Saturday, May 22, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Saturday, May 22, 1999 |
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‘If only we had
given importance to India’ |
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 Passengers arrive at Penang Island, off the west coast of central Malaysia, after being rescued by rescue teams, on Friday. At least 1,124 persons of 20 nationalities had been picked up by ferries and naval vessels and were arriving on the island in northwestern Malaysia. — AP/PTI Providential escape for Maruti staff PENANG, May 21 — Over 40 Maruti employees today said they were lucky to be alive after being rescued overnight when their luxury cruise ship caught fire and sank in waters off the Malaysian coast. |
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Tax relief on hostels for
women Record sales by Markfed
Liquor to be dearer Tata Tea net vaults 26 pc |
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‘If only we had given importance to India’ WASHINGTON, May 21 (UNI) — Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has highlighted the United States’ lack of understanding of India and said this state of affair was responsible for the current political problems between the two countries. Speaking at the US-India dialogue on the clean development mechanism (CDM) here last night, he said: “If we have given little more importance to India, it would have certainly helped improve relations between the two countries.” He said President Clinton’s predecessor George Bush should have undertaken a visit to India. No US President has visited India in the last two decades. The then President Jimmy Carter was the last US Head to tour India. He visited New Delhi way back in January 1978. Richardson hoped the sanctions issue between Washington and New Delhi would be resolved soon and U.S. investment and technology in environmental and other fields would flow to India to the mutual benefit of the two countries. Rahul Bajaj, told
Richardson with his customary frankness: “We
don’t want the money your department has but please
remove the sanctions.” |
Bangladesh for zero duty market
access NEW DELHI, May 21 — The Commerce and Industries Minister of Bangladesh, Mr Tofail Ahmed, has urged India to grant zero tariff market access to Bangladesh. Speaking at a meeting organised by the FICCI here today, Mr Ahmed said this gesture by India can successfully address the lopsided bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh. He said he had a discussion with the India’s Commerce Minister in this regard. India has agreed to consider zero duty market access and an expert committee has been set up to look into the feasibility of such a proposal. Urging India not to
benchmark the prospects of trade and investment only on
the basis of import of natural gas from Bangladesh, he
said a way of partaking in the development process of
Bangladesh is by investing in that country. |
Providential escape for Maruti staff PENANG, May 21 (AFP) — Over 40 Maruti employees today said they were lucky to be alive after being rescued overnight when their luxury cruise ship caught fire and sank in waters off the Malaysian coast. “When the operation to the life boats was carried out, the movie titanic crossed my mind,” said Karthik Rajaram, 29. He told AFP that he and 40 other employees of the Indian affiliate of Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Co Ltd joined the Sun Vista ship in Phuket after flying to the resort island in Southern Thailand from New Delhi. Malaysian police said
126 Indian citizens were among the 460 passengers
registered on the board the ship, the biggest number by
nationality after 133 British citizens. The crew of more
than 600 were mainly from the Philippines. |
Badal,
Kapil & a store CHANDIGARH, May 21 — Opening a departmental store, even if it happens to be Ebony of the $300 million DS group, by a Chief Minister, even if it is Parkash Singh Badal, or a cricketer Kapil Dev, or both, is not much of an event. Mediamen, bowled over by the lavish spread at the sector 9 Ebony here, couldn’t help asking the group head, H.S. Narula: does any politician have a stake in it? “Not at all,” said Narula, whose father, the late Mr Darshan Singh Narula, had started the business 60 years ago and spread it across England, the UAE and North Africa. Now his two sons — HS & NS — run the empire. One of the seasoned journalists on the “Badal beat,” refusing to attend the Chief Minister’s speech, said: “I know what he’s going to say. ‘This is a beautiful store. But I wish you should have opened it in Faridkot..... where there’s lot of unemployment and poverty.” Instead, Badal asked Narula to open a school in the interior of Punjab. “We will offer you land. you run it”. Accepting the offer, Narula, the businessman, put a rider: “It should be for mutual benefit”. Turning to Kapil Dev, who had come to open the store, Badal said: “Why don’t you or other cricketers set up a cricket training centre? We’ll give you land — near Mohali or Ludhiana.” Kapil, busy
congratulating the Narulas, did not immediately respond,
his interest being more in business than cricket. |
Tax relief on hostels for women NEW DELHI, May 21 (UNI) — Income Tax rules have been further amended to extend the scope of eligible project or scheme for the purpose of tax deduction for construction of hostel accommodation for women or handicapped individuals or the aged. A notification issued by the CBDT amended the Rule 11K under Section 35AC of the Income Tax Act,1961 whereby the scope of recommendations to be made by the National Committee has been extended to the project or scheme relating to “construction of hostel accommodation for women or handicapped individuals or individuals who are of the age of 65 years or more”. This amendment is aimed
at promoting social and economic welfare and upliftment
of women, handicapped individuals and aged persons, an
official release said.
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Record
sales by Markfed CHANDIGARH, May 21 — Markfed’s Vegetable and Food Processing Canneries in Jalandhar has reported a record turnover to Rs 4 crore in 1998-99. Last year, it was only Rs 2 crore. Announcing this here today Mr Gurinderjit Singh Sandhu, MD, Markfed, said for increasing the turnover, new market contacts have been created and additional new items added to meet the requirements of Punjabis settled abroad as well as to meet the demand of the local market. New items like peas in brine, cowpeas (lobia), tinned tomato, kabli chana, alu methi, alu palak, dal makhni, de-hydrated karela, bhindi, peas in syrup, pine apple slices and pine apple juices etc. has been introduced for the first time. Mr Sandhu said the next
year’s target of the plant has been increased to
ensure maximum capacity utilisation of the plant. |
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NEW DELHI, May 21 (UNI) — In a significant step, the government today further simplified the Central Excise procedures which will go a long way in helping the Indian Industry. The Central Board of Customs and Excise (CBCE) has issued detailed instructions allowing factories working under self removal procedure, which had paid excise duty exceeding Rs 5 crore to maintain its own book of accounts in lieu of statutory records. The new guidelines, effective from June 1, 1999, allow a factory to maintain its own books of accounts in lieu of statutory records concerning production, manufacture, storage, delivery or disposal of goods including the materials received for or consumed in the manufacture of excise goods or other goods, the goods and materials in stock with it and duty determined and paid by it. Such records may also contain any other information required by an assessee for its accounting purposes. The government order, issuing instructions under the provisions of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, follows the announcement of Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in his Budget speech on February 27 to this effect. An official release said
such factories have also been exempted from getting their
own record authenticated by the Central Excise officers.
The records can also be maintained on computers with the
condition that the assessee retains the monthly printouts
in booklet form. These private records are required to be
preserved for minimum period of five years. The
assessees, who intend to adapt their private records to
the Central Excise requirements may continue to maintain
the records in the statutory format for the time being,
the release added. |
Govt talks
with distillery sector NEW DELHI, May 21 — The government is holding talks with the distillery sector to come to an agreement on the pricing of oxygenated fuel. The Chairman of Central Pollution Control Board, Mr D.K. Biswas said that the fundamental research towards developing an admixture of fuel and alcohol for reducing the pollution in the emissions of automobiles are at an advanced stage. Speaking at a seminar jointly organised by the FICCI, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and the All India Distilleries Association,here, Mr Biswas said that whereas the cost of production of petrol can be worked out at Rs 5 to Rs 6 per litre , the cost of alcohol is working out to Rs 18.60. President of All-India
Distillers’ Association, Mr S. Kale said that the
application of distillery effluents on land has been
found to improve soil properties like water retention
capacity, organic content and microbial population. |
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NEW DELHI, May 21 (PTI) — Liquor prices in the capital will go up from Rs 2 to Rs 25 per bottle, the Delhi Government announced today. Under the excise policy
for 1999-2000, approved by the Delhi Cabinet today, the
cheapest brand of liquor will be dearer by Rs 2 per
bottle while the Scotch will be expensive by up to Rs 25
per bottle, fetching an additional revenue of Rs 75 crore
during the year. |
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The Board of Directors of Tata Tea today recommended 110 per cent dividend for the 1998-99 fiscal having achieved a 26 per cent jump in profit after tax at Rs 128.76 crore during the year. The turnover of the company’s core operations for the year 1998-99 at Rs 883 crore registered an increase of 22 per cent over the previous year. The exports of the company’s mainline products recorded an increase of 12 per cent over the previous year whilst the export of traded coffee has been discontinued. SKF Bearings SKF Bearings Limited slipped into the red during the 1998-99 fiscal to record a net loss of Rs 44.3 crore as compared to a net profit of Rs 5.9 crore in the previous year. SKF bearings’ total income for the year stood at Rs 347.4 crore, down 4.1 per cent from Rs 362.2 crore in the previous year. Texmaco Texmaco Limited today reported a 63.71 per cent decline in profit after tax at Rs 4.50 crore during the financial year 1998-99 compared with a profit of Rs 12.39 crore in 1997-98. The Board of Directors recommended a dividend of 20 per cent to equity share holders despite the decline in profit. Hind Motors Hindustan Motors Limited of C.K. Birla has reported a net loss of Rs 28.25 crore during the financial year ended March 31, 1999. A meeting of the Board of Directors was held here today to consider the audited financial reports of the company it has posted a profit of Rs 39.35 crore in the previous fiscal. Tata Metaliks Tata Metaliks Limited has managed to record a nominal net profit of Rs 0.14 crore during the last financial year. The net profit came down to Rs 0.14 crore from Rs 2.68 crore in 1997-98 following continued recessionary trend. Gross income during 1998-99 stood at Rs 86.32 crore against Rs 86.54 crore last year and the gross profit declined to Rs 7.74 crore from Rs 10.01 crore. Britannia The Board of Directors
at Britannia Industries Limited will meet on May 26 to
consider a bonus share issue, the company said in a
notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange. |
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