Canara Bank CMD Dubey aims growth of 20 per cent; business of 8.50 lakh crores

By Deepak Arora

GURGAON, May 31: Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R.K.Dubey, is a man with the Midas touch. During Mr Dubey’s first full financial year (2013-14) term at the helms of Canara Bank, the Bank recorded business growth of over 20 per cent thus achieving a total business of Rs 7.22 lakh crore. The growth in business of nearly Rs 2 lakh crores has happened for the first time in the 108-year-old history of Canara Bank. After creating history, Mr Dubey aims to achieve the total business level of Rs 8.50 lakh crores during the current financial year of 2014-15 year with growth rate of 20 per cent.

Mr Dubey, who was in the millennium city on Saturday to open a new Gurgaon Circle, said during the year ended March 2014, the total customer base of the bank reached 5.55 crore with the addition of over 85 lakh customers.

He said the Bank added a record of 1,027 branches and 2,786 ATMs during the year. In the current financial year, he said Canara Bank would open another 1250 branches. As on date, Canara bank has a network of 6,312 ATMs and 4,755 branches in India and abroad. Apart from these, 102 E-lounges were established across major cities for customer self service 24x7.

To expand its global presence, the Chairman said Canara Bank will open its branch in New York, USA on June 9. In the coming months, he said “we would have presence in Frankfurt (Germany) and Dubai.”

He said “as we would get more licences from foreign governments, we would open more branches abroad.”

Out of the 1,027 branches opened during the last financial year, Mr Dubey said 85 per cent of branches were opened in rural and semi-urban areas. “This year also the number will be same.”

Mr Dubey informed that last year 243 branches were opened in unbanked centres where there were no bank branches. “This year also we will open in 250 unbanked centres where there are no branches. In other words, in two years were would have reached 500 unbanked places.”

To achieve the target of inclusive growth, Mr Dubey said Canara Bank is opening branches in nexalite and terror affected areas.

He said “we have opened 30 to 40 branches in Jammu and Kashmir and over 25 branches in Jharkhand. We have also opened a circle office in Raipur to cater to Chattisgarh areas. We are opening circle office in Durgapur to go to interiors of West Bengal. We are also opening 50 branches in the North East to go to the interiors of the North East region.”

Mr Dubey said “we have reached all these interior parts of the cournty and where ever there are gaps, we will open more branches.”

Canara Bank opens Varanasi Circle office

VARANASI, June 2: Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Rajeev Kishore Dubey inaugurated the 42nd Circle Office at Varanasi on Monday. The Purpose of opening the Cirlce Office is to provide better customer service in 60 of its branches spread over 24 Districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Canara Bank is going to open 28 more branches in Varanasi Circle in near future. It paves the way for all round development of eastern Uttar Pradesh including industries. In FY 2014, Canara Bank has opened 2786 new ATMs and 1027 branches of which 257 branches were under Financial Inclusion. The business of the bank has grown by 20% and Credit grown by 24.30% during the FY Canara Bank has also planned to reach Rs 8.50 lacs Crore business during Current FY 2015. Canara Bank has also opened branch at Johannesberg (South Africa) recently and three more foreign branches will be opened in Centres like New York, Frankfurt and Dubai.

Chairman and Managing Director also donated a water cooler and purifier to District Hospital, Varanasi under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR activity) of the bank. On this occasion the General Manager of Lucknow Cirlce Office S K Mathur and Deputy General Manager of Varanasi Circle Office R S Joglekar also addressed the customers.

R K Dubey opens new Canara Circle at Gurgaon

By Deepak Arora

GURGAON, May 31: Mr R K Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank, inaugurated the Bank’s new Circle Office at Gurgaon, the millennium city, here on Saturday in the presence of valuable customers and other dignitaries to meet the demand for operational convenience of the valued customers. The new Circle Office will be headed by Ashok Aggarwal, Deputy General Manager of the Bank.

Mr Sanjay Jain and Mr Rajinder Goel, Directors of Canara Bank; Mr John Holden, Chief Executive Officer and Ms Vishakha RM, Director, Sales and Marketing, of Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance; Mr Hemant Kumar Tamta, General Manager, Delhi circle, Mr S.K.Chaudhary, DGM, Karnal circle, Mr A.K.Verma, DGM, Agra Circle and other dignitaries and invitees were present at the inaugural function.

Gurgaon Circle, the 40th Circle Office of the bank, covers nine districts of Haryana and 58 branches comprising of Gurgaon (13), Mewat (1), Faridabad (13), Palwal (6), Rewari (5), Mahendragarh (3), Rohtak (6), Bhiwani (9) and Jhajjar (2).

Out of total 58 branches 12 branches are located in Rural, 17 in semi urban, 16 in urban and 13 in metro areas. The Gurgaon circle also has one E-Lounge and 72 ATMs.

Addressing the well-attended gathering, Mr Dubey said the Bank proposed to open 21 branches in the Gurgaon Circle during the current fiscal year. In the coming years, he said Gurgaon Circle would have 100 branches.

Mr Dubey said there was proposal to create a Hissar Circle in the coming months. The new circles would take care of ovreall needs of the State of Haryana. He also promised that bank’s presence in the region will be increased by opening more number of branches and their valuable suggestions will be considered favourably.

The total business of the Gurgaon Circle is Rs 5,500 Crore consisting of Rs 3,300 crore of deposits and Rs 2,200 crore of Advances. The finance to agriculture is to the tune of Rs 157 Crore, to medium & Small Enterprises Rs 1,300 Crore and to Priority Sector Rs 1,000 crore.

He asked the heads of Karnal and Gurgaon circles to work harder and increase their targets by 25 per cent to add to the growth of the bank.

Mr Dubey asked the bank staff to promote other products of the bank that include life, non-life and health insurance also.

As per part of bank’s Corporate social responsibilities, Mr Dubey donated three wheelchairs to the children of Spastic society of India and a water cooler to Janata rehabilitation centre for visually handicapped.

First 'Shikhar' branch of Canara Bank launched in Delhi

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, May 31: The first branch of Canara Bank in Delhi Circle under the ongoing Business Process Re-engineering project “Shikhar” was launched here on Saturday.

Canara Bank Chairman & Managing Director, Mr R K Dubey, inaugurated the One Star “Shikhar” Branch at Hauz Khas here. Mr Hemant Kumar Tamta, General Manager, Canara Bank of Delhi Circle was also present on the occasion.

While inaugurating the first “Shikhar” branch, Mr Dubey expressed happiness over the re-engineered branch under the project with features like Welcome Desk, Queue management system (QMS), E-lounge (Cash Deposit Machine, ATM, Pass Book Updating Machine), Single Window Operator System and daily staff meeting to improve our sales culture.

Senior officials of the bank including SP Bhattacharyya, Deputy General Manager, Delhi Circle; M K Srinivas Pai, AGM, Green Park; Vinod Kumar, Chief Manager of Hauz Khas were present on the occasion.

Canara CMD Dubey inagurates Ernakulam Circle Office

By Deepak Arora

ERNAKULAM, May 30: Canara Bank Chairman and managing Director, Mr R K Dubey inaugurated the Ernakulam Circle office at a glittering function here on Friday in the presence of Mr P Rajeev, Member of Parliament and Mr Hibi Eden, MLA, and Canara Bank's Executive Director V S Krishna Kumar.

Mr C G Nair, Deputy General Manager welcomed the gathering.

During the Inaugural function, 508 JLG Loans amounting to Rs 10.16 crores, 51 Education Loans amounting to Rs 3.60 crores and Canara Pragathi Commercial loans worth Rs 0.25 crores were distributed.

As a part of CSR activity, Bank has adopted 2 villages, namely Thonurkkara in Thrissur District and Kavessery in Palakkad District under Gramodaya Scheme. Equipments worth of Rs 10 lakhs each were distributed to the beneficiaries in the Villages adopted under Gramodhaya Scheme. Computer and accessories, projectors etc were handed over to Panchayat presidents, headmaster and students of the schools.

Mr D.Suresh Pai, DGM CO Calicut, Mr Kishore Kumar, DGM CO TVM, Mr Gugulloth Lakshman, I.P.S., Managing Director of Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd., Mr E.P. George, President, Kerala Chamber of Commerce, Mr N. Kanthakumar, Mr George Joseph, both Ex-CMDs of Syndicate Bank, Mrs Ambika Pillai, renowned fashion designer, other VIP customers, Employees and Ex Employees also graced the function.

Canara Bank plans to open 1,250 new branches, 8 foreign branches: R K Dubey

By Deepak Arora

RAIPUR, May 29: Mr R K Dubey, Chairman & Managing Director of Canara Bank announced opening of 39th Circle Office of the Bank at Raipur at 1st Floor, Ace Global, Telibandha, G E Road, Raipur, in the presence of Mr V S Krishna Kumar, Executive Director of the Bank.

The gala opening ceremony was well attended by prominent customers and public at large. It was a momentous occasion for all the staff members of Chhattisgarh State to have its new spacious premises.

The occasion was marked by felicitation of long standing customers. Further, as a part of its CSR activities. The Chairman also donated water cooler, Water purifier, Dessert cooler, fans to Missionaries of Charity towards social cause.

In his address, Mr R K Dubey informed about the Bank’s expansion plan across the country in general and for the State of Chhattisgarh in particular. He informed that the New Circle with 51 branches has come into existence, which is scheduled to grow to 75-80 number of branches in the FY 2015 and to reach 100 number of branches by FY 2016.

While meeting the press, Mr Dubey informed that Canara Bank has opened 1027 Branches during the last financial year which is one of the highest in the history of any bank.

He said Bank has also opened the 6th foreign branch in Johannesburg, South Africa and plans to add eight more during the year so as to increase the percentage of overseas business to 10% of the gross from the present level of 6%.

He said that The Bank has plans to open about 1250 new branches apart from 8 foreign branches, and 10 new circle offices during this financial year.

Mr Dubey informed that Canara Bank has recorded a growth rate of over 21% in total business Year on Year and as at March 2014 the business stood at a level of Rs.7.22 lakh crore rupees comprising Rs.4.21 lakh crore deposits and Rs 3.01 lakh crore advances.

He said the Bank has an excellent control over NPA Management with robust cash recovery of Rs 5494 crore. He also said that bank’s gross NPA level was 2.49% with a net NPA level of only 1.98%-again one of the lowest in the country among public sector bank’s.

Dwelling on the USP of the bank he told about relationship and service being the two aspects unique to Canara Bank which has earned it great customer loyalty and established it as a premier public sector bank of the country.

Mr V S Krishna Kumar in his speech, informed in detail about technological products of the Bank.

He also informed about launching of E lounge at Raipur shortly for the benefit of customers.

Mr S K Hota, DGM Nagpur, Sri N Meharbaba, DGM Raipur and all the staff members of the branches coming under Raipur Circle were present on this occasion.

Canara CMD Dubey inagurates Jalandhar Circle

By Deepak Arora

JALANDHAR, May 28: Canara Bank Chairman and managing Director, Mr R K Dubey, inaugurated the Jalandhar Circle office and a well-equipped “E-Lounge” at BMC Jalandhar here on Wednesday.

The occasion was marked by the presence of large number of dignitaries of in and around Jalandhar.

In the subsequent press meet the CMD enumerated the steps Canara Bank has already taken towards the expansion of the bank branches.

He explained the future expansion plans of the Bank in Jammu and Kashmir. He was applauded by the audience for Participating in such an impressive manner in the “Project Udaan” of Ministry of Home Affairs wherein more than 250 personnel were given employment. It was announced in the customer interaction that bank will soon be carving out separate circle at Jammu and Shimla.

CMD also mentioned that bank has an aggressive plan to expand in the non-banked areas including naxalite affected areas so that the marginalized section of the society can be included in the banking arena.

The Chairman also participated in a CSR activity organized for the benefit of the challenged children being rehabilitated by a charitable organization “PRAYAS”.

On the occasion bank donated utility articles like Heavy Duty Coolers, Large refrigerator and utensils.

Each of the children was facilitated by a school bag.

The occasion was graced by Mr Devender Arora, General Manager, Chandigarh Circle and vote of thanks was delivered by the DGM of Newly opened Jalandhar Circle, Mr C G Saha.

Canara Bank opens new circle office at Tirupati

By Deepak Arora

TIRUPATI, May 23: Mr R K Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank, inaugurated the Bank’s new Tirupati Circle, the 37th Circle Office and E-Lounge at Tirupati, the temple town, here on Friday in the presence of Mr V S Krishna Kumar, Executive Director of the Bank, Mr G V Sambasiva Rao, Director, local MPs/ MLA of Tirupti, valuable customers and other dignitaries.

The new Circle office is located in IGVK Towers, Sri Govindarajaswamy South Mada Street, Tirupati. The new circle office will be headed by Mr Puli Sayi Babu, Deputy General Manager of the Bank.

Tirupati Circle, the 37th Circle Office of the Bank covers six districts of Andhra Pradesh and 63 branches in Ananatapur (22) Chittoor (11), Kadapa (4), Kurnool (13), Nellore (5) and Prakasam (8) districts. Out of the 63 braches, 29 branches are located in Rural, 39 in Semi-Urban and 21 in Urban areas and propose to open 42 branches during the current financial year in Chitoor (24), Kadapa (13), Nellore (4) and Prakasam (1) districts.

While addressing the gathering, Mr R K Dubey highlighted the bank’s performance during the financial year ended March 2014. He has also promised the MPs present that bank’s presence in the region will be increased by opening more number of branches as suggested by them and their valuable suggestions will be considered favourably. He has also informed that bank is considering opening of two more Circle Offices at Vijayawada and Warangal in the days to come.

The total business of the Tirupati circle is Rs 3994 Crore consisting of Rs 2054 Crore of Deposits and Rs 1939 Crore of Advances. The finance to Agriculture is to the tune of Rs 1304 Crore, to Medium & Small Enterprises Rs.347 Crore and to Priority Sector Rs.1750 Crore.

As at the end of March 2014, the deposits of Canara Bank reached Rs 4,20,723 Crore, Advances reached Rs 3,01,067 Crore, thus achieving a total business of Rs 7,21,790 Crore with a growth rate of 20.7%.

The total customer base of the bank reached 5.55 Crore with the addition of over 85 lakh customers during the year ended March 2014. Bank aims to achieve a total business of Rs.8.50 lakh crore, with a deposit growth of 16-17% and advances growth of 19-20% as at March 2015. Bank added a record 1027 branches and 2786 ATMs during the year upto March 2014 and would open another 1250 branches this year. As on date Canara Bank has a network of 6312 ATMs and 4755 branches in India and abroad.

Apart from these, 102 E-lounges were established across major cities for customer self service.

As part of Bank’s Corporate social responsibility, 20 sewing machines to the women beneficiaries were distributed by Mr R K Dubey. These women were identified and trained by RASS (Rastriya Seva Samiti) a reputed social service and voluntary organization of Tirupati. Mr S Venkata Ratnam, Executive Director and Sri Nagaraju, Project Director of RASS who were instrumental in organizing this programme had also graced the occasion. The inaugural function of Circle Office, Tirupati was also graced by Mr G S Iyer, General Manager, Circle Office, Hyderabad; Mr K N Ramamoorthy, General Manager, Head Office, Bangalore; Mr K Bhaskar, Deputy General Manager, Circle Office, Visakhapatnam and other dignitaries and invitees.

Canara Bank opens Johannesburg branch

By Deepak Arora

JOHANNESBURG, May 19: Canara Bank, a leading Nationalised Bank of India, opened its sixth Overseas Branch at Johannesburg in South Africa on Monday.

The branch was inaugurated by Mr R.K. Dubey, Chairman & Managing Director of the Bank at a glittering function held here in the presence of Mr Virendra Gupta, High Commissioner of India at South Africa.

The 108 years old Bank already has five overseas branches at London and Leicester in United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Bahrain, apart from a Representative Office at Sharjah and a Joint Venture Bank at Moscow.

With the opening of Johannesburg branch, Canara Bank has now entered the African continent.

The Bank has plans to expand overseas further by opening branches/offices at New York, Frankfurt, Dubai, Dar-es-Salaam, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Abuja and Qatar during the year 2014-15.

Canara CMD Dubey inaugurates Salem Circle

By Deepak Arora

SALEM, May 12: Mr R.K. Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank, inaugurated the Bank’s new Circle Office at Salem here on Monday in the presence of Mr V. S. Krishnakumar, Executive Director of the Bank.

The new circle office is located in Saradha School Building, Saradha College Road, Alagapuram, Salem-16.

The Circle is headed by General Manager R. Sampathkumar.

Salem Circle is the 36th circle of Canara Bank which caters to the needs of seven (7) Districts of Tamil Nadu.

Eight new Circles are being formed by the Bank all over the country in the current year, including Salem Circle.

As on date, Canara Bank has a network of 4755 branches in India and abroad.

As at the end of March 2014, the Global Deposits of Canara Bank reached Rs.420723 Crores, Global Advances (Net) reached Rs.301067 Crores, Global Business of the Bank reached Rs.721790 Crores, with 20.7% growth, Savings deposits increased to Rs.85536 Crores and the clientele base increased to 5.55 Crores with the addition of over 85 Lakhs clientele during the year ended March 2014.

Canara Bank, Salem Circle consists of 108 branches in Salem, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal, Vellore, Villupuram and Thiruvannamalai Districts. 53% of these branches (57 branches) are functioning in rural areas in the above Districts.

The Circle has 119 ATMs in the branches coming under its jurisdiction. The Circle is covering 124 villages under financial inclusion apart from 16 branches opened in Financial inclusion villages.

The total business of the bank in Salem Circle is Rs.6348.36 Crores with Rs.2251.26 Crores of Deposits and Rs.4097.00 Crores of Advances. The Credit Deposit ratio in the Circle is 182%. The branches coming under Salem Circle have extended finance to the tune of Rs.2480.34 Crores for Agriculture; Rs.737.69 Crores for Small and Medium Enterprises and Rs.278.81 Crores as Education Loans to the students and Rs.106.38 Crores for Housing Sector.

Canara Bank is having various Deposits and Savings schemes for the benefit of the customers. The Bank has different kinds of loan products to suit the credit needs of all the segments of the society. For agriculture sector, the Bank has KCCS, Crop loan, Poultry loan, Dairy loans, Gold loan, Tractor loans and other agriculture loan schemes. For industries the Bank has lent under various schemes and in particular, for MSME sector the Bank is extending loans under Canara Pragathi and Canara Unnathi.

In the function District top scorer in the recently held Higher Secondary Examination S. Gandhanivaraj of SRK Matriculation Higher Secondary School and school topper of Saradha Matriculation Higher Secondary School Ms. K. Abbimathi were honoured. School bags are distributed to the inmates of the orphanage at Minnampalli.

In the inaugural function, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr S. Prabhakaran, Matha Vinayagapriya Ambal of Saradha Samithi,Salem, General Managers and Deputy General Managers of nearby Circles, Branch managers and staff members have participated.

Large number of customers also attended the function.

President honours Pragathi Krishna Gramin Bank

By Deepak Arora

NEW DELHI, May 8: Pragathi Krishna Gramin Bank, Bellary, one of the prominent RRBs of the Country, has recorded excellent achievement in distribution of Rupay Cards. The Bank stood first in distribution of Rupay Cards among all RRBs in the country by distributing over 1.72 lakh cards. The Chairman of the Bank received an award by N P C I from the President, Mr Pranab Mukharjee, at a function in Rastrapathi Bhavan here on Thursday.

Pragathi Krishna Gramin Bank is whole-heartedly involved in implementing technology initiatives of Government of India. The bank has extended Rupay cards, NEFT, RTGS, SMS alert and mobile banking facilities to its customers. The bank has ATM enabled Rupay Kisan Cards for the benefit of its farmers clientele. 122 new ATM centres were opened during the year, taking the total number of ATMS of the Bank to 152.

Pragathi Krishna Gramin Bank (sponsored by Canara Bank) came in to existence on 23-08-2013 with the amalgamation of two erstwhile RRBs viz Pragathi gramin Bank and Krishna Gramin Bank as per orders of Government of India. The Bank having its Head Office at Bellary, with a branch network of 602 branches covering 11 districts of Karnataka achieved good financial results for the year 2013-14. Total Business of the Bank as at March 2014 exceeded Rs 16697 crore. The Bank has a clientele base of 53 lakhs.

Canara Bank aims business growth at 20 per cent in 2015: RK Dubey

BANGALORE, May 5: Canara Bank Chairman and Managing Director R K Dubey has said the bank was aiming at a growth of 18-20 per cent in its total business at Rs 8.5 lakh crore in 2014-15. It was aiming at a deposit growth of 16-17 per cent and a growth of advances of 19-20 per cent as of March 2015.

The bank reported a growth of 20.7 per cent year-on-year (YOY) in global business at Rs 7,21,790 crore in 2013-14 compared to Rs 5,98,033 crore as of March 2013.

Its global deposits reached Rs 4,20,723 crore, 18.2 per cent year-on-year growth compared to Rs 3,55,856 crore as of March 2013. Global advances (net) reached Rs 3,01,067 crore, with 24.3 per cent year-on-year growth compared to Rs 2,42,177 crore as of March 2013.

Outstanding advances to various priority segments reached Rs 97,762 crore, recording a YOY growth of 23.8 per cent. Advances under agriculture portfolio increased by 19.6 per cent to Rs 48,797 crore, covering over 4.8 million farmers. Credit to direct agriculture reached a level of Rs 44,268 crore with a YOY growth of 17 per cent. Credit outstanding under Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) stood at Rs 8,031 crore covering 709,000 KCCs.

The overseas business constituted 5.7 per cent of the total business. Total business of the five overseas branches increased to Rs 41,094 crore from Rs 28,786 crore, a growth of 42.75 per cent, said Mr Dubey.

He said, the bank plans to take the number of branches from 4,755 to 6,000 and number of ATMs from 6,312 to 10,000 by March 2015. In 2013-14, the bank added a record 1,027 branches, taking the total to 4,755. “We had never opened more than 325 branches in a single financial year. It is also the first time that any bank has opened more than 1,000 branches in a year,” said the Chairman.

During 2014-15, the Canara Bank will open at least two overseas branches and eight other international centres. In May, it would open a branch at Johannesberg in South Africa and second branch at New York in June. International centres will be set up in DIFC (Dubai), Qatar Financial Centre (Qatar), Frankfurt (Germany), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Dar-es-Salam (Tanzania), Tokyo (Japan), Abuja (Nigeria) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

The thrust will be on improving CASA to 30 per cent from 25.9 per cent in FY14, NPA recovery, improve fee-based income, credit-priority, SME and retail during 2014-15, he said.

It is also aiming at a gross NPA ratio of 2 per cent and net NPA ratio of 1-1.25 per cent and improve the net interest margin to 2.50 per cent during FY15.

The bank has engaged global consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to assist in revamping the operating model. The project ‘Shikhar’ aimed at rejuvenating the bank by focusing on energising branches and customers’ service, increasing sales from branches, growing a robust asset base has been launched with the help of BCG, he said.

Canara Bank moved higher by over 7 per cent to Rs 307 after the bank said its net non-performing assets (NPA), as a percentage of total assets, declined to 1.98% in March quarter from 2.39% in the previous quarter ended December 2013. The bank’s gross non-performing loans as a percentage of total assets too declined to 2.49% from 2.79% in previous quarter.

Meanwhile, the state-owned bank has posted a net profit of Rs 611 crore as against analyst expectation of Rs 524 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2014 (Q4). The bank had profit of Rs 725 crore in the year ago quarter.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and paid, grew 21.2% year-on-year to Rs 2,535 crore in the quarter, Canara Bank said in a statement.

The stock opened at Rs 285 and touched a high of Rs 309 on the NSE. A combined 6.39 million shares changed hands on the counter so far on the NSE and BSE.

Government returns RIL's Rs 509-crore bank guarantee

NEW DELHI, May 5: Reliance Industries (RIL) had given a bank guarantee of Rs 509.55 crore to get a higher price for natural gas it produces from the eastern offshore Krishna-Godavari D6 field, which the petroleum and natural gas ministry has returned, saying the new rate hasn’t been announced.

The surety, given on April 10, covers the incremental revenue RIL would have got in the April-June quarter if the price of gas were to double to $8.4 a million British thermal units.

Sources said RIL provided the guarantee though the Election Commission had asked the Union government to defer implementing the new rate, to have originally come into effect from April 1, until the Lok Sabha elections were over.

The ministry returned the guarantee, saying RIL would have to wait till the new price was notified.

An RIL spokesperson did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a new formula for pricing all locally produced natural gas in June last year.

In December, it said the new rate would be applicable for the main field in the KG-D6 block only if RIL gives a guarantee equivalent to the higher revenue it would get from the new gas price.

This surety would be encashed if it were proved the company deliberately suppressed gas output, depriving RIL of the incremental revenue.

Output at the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 gas fields at about eight million standard cubic metres a day (mscmd) is a fraction of the 80 mscmd planned for this time.

RIL says geological complexities such as unanticipated water and sand ingress were responsible for the output drop.

However, the ministry and its technical arm, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons contend RIL did not drill the committed quota of wells and slapped a $1.8-billion penalty on the company. They also wanted to deprive the company of the higher rate for gas unless it was proved otherwise.

IFFCO elects Balvinder Singh Nakai as new Chairman

NEW DELHI, May 2: IFFCO Board has elected Balvinder Singh Nakai as its new Chairman and N P Patel as the vice-chairman of the cooperative.

The elections for the Chairman and other board of directors happen every five years and the representative general body of member cooperative societies elects the board of directors, which in turn elect the Chairman and the Vice- Chairman.

Nakai was elected by the board of during cooperative's 42nd annual general body meeting that was held at its head office here, according to an official press note.

He is a farmer and cooperator from Punjab and currently the Chairman of Malwa Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative Marketing-cum-Procurement Society Limited.

Speaking on getting elected as Chairman, Nakai said:"IFFCO will continue working for the betterment and upliftment of Indian Farmers and will further expand its footprint within and outside India.

IFFCO is the largest manufacturer and marketer of processed fertilisers in India and the biggest fertiliser cooperative in the world.

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