Friday newspaper round-up: Asda, British American Tobacco, BT...

Asda has accused its rivals of being "desperate" and misleading customers with price gimmicks, the Daily Telegraph reported on Friday.Barry Williams, one of the supermarket chain's most senior executives, said Asda's traditional rivals were feeling "chirpy, chirpy not cheap, cheap", as they vowed to deliver price cuts without sticking to them. Williams said Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons were relying on issuing money-off vouchers to boost sales.According to The Times, British American Tobacco executives could be questioned by MPs after HMRC said that the cigarette maker breached anti-smuggling laws. BAT, the world's second-largest listed tobacco group, was ordered to pay £650,00 for oversupplying in Belgium.The Telegraph says that BT is planning to scrap its wholesale unit and fold the business into its telecoms infrastructure division Openreach. The paper says that BT has appealed to Ofgem for permission.David Cameron is set to tell the G20 summit in Brisbane that tax avoidance is a key issue worldwide, writes The Times. The prime minister's stance could embarrass Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, whose nomination was strongly opposed by Cameron, and who has been accused of presiding over a lax corporate tax regime as Luxembourg prime minister.The Conservatives received double the donations of Labour and 60 times more than UKIP in the three months to September, The Guardian said. David Cameron's party received a total of £6.8m between July and September, including over £1m from hedge funds, while donations received by Labour amounted to £3.2m, including £1.3m courtesy of trade unions. UKIP brought in £98,000 during the three months but has since been given £1m by Arron Banks, a former Tory donor.The main UK banks could see the control of the UK's trillion pound payments system wrestled away from them, the Financial Times reported. A new financial watchdog, called the Payment Systems Regulator, will be introduced in April and will be able to clear the way for smaller banks to be included in running the infrastructure responsible for overseeing £75trn of money transfers every year in the UK.