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FM vows to revisit transaction tax
Patel for A-I, IA capital base expansion
TCS IPO at Rs 775-900 price band
Strike has exporters on tenterhooks EPFO
Board meeting today |
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Airtel rings in ‘Hello Tunes’
CORPORATE NEWS
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FM vows to revisit transaction tax New Delhi, July 19 “I have already said we will revisit the numbers. But transaction tax is neat and easy and eliminates tax avoidance,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in his brief intervention during the Budget discussion in the Rajya Sabha. He said market capitalisation of shares traded amounted to Rs 300,000 crore which meant there should be a tax collection of at least Rs 25,000 crore annually in securities transactions but the short-term capital gains tax mop-up did not reflect this. Initiating the discussion on Budget proposals for 2004-05 in the Rajya Sabha, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said the UPA government’s first Budget would fuel inflation, harden interest rates and widen fiscal deficit by at least 1 per cent of GDP. Maintaining that the Budget was “tall on promises but short on substance,” he charged the government with fudging figures and indulging in a “lot of tokenism.” “My biggest worry is on the inflation front. Inflation has already shot up to 6.16 per cent and this will put pressure on interest rates,” he said. Mr Sinha quoted the Economic Survey to suggest that the economy was resilient and provided macro-economic stability. This gave Mr Chidambaram enough elbow room as he inherited a strong economy because of measures taken by the previous NDA government, he said. In a point-by-point rebuttal, Mr Sinha countered Mr Chidambaram’s assertion that the economy was on the downslide during the past five years and quoted statistics to say that the NDA government had, in fact, arrested and reversed the fall in public expenditure on agriculture. Pooh-poohing Mr Chidambaram’s claim that he would double agriculture credit in the next three years, Mr Sinha said, “We had, in fact, done it in four years during the NDA rule”. Mr Sinha said he was a little intrigued by the proposal to have a national mission for horticulture and wondered in what way was it different from the technology mission launched by the NDA government for horticulture and floriculture which had helped significantly in the development. Mr Sinha regretted that no allocation had been made for calamity relief and wondered how the government would provide relief to people affected by floods and drought. Participating in the discussion on the Budget, CPM member Nilotpal Basu said although the party was committed to the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) as an ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), it would nevertheless like the Finance Minister to take into consideration its concerns about FDI and several other issues. “There is need for revisiting some basic areas of finance and economy....We hope the Finance Minister will take into consideration these concerns....Then there is a problem of honouring the verdict of the people that has given rise to this Budget,” he said. On the foreign direct investment (FDI) issue, he said the mandate given to the UPA was for an investment-driven economy. “Whatever is in the CMP, we are bound by it. We will support that. But what is beyond agreement, why should we support
that?...Caps do not determine investment flows....Will increasing FDI help in the CMP? For us CMP is the Bible,” he said while calling for plugging the loopholes in investment in the telecom sector. Highlighting the “volatility of the market,’’ Mr Basu said the increase in the limit of the FII would not help. He stressed the need for revisiting this whole question for political, economic and security concerns.
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US curbs on BPO worry Nath New Delhi, July 19 Expressing concern over the moves of the USA and provincial governments on imposing curbs on BPO, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told the House during question hour that despite the moves towards such restrictions, the BPO business to India was growing at a rate of 40 per cent to 50 per cent annually. The minister said the government had taken up this issue with United States Trade Representative and US Secretary of State Colin Powell. He said US President George Bush and Chief of Federal Treasury had also expressed concern over the rising outsourcing to India. He said as much as 70 per cent of India’s BPO business came from the USA and only 2 per cent of the business relating to US government contracts was affected due to a legislation approved in the US Congress. He said 60 Bills imposing restrictions on BPO operations were pending before the US Congress and there were about 297 Bills before various federal governments in the USA. He informed the House that 11 Bills had been converted into law in different federal governments in the USA and said the government was seriously concerned about the trend.
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Patel for A-I, IA capital base expansion New Delhi, July 19 After a half-an-hour meeting with Mr Ahluwalia, the minister said, “There was a meeting about the broad issues concerning the Civil Aviation Ministry during which the problem of under-capitalisation of the Indian Airlines and Air-India came up for discussion”. On the Kelkar Committee recommendation for infusion of Rs 325 crore for the Indian Airlines to raise its equity base, the minister said the issue was also discussed and he didn’t mind linking of these funds to the fleet acquisition plans of the national carrier. Both IA and AI were constituted in 1953 with a capital base of Rs 100 crore. An additional Rs 5 crore and Rs 2.14 crore were added to the capital base of these airlines following the merger of Vayudoot with the domestic carrier. The minister said the process of acquisition of planes will begin within a few months. It will take three to four years for them to become operational. “Therefore, leasing of aircraft will have to take place as it is only a short-term solution available for meeting the demands of the airlines”. To a question about the taxes proposed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the budget, Mr Patel said he would meet Mr Chidambaram to sort out the issue. “We will request the Finance Minister to reconsider the withdrawal of tax exemption on leasing of aircraft as it would be a big setback, especially for Air-India and the Indian Airlines,” he said. Presenting the Budget, Mr Chidambaram withdrew tax exemption granted to Indian companies to acquire aircraft or aircraft engines on lease from foreign firms, prospectively from September this year, saying it had “outlived its utility”. Among the other issues discussed at the meeting, Mr Patel said restructuring and modernisation of other airports other than the metro was also discussed. “We will give a presentation to the Planning Commission soon,” he said.
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TCS IPO at Rs 775-900 price band
Mumbai, July 19 The issue will open on July 29, 2004, and close on August 5, merchant banking sources told PTI here today. TCS vice-president (Corporate Communication) Atul Takle said: “We have filed with Registrar of Companies... and the price band for IPO is Rs 775 to Rs 900.” The price band for the IPO, which is through a book- building process, is below the market expectations, analysts said, adding the market was expecting the band to be in the range of Rs 900-1,000 per share. The Tata group company is to offer 5.54 crore equity shares of Re 1 each, with a green shoe option. The issue consists of a fresh issue of 2.27 crore shares and an offer-for-sale of 3.26 crore by Tata Sons Ltd and certain other shareholders of TCS.
— PTI
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Strike has exporters on tenterhooks New Delhi, July 19 The garment exporters have claimed that about 1,000 tonnes of shipments, worth over Rs 400 crore, have been held up at the airport. They claimed that the deadlock between the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and cargo-clearing agents have hit around 3,000 exporters of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Panipat, Noida, Moradabad and Jaipur. The strike has also hit the leather, auto component and other exports. Mr H.K.L. Magu, president, Garment Exporters Association, disclosed that the strike had adversely affected the exports and imports from the USA and European countries resulting in financial losses worth crores. “Some of the buyers and sellers have even cancelled the orders due to delay in shipments. If the government fails to break the deadlock, exports would lose substantial business, besides orders for the next year,” he said adding that by the first week of August, the buyers would begin to import winter garments. “Then who would accept consignments of summer garments,” he said. The representatives of the cargo-clearing agents claimed they had resorted to strike against the AAI’s failure to improve infrastructure at the airport over the years despite substantial increase in cargo business. “During the past one decade, the cargo volume has increased by over 20 tines, but it has neither increased the manpower nor the X-ray machines for cargo handling,” said a leading cargo agent at the airport. Insiders in the cargo business said unlike airports in other countries, the AAI charged about Rs 1.50 per kg for X-ray of the cargo. Since there are only four machines at the airport, the customers have to wait for 4-6 hours to for X-ray. Further, they said, the cargo agents were asked to provide manpower for this work. The officials at the airport claimed that a meeting of cargo-handling agents and the AAI management was also held today without any result. Exporters also claimed that the agitation of cargo-handling agents at Chennai airport and heavy rains at Nav Siva port in Mumbai have badly affected their business. Over 11,000 containers have been held up in Nav Siva due to heavy rains and slow movement of shipments.
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Board meeting today New Delhi, July 19 During the last two meetings of EPFO Board comprising employers, employees and government officials (both state and Centre) a consensus could not be arrived at due to the ongoing differences between the EPFO’s offer of 8 per cent interest rate and trade unions’ demand for 12 per cent.
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Airtel rings in ‘Hello Tunes’
New Delhi, July 19 “Mobile music will be a key driver for future services in 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks,” Bharti Tele-Ventures Group CMO and Director (Mobility) Atul Bindal told newspersons here. Airtel is the first service provider in the country to offer the service, which will be marketed as “Hello Tunes.” It will be initially available in Delhi and Bangalore. Airtel has launched the service in association with Bharti Telesoft and Korea-based
WiderThan.com, an affiliate of S K Telecom. It is available to both pre-paid and post-paid customers at a monthly rental of Rs 30.
— UNI
Cellular operators have called for phasing out the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) regime by March 2007 and opposed any payment to BSNL, saying the public sector giant does not have any deficit in rural fixed access business. ADC is paid by private operators to compensate BSNL for providing subsidised services in rural areas. Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said BSNL made a surplus of over Rs 1,400 crore last fiscal and financial data does not show deficit in rural fixed access business after accounting separation of BSNL accounts into licensed service categories.
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CORPORATE NEWS
Mumbai, July 19 Apollo Tyres The Rs 2,300 crore Apollo Tyres Ltd (ATL) today said the net profit in the first quarter ended June 30 fell 16.5 per cent to Rs 15.6 crore from Rs 18.7 crore a year ago. However, its total income in the April June quarter of the current fiscal rose to Rs 500 crore from Rs 449 crore a year earlier. IPCL Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL), a Reliance group entity, today reported a whopping 215.3 per cent rise in net profit for the first quarter ended June 30, 2004 at Rs 123 crore as against Rs 39 crore in the Q1 of the previous fiscal. Finolex Finolex Industries Ltd [FIL], the flagship of the Rs 2,500-crore Finolex group has posted an impressive performance for the quarter-ended June 2004 with a sharp jump in net profit at Rs 27.33-crore compared to Rs 11.56-crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. ITC Hotels ITC Hotels Ltd has recorded an increase in net profit to Rs 6.9-crore for the first quarter-ended June 2004 as against Rs 59-lakh recorded in the corresponding period last year, an increase of over 10 times.
— TNS & Agencies
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BSNL’s service Underwriters Lab UCO Bank Bank of India e-banking Syndicate Bank Silver shines Dollar rate |
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New Delhi, July 19
New Delhi, July 19
New Delhi, July 19
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