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B U S I N E S S | ![]() Sunday, December 12, 1999 |
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Virgin may trigger fare war |
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Anniversary ride with new baby PSEB decision on security opposed Investment in saving schemes MUL plans to double capacity SBP gives loans to agriculturists IOC may pick up stake in Haldia
Petro
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PM
reconstitutes review committee NEW DELHI, Dec 11 The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee today reconstituted the implementaion review committee under the Chairmanship of the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha and has set up eight special groups under the Council of Trade and Industry. The review committee would now include Commerce Minister, Mr Murasoli Maran and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr K.C. Pant. The themes that would be covered by the newly created eight groups include: good governance in private sector,policy for private investment in education and health, strategy for reconvened WTO meeting, disinvestment, freeing Indian industry from control, pitfalls of globalisation, power reforms and policy to attract wealth and talent of NRIs. These groups are in addition to the six groups set up earlier on Food and Agro Industries Management Policy, Infrastructure, Capital Markets, Knowledge based industries, service industries and administrative and legal simplifications. The reconstituted implementation review committee would advise the government on these six specialised groups which would receive high priority of the government. Leading industrialists, Mr N.R. Narayanamurthy and Kumaramangalam Birla would constitute the special group on good governance, Mr Mukesh Ambani and Mr A.C. Muthiah on education and health, Mr N. Srinivasan and Mr Rahul Bajaj for WTO strategies and Mr G.P. Goenka and Mr Rajiv Chandrasekharan for the group on disinvestment. Mr Ratan Tata and Mr Nusli Wadia would constitute the group on freeing Indian industry from controls, while Mr Bajaj and Mr Sanjeev Goenka would be part of the group on pitfalls of globalisation. The power sector group would be headed by Mr G.P. Goenka and Mr Ambani would lead the group on attracting wealth and talent of NRIs. Briefing newspersons,
Secretary in the PMO, Mr N.K Singh said that the new
groups are expected to submit their recommendations on in
the next few months. |
Through
Fire-walk... into a Bluechip CHANDIGARH: I question everything: why something is so done, how it can be done better. Apply knowledge. R&D is for application. Minimum paper work. This is how Chander Mohan, the man who has scripted the success story of Punjab Tractors Limited, describes his approach to work. The former Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of PTL, who has just won the Indian Merchants Chambers Juran Quality Medal, refuses to call it a day. At 67 Chander Mohan smokes, drinks regardless of what doctors say and works almost the way he used to, maintaining a be-happy, enjoy-life attitude. He has just finished the draft of his book, tentatively titled Through Fire-walk Against Mindset into a Bluechip, which is based on his experiences at PTL and explains his management style. In an interview at his Sector 36 house, Chander Mohan shares some of his experiences: Q. After a hectic job at PTL, how do you spend your days now? Currently I am working on a project at Mohali that would introduce, for the first time in the country, a new technology in chargeable battery. The company is called 21st Century Battery. The other promoter is Mr R.C. Jain. It is a Rs 26.5 crore project. Chhota kam to karna nahin hai. We have tied up finances and the project will become operational in another two years. I am also busy with a venture capital fund in association with institutions like IDBI, IFCI and ICICI. Besides, I am working with PUDA to bring in low-cost construction technology for mass housing. Q. You have interests in very diverse fields! No, the common thing behind all these projects is science and technology. I believe in building a scientific and technology society. My stress throughout has been on research and development. R&D for application. Not just theory and paper work. Q. Do you think education is geared to help build such a society? Education all over is for jobs and jobs are not there. It is all theory-oriented. Education should develop entrepreneurship and ensure self-employment. Recently I had gone to Longowal Institute of Engineering. In a nearby village, Dhanaula, some carpenters make beautiful wooden toys. I suggested the faculty and students to improvise on these toys. The idea was to generate curiosity and encourage students to do something practical. I even sent a cheque for Rs 7,000 to give two prizes of Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,000 for the best two creations. Q. Will you look back at your early years and recall important developments in your career? After schooling in Lahore and college education at Ferozepur, and studying engineering at Roorkee, I took up a job with Bengal Paper Mill (now closed down) in 1953. Then I joined the Railways. In 1965 I went with a delegation to Japan and noticed how the Japanese improvised small things. At Punjab Scooters Ltd we stopped making scooters and tried to make remote-controlled small aircraft that India was importing. But the defence authorities let us down. I had been designing tractors at CMER, Durgapur, which proved helpful at Punjab Tractors. In 1972 PTL went public. I was the first Chief Executive Officer. We had raised about Rs 3.70 crore. After the first few tough years, things started falling in place. PTL declared its first dividend in 1978. The rest is history. Q. Will you describe the work culture at PTL? How PTL is different from other organisations? The first thing I did was to isolate PTL from the government. We had our own holidays, our own working hours. Ninty to 98 per cent employees were freshers. There was no discrimination between blue collar and white collar employees. All put in 48 hours of work in a week. We had our own pay scales. There was minimum paper work. There was delegation of powers. Each employee was trusted. Like if a meeting took some decisions, the minutes were often prepared by a junior member and these were final. There was no draft. No recruitment was done without advertising the posts. Employment was barred to relatives of managers. So chach-bhatija raj was not there. No outside pressure was
allowed to influence recruitment. Promotion in the first
five-six years was automatic and thereafter it was
performance-based. There was no jumping the queue. The
bright ones were given additional responsibilities. There
was a lot of trust and freedom. Creativity was
encouraged. |
Anniversary
ride with new baby CHANDIGARH: It was a novel idea. To mark the first year of Matiz on Indian roads, Daewoo Motors organised a test drive of its cars and their competitors on a 640 km route starting from Chandigarh, touching Shimla and Dehra Dun before concluding at Delhi from November 18 to 20, 1999. There were 12 cars of three categories participating in the rally. First, the small cars Matiz, Santro and Zen. Tata Indica and Uno were excluded. The second segment comprised Cielo Executive and Esteem, while the third category had upper-end models of Nexia, Honda City and Opel Astra. Accent and Lancer were not included. There were eight teams, each consisting of two members, which drove in turns all cars and evaluated their performance based on factors like engine power, gears selection, clutch operations, brakes effectiveness, ride comfort and handling. The car rally, flagged off at Chandigarh by Mr B.S Min, Deputy Managing Director of Daewoo Motors, covered the hill terrain as well as plain busy highways and concluded safely in Delhi except the Esteems minor brush with a truck on a blind turn in which the car lost its right mirror and door glass. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The auto crazy drivers pushed the vehicles hard, some touching 150 km per hour on unfriendly highways. At the end of each day the team members discussed various features of the cars they drove and the appraisal forms were filled. A surprise discovery of the ride was that 800 cc engine of Matiz delivered a power output of 52 bhp at 6000 RMP which compares favourably with the 1000 cc engines of Santro and Zen. The whole exercise,
enjoyable as it was, made every participant aware how
sensitive car-makers are to the needs of the customer.
Daewoos idea behind the Matiz anniversary ride was
to get feedback for its cars, said a company official. |
PSEB
decision on security opposed As per popular belief Punjabs people are rich but its government is poor. Governments ad hoc reaction to resolve the present financial crisis is seen as an attempt to equalise and if this continues equalisation will come sooner than later. Almost daily new financial burden is spelt for businesses either through new tax or upward revision of rates and enforcement of procedure to squeeze tax payers. Industry in particular is facing attacks, as it were, from there sides: State Government, Central Government and deepened recession. PSEB has taken decision to charge security from consumers which is equivalent to the bill amount for three months consumption computed on the basis of average consumption of last twelve months. This amount may be reviewed and fixed once a year after revision of tariff. This has sent shock waves to all consumers in general and industry in particular. In the on-going recession it is well-known that industry is feeling uncomfortable to pay for even monthly consumption bill. PSEBs logic is that it has lost some amount due to closure of some industrial units. This amount may be just about 1 per cent of its annual revenue. PSEB is a business entity and there is no business in the world which is totally safe from such minor losses. Seen yet from an other angle it is losing more than 10 per cent of revenue from excessive losses and pilferage etc. It needs no stress to state that about 35 per cent of power is going free. Against these factors decision to raise security amount by about 2.5 times is quite irrational and this decision if implemented will make other units sick. No industrial unit closes just to grab PSEBs money. Sickness is induced by sickening business environments triggered through government policies. For instance steel sector as a whole is reeling under recession. Cheaper imports is one main reason for this. The Government of India is now criticising WTOs provisions after implementing them. It is also an open and well-known fact that large scale theft of power in some states made steel units of Punjab sick. In such a situation industrial units are helpless. PSEB has fixed tariff for industry which is higher than the due amount. This certainly is safe cushion to absorb minor loss due to closure of some units. This decision if implemented will stop further of industry. For a modest connection of 100 KW amount involved may be 6-7 lakhs of rupees. For some units this may be cost of the entire machinery. Then this amount can not be funded by banks. Even existing units can not get extension due to the amount involved. So further growth of industry is completely blocked. PSEB is urged to withdraw this provision in the interest of the States economy. On sales tax some irrational taxes and procedures are being adopted as a panicky reaction to financial crisis. Entry tax of 4.8 per cent has been levied on furnace oil which is widely used in engineering industry. Almost entire furnace oil consumed in Punjab comes from outside the state. Jalandhar depot meets only small requirement. Any commodity imported into the state attracts 10 per cent CST which can be 4 per cent against C form. Where is the logic for entry tax? Price of furnace oil has doubled in just few months such irrational taxes super imposed on this hiked price have crippling effect on industry. So this entry tax should be withdrawn. After a lot of hue and
cry on new Sales Tax Act government withdrew sections
relating to prosecution with a promise that other
sections shall be amended by consulting dealers. Nothing
has happened thereafter. The provision of the amended Act
and other measures of enforcement are the source of
harassment to the business community. |
Investment
in saving schemes THIS is the time of the current financial year to consider investment in tax saving schemes. Most of tax-payers are faced with a crucial decision whether to invest, where to invest and how much to invest to save income tax. A rebate from Income Tax up to Rs 14,000 @ 20 per cent of the amount of investments up to Rs 70,000 is allowed under the Income Tax law. The vital return is Are you investing the maximum possible amount to save income tax or are we ensure to get the best returns? The time is now to think and invest, otherwise the question will lingers on your minds. Could I have done better after you have invested the full eligible amount for the year. In the past few years, there have been a variety of investments that have been available to choose from but has made the choice of investment more complex. Reading the benefits of various investments known through the newspaper advertisements, it is likely to end up confused. Many of us blindly depend upon the investment agents recommendation, without really analysing the comparative benefits of investment, and end up investing in merely those instruments which benefit the agent. The basic principle is that one instrument can not be the best form of investment for everybody. Moreover, the investment has to suit the specific needs and requirements of an individual. All schemes have their own advantages and are mainly thrown to the tax payers now-a days. But you alone can be the best judge of what you want out of your investments. In order to help you to make the proper choice suited to your needs, Major available options are given in the following para: * Public Provident Fund * Life Insurance premium * National Savings Certificates (VIII issue). Units of Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIP) of Unit Trust of India and LIC Mutual Fund. * Infrastructure bonds. Besides, these there are other options like LIC annuity plans, pension found, equity shares of infrastructure companies and units of mutual fund schemes investing in such companies etc. The above investment
schemes are, of course, available in addition to
provident fund contributions made by an employee from his
salary and repayment of housing loans to employees up to
Rs 10,000 P.A to housing finance companies. |
SBP gives
loans to agriculturists CHANDIGARH, Dec 11 Kurali and Chamkaur Sabib branches of State Bank of Patiala organised farmers meets which were attended by over 300 farmers drawn from 15 villages functioning in the operational areas of these branches. At the meets, Patiala Bank Kisan Cards were issued to 131 farmers with loans aggregating Rs 58.50 lakh and 21 tractors were also delivered to the farmers by disbursing Rs 28 lakh loan. Ms Prem Lata, Dy General Manager and Mr J.S. Mann, Assistant General Manager explained the details to the farmers about various schemes for the Agriculturists and other economically weaker sections of the society. The farmers were advised
to undertake subsidiary activities like dairy farming,
poultry farming, fish farming, and bee keeping etc. for
which bank provides financial help. |
IOC may pick up stake in Haldia Petro HALDIA, Dec 11 (PTI) Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is likely to pick up stake in Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, the mega greenfield petrochem project which is slated for commissioning in February 2000. Briefing reporters here today, the State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, said that HPL was keen to offer stake to IOC and discussions were underway in this regard. According to him, the outcome of the talks would be known within a months time. The West Bengal Government, through WBIDC, was one of the major promoters of the Rs 5170-crore project, along with Chatterjee Petrochem (Mauritius) Company and the Tata group. Dasgupta said that equity participation by a fourth partner was important to bridge the gap which was currently financed through a mixture of high-cost bridge loans and non-convertible debentures obtained from IDBI. Out of the total equity requirement of Rs 1979 crore, the three promoters jointly contributed Rs 1010 crore, thus leaving an uncovered gap of Rs 969 crore. When asked whether IOC was interested in the project, the Minister said that he was hopeful. However, he refused to divulge the extent of possible participation by the oil major. Since IOC would be
entering into the project at the time of its completion,
it would have to pick up stake at a premium. Regarding
this, Dasgupta said that the pricing for IOC would be
reasonable. |
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