NHAI extends deadline for bids for 3rd tranche of highways under TOT Forex reserves decline $388 mn to $428.57 bn Vendors accuse Homeshop18 of `200 cr fraud by not paying dues

NEW DELHI: The NHAI, which is eying an estimated Rs 4,995 crore from monetisation of third bundle of highway assets, has extended the deadline for receiving bids by a month on demand from investors, its Chairman NN Sinha said on Friday.

It plans to monetise nine highway stretches totalling 566.27 km in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu in the third tranche under toll operate and transfer (TOT) model.

"We have received requests from many investors for extending the date. We will extend the Expression of Interest (EOI) submission deadline by a month to October," Sinha said on the sidelines of a conference organised by Assocham here.

He said the fourth bundle of projects to be monetised is also ready and will be launched before the completion of the third round.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had invited bids for the third tranche on June 13 with bid due date of September 11 having an Initial Estimated Concession Value (IECV) of Rs 4,995.48 crore.

The first tranche had a total of nine stretches involving 681 km and was awarded to Macquarie, whose bid stood at Rs 9,682 crore, 55 per cent higher than NHAI'S expectation of Rs 6,258 crore IECV.

The third auction is significant as it comes after an unsuccessful second one wherein investors quoted a discount to NHAI'S base price following which it was cancelled.

The NHAI chairman also said four financial bids have been received for Z-morh tunnel project in Jammu & Kashmir.

The National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) has earlier foreclosed concession agreement for Z-morh tunnel project and fresh tenders were invited with August 1, 2019 as the last date for submission of bids.

The project was earlier allotted to Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), but the contractor abandoned it after IL&FS Group started facing financial crisis. MUMBAI: India's forex reserves declined by $388 million to $428.572 billion for the week ended September 20 due to a slide in core currency and gold assets, the Reserve Bank said on Friday.

The overall reserves had declined by $649 million to $428.960 billion in the previous reporting week. They had touched a life-time high of $430.572 billion in August this year.

In the week to September 20, foreign currency assets, a major component of overall reserves declined by $125 mil

lion to $396.670 billion, the RBI said.

Expressed in US dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-us units like the euro, pound and the yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

During the week, the value of gold reserves declined by $259 million to $27.843 bil

lion, making it the second consecutive week of decline in the value of the precious metal held by India, according to the data.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund increased by $3 mil

lion to $1.435 billion during the week. NEW DELHI: Vendors of nowdefunct Homeshop18 on Friday alleged that the teleshopping firm committed a fraud of Rs 150-200 crore by not paying them the dues even after selling their products on its network and collecting money from customers.

"Homeshop18 has fraudulently not paid around Rs 200 crore collected from the customers on behalf of 150 sellers, who have sold their products through its platform from March," Homeshop18 Vendors Association President Himanshu Khatter said at a press conference here.

The Homeshop18 Vendors Association, which claimed to represent around 150 vendors of the company, has filed a complaint with the police and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

"The dues (of Rs 150-200 crore) have been accrued since March this year and the company closed its business in June," Khatter said.

Reliance did not respond to e-mail and repeated phone calls seeking comments. Reliance Industries bought Homeshop18 as part of a 2014 deal to acquire Network 18 Media and Investments Ltd from its founder Raghav Bahl. Network18 owned TV channels (CNBC TV18, CNN-IBN, CNN Awaz), websites (firstpost.com, moneycontrol.com), magazines (including the licence for Forbes India), and entertainment channel (Colors, MTV and Homeshop Entertainment), among other businesses.

According to its business model, Homeshop18 collected money for the products sold to customers and after deducting an average commission of around 30 per cent, the remaining money was supposed to be routed to the sellers, which are mostly micro, small and medium enterprises, the association said.

"From March onwards, the default in payment started. When contacted, senior people, as well as CFO (chief financial officer), assured us saying that they were in talks with the Reliance officials for infusion of funds into the company," Khatter said. The vendors were supposed to get the money within 45 days. In June, the company was sold off to Skyblue Buildwell, which the vendors' association claimed to be a shell company. The association said Skyblue Buildwell is "a sham company and all the money has been siphoned off ".

"The company has been exchanging hands frequently in the last four months, which indicates a fraud being done by the directors to usurp the money of the vendors," it added.

According to Khatter, "latest ROC (Registrar of Companies) filing (FY18) shows that Skyblue had a total net worth of Rs 7.57 lakh, with no employees expenses. It reflects that it is a shell company."

While the net worth of Homeshop18 in March 2018 was Rs 305 crore.

Alleging fraud, vendors have also lodged complaints before the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Delhi and Noida, UP, where the company is headquartered. The association has also written to the offices of the prime minister, president and finance minister on the issue. Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation launched the Skyfit ebook in the presence of Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation; Arun Kumar, Director General, Directorate General of Civil Aviation; Rakesh Asthana, Director General, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security; Anuj Aggarwal, Chairman, Airports Authority of India; Vineet Gulati, Member (ANS), AAI; Senior ICAO officials and 1200 delegates from around 193 countries during the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s 40th Triennial Session & General Assembly Delhi Branch Office of Bureau of Indian Standards organised a Jewellers Awareness Programme on September 25, 2019 in Greater Kailash-1, New Delhi. The programme saw the participation of more than 40 jewellers and their representatives of Greater Kailash Jewellers Association. In this programme, not only the benefits of Hallmarking Scheme but also the upcoming scheme of government with respect to mandatory hallmarking were informed

OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (C)-S&P DELHI JAL BOARD: GOVT. OF N.C.T. OF DELHI JAL SADAN: LAJPAT NAGAR: NEW DELHI-110024. NIT NO-17/S&P/(2019-20) Press Tender