The Tribune...Business

	B U S I N E S S	Saturday, July 11, 1998
weather n spotlight today's calendar

Haryana MPs hold parleys at a CII meeting in Delhi on Thursday

Sanctions not to hit infrastructure
NEW DELHI, July 10 — The government will not allow even one infrastructure development project’’ to be affected by the post nuclear test economic sanctions, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, assured the Lok Sabha today...
Bank loan recovery low in Haryana
CHANDIGARH, July 10 — Mr Rashid Jilani, CMD, Punjab National Bank, said here today that Haryana has become one of the fastest growing states in the country with the foodgrain production crossing the mark of 10 million tonnes...
'Don't put off bank issues'
NEW DELHI, july 10 — In a bid to revive the capital market, a parliamentary committee today said the newly set up private banks should not be allowed to postpone their public issues...
Textiles upgradation fund soon: Rana
NEW DELHI, July 10 — The Textiles Ministry will soon forward to the Cabinet a proposal for setting up a dedicated fund for upgradation of textile units in the country, Textiles Minister Kashiram Rana said today...

MPs ask CII to draft agenda for parties
NEW DELHI, July 10 — The deteriorating industrial activity in Haryana is a direct outcome of the unavailability and exorbitant cost of power, parliamentarians from Haryana have said...
Insurance policy for farmers soon
NEW DELHI, July 10 — The government is shortly going to come out with a comprehensive insurance policy scheme for farmers, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Som Pal, has said...

MPs ask CII to draft agenda for parties
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, July 10 — The deteriorating industrial activity in Haryana is a direct outcome of the unavailability and exorbitant cost of power, parliamentarians from Haryana have said.
In an interactive meeting with the Confederation of Indian Industry held here yesterday, MPs from the state called upon the CII to draft a minimum economic programme for consideration by various political parties.
Among the MPs who participated in the meeting were Mr A K Nagra, Mr Ram Chander Benda, Mr Inderjit Singh, Mr Bhupinder Hooda, Ms Kailasho Devi, Mr S K Indora, Mr Ramji Lal and Mr Banarasi Das Gupta.The Chairman of the CII ( Northern Region ) Mr Arun Bharat Ram urged the parliamentarians to adopt a non-partisan approach on economic issues such as the opening up of the insurance sector and disinvestment of PSUs. Referring to the subsidy issue on urea and power, Mr Bharat Ram said that good economics would eventually prove to be good politics also.
A host of other issues relating to industrial reforms, speedy industrial clearances, greater inter-departmental coordination, the need for greater governmental focus on population control, education and law and order also came up for discussion.
Similar interactions with the parliamentarians from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Delhi are likely to take place during the ongoing Parliament session.

Sanctions not to hit infrastructure
NEW DELHI, July 10 (UNI, PTI) — The government will not allow even one infrastructure development project’’ to be affected by the post nuclear test economic sanctions, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, assured the Lok Sabha today.
Replying to supplementaries, he said only the USA was insisting on sanctions on infrastructure units. Other countries had not done so, he added.
The Finance Minister said the government was serious about implementing the suggestions of the experts group on commercialisation of infrastructure projects set up by the previous government. Fast development of infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and power projects was crucial for sustained economic development, he said.
He said the new government had hiked budget allocation for infrastructure projects by 35 per cent and allowed the states to clear projects costing up to Rs 1500 crore. Mr Sinha said the government would fix responsibility and punish anybody found guilty of delaying fast track infrastructure projects. This would help avoid delays and cost over-runs, he added.The minister told Mr P. Chidambaram, former Finance Minister, that certain proposals in the Union Budget which it was feared would adversely affect infrastructure investment shall be modified when the Finance Bill is moved in Parliament for approval.Mr Yashwant Sinha said it was a matter of shame that even after waiting for five years some of the fast track power projects had yet to get approval. He told Mr Bhajan Lal that the corruption in large industrial projects was a Congress legacy and the new government was trying to steer things away.
The Finance Minister assured Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav that the government would back up the policy of promoting pit-head power projects. He also promised Central help in checking the underground coal fire going on for decades in the Jharia belt of Bihar.

Insurance policy for farmers soon
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, July 10 — The government is shortly going to come out with a comprehensive insurance policy scheme for farmers, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Som Pal, has said.
The scheme has already received the approval of the Prime Minister and is likely to be cleared by the Cabinet soon, the minister said adding that the draft agriculture policy is ready and is expected to be released very soon. He was delivering an address at a roundtable conference on national organisational policy organised by the FICCI here today.
Giving details about the policy, Mr Sompal said that the farmers for whom the policy has been built is two- fold. First, the policy will envisage optimal use of land and second enhancing the areas of holdings.
Stating that there are very good examples of land consolidation in Punjab and Haryana , the minister said that he will shortly convene a meeting of the Chief Ministers of southern states to discuss the need for land consolidation. Whatever administrative expenses that are incurred for conducting the studies and surveys etc for land consolidation will be reimbursed by the Central government, he said.
Underlining the need for a national programme for watershed management Mr Sompal said that excise levies on drip and sprinkler irrigation systems should be done away with.Capital injection into agriculture sector has to increase and the credit flow has to be enhanced and procedure simplified, he said.
Although around Rs 500 crore have been given to Nabard and Rs 3000 crore to rural infrastructure fund capital formation in this sector has come down.
Capital formation at one point was 21 per cent and currently it has come down to 9.2 per cent. In the public sector it has come down to 5.2 per cent and 11 per cent in the private sector, he said.
An eminent agriculture scientist, Dr M.S. Swaminathan said that social conditions were getting quite adverse and operationalisation and implementation of policy is needed.
Infrastructure was a major bottleneck and there was not much value addition in the infrastructure in spite of the various infrastructure being made available, he added.

Textiles upgradation fund soon: Rana
NEW DELHI, July 10 (PTI) — The Textiles Ministry will soon forward to the Cabinet a proposal for setting up a dedicated fund for upgradation of textile units in the country, Textiles Minister Kashiram Rana said today.
A concessional interest rate, 5 per cent lower than the market rate, will be offered through the fund being set up with a corpus of Rs 25,000 crore, he told newsmen shortly after giving away the export awards at the 21st India International Garment Fair here.
|The minister said financial institutions such as Idbi will evaluate various proposals submitted by the industry and disburse funds. Textiles Secretary Shyamal Ghosh said the fund will be disbursed on a “first-come-first-served” basis after analysing bankability of projects. Textiles contribute more than 30 per cent of India’s exports of which garments alone account for 50 per cent, he said.
Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar said the textile industry should gear itself to face challenges and opportunities provided by phasing out of the multi-fibre agreement (mfa). Stating that a Cabinet committee on foreign trade (ccft) headed by the Prime Minister will be set up soon, he said the government will do everything possible to encourage exports.

Bank loan recovery low in Haryana
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, July 10 — Mr Rashid Jilani, CMD, Punjab National Bank, said here today that Haryana has become one of the fastest growing states in the country with the foodgrain production crossing the mark of 10 million tonnes.
Addressing a meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee, Mr Jilani made special reference to two important committees headed by Mr R.V. Gupta (on credit flow to agriculture) and Mr S.L. Kapoor on flow of credit to SSI). While the recommendations on credit flow to agriculture are in the process of implementation by banks, the recommendations on credit flow to SSI have been submitted to the RBI and banks may soon receive guidelines for implementation.Mrs Sudha Sharma, Commissioner and Secretary, Institutional Finance and Credit Control, Haryana, who was the chief guest lauded the role of banks in the state. She, however, shared her concern regarding low recovery and in particular the low disposal of certificate cases filed under the Haryana Recovery Act. Guidelines had been sent to the Deputy Commissioners to speed up the disposal of certificate cases.
The others who also participated were Mr R.P. Gupta, General Manager, PNB; Mr K.S. Shekhar; Mr S.S. Dhillon, Director, Institutional Finance and Credit Control, Haryana, and Mr Radhey Shyam, Chief General Manager, RBI, Delhi.

'Don't put off bank issues'
NEW DELHI, july 10 (PTI) — In a bid to revive the capital market, a parliamentary committee today said the newly set up private banks should not be allowed to postpone their public issues.“The newly set up private sector banks, which as per the rbi stipulation are required to raise capital from the public, but could not do so and got extensions, should not be given any further extension and they be made to tap the market for capital this year....,” the parliamentary standing committee said in its second report.The report said such a move would go a long way in improving the subdued sentiments prevailing in the markets.It asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (sebi) to conduct an enquiry into the erratic and volatile behaviour of the stock markets and submit the report to the committee expeditiously.The continued decline in the number of issues as well as the amounts raised by way of equity and rights by corporates do not augur well for companies which want to go public.The committee chaired by Murali Deora said there was a distinct possibility that many corporates would abandon their plans to raise capital abroad due to the widening of the spreads and sanctions.

Biz briefs
Maruti strike called off
NEW DELHI July 10 (PTI) — Maruti Udyog Employees’ Union today called off its proposed one-day strike tomorrow, its General Secretary Mathew Abraham said. “We have decided to withdraw the strike following assurances given by Industry Minister Sikander Bakht. We will wait and see. We, however, reserve our right to go on a strike in future,” Abraham told PTI
ST on tyres
Tribune News Service
SHIMLA, July 10 — The tyre dealers in Himachal Pradesh have expressed concern over the proposal of the state government to increase the sales tax on tyres and tybes by 3 per cent and have said this would give a set back to the trade. A delegation of the traders and representatives of various tyre conpanies submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, here today and urged him not to increase the sales tax.
Tata airline
NEW DELHI July 10 (PTI) — The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (fipb) will consider the Tatas’ Rs 1,475 crore proposal to set up a domestic airline at its meeting tomorrow, sources in the Industry Ministry said here today.
AI, IA merger
NEW DELHI, July 10 (PTI) — The much-talked about merger of Air India and Indian Airlines has been “deferred” for the time being by their joint board which met here today. An official spokesman said the board had sought “some additional information” from AF Ferguson, financial and management consultants, appointed for preparing detailed modalities for this purpose. The consultants’ final report, he said, would be submitted to the board at its next meetting likely to be held by month-end.
Gold falls
NEW DELHI, July 10 (PTI) — Both precious metals continued to move down on the bullion market today on lack of support against fresh supply and closed with further losses. The quotations: silver .999 (ready) 7990, delivery 7970. Coins buyer 10,400 and seller 10,600. Standard gold 4310, ornaments 4160 and sovereign 3550.
Can Fin Homes
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, July 10 (PTI) — Can Fin Homes Ltd. the Housing Finance Company promoted by Canara Bank, has proposed to sanction house loans, amounting to Rs 240 crore for 15,000 units, during the current year. Addressing a press meet here, Can Fin Homes Managing Director U.J. Kamath said the company, which had completed 10 years of operation, expected its cumulative deposits to reach Rs 444 crore this year. It had disbursed loans, amounting to Rs 911 crore, thus financing 90,000 dwellings.
Commodities
CHANDIGARH: Wheat 608 to 610, dara 610 to 612, superior 615 to 620, maize 425 to 430, surajmukhi 1400 to 1660, sarson 1800 to 1825, taramira 1400 to 1550, ricebasmati 2150 to 5500, parmal 800 to 1200, sella 850 to 950, urd 1800 to 2000, urd dal 1800 to 2100, moong 2400 to 2600, moongdal 2400 to 2600, moong dhuli 2600 to 2900, masoor 2000 to 2200, dalmasoor 2200, to 2400, kablichanna 2200 to 3400, kalachanna 1300 to 1600, dalchanna 1450 to 1750, malkamasar 2200 to 2600, arhar 2400 to 2800, rajmashchitra 2500 to 3500. Sugar: M-grade 1520 to 1545, S-grade 1500 to 1520, Khandsari 1550 to 1600, gurkhurpa 1200 to 1250, gurperi 1250 to 1300, shakkar 1300 to 1350. Oils: sarson (per quintal) 4800 to 4850, soyabean (per tin 15 litres) 700 to 780, surajmukhi 675 to 725, groundnut 800 to 850.