Afghanistan will delay paying civil servants

Afghanistan will delay paying salaries to hundreds of thousands of civil servants next month because it does not have enough money, a finance ministry official said on Saturday.

The acknowledgment that it is now impossible to pay October salaries on time is one of the challenges facing new leader Asraf Ghani, who is to be sworn in as president Monday after months of turmoil following a disputed election.

Aside from the deadly fight with the Taliban insurgency, Afghanistan’s fiscal crisis is the most immediate problem facing new leader Asraf Ghani, who is to be sworn in as president on Monday, and coalition partner Abdullah Abdullah.

Afghanistan’s treasury now holds less than the 6.5 billion Afghanis (71.41 million pound) needed to begin processing monthly salaries, said Alhaj Mohammad Aqa, director-general of treasury in the ministry.

He would not say exactly how much money the government had in its coffers, only that it was not enough to meet the payroll.

“Right now, we don’t have that much,” Aqa said.

Afghanistan has asked for $537 million in emergency funds from the United States but so far has not received approval, Aqa said. Even if that additional funding is approved within a week it’s now too late to process the October payroll on time and government salaries will come at least one or two weeks late, he added.

India touts for foreign companies and investment

Long a difficult place for foreign companies, India has launched a major effort to attract manufacturers and investors

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign was unveiled just ahead of a visit to the United States where he is due to meet the bosses of leading companies.

Addressing a gathering of top corporate executives from both India and abroad, he played up India’s unique assets: “The whole world is ready to come here, but they don’t know where to go in Asia. Then they think that we should go to the place in Asia where there is democracy, a demographic dividend, and big demand. If there is any country in the world where all these three things are present, it is India.”

Critics point out Modi will have to do more about India’s bureaucracy and infrastructure problems as well as a lack of skills development and the fact that it is 134th in the World Bank’s “ease of doing business” ranking. By contrast China is 96th.

Modi said there was a need to restore faith in Indian manufacturing and its capacity to create millions of jobs with skills enhancement.

The sectors being targeted for potential investment include automobiles, IT, pharmaceuticals, textiles, ports, aviation, railways, renewable energy, mining and bio-technology.

Russia moves against oil firm billionaire Yevtushenkov with share seizure

A Moscow court has seized the shares of an oil company mostly owned by Russian conglomerate Sistema.

Its boss, billionaire oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov, is under house arrest accused of money laundering during the acquisition of the oil firm – Bashneft – from local authorities in the Urals region seven years ago.

Yevtushenkov has always had good relations with President Vladimir Putin, but the share seizure deepened investors’ fears the Kremlin is stepping up its campaign to reclaim former state assets, like Bashneft, which is Russia’s sixth largest oil producer.

The case has drawn comparisons with Yukos, the oil giant taken over by the state when its chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed for fraud and tax evasion after falling out with Putin.

The Russian prosecutor general’s office, said it had uncovered “significant violations” of the law and was acting to end the “illegal possession” of Bashneft and restore it to federal ownership.

It said the Moscow arbitration court had granted its request to seize the shares as an interim measure and the court said it would hold a hearing on the lawsuit on October 9.

Shares in Moscow, including Sistema and Bashneft, fell on the news while the rouble slumped to new lows.

Even Russia’s Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has said Yevtushenkov’s arrest is damaging the country’s business and investment climate.

Sergei Petrov, an opposition deputy, told Reuters this week: “They (officials) are telling themselves, to ease their conscience, that they are doing a high-minded thing by returning it to state ownership. The channel is already known, the method has been tested … as it was last time with Yukos.”

Sistema has denied the accusations against Yevtushenkov, though it and Bashneft declined comment on the share seizure.