Monday, October 4, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Monday, October 4, 1999 |
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‘Punjab has highest
per capita debt’ |
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Court penalises Stanchart, PNB KVIC training centre for Mohali 11 charged for duping DFC After Kargil, tourist flow to
Kashmir picks up Inflation remains static at 2.02
per cent |
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‘Punjab has highest per capita debt’ CHANDIGARH, Oct 3 (PTI) — Punjab, which has the highest per capita income, seems to have achieved a dubious distinction of being a State with the highest per capita debt also whose burden has crossed Rs 24,000 crore this year. This has been alleged by the Janata Dal-Secular convener of the State, Harish Khanna, in a memorandum to President K.R. Narayanan seeking imposition of financial emergency in the State and dismissal of the Parkash Singh Badal-led BJP-SAD coalition Government. While analysing the situation arising out of the present financial crisis in the State, Khanna attributed the ills afflicting the State economy to the wrong economic policies being pursued by the State Government run by the Akali-BJP combine. In the current Budget, certain new schemes were introduced and a commitment to slash non-Plan expenditure, put on the backburner, he said, adding that the Budget proposal was to save Rs 450 crore from the non-Plan side in a phased manner. Paradoxically enough, there is an increase of 15 per cent in non-Plan expenditure, he said. “Today Punjab, the so-called prosperous State, is in the throes of a deep financial crisis as it is finding it difficult to meet day-to-day routine expenses, what to say of servicing huge debt as also the return of borrowings, Khanna said. “Routing travelling expenses viz. Petrol for vehicles and electricity bills are not being reimbursed and in a number of cases these are being borne by either the official concerned or their bosses. Payments to contractors who have completed the contracted jobs long ago are not being released nor their security refunded to them. Subsidies to industry are not being released,” he said in the memorandum. About 8,000 small scale industry (SSI) units have closed down, he alleged. Much of the trouble arose when the State Government embarked on its populist schemes viz. Grant of free electricity to the agriculture sector. As a direct consequence of these populist schemes, the State exchequer is incurring a loss of approximately Rs 1,500 crore per annum, Khanna said. Income tax revenue from Punjab has increased by 24 per cent. Turnover of the small scale sector is Rs 17,000 crore and the medium and large sector contributed a turnover of Rs 28,000 crore this year. In spite of that, the sales tax and excise revenue in the State is a dismal low this year, he said. This is solely on
account of mismanagement of the State economy, more than
18 departments being under direct control of the Chief
Minister, large-scale tax evasion in connivance with
corrupt officials, etc, he charged. |
Morita,
who gave Walkman, is dead TOKYO, Oct 3 — Mr Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony Corp and the man who gave the world the Walkman, died today of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital, the company said. He was 78. Morita was responsible for some of Sony’s most successful innovations, was its marketing mastermind and a high-profile envoy for Japan Inc at the peak of its global presence in the 1980s. The heir to one of Japan’s oldest sake-brewing families, Mr Morita declined to take over the family business and, together with inventor Masaru Ibuka, in 1946 founded the firm that was to become a world electronic and entertainment giant. First called Tokyo Tsushin Denki, the company was rechristened “Sony” — from the Latin “Sonus” for sound — in 1958. “We wanted a new name that could be recognised anywhere in the world, one that could be pronounced the same in any language,” Mr Morita wrote in his book “Made in Japan”. A string of innovations: Sony then went on to invent and market a host of household consumer products, introducing stereo into Japan and inventing the Trinitron system, a method of projecting colour images onto a television tube. The firm also built the world’s first video cassette recorder for home use, the Betamax, a product now remembered as the loser in a marketing battle with rival Matsushita’s VHS brand. Mr Morita’s most famous brainchild, the Walkman, first appeared in 1979 after he overrode opposition from those within his own company who saw no future for the product. In 1989, Sony made world headlines with its $ 3.4 billion buyout of Columbia Pictures, an ill-starred investment which failed to deliver on its promise. Mr Morita — an energetic charmer easily recognised by his full tuft of silky white hair — was a key player in trying to smooth often testy US-Japan economic ties. He helped general motors in its talks on buying 35 percent of truckmaker Isuzu in the early 1970s. Proud Japanese: But Mr Morita was also staunchly proud of being Japanese and encouraged his countrymen to rid themselves of their inferiority complex towards the USA. He made a point of flying the Japanese flag outside Sony’s US showroom on fifth avenue in Manhattan. He also co-authored the book “The Japan That Can Say No”, with nationalist politician Shintaro Ishihara, now the Governor of Tokyo. The book’s key premise, developed by Ishihara, called for Japan to stop following Washington’s lead on global issues while Mr Morita berated US managers for being too focused on short-term profits and not being more patient in creating markets. Mr Morita later distanced himself from the work, having his portion removed from the English translation. Workers
champion: A ceaseless explainer of the gaps
between Japanese and US business styles, he advocated
traditional Japanese values such as job security. —
Reuters |
Court penalises Stanchart, PNB NEW DELHI, Oct 3 (PTI) — A Delhi consumer court has penalised Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) for causing mental harassment to a customer through their inability to trace a bank draft deposited by him and directed them to pay compensation.The Delhi Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-II has ordered SCB to pay a compensation of Rs 15,000 to the account holder concerned for mental harassment and “loss of reputation” along with penal interest for the draft. While ordering SCB to pay litigation cost of Rs 500 to the customer, the forum also directed PNB to pay Rs 2,500 as compensation for mental harassment. The complainant, Mr S K Mutreja, obtained a demand draft worth Rs 4,000 from a PNB branch in Pathankot and sent it to SCB on January 30, 1998, for crediting it to his account. However, SCB’s statement for March 1998, did not show the credit. The complainant alleged that in spite of several letters and visits to the bank, SCB did not provide any satisfactory explanation about the draft. Only in mid-July, 1998, the complainant received a letter from SCB informing him about non-receipt of the draft. Based on this
information, Mutreja approached PNB for issuance of a
duplicate draft which was given to him immediately and he
deposited the same in his account with Syndicate Bank.
However, Syndicate Bank returned the same saying it was a
stale instrument. |
KVIC
training centre for Mohali CHANDIGARH, Oct 3 — The Khadi and Village Industries Commission will set a multi-disciplinary training centre at Mohali for which the Punjab Government has provided 3.5 acres of land and sanctioned Rs 4 crore for the project. Announcing this at a press conference here last night, Mr Karnail Singh, Director, KVIC, said there is also a proposal to set up a biogas extension centre at Sant Longowal Engineering Institute. KVIC has also adopted a cluster development approach. Wooden craft of Hoshiarpur, leather industry of Jalandhar and beekeeping activities in Fatehgarh Sahib and Ludhiana have been identified as potential clusters. A common facility-cum-training centre has been set up at Jalandhar to provide advanced training and designs for leather footwears. A zonal beekeeping extension centre has been set up at Bassi Pathana. KVIC is going to launch Sarvodaya brand, honey, soap, masalas, pickle, aggarbati during this month. The Punjab State Beekeepers Federation has been selected for the supply of Sarvodaya brand honey. There is a proposal to organise a khadi gramudyog exhibition at Chandigarh during November. To boost the khadi sale a special rebate from October 4 upto 30 per cent will be given on the sale of cotton and silk khadi and from Oct 16 on woollen khadi. KVIC schemes have been made more liberal. The margin money scheme is getting a good response from the public. During 1998-99, a total of 494 cases were sanctioned under this scheme. To create awareness one
State-level bankers workshop, five district-level bankers
workshop and 15 awareness camps will be organised at the
block level. Under this scheme the target is to provide
employment to 9,000 persons by providing loans of about
Rs 45 crore through banks |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 3 (PTI) — The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has chargesheeted 11 people, including four Delhi Finance Corporation (DFC) officials and a city-based pharmaceutical company, for allegedly cheating DFC of Rs 70 lakh in 1996. The chargesheet, filed in a special court here recently, accused DFC Deputy General Manager S.K. Gupta, Senior Managers S.K. Sharma and A.M. Goel, and Assistant Manager Ashok Khanna of being party to the conspiracy hatched by six Delhi-based businessmen to cheat the state-owned corporation. The other accused named in the chargesheet are: Pamir International Pharma Ltd, its Managing Director Kulwant Singh Wadhwa, Directors Amarjit Singh, Harbans Singh and Gurcharan Singh, and Satwant Kaur and Surjit Kaur. The latter two accused are wives of Gurcharan Singh and Harbans Singh respectively. The chargesheet under Sections 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will etc.), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a forged document as a genuine one) IPC read with Sections 13 (2) and 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, alleged that the accused persons cheated the DFC by way of obtaining short-term working capital loan on the basis of false and forged documents. The accused had issued 10 post-dated cheques in favour of DFC payable from November 1996 onwards. But before the arrival of the dates, accused Kulwant, Amarjit, Harbans, Gurcharan, Satwant and Surjit absconded in the second week of October 1996 and they were yet to be arrested, the CBI said. Out of the 10 post-dated cheques, three have been traced and the rest were missing from DFC records, the agency said. The conditions for the loan sanctioned on August 12, 1996 required the company to be an existing borrower of DFC and the borrowed amount could be used for execution of specific order received from parties only. However, the accused DFC
officials deliberately overlooked the criteria while
sanctioning the loan, the CBI alleged adding that they in
fact did not check the antecedents of the company. |
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NEW DELHI, Oct 3 (PTI) — “Google” is not the fastest search engine on the www for nothing. Having been billed as the next generation search engine, the-not-so-familiar Google is poised to take on Yahoo!, Altavista... And the other range of top 10 websites offering Netizens a quick search on the Net. Google.Com, a growing search destination on the world wide web (www) with 3.5 million searchers per day, focuses exclusively on delivering the best and the simplest search experience. “We are making the
search a very easy job. One will get the top 10 search
results in the split of a second,” Ram Shriram,
board member of Google, who was recently in the Capital,
told PTI. |
Say cheers to tea, Americans told WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (PTI) — India is trying to persuade Americans to sip more tea as the brew, green or black, “keeps you young and healthy”. Americans, who decided to drink only coffee after dumping Indian tea exported by the British into Boston harbour to begin their independence movement, spend millions in importing coffee. “Last year India was able to export only $ 11 million worth of tea (to USA. This year it hopes to surpass that but not substantially”, Mr Surjeet S. Ahuja, Chairman of the Tea Board of India who was part of a joint delegation to promote tea in the USA said here at a reception at the Indian Embassy. “American research has clearly shown that both green tea and black tea, which are available in the highest quality in India, is good for health, prevents many diseases and even improves the tone of the skin to make the tea-drinker look more youthful than he would look if he drank only coffee”, Mr R.S. Jhawar, Chairman of the Indian Tea Association, said. Jhawar also cited that
even US scientists say that one cup of tea is equal in
health effects to four glasses of orange juice. |
After Kargil, tourist flow to Kashmir picks up NEW DELHI, Oct 3 (PTI) — After witnessing a brief downward trend during the Kargil conflict, tourist flow to Kashmir is recording an upward trend again and officials say the number of visitors could increase substantially if the Srinagar airport is upgraded into an international one. Kashmir, which was buzzing with tourist activities till May this year with 69,161 travellers visiting the valley in that month alone, saw a sudden decline after the Kargil conflict. In June, the number of tourists coming to the valley fell to 31,462 and in the following month slid down further to 17,131, according to official figures. However, after the end of the conflict in mid-July, the inflow of journey-makers picked up again and in August, 22,050 visitors toured Kashmir. These included 21,179 domestic tourists and 871 foreigners, the statistics state. Officials of the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department hope that the number of travellers, particularly the domestic, would increase in the coming months. Regarding foreign tourists, the officials lament that accessibility was the main hindrance in the way of increasing their inflow. “Jammu and Kashmir does not even get 5 per cent of the total foreign tourists visiting the country. This is intriguing, particularly when Kashmir is the best destination in summer,” says J and K Tourism Director General M. Ashraf. Ashraf told PTI that the main reason for less foreign tourist traffic to Kashmir was “physical inaccessibility” to the valley. “If the Srinagar airport were to be on the international airlines map, the foreign tourists inflow would rise substantially,” he asserted, claiming that Kashmir can see “a few thousand foreigners visiting it daily” in that case. “The runway for international flights to take off and land already exists but the infrastructure needs to be developed further,” the official said, adding that more foreign tourist inflow meant more inflow of foreign currency. Since tourism is the main industry in Jammu and Kashmir, the State’s economy would improve if the influx of foreign travellers gained momentum. “Several industries in the State are dependent on tourism and this can help in minimising unemployment,” he said, citing that at the height of tourist activities this year, thousands of educated unemployed youth got associated with the industry. He said after the Kargil conflict, the “thus far ignored” district of Ladakh region had come into international limelight and could be highlighted to attract tourists. Ashraf regretted that the tourist potential of Leh was also not being exploited, mainly because of inaccessibility. “There are only four flights to Leh per week and at the peak time it goes up to 11 flights. Even then the schedule is erratic”. Interestingly, Kashmir is being visited by the nationals of those Western countries which have issued advisories warning against touring the valley because of militancy. From the UK, 654 people visited Kashmir this year till August while the number of the US voyagers is 551. The tourism department is now planning to go on Internet to publicise the tourism potential in the valley. “The website is
expected to be launched in December,” Ashraf said,
adding that the department proposes to develop 200 pages
to give complete information on tourist destinations in
the state. |
Inflation remains static at 2.02 per cent NEW DELHI, Oct 3 (PTI) — After crossing the 2 per cent mark last week, the inflation rate remained static at 2.02 per cent for the week ending September 18, despite a marginal increase in overall wholesale price index. During the week, the annual rate of inflation remained unchanged at 2.02 per cent (provisional) compared to 8.61 per cent in the corresponding week last year. The inflation rate, which has been hovering below 2 per cent since July 3, rose above the 2 per cent mark for the first time in 10 weeks. The annual rate of increase in the prices has been ruling low this year mainly on account of comparison with a higher base last year, when the prices of vegetables had increased abnormally due to lower agricultural production. The inflation rate is,
however, expected to move upwards with international oil
prices firming up. There are also indications that demand
for manufacturing items is picking up. |
Q: What are the long term prospects of Tata Honeywell? — Navin Manuel, Chandigarh Joint venture between Honeywell, US and Tata, Tata Honeywell Ltd (THL) is recognised as a global leader in control technology. With operations in nearly 95 countries, the parent company is engaged in industrial control, home and building control and aviation control. The company’s products are used in power, energy, refineries, etc. The company is also recognised as a leading supplier of automation. Along with control systems, automation accounts for nearly 80 per cent of turnover. The company is prominent in the hydrocarbon processing industry with a market share of 35 per cent. On the financial front, the company has posted decent results. For the year ended March 1998, THL posted sales and net profit at Rs 165.76 crore and Rs 5.16 crore, respectively. The EPS therefrom worked out to Rs 5.8. For the year that ended in March 1999, the company posted sales and net profit at Rs 232.2 crore and Rs 11.1 crore, respectively. The EPS therefrom worked out to Rs 12.2. The company is planning to focus on software and services. It provides engineering software services to Honeywell companies stationed all around the world. The software exports in the coming years are expected to witness a favourable growth. A revival in the economy could result in larger investments in the core sectors, thus benefiting THL. The company has bagged significant orders and put it in good stead. Backed by a strong support from its parent and margins expected to increase. THL appears to be headed in the right direction. Q: Do you recommend investment in the shares of Telco? — Ammandeep Chadha, Bathinda Telco is a leading player in the automobile industry. A part of the Tata group, the company recently shifted its focus to a product mix which consists of lower-margin products. Telco took steps to contain the impact on its profit programmes and improving working capital management. Poor utilisation of the manufacturing capacity has also led to an increase in overheads. On the financial front, the performance of the company was far from satisfactory. For the year that ended in March 1999, sales and net profit stood at Rs 6599.6 crore and Rs 4.4 crore, respectively. The net profit during the year witnessed a drastic fall. The small car project is also likely to take a toll on Telco’s finances. The acceptance of the car in the market also would determine Telco’s success in the future. The outlook for the current year appears unlikely to improve substantially. The slump in the commercial vehicles segments, heavy as well as light commercial vehicles (LCV), has hurt Telco’s growth in turnover and bottomline. Telco is the country’s largest manufacturer of heavy as well as light commercial vehicles. Telco can hope for better days as a result of the Supreme Court ruling on discarding 15-year old vehicles in the October ‘98. This could create demand for commercial vehicles. Investment in the shares of this company can be considered at declines. Q: Will investment in the shares of Bajaj Auto translate into favourable gains? — Dharamjeet Kaur, Bathinda Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) is a leading player in the two wheeler segment. After losing ground to its competitors over the past couple of years, Bajaj Auto is now slowly but steadily regaining its market share. The company also plans to invest Rs 700 crore in expansion over the next five years. It is planning to launch seven new models. At present, Bajaj Auto has 64 per cent market share in the scooters segment, 44 per cent in scooterettes, 22 per cent in mopeds, and 14 per cent in motor cycles. It is now focussing on the motor cycles segment and plans to project itself as a motor cycles manufacturer. On the financial front the company can boast of a good track record. For the year that ended in March 1999, company posted sales and net profit at Rs 2,962 crore and Rs 540.5 crore, respectively. The EPS therefrom worked out to Rs 44.4. BAL has set itself a target of about 15 per cent growth in market share, it is now becoming more aggressive, and is planning to launch new models. With company now paying more attention to the motor cycles segment in the light of the current soaring consumer preference for bikes, Bajaj Auto may actually grow in future through this segment. And though not much of a slowdown in growth has been faced by the two wheelers segment compared to that experienced by other segments of the automotives industry, the company needs to be careful in driving home its advantage of economies of scale and zero-debt. Hence, gains could accrue on investments in this scrip albeit in the medium to long term. Q: Do you think I should hold or sell the shares of Oriental Bank? — Preetam Mehra, Shimla Incorporated in 1943, Oriental Bank (OBC) is recognised as one of the leading banks in the public sector. The bank which was promoted by the Thapar group, had initially restricted its operations in North India. However, it gradually spread to the other parts of the country. The last bank to be nationalised in 1980, OBC boasts of having achieved the highest profitability ratio among all nationalised banks. The same can be attributed to its ability to capitalise well on its leaner and effective management. The bank functions in as many as 19 States and has a network of 755 branches. Financially, the performance of the bank was good. For the year that ended in March 1999, the bank posted an income of Rs 2046.5 crore and net profit of Rs 230.1 crore. The EPS therefrom worked out to Rs 11.6. The bank appears to be headed in the right direction and thus its prospects appear to be quite satisfactory. Hold on. Q: Please comment on the long term prospects of Nestle India and also state your recommendations? — Tarun Raghveer, Chandigarh Nestle India, a Rs 1,000
crore Nestle group company, is a leading name in the food
and dairy product segment. The company’s product mix
comprises of milk products such as sweetened condensed
milk, baby foods, soluble beverage consisting of instant
coffee, soya bean based products such as Maggi and its
brand extensions. The company has a good geographical
reach with its manufacturing and working facilities of
milk and dairy products spread over several states and
the same helps it to adapt to the changing demands and
face competition. Financially, the company has maintained
a consistent growth rate in its bottomline over the
years. For the year that ended in December 1998, the
company recorded sales and net profit of Rs 1531.8 crore
and Rs 97.2 crore, respectively. The EPS therefrom worked
out to Rs 9.4. For the three month period that ended in
March 1999, sales and net profit stood at Rs 340.1 crore
and 20.5 crore, respectively. The company commissioned
its fifth unit in the country at Ponda near Goa to
manufacture wafers and waffles. Its first product from
this unit ‘Kit Kat’ has already made good
inroads into the market. It has several plans lined up in
areas of extending its product portfolio and increasing
its installed capacity. The company’s bottomline has
been under continuous pressure on account of higher
interest rates and depreciation. However, reduction in
corporate tax have acted as a saving grace. To conclude,
the company’s consistent performance over the years
and its bright future prospects make it worthwhile for
investors to not only hold on to this share, but also to
pick it up at price declines. |
THE bosses of Air India and Indian Airlines are unable to augment their fleet to improve their revenue and operations. As national carrier officials fret and fume in board rooms, a private airline will have two ATR (Avions de Transport Regional) 72-500 aircraft to fly on regional routes which are expected to be money-spinning areas. While Jet Airways will introduce operations of ATR aircraft on October 15, the third will arrive in the country in November. Other two of the remaining five will follow soon after. All the five aircraft will be acquired by Jet Airways under an operating lease through Aircraft International Renting Ltd. With the expected arrival of ATR (aircraft are manufactured by a consortium of Aerospatiale Matras of France), the competition among manufacturers will intensify. Boeing and Airbus Industries have already set up establishments in this country to sell their much-talked about products. For years, they have been endeavouring to win politicians and bureaucrats without much success. Now with ATR, the field will be wider than has been the case at present. In the gamble of the fare-war on the domestic sectors, the national carriers have been able to push behind two private airlines. The national carriers will have another round of success if the Government grants them the facility to decide as to which aircraft to opt for. ATR, which is said to have made a detailed survey on the Indian market, has a very ambitious plan. It is planning a novel strategy to convert rail passengers into flying which, according to ATR analysts, will be more beneficial to businessmen-fliers than has been the case at present. According to ATR officials, the 64-seater turbo-prop is a very sturdy and economically viable aircraft. The analysts are of the view that the regional operations will be as successful as transporting cargo by a plane instead of sending consignments through a train or ship. Tug-of-war: The
tug-of-war has intensified between the two national
carriers over certain international routes. Officials of
the two airlines, along with Aviation Secretary P.V.
Jayakrishnan, should sit across the table for compromise
instead of allowing private carriers and foreign airlines
to steal a march over them. |
ICICI I remitted Rs 10,000 to ICICI for the issue of ICICI safety bonds against application No 00121798 accompanying draft No 005759 dated 1.2.99. Application collection authority was Central Bank of India, Zonal Office, Chandigarh. Till to date I have not received the bonds despite many reminders to the bank and ICICI registrar . Satyapal Verma UTI The Unit Trust of India Investor Services Limited Post Bag No 37452 Mumbai-400059 have not so far sent me Form 16A for the period 1.9.97 to 31.3.98 in respect of MIP-97(III) unit certificate bearing Folio No 1121780081788, Despite written and telephonic reminders. K.K. Suri United Capital I am holder of certificate No 46/110266 dated 29.11.97. The certificate was sent to the company office at Chandigarh, SCO 84, Sector 35E, by regd post on 14.8.99. Reminder was sent on 19.9.99 but still I have not got buyback value. Yadukul Bhushan |
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