13.59 lakh, Rs 28,623 cheaper from earlier price of Rs 13.87 lakh (all prices ex-showroom Delhi). “Considering our focus on offering a premium range of products to our Indian customers, both the CKDs and CBUs form a key component of our existing and upcoming motorcycle line-up,” Suzuki Motorcycle India Executive Vice President Sajeev Rajashekharan said in a statement. The company plans to pass on the benefits of government’s decision to reduce the customs duty on CBU and CKD (completely knocked down) units to its customers, he added. “Conducive policies will encourage manufacturers like us to bring more products and support the emerging big-bike culture in In

There is no denying the fact that how good we are at planning our travel journeys, there’s always a time when we go wrong with it and have to make our bookings at short notice. This is where the Tatkal train ticket booking service of IRCTC comes in handy. Established by the Indian Railways in 1997 to book train tickets at a short notice, the Tatkal scheme has undergone lots of changes, including change in timings of its booking in 2015. Also, ticketing agents, including IRCTC agents, are prohibited from booking non-Tatkal tickets from 10 a.m to 12 a.m.  About 1.3 lakhs Tatkal transactions are processed by IRCTC daily but a bulk of these are booked within minutes of the Tatkal quota opening. Here’s what you need to know about Tatkal Booking window : The bookings of Tatkal AC tickets begin from 10:00 am while non-AC tickets can be booked from 11:00 am onwards, one day in advance of actual date of journey, excluding date of journey. The tickets can be procured either from over the counte

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd or HAL shares made a weak debut on Wednesday, with the share price falling more than 5 per cent. Hindustan Aeronautics shares fell to as low as  Rs. 1,150 – a discount of over 5.3 per cent compared with the issue price of  Rs.  1,215. Hindustan Aeronautics shares on Wednesday started trading with symbol ‘HAL’ on stock exchanges NSE and BSE. Listing of Hindustan Aeronautics shares comes after the company’s IPO last week, which saw a tepid response from investors with a subscription of 99 per cent. Government-owned Hindustan Aeronautics had raised  Rs.  4,113 crore ($633.35 million) in the initial public offer. The HAL or Hindustan Aeronautics IPO had opened on March 16 and closed on March 20. Wednesday marks the last trading session of financial year 2017-18. COMMENTS At 10:27 am, Hindustan Aeronautics shares were trading at  Rs.  1,176.25 on the BSE, whose benchmark index Sensex was down 200 points at 32,973. Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) is a fully-owned Gove

The bond market was mired in the longest slump since 1998, one that has stretched for more than six months, according to  Bloomberg . That ended on Tuesday, as sentiment took an about-turn to begin an impressive rally. Bond yields dropped 25 basis points, the biggest single-day fall that even the deluge of demonetization in 2016 couldn’t take credit for. The benchmark 10-year bond is now around 7.37% and trade volumes have jumped. It seems all the government had to do to escape higher cost of borrowing was nod to everything that the bond market wanted. So for the first time in a decade, the government will borrow only 48% of its full-year borrowing in the first six months. It will issue floating rate bonds, and borrow more through short-term bonds, thereby making it easier for investors to manage treasury. Voila, public sector banks which had forsaken the bond market are now back, sparking up trade volume. They will be the biggest beneficiaries of the rally. Many of these lenders will

While high-cost metro services are being planned and rolled out across the count ry with state governments wanting to replicate the Delhi Metro success, these systems could end up being white elephants, if the host city does not give enough ridership. Experts believe LRTS or the Light Rail Transit System are, therefore, best suited for Tier-II and Tier-III cities which have low population. Cities like Dehradun, Kozhikode and Trivandrum have been found to be feasible for such systems that can be put up at 40 per cent of the cost incurred for building a metro system. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) was engaged by the state government of Uttarakhand to prepare a detailed project report for a metro project in Dehradun. The corporation, instead, suggested LRTS that would cost less and could be later converted to full metro, if the ridership increases. The peak hour peak direction traffic for the city is not more than 12,000 passengers, and, therefore, it was felt LRTS was better.

Defence public sector undertakings Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and Bharat Dynamics (BDL) decision to withhold material information from public shareholders is the key reason for tepid demand for their shares, particularly from overseas investors. Several institutional investors were left ineligible from investing in these companies as they fail to meet the disclosure norms. Several big-ticket foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) had to stay away from participating in these IPOs despite attractive prospects, say bankers. Both the issuances failed to garner any applications from FPIs and barely scraped through with the support of state-owned institutional investors such as Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Any unlisted shares being issued to the US-based qualified institutional investors (QIBs) should either be registered with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or will have to comply with the so-called “Rule 144A”of the Securities Act. The rule allows non

Bond dealers were in for a surprise as the government on Monday moved to ease pressure on the market considerably by reducing the first-half borrowing programme to 47.5 per cent of the total budgeted borrowing, against the normal practice of borrowing 60-65 per cent.The Centre said it would borrow Rs 2.88 trillion in April-September 2018-19, against market expectation of Rs 3.3-3.6 trillion. The weekly borrowing size would also be Rs 120 billion, against the usual Rs 150-180 billion, a great relief for the markets.Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg told reporters that the government would draw an additional Rs 250 billion from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) to finance the fiscal deficit for 2018-19. As against an earlier estimate of Rs 750 billion, now Rs 1 trillion will be drawn from the NSSF to finance the fiscal deficit.The Centre will also reduce its planned buyback of government securities (G-Secs) by Rs 250 billion. Hence the gross borrowing for the year will be red

Treasury portfolio of banks will get a much-required breather in the fourth quarter as bond prices improve following announcement of the borrowing programme by the government. The government surprised the market by reducing its plans to borrow Rs 2.88 lakh crore during April-September, only 47.5 percent of total budgeted gross borrowing as against 60-65 percent share in the first half of previous years. Indian government bonds or securities rallied with the benchmark 10-year yield falling to its lowest in two months on Tuesday following a surprise cut in the borrowing programme for the fiscal year starting April. The 10-year bond yield dropped to as much as 7.35 percent from 7.62 percent on Monday, lowest since January 29. Bond prices and yields (interest rates) move in the opposite direction. “Yes, we have seen the 10-year bond yields come off by 25-30 bps (basis points or percentage points) to 7.35-7.37 percent, same as the December figure. So to that extent, if the yields stay to e

The government will borrow Rs 2.88 lakh crore or 47 per cent of total budgeted gross borrowing during April-September, the first half of 2018-19. The government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have decided to make the gross borrowing less by Rs 50,000 crore by reducing around Rs 25,000 crore from buyback and the rest from small savings schemes. “The government intends to use larger inflows from small savings schemes to fund its fiscal deficit during the year. The government will borrow Rs 1 lakh crore from NSSF as against budgeted amount of Rs 75,000 crore,” the government said in a release on Monday. The fiscal deficit – a measure of how much the government borrows in a year to meet part of its spending needs – target for 2018-19, however, continues to remain at 3.3 per cent of the GDP, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg said. In the last five years, the government typically conducted 60-65 per cent of its market borrowing in the first half of the year. In 2017-18, the gover

New Delhi:  India largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd Thursday said it has raised its stake in its joint venture in Colombia from the existing 51% to 68%. Consequently, the stake held by partner Woven Holdings LLC has declined to 32%. The joint venture, HMCL Colombia SaS, was formed in 2014 and Hero MotoCorp owned a controlling stake through its wholly owned subsidiary, HMCL Netherlands BV, for sale, distribution and marketing of its products in Colombia. Hero MotoCorp opened its fifth overseas manufacturing capacity—its first in Columbia—to cater to demand from the neighbouring Latin American countries and to set up a base for exports outside India. “Pursuant to subsequent investment by HMCL B.V. into the share capital of the JV, the equity interests/shareholding of the joint venture partners in the JV have been re-aligned whereby the company’s equity interest/shareholding in the JV (through HMCL B.V.) has increased to 68%, on a fully diluted basis, from 51%,” the firm said i

As part of its regular yearly practice, the government met bond houses on Wednesday to discuss its borrowing calendar for 2018-19. The conditions couldn’t be more unfriendly though. Bond yields have surged around 100 basis points in the last six months, essentially conveying that investors don’t like them any more. It is well known that foreign investors have begun dumping Indian bonds for a month now and even local banks are wary after choking on losses from previous buying binges. Forsaken by the biggest buyers, the bond market has seen trading volume dry up and consequent rising yields have wreaked havoc on many a balance sheet. But who can blame investors for pricing in realities of inflation, a monetary policy poised for tightening and liquidity that is becoming scarcer? In previous episodes, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has typically come to the rescue citing liquidity compulsions. The central bank has been willing to shoulder the burden of supply, partly by buying bonds beca

New Delhi:  The central government’s ambitious vehicle scrapping policy will become compulsory for all commercial vehicles from 2020 onwards and their life will be capped at 20 years, a high-level meeting decided on Friday, two senior government officials familiar with the development said. The plan is to try and get the GST Council to consider a lower goods and services tax, or GST, on new commercial vehicles bought against a scrapped one, from the current rate of 28% to between 12% and 18%, one of the government officials added on condition of anonymity. Vehicle manufacturers will also offer a discount on purchases against scrapped vehicles. The road ministry has been directed to put up a proposal before the cabinet within the next three months, detailing the scheme, this person added. Once the cabinet approves the scheme, and till the deadline of 2020 when it kicks in, owners of vehicles older than 20 years can voluntarily scrap their vehicles and receive a discount on the purchase

MUMBAI: In a bid to attract the youth, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India, the country’s second largest two wheeler maker launched its yet another premium motorcycle – 160 cc X-Blade at an aggressive price of Rs 78,500 ex-showroom New Delhi. The new motorcycle will be sold alongside the Unicorn, Hornet and CBRs. While the company has made a name for itself in the scooter space, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter has been gradually inching up its share in motorcycle segment with the market share crossing over 15% with strong double digit growth this fiscal. The new motorcycle comes with a first in segment full LED headlamp with position lamp and full LED tail lamp. The bike sports aggressive tank design, alloy wheels, dual outlet muffler & digital meter. To enhance the sporty character of the bike the vehicles comes with a wide 130 mm rear tyre, long 1347 mm wheelbase & mono-shock rear suspension for better high speed handling. There are other convenient features on the bike which i

Royal Enfield Tuesday announced its foray into Argentina, the second biggest motorcycle market in Latin America. The motorcycle maker launched its first flagship store in Buenos Aires, commencing its full operation, including after sales, spares and service. Royal Enfield has appointed Grupo Simpa as its official dealer-partner for Argentina, which will look after all market development and support activities such as marketing and aftersales, for the brand in the country. Argentina is the third country after Brazil and Colombia in the Latin American region to have an exclusive Royal Enfield store. Rudratej (Rudy) Singh, President (Royal Enfield) said, “Our approach in international markets has been to focus on key cities that strongly influence the motorcycling and lifestyle culture in the country…More recently our focus has been on fast emerging motorcycle markets, like South East Asia and Latin America.” The company has been expanding its footprint in the Latin American region and h

Desperate to make a mark in the world’s largest two-wheeler market, major bike c ompanies such as Yamaha, Aprilia, KTM, BMW and Suzuki are launching bikes that look like their famous superbike brands, but with one-tenth the engine size. These bikes, which typically have a 150cc engine, are designed and styled on the lines of one of the big engine superbikes. While the price of these superbikes fall in the range of Rs 15 lakh and above, making them the most expensive and desired models globally, their 150cc sibling costs one-tenth the price at under Rs 1.5 lakh. Aprilia, a performance two-wheeler brand owned by Italian company Piaggio, will launch a 150cc variant of the RSV4, Aprilia’s flagship race bike. The bike which will be launched next year is named RS 150. To go along with it, a scaled down version of the Tuono V4 named Tuono 150 will also be launched. Suzuki Motorcycles India claims to have received an impressive response for the Intruder 150, a scaled down version of the Intr