1st Mar 2006 07:02
Vedanta Resources PLC01 March 2006 1 March 2006 Vedanta Resources plc Comments on Indian Budget Vedanta Resources plc ("Vedanta") notes that in yesterday's UnionBudget 2006-2007 (the "Budget") presented to the Indian Parliament, theGovernment of India announced certain changes that will have an impact on thecompany and its markets. Import duties on aluminium, copper and zinc were reduced from 10% to 7.5%.Import duties on finished metals were brought further in line with those inother ASEAN countries and this had largely been anticipated. These duties onlyimpact domestic sales. Import duties on alumina have been reduced from 10% to7.5% and on ores and concentrates from 5% to 2%, a move that will positivelyimpact Vedanta's aluminium and Indian copper operations. Vedanta anticipatesthat for the year to 31 March 2006, these changes will not have a materialimpact on reported results. The Budget promises a continuation of policies to grow the economy and encourageinward investment, by increasing spending on infrastructure. We expect that thiswill ensure continuing and accelerating Indian demand growth for base metals.Measures have also been announced to de-block nearly 20 billion tonnes of coalfor power projects. Vedanta will be well positioned to meet this demand andanticipates that these coal initiatives will positively impact the company'srecently announced green field 500,000 tpa $2.1 billion aluminium smelterproject in Jharsuguda, Orissa. For further information, please contact: Sumanth Cidambi [email protected] Director - Investor Relations Tel: +44 20 7659 4732 / +91 22 5646 1531Vedanta Resources plc Faeth BirchRobin Walker Tel: +44 20 7251 3801Finsbury About Vedanta Resources plc Vedanta Resources plc is a London listed diversified metals and mining group.Its principal operations are located throughout India, with further operationsin Zambia and Australia. The major metals produced are aluminium, copper, zincand lead. For further information, please visit www.vedantaresources.com. Disclaimer This press release contains "forward-looking statements" - that is, statementsrelated to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statementsoften address our expected future business and financial performance, and oftencontain words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes,""seeks," or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address mattersthat are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from thebehaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange,fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from futureintegration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national,regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business,competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actualfuture results to be materially different that those expressed in ourforward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-lookingstatements. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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