DUBLIN : Singer Britney Spears smiles as she holds her four MTV awards at a photocall in Dublin on Thursday. The MTV Europe Music Awards, voted for by MTV viewers and Europe's biggest awards were held at The Point, Dublin.— AP/PTI

Govt unveils new textile policy NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — The Government today unveiled a new five-year textile exports quota policy to gear up the Indian industry to face global competition after dismantling of Multifibre Arrangement in 2004. TRAI proposes Rs 1 cr entry fee NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed that Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) licensees be charged a one time entry fee of Rs 1 crore and an annual fee as a percentage of revenue sharing not exceeding 5 per cent of the adjusted gross revenue.

Court penalises Dunlop India
NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — A Delhi consumer court has penalised Dunlop India Ltd for failing to return deposit on maturity and directed it to pay penal interest for the same.

PM sets up Economic Council
NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today reconstituted the Economic Advisory Council and Task Force on infrastructure.

IITF’99 from November 14
NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran will inaugurate the 19th India International Trade Fair 1999, (IITF’99) here on November 14.

CMs call for uniform tax structure
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — The Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh today called for greater inter-state cooperation and avoiding unhealthy competition for attracting private investment to the region.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal suggested setting up of a joint regional task force to review incentive structures prevailing in various States and draft a common minimum incentive package for the region.

“The task force should also resolve the issue regarding the sales tax rationalisation among the States of the northern region and initiate serious deliberations with the Central government to evolve a mechanism to migrate to a value added taxation system (VAT)”, Badal said while speaking at a conference on “ Dynamic North — Vision and Action” organised by the PHDCCI here today.

Most States in the region have focused on incentives and concessional tax regime to lure private investment. This has resulted in a race among the States and in an unhealthy fiscal situation, with no long term benefits, the Punjab Chief Minister said.

He also suggested the setting up of a joint task force of Chief Secretaries of all States of the region to work out an action plan for initiating infrastructure projects such as roads and expressways, common freight terminals, post harvest infrastructure and “ even joint power plants”.

Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal called for phasing out of rate wars and “competitive populism” in taxation regimes and adoption of a uniform tax structure for bringing about regional equity.

Mr Dhumal suggested the setting up of an inter-state clearing house on all inter-state issues which could be resolved by mutual dialogue without the intervention of the State Government as it exists in the case of the Northern Zonal Council.

“This can also act as the forum for undertaking inter-state developmental projects of regional importance in the nature of missing links”, Mr Dhumal said.

Mr Om Prakash Chautala echoed the same views and called for a common sales tax structure for the northern States with minimum number of tax slabs to prevent evasion.

Mr Chautala cautioned that investment in agriculture is decreasing and private investment through simplification of credit facilities in this sector needs to be encouraged.

Haryana will soon establish an infrastructure development fund to propel investment and is planning to set up an infrastructure development authority soon.

President of PHDCCI Ashok Khanna emphasised that the State Governments must undertake inter-state projects in areas such as road network, power and telecommunications. The ideal approach would be to evolve an integrated transportation network in the region which facilitates movement of goods from warehouse to ports, Mr Khanna said.

Govt unveils new textile policy

NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (PTI) — The Government today unveiled a new five-year textile exports quota policy to gear up the Indian industry to face global competition after dismantling of Multifibre Arrangement in 2004.

Textiles Minister Kashiram Rana told reporters the policy abolishes non quota entitlement for textiles, rationalises quota for past performance and raises quota for new investments to encourage modernisation.

The export-friendly policy aims at “stability and continuity with competition”, Rana said adding it is designed to simplify procedures for better utilisation of quota and greater transparency.

Called the export entitlement policy for both garments and yarn fabrics and made-ups, the policy will be effective from January 1 next to December 31, 2004 coinciding with the ending of quota regime under the multi-fibre arrangement (MFA).

The WTO textiles and clothing agreement has provided for a 10-year phase out for textile quota system under MFA which ends on December 31, 2004. Thereafter the world trade on textiles will be totally free without quota to integrate it into the WTO regime.

TRAI proposes Rs 1 cr entry fee
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed that Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) licensees be charged a one time entry fee of Rs 1 crore and an annual fee as a percentage of revenue sharing not exceeding 5 per cent of the adjusted gross revenue.

TRAI, which has forwarded its recommendations to the Government, said that the licensee would get a one year time period from the effective date of the licence agreement to commission the service.

Delays in commissioning would attract additional entry fee, which would be Rs 5 lakh for delay upto one year, Rs 10 lakh for delay between one to two years and Rs 15 lakh for delay beyond two years.

The additional entry fee would be payable even by those applicants who seek time of more than one year for commissioning the service, which may be settled at the time of grant of licence, the TRAI recommendations said.

In addition to the licence fee structure, the authority has also made recommendations on the modalities for payment of licence fee including the procedures to be followed for verification for declared adjusted gross revenue.

TRAI has recommended that delays in payment of licence fee beyond the stipulated period will attract interest apart from levy of penalty for understatement of interim quarterly payments beyond 20 per cent of the final calculations.

Court penalises Dunlop India

NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (PTI) — A Delhi consumer court has penalised Dunlop India Ltd for failing to return deposit on maturity and directed it to pay penal interest for the same.

The New Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has ordered Dunlop to return the principal amount along with the agreed rate of interest together with a penalty of 18 per cent interest from the date of maturity till the final settlement.

It also directed the tyre company to pay a litigation cost of Rs 1,000 to the depositor.

The complainant, Shadi Lal Mehra, deposited Rs 10,000 with the Calcutta-based company through its agent Bajaj Capital Investment Centre Ltd for three years at a payable interest rate of 14 per cent on June 22, 1995.

However, the company did not return the maturity amount of Rs 15,185 to the complainant on June 21, 1998.

The court said since Bajaj Capital Investment Centre Ltd merely acted as an agent for Dunlop for the purpose of collecting application for deposit and amount, there was no liability on its part.

Economic policy soon
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — Punjab’s Economic Policy — 2000 is in the final drafting stages and is going to be announced soon, the State Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, said here today.

The policy also seeks to provide an institutional mechanism in the form of Economic Development Board (EDB) for enhanced inter-departmental and inter-sectoral coordination and create an enabling environment for the development of the secondary and tertiary sectors.The Chief Minister will be the Chairman of the proposed Board.

PM sets up Economic Council

NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today reconstituted the Economic Advisory Council and Task Force on infrastructure.

The council will comprise Dr I.G. Patel, Prof P.N. Dhar, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Dr Kirit Parikh, Dr Amresh Bagchi, Jagdish Shettigar, Dr Ashok Gulati, Dr Rakesh Mohan and Dr M. Narasimham.

Brajesh Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister will also be a member of the council, while N.K. Singh, Secretary to the Prime Minister, will be the member-secretary of the council.

The Task Force on infrastructure, set up last year to operationalise the execution of National Highways Development Project, development of five airports to world standard and prepare an integrated transport policy, would continue to be headed by the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission K.C Pant.

Surface Transport Minister Nitish Kumar, Minister for Civil Aviation Sharad Yadav, IDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, Anand Mahindra and the Secretaries of the Ministries of Surface Transport, Civil Aviation and the Department of Expenditure would be other members of the Task Force, a Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) release said.

Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance, Shankar N. Acharya is also a member of the Task Force and N.K. Singh continues to be the Member-Secretary of the Task Force.

Noted industrialist Ratan Tata will be a permanent invitee to the meetings of this body.

The Task Force would continue its efforts at evolving a policy framework for the development of highways in the country with active participation of the private sector.

It will also take a view on the participation of the private sector in the management of the country’s international airports and finalise a multi-model integrated transport policy.

The Economic Advisory Council, on the other hand, shall ordinarily meet once in three months and it is expected to act as a think tank and policy advisory body, advising the prime minister on various aspects of macro-economic management.

The council will afford an opportunity for a policy dialogue on crucial economic issues between the Prime Minister and members of the council.

The present group has been constituted keeping in view the diverse specialities in various sectors of the economy, with a focus on macro economic stabilisation, fiscal management, infrastructure and agriculture, the PMO release added.

IITF’99 from November 14
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — Commerce and Industry Minister Murasoli Maran will inaugurate the 19th India International Trade Fair 1999, (IITF’99) here on November 14.

The fortnight-long fair hosted by the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) at Pragati Maidan will display the latest products and technologies by Indian corporates, ITPO said in a statement today.

Over 5,200 firms will participate directly or through State pavilions and trade associations. This year’s fair will draw a fair amount of international participation with 70 companies from 14 countries including China, Oman, Thailand and Russia displaying their products.

Ikon deliveries from Nov 25

MUMBAI, Nov 12 (PTI) — Ford India will start customer deliveries of its Ikon model from dealerships across India on November 25, after the ceremonial handing over of the first car on November 22, 1999.

During the first week of order taking, Ford received 3,728 orders of the Ikon. Ford Motor Company’s Global President and CEO Jacques Nasser will hand over the first car in Chennai. The initial advance amount is pegged at Rs 4.5 lakh for the petrol version and Rs 5.5 lakh for the diesel version.

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Microsoft
NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (UNI) — Microsoft Corporation today announced a major education initiative in India by launching the ‘school and campus agreements’ targeting academic organisations with licences priced at 60 to 70 lower than the commercial rates.

BILT programme
NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (UNI) — Ballarpur Industries (BILT), today launched an innovative four-week management training programme for 350 middle level officers, simultaneously at four locations — Delhi, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Motorola
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, Nov 12 — Motorola, today handed over five Iridium phones for Orissa Relief efforts to Mr George Fernandes. The phones were presented by Amit Sharma, Chairman, Motorola India. The Motorola group has also contributed Rs 26 lakh to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund to support the relief efforts.

Workshop
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH, Nov 12 — With the reduction in import duties and removal of other barriers to imports, Indian manufacturers of welding consumables and equipment have started facing competition from foreign suppliers. This was stated here today by Mr M.L. Gehani, Chief Executive Officer, Modi Arc Electrodes Co., while delivering the keynote address at a two-day workshop on “Welding Technologies: challenges and opportunities” organised by CII.