The Edinburgh-based oil exploration company is contesting the claim. It has has been trying to exit India's oil market, where it made a fortune for shareholders, for over a year.

Shares in Cairn Energy fell 18.3% on Wednesday following Tuesday's announcement that it must pay a $1.6bn (£1bn) fine for unpaid tax in India.

Monday, May 5, 2014

FG constitutes Committee to Tackle Privatisation Challenges

NIGERIA- The Federal Government has constituted a power investors’ committee to tackle the challenges and drawbacks in The Power Privatiation, the Director-General (DG) of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr Benjamin Ezra Dikki, has revealed.

The DG said the committee, which was similar to the bankers’ committee in Nigeria, was chaired by the vice president and chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), Namadi Sambo.

The DG, who was represented by the Head, Stakeholders Relations Unit of the Bureau, Alhaji Aliyu Maigari, at an interactive session with members of the House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, the new owners of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies and the BPE during the committee’s oversight visit to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), said that the committee would meet quarterly to review issues and take critical decisions onthe the privatised power sector.

He said the membership was drawn from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), Ministry of Power, Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and other relevant stakeholders.

The DG, in an apparent response to a suggestion by the committee for the immediate constitution of an all stakeholders’ committee to address the challenges faced in the power sector, said it would amount to a duplication of efforts to set up a similar committee.