Thursday, March 4, 1999
today's calendar
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B U S I N E S S | Thursday, March 4, 1999 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Himachal signs wheeling
agreement Punjabi
business fair from April 17 |
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RBI sets up group to
monitor export credit
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IDBI
urged to lower interest rates
Rajasthan
Polymer, Greaves to merge |
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Himachal
signs wheeling agreement SHIMLA, March 3 — A unique agreement linking wheeling charges for evacuation of power with the commissioning of the 86 MW Malana hydel power project was signed here today between the state power board and Malana Company, which is executing the project. The agreement was signed by Mr C.P. Mahajan, Chief Engineer (Commercial) of the board and Mr A.B. Giri, Executive Director of the company, in the presence of Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, and Mr A.K. Goswami, Chief Secretary. The company will deliver power from the project located in Kulu district to the board at Bajaura substation. Out of this the State will get 15 per cent free power during the first 12 years of operation and 20 per cent during the remaining operational period of 28 years. The rest of the power will be transferred by the board from Bajaura to Nalagarh from where it will be further evaluated through the transmission system of the power grid corporation to Rajasthan. The board will get wheeling charges in addition to transmission losses at the rate of 4 per cent of the energy. In case the company is able to complete the project by October 2002, the wheeling charges will be 6 paise per unit and for completion between October 2002 and October 2003, the rate will be 8 paise per unit. If the project is commissioned after October, 2003 the company would have to pay these charges at the power grid’s rate of 10 paise per unit, whichever of the two is higher. The agreement will help the company to achieve financial closure of the project and also to take up the work at the project in full swing. The project on its commissioning will generate about 54 million units of energy to the State annually, free of cost for the first 12 years of operation and about 73 million units annually after 12 years of operation. The construction of project will also provide employment opportunities to Himachalis. Mr Dhumal said the Malana
project execution was going to be historic and a new
experiment in the power sector where incentives had been
linked with efficiency. This project will be a model for
others in the country. |
IDBI urged
to lower interest rates CHANDIGARH, March 3 — Mr G.P. Gupta, Chairman, IDBI, said here today that IDBI had disbursed about Rs 1,600 crore in Punjab and Haryana last year. IDBI would provide finance for power projects in Haryana. At an interaction with the PHDCCI, here he said that the financial institutions have borrowed at high rates. Therefore the lending cost is high. IDBI is reviewing the position. Mr M.L. Tayal, Secretary Haryana Industry, suggested that IDBI should lower rate of interest on re-finance, abolish pre-payment premium, do away with upfront fee, upwardly revise the ceiling for re-financing of term loans of projects. PHDCCI President Ashok
Khanna observed that in the present liberalised
environment, innovative financial packages for
infrastructure and greenfield projects, besides active
support to industrial units affected by recession would
be necessary. The single window table concept for both
term loan and working capital should be propagated to
ensure timely financial closure. |
Steps to
revive sick banks soon NEW DELHI, March 3 — The Centre will soon announce measures to revive sick banks in the country, the Minister of State for Finance (Banking and Insurance), Mr M.R.Janarthanam, said here today. The Minister said the measures were being worked out and hinted that mergers of sick banks with profitable ones could be one way out to solve the problem. It may be recalled that the then Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, had given a Rs 10,000 crore bail out package in 1993-94, to boost the bottomline of sick banks. Mr Janarthanan said the new package being considered by the government too would help the sick banks. Mr Janarthanam said the
increasing non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banks was
also a matter of concern and he had issued general
guidelines to the banks to take steps to bring it down. |
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NEW DELHI, March 3 (UNI) — The Rs 8500 crore Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) has achieved another first, collecting bookings for its cars on the Internet and commencing deliveries for the same. Company officials told UNI here today that booking enquiries for its cars pouring in from across the globe with non-resident Indians leading the list, “the enquiries are, in fact 50-50 from India and other countries. But actual deliveries may differ.” For booking an order on the Internet, a prospective buyer has to log into the Maruti website and place his order with the company the entire amount is then deposited in any of the Bank of America accounts across the globe and the money remitted to the company’s account in Delhi as rupee payment. “Then depending on the country the demand has come from and the waiting period of the vehicle booked, we make the deliveries,” the officials added. The exact deliveries would also depend on the availability of the particular colours and others factors such as vehicles fitted with catalytic converters and those without. Meanwhile company sources pointed out that around 70 to 100 orders have already been booked through this route since the company opened its website over a month back. Indica MUMBAI, (PTI): Over 63,000 applicants for Tata’s Indica, who were unsuccessful in the first round of 10,000 allotments, have opted to retain their bookings with Telco for the next round of 50,000 allotments for the car. The priority numbers for the next 50,000 customers from among those who have opted in favour of having their bookings retained would be generated in the first week of March while the payments of the balance unsuccessful applicants would be refunded immediately thereafter together with interest at 10 per cent annum, a company release said. Deliveries for the first lot of customers, began last month, are expected to be completed in April-May, it said. The car had evoked an overwhelming response with 1,15,238 bookings being registered during the week-long booking programme, which had opened on February 17. The company had provided
an option to the unsuccessful applicants to either retain
their bookings with the company for the next round of
allotments or have their payments refunded. |
Punjabi
business fair from April 17 NEW DELHI, March 3 — A four-day exhibition beginning in the Capital on April 17 will showcase the contribution of Punjabis to the industry, trade, agriculture , transport , exports and management. The role of Punjabi women in exports, industry, education, medicine, fine arts and social work will also be highlighted. Coinciding with the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth, the exhibition is sponsored by the World Punjabi Organisation. Leading business houses from all over the country will participate in the fair the theme of which is “Enterprising Punjabis and the Indian Economy”. Organised by the Delhi based Karam group of companies, the exhibition is to encourage trade, business and industry by Punjabi entrepreneurs. A steering committee comprising of Bank of Punjab Chairman Darshanjit Singh, Punjab and Sind Bank Chairman S S Kohli, Anand Auto Chief B S Anand, former chairman of National Small Scale Industries Corporation J S Juneja, Mr Raunaq Singh of Raunaq Enterprises and Vikramjit Singh Sahney of the Sun group to coordinate the exhibition. Several prominent NRIs, including Dr A S Marwah and Sant S Chatwal, are associated with the fair. Popular music artistes
like Jagjit Singh, Daler Mehndi, Bhupinder Singh and
Sukhvinder Singh will participate in a cultural evening
during the exhibition. |
RBI sets up group to monitor export credit MUMBAI, March 3 (PTI) — The RBI today announced setting up of a six-member “monitoring group of bankers” to closely track implementation of its revamped scheme for sanctioning of export credit by banks in foreign currency to exporters. The group is also meant to sort out any operational problem that might arise in making foreign currency credit facilities available to exporters liberally, more particularly small and medium scale exporters. The revamped scheme unveiled on February 28, 1999 provides for the rate of interest to be directly linked to London inter-bank offered rate (Libor) and that export credit will be need-based and not directly related to collateral security. The group, having as its convener M.G. Srivastava, Chief General Manager of RBI’s Industrial and Export Credit Department, would be responsible for monitoring implementation of the scheme and ensure that system is in place at all centres, more particularly centres with concentration of small and medium exporters. The monitoring group has as members SBI Chief General Manager Harbans Lal, Canara Bank General Manager A.K.S. Rao, Bank of India General Manager R.N. Buch, A.N.Z. Grindlays Bank’s Director and head (international services) Soumen Basu and Vysya Bank Adviser K.R.V. Bhat. The group is mandated to visit and interact with bankers and exporters/exporters’ bodies to sort out the problems/impediments faced by exporters especially small and medium exporters, in availing of foreign currency credit and to set up a procedure for attending to exporters’ difficulties expeditiously. The group would also review periodically the working of the scheme and submit their findings to the standing committee on export finance (SCEF) chaired by RBI Deputy Governor, for further action, RBI said in a statement here. The other important
features of the revamped scheme are making available a
line of credit for a period of upto three years on the
basis of exporter’s track record, flexibility with
regard to the method of assessment of credit requirements
and disbursement of credit on the basis of a statement of
orders in hand. |
Gold bonds not to cover jewellery NEW DELHI, March 3 (PTI) — The success of the gold bond scheme announced by the government in 1999-2000 budget to mobilise idle gold from household will depend on the policy, tenure of the bond and the interest to be offered on the deposits, bullion industry officials said today. “This is the first product to be launched in the gold banking area. Its success will depend on the tenure, interest rate, marketing and other features,” World Gold Council (WGC) official Dereck Machado told PTI. However, there is also a little scepticism over the scheme among the industry. A bank official said the scheme would have only limited impact as it would not be able to tap gold kept unlawfully by individuals. “Unless amnesty is given, this gold can be tapped,” the official, who did not wish to be identified, said. Machado said the objective of the scheme would be very important for its success. The bank official said the scheme does not have any proposal to tap jewellery and therefore, the impact would be minimum. “The idea, it seems, is to reduce gold imports into the country. That is unlikely to happen,” the official said. Machado also said the
scheme would not have any impact on gold consumption in
India. |
Bankers’ meet Ishaq Dar on yesterday began a meeting with the heads of the country’s three nationalised banks aimed at reviewing the financial health of their respective institutions. Sources close to the Finance Minister said that the meeting was convened at Dar’s behest, who wanted a review of the achievements of the three major public sector institutions — Habib Bank Limited (HBL), United Bank Limited (UBL) and National Bank Limited (NBP). The banking industry in general and the nationalised banks in particular, continue to suffer due to uncertain economic conditions and because of random decisions taken at the executive level. Export zones Minister for Industries in the provincial government of Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Muhammad Arshad Khan Lodhi, has directed the Industries Department to prepare proposals regarding price of industrial plots and leasing terms and conditions for the establishment of export processing zones across the Punjab province. The order was passed by the minister at a meeting with the Chairman, Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), B.H. Qureshi, which was also attended by the Secretary and the Director, Industry Department, the Managing Director and the Deputy Managing Director of Punjab Small Industries Corporation and other officials. The minister discussed establishment of SPZs in Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala in collaboration with the Punjab government and the Punjab Small Industries Corporation. Paris Club Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Tuesday that he was hopeful about the Paris Club offering the Nawaz Sharif Government concessional terms for debt rescheduling when negotiations with the Paris Club and the London Club begin later this month. Talking to mediapersons in Islamabad, Dar said that he would be leaving for Paris on March 15 and thereafter for London to hold negotiations with bilateral donors on government loans. In London, however, he said, that the talks would focus on rescheduling of commercial loans. Revenue target In the face of a 2.8 per cent Budget deficit during the first half of the fiscal year, the federal government has decided to scale down the tax revenue target to Rs 318 billion for 1998-99. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar
said the scaling down of the tax revenue was necessary to
help the national economy to recover as per the
guidelines set down by the IMF. — ANI |
Rajasthan Polymer, Greaves to merge NEW DELHI, March 3 (UNI) The Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) has sanctioned a rehabilitation scheme for the sick Rajasthan Polymers and Resins Limited (RPRL) approving its merger with one of its promoters — Greaves Limited. According to the scheme, the share exchange ratio for the merger which would come into effect from April 1, 1997 would be 50 shares of RPRL to one share of Greaves. RPRL is promoted by Greaves Cotton and Company Limited (now known as Greaves Limited) and Rajasthan Industrial and Investment Corporation (RIICO) in technical and financial collaboration with Plastpererabotka and Russia-based MGO Technochim. After the merger, Greaves
would be able to utilise the carry forward losses of RPRL
which stood at Rs 84.53 crore (business losses of Rs
52.19 crore and unabsorbed depreciation of Rs 32.34
crore) as on March 31, 1997 to off-set its future taxable
profits, under Section 72A of the IT Act. |
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NEW DELHI, March 3 (PTI) — Crash like conditions developed on the bullion market today on brisk selling by stockists enthused by weak overseas advices and closed with hefty losses. Gold also yielded further ground on lack of buying by local parties in the face of easy inflow of new stocks. Marketmen said a major fall in silver prices was mainly due to a sharp decline in its prices on the international markets. Silver .999 (ready)
dropped by Rs 340 at Rs 8020 per kilo on stockists
offering and weekly delivery lost Rs 215 at Rs 8175 on
lack of speculators buying in fear of a further fall in
its prices. Silver coins were traded Rs 100 lower at Rr
10,500/10,700 per 100 pieces. Standard gold and ornaments
were down by Rs 15 each at Rs 4375 and Rs 4225 per 10
gram respectively. Sovereign was traded at previous level
of Rs 3800 per piece of eight gram. |
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| Forex rates MUMBAI, March 3 (PTI) — The following were interbank forex and RBI rates (in rupees per unit): U.S. $ Rs 42.49/50 RBI reference rate was Rs 42.55. SBP OBC branch IIMM |
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