Saturday, December 25, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Saturday, December 25, 1999 |
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Government toys with
import duty cuts to avoid increase in diesel prices
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Venture capital for IT projects RPL advances payout date
Castrol India offers special
dividend Kids’ fair in Delhi Car sales up 91 per cent in
November Online trading in stocks |
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Government toys with import duty cuts to avoid increase in diesel prices NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (PTI) — The Government is examining the possibilities of cutting down the import duty on crude and petroleum products as an alternate to a hike in the diesel prices in the wake of hardening of international oil prices, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said today. "We have asked the Finance Ministry to lower the import duty. We are discussing the issue and if this happens there may not be a need to increase the diesel prices," Naik told reporters on the sidelines of the conference of State ministers of food and civil supply. Declining to give a time-frame for any decision on the sensitive issue of diesel pricing, Naik said that the Petroleum Ministry had built the case for slashing of duties on the grounds that the increased import bill had already generated substantial revenue for the exchequer. The government had estimated the import revenue from this sector for the current financial year on the average crude import price of 16 dollars a barrel, whereas global oil prices have shot up to over 26 dollars a barrel. A sharp 35 per cent increase in diesel prices on October 5 had led to a prolonged strike by transporters, who had demanded lowering of import duty to bring down the prices. Earlier, Naik made a strong case for hiking the price of kerosene to cut down burgeoning subsidy and effectively check its growing use for adulteration of diesel and sought to build a consensus among the states for this. "The prices of kerosene has not been revised for over 10 years," Naik told at a conference of State Ministers for Food and Civil Supplies while pointing out that kerosene in neighbouring countries was being sold at more than three times than in India. In countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Bangladesh, there was hardly any price difference between kerosene and diesel, whereas in New Delhi the two fuels were supplied at Rs 2.59 and Rs 13.91 per litre respectively, he said. He urged the State Governments to take strong steps including legislative measures to make adulteration of kerosene with other fuels as a "punishable offence" instead of prevalent provisions of financial penalties alone. Stating that subsidy
burden on kerosene and LPG was expected to be Rs 12,000
crore in 1999-2000 as against Rs 8370 crore, Naik said
bulk of kerosene meant for the public distribution system
was being diverted for adulteration which also led to
serious environmental problems. |
Roll out one Maruti model every year: Suzuki GURGAON, Dec 24 (UNI) —Heavy Industries Minister Manohar Joshi today urged Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) President and Chief Executive Officer O Suzuki to transfer entire technology to Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) to help it meet indigenisation targets. “I have requested Mr Suzuki to extend greater support to Maruti so that full transfer of technology takes place and indigenisation targets are achieved,” Mr Joshi said, while inaugurating the third plant of MUL here. When asked whether he would ask SMC to transfer crucial gear box technology to MUL as well, Mr Joshi told mediapersons that he has pressed for the same though indirectly while putting his request to Mr Suzuki. MUL currently does not have indigenised gear box technology in any of its model. On the other hand, indigenisation level ranges between 83.30 and 95 per cent in its existing models except Baleno. Indigenisation level in Baleno and the proposed Wagon R is supposed to be quite low as MUL has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government in this regard. Joshi disclosed that Suzuki at a meeting with him earlier had expressed the desire that MUL should roll out one model every year. Joshi said Suzuki’s statement yesterday that Maruti can sell its car competitively in the world carrying proudly the “Made in India” symbol can be effectively met if fully indigenised cars from MUL are rolled out. Suzuki assured MUL of full support. He, however, said there is a scope of improvement in plant’s efficiency and quality. “I visited the plant yesterday. We should further improve quality and efficiency at the plant,” he said. He said due to over capacity there is a stiff competition in the Indian auto market, for which MUL should be prepared. The country has 1.25 million units of installed capacity against demand of 0.65 million vehicles, Suzuki said. MUL’s third plant has an installed capacity of 100,000 vehicles per annum. It will raise MUL’s total installed capacity to 350,000 vehicles per annum, increasing the production capability to nearly half a million vehicles annually. The production
facilities at MUL, include blanking lines, press shop,
weld shop, paint shop, parallel assembly lines and
machine shop. |
Sanchar dhabas in villages soon MUMBAI, Dec 24 (PTI) — MTNL will launch its cellular service in Mumbai and Delhi by June, 2000, Union Communications Minister Ram Bilas Paswan said here today. Though MTNL had planned introduction of cellular phones about two years back, it has come clear of the legal hurdles that followed only in October, the Minister said after releasing the MTNL telephone directory for Mumbai. The government will also set up “Sanchar Dhabas” in all villages with Internet connection. As a first step, the “dhabas” would be set up in all districts by next March. The Government has also chalked out blue-print to provide eight crore new telephone connections by 2005 and another 15 crore in the next five years. In a bid to improve services, linemen will be provided with pagers so that they can save time in attending to complaints without returning to the office after rectifying every fault. Wireless in Local Loop
(WLL) services will be introduced across the country
immediately after the testing of the technical aspects
are over by January-end, he said. |
Venture
capital for IT projects CHANDIGARH, Dec 24 — The Delhi Finance Corporation (DFC) has decided to float venture capital for IT projects, besides financing projects for call centres, medical transcription, cyber cafes etc. This was announced by Dr DC Misra, Chairman and Managing Director of the DFC, at a seminar on "Cybercity Chandigarh" organised by the corporation for Chartered Accountants here today. Mr R.S. Verma, Haryana Chief Secretary, who was the chief guest, pointing out the growing disparity between rural and urban students, said while the former lacked books, slates and black-boards, the latter had an access to computers. With the Internet access available to city students, this disparity would grow further. Inaugurating the seminar, Ms Vineeta Rai, Adviser to the UT Administrator, said from April next year computer education would become mandatory from Class VI onwards in all government schools in the UT. She said Chandigarh provided the required facilities like trained, English-speaking manpower for IT projects and quality lifestyle to cyberpreneurs. Mr Vineeta Rai promised to look into the demands listed earlier by Mr DK Singla, chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Chandigarh chapter. Mr SP Marwah, Chief
General Manager of the DFC, and Mr KK Jain, General
Manager, DFC, also addressed the gathering. |
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MUMBAI, Dec 24 (PTI) — Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) today advanced the scheduled date of redemption of Rs 960 crore worth of the non-convertible portion of its outstanding Triple Option Convertible Debentures (TOCDs). RPL will make payment of the redemption proceeds on February 3, 2000 to over nine lakh TOCD holders with the record date being January 25, 2000. The payment is being made towards the second instalment of Rs 30 per TOCD comprising principal of Rs 15 per TOCD and interest of Rs 15 per TOCD, payable on November 22, 2000. The third instalment of Rs 30 per TOCD constitution principal and interest of Rs 15 each per TOCD is payable on November 22, 2001. The TOCD holders will thus receive the final redemption proceeds almost two years in advance, RPL said in a statement here. The debt equity ratio of
RPL, which has set up a grassroots refinery at Jamnagar
at a cost of Rs 14,250 crore, will improve to 0.9:1
consequent upon the early redemption of the outstanding
TOCDs. |
Castrol India offers special dividend MUMBAI, Dec 24 (UNI) — The Board of Directors of Castrol India Ltd decided to pay a special dividend of Rs 10/- per share to all shareholders whose names appear in the register of members on February 29,2000. The payment of this special dividend is in line with the company’s strategy to deliver value to the shareholders by actively managing its asset base, a company release said here today. During the year, the
company reorganised its operating structure to provide
increased focus to the different business segments and
increased investments in brands. |
ICICI proposes to Bank of Punjab MUMBAI, Dec 24 (UNI) — The merger talks of Centurian Bank with ICICI Bank may not be frutified since ICICI has found a better alliance with the Bank of Punjab, which has a wider branch network in North India. According to informed sources, the Bank of Punjab has become a hot bargaining cake for both IDBI Bank and ICICI Bank because of its better assets as well as network. While the officials of
these banks refrained from making any comments, the
market did react to the possible failure of the talks
between ICICI Bank and Centurian Bank on the merger
issue. During the week, the share of ICICI Bank has
fallen by Rs 5.85 to Rs 60.00 from last week’s close
price of Rs 65.85 as the speculators switching their
interest on other counters. |
Allahabad
Bank opens boutiques CHANDIGARH, Dec 24 — Allahabad Bank has opened retail banking boutiques at Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Gurgaon. The boutiques offer products such as car finance scheme, housing loan finance, personal loan finance and education loans. The bank has launched a website for sanctioning education loans on the Internet and has finalised the launch of car finance on the Internet. A customer from anywhere can send his application through the Internet and receive sanction on the Internet within 48 hours. The bank has tied up
with Maruti Udyog through its dealers and has plans to
tie up with other car manufacturers also, according to Mr
P.N. Rattan, General Manager (Corporate) of the bank who
was here to see arrangements for the boutiques. |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (UNI)
— The eighth National Children’s Fair and the
fourth Winter Show were inaugurated by Chairman and
Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organisation,
Yogesh Chandra here today. The twin shows will be open to
the public till January 2, between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. at
Hall No. 1 of Pragati Maidan, displaying a range of
consumer goods in the Winter Show. The children’s
fair displays toys, games, books, magazines, school
utility items, linen, decoratives and children’s
furniture. |
Car sales up 91 per cent in November NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (PTI) — Riding on the crest generated by the launch of several new car models, the passenger car industry clocked an impressive 91 per cent sales growth in November as the leading players like Maruti, Hyundai and Telco continued to record positive growth. Sales of passenger cars increased sharply to 54,079 units in November this year against 28,249 units in the same month of 1998 mainly due to a 72 per cent sales jump by the market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL). However, the leading
names in the world automobile market such as Ford,
General Motors, Mercedes Benz and Honda Siel failed to
keep pace with Korean auto majors Hyundai and Daewoo on
the one hand and Maruti and Telco on the other as they
registered negative sales growth in India. |
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HYDERABAD, Dec 24 (PTI) — Indiainfo. com, a leading integrated Indian Internet company, today launched three new services for the first time in the country — online stock trading for resident and non-resident Indians, auction service and customised Home Page services—on its portal site and unveiled expansion plans focussing on electronic commerce. The new services, which would enable Indians to do on-line trading and benefit from electronic commerce, were launched by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu here. The computer-savvy Naidu
became the portal company’s first home page customer
when a comprehensive personalised Home Page was designed
based on his preferences and launched on the occasion. |
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