APEC moots single package
AUCKLAND, Sept 10 — Asia-Pacific economies today offered a framework for the next round of global trade talks, suggesting these last three years and end in a single package of agreements instead of sector by sector deals.

Apollo to focus on radial tyres
NEW DELHI, Sept 10 — Apollo Tyres Ltd is planning to rationalise its product mix with focus on high technology products and greater value addition to the company’s brands.

Aviation to control Y2K
NEW DELHI, Sept 10 — The civil aviation sector in India has taken all necessary steps for achieving Y2K compliance, Director General, Civil Aviation, Mr H.S. Khola said here today.

Kale issue opens on Sept 17
NEW DELHI, Sept 10 — Kale Consultants Limited is entering the capital market with a public issue of 31,87,500 equity shares of Rs 10 each, for cash at a premium of Rs 110 per share Rs 120 per equity share aggregating Rs 38.25 crore.

LIC ready for competition
CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Mr Ho Sonig, Executive Director, LIC of India, said here today that the General Insurance and Life Insurance Corporations were fully ready to meet competition from the private sector.

APEC moots single package

AUCKLAND, Sept 10 (Reuters) — Asia-Pacific economies today offered a framework for the next round of global trade talks, suggesting these last three years and end in a single package of agreements instead of sector by sector deals.

Ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum ended two days of talks with a series of proposals for the trade round, which begins in Seattle in November under the auspices of the (WTO).

The 21 APEC economies will be a powerful voice at the WTO as they represent $ 16 trillion in gross domestic product and almost half of world trade.

Unveiling the APEC ministers’ proposals, New Zealand Trade Minister Lockwood Smith told a news conference that APEC was helping prepare the ground for the WTO talks.

“APEC has this chance to see how we, as half of global trade, can add value to that preparatory process,’’ Mr Smith said.

The APEC minister’s proposals will be passed to APEC leaders who meet in Auckland on September 12 and 13.

Speaking before the departing for that meeting, US President Bill Clinton heralded the APEC talks as pivotal for world trade.

“We’re agreeing that there should be elimination of export subsidies at the WTO,’’ Mr Smith said.

But the ministerial statement showed participants had shied away from adopting many concrete proposals for the WTO.

Early drafts prepared by officials had called for the quick accession of China and Taiwan into the WTO, but this had been dropped because it threatened to develop into a diplomatic row.

The statement merely “encouraged an acceleration in the (WTO) accession negotiations of non-WTO APEC members”.

The statement contained few new ideas and adopted many things that had previously been decided, such as support for a three-year WTO trade round.

The APEC ministers also shied away from a US proposal to speed up the pace of trade liberalisation.

But it did accept one controversial position backed by Japan that the WTO trade round “should be structured so that the outcomes are finalised, bound and fully implemented as a single package”.

This suggestion is something of a rebuff to some in the US Government, who want the WTO to allow trade negotiations on a sector-by-sector basis. Many members of APEC object to what they see as ‘’piecemeal negotiations’’.

US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky put the best spin on the agreement, saying the wording left open the possibility of reaching early tariffs reductions.

The statement avoided using the phrase “single undertaking”, a term used in the previous Uruguay round of trade talks, in response to resistance from countries who reject the idea.

The APEC Ministers are determined that the WTO trade round should not drag on too as long as the Uruguay Round.

Industrial growth up

NEW DELHI, Sept 10 (PTI) — Helped by a resurgent consumer durables sector, industrial production in the country during the first four months of the current fiscal rose to 5.4 per cent compared to 4.2 per cent in the same period of last year.

Industrial production during July recorded a growth of 5.4 per cent as against 3.4 per cent a year ago, according to latest Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released by Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) today.

The growth in industry during July was also higher than 5.3 per cent achieved during the previous month.

The higher growth is mainly on account of an impressive 16.8 per cent growth in consumer durables sector during July compared to negative 4.2 per cent a year ago.

Manufacturing sector, which accounts for about four-fifth of the total weight of IIP, also recorded a buoyant 6.1 per cent during the July. The sector recorded a growth of 6.3 per cent during April-July.

However, mining sector continued its poor run recording a negative 0.8 per cent growth in July. During the first four months the sector recorded a negative growth of 1.2 per cent.

During April-July consumer non-durables sector recorded a cumulative negative growth of 0.2 per cent compared to 3.1 per cent growth in the same period last year.

In July consumer non-durables sector grew by a negative 0.1 per cent as against 2.6 per cent in the previous year.

Consumer goods, which includes both consumer durables and consumer non durables, posted a growth of 3.5 per cent during July and 2.8 per cent in April-July compared to 1.1 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively in the previous year.

Among industry groups, beverages and tobacco (10.9 per cent), paper products and publishing (19.4 per cent), leather and fur products (34.8 per cent), basic chemicals and chemical products (13 per cent), non-metallic mineral products (21.8 per cent) and machinery and equipment (20.8 per cent) recorded double digit growth during July.

However, industry groups like food products (-7.5 per cent), cotton textiles (-2.7 per cent), jute and other vegetable fibre textiles (-12.2 per cent), wood and wood products (-12.4 per cent), rubber, plastic, petroleum and coal products (-4.5 per cent).

‘Pay tax in the name of Allah’

ISLAMABAD, Sept 10 (PTI) — Faced with a joint onslaught from the Opposition and traders, the Pakistan Government has withdrawn the 15 per cent general sales tax (GST) imposed on small traders and in turn asked them to pay a nominal development tax in the name of “Allah”.

After prolonged negotiations with representatives of the traders association here till late last night, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced the agreement, which he claimed would not violate any of the structural reforms as suggested by the IMF.

He told newsmen that the “GST regime along with income tax and trade enrollment scheme have been abolished” for traders with a turnover of less than Rs 5 lakh. In turn the traders would pay a 0.75 per cent development tax, Dar said.

As per the new arrangement, the traders would be kept away from the Central Board of Revenue (CBR), the main tax collecting agency, as a new committee would monitor tax collection from them.

To a question that how the traders, who had never paid tax for the last 52 years, would pay the tax on their own without any checks by CBR, he said: “There are three parties involved in the new agreement — the Government, the traders and the Allah — and the retailers have assured us that they will pay this new tax in the spirit of Jehad (holy war)”.

“That is why we have included Allah as a party to get the new tax collected honestly,” Dar added.

Apollo to focus on radial tyres

NEW DELHI, Sept 10 (PTI) — Apollo Tyres Ltd is planning to rationalise its product mix with focus on high technology products and greater value addition to the company’s brands.

Other priority of the company will be production of high-end truck radials based on the technology sourced from Continental, world’s fourth largest tyre makers.

“In view of the changed business scenario and ever growing competition, focus of the company will be on rationalisation of product mix with greater emphasis on new generation radial tyres in future,” Apollo Tyres Vice Chairman and Managing Director Onkar S. Kumar said after the company’s board meeting.

He said the company has already set up a state-of-the-art radial facility, besides enhancing cross-pl truck tyre capacity, modernisation of utilities and augmenting captive power generation at a cost of Rs 94 crore at its Baroda facility.

The plant will go on stream next month with capacity of over seven lakh passengers and light commercial vehicles radials per annum.

On means of financing of the expansion, he said that the conversion of warrants into equity shares issued by the company in 1995, has been subscribed to the extent of Rs 32 crore.

“The implementation of the first phase of this project is nearing completion,” he said.

Aviation to control Y2K
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 10 — The civil aviation sector in India has taken all necessary steps for achieving Y2K compliance, Director General, Civil Aviation, Mr H.S. Khola said here today.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the CII here today, Mr Khola said that external audits were now taking place of all systems that come under the civil aviation sector including communication system, navigation and landing systems, surveillance systems, facilitation systems and airborne systems.

The Secretary, Civil Aviation has been holding fortnightly reviews on the Y2K compliance status of the civil aviation sector, Mr Khola said.

Speaking on the services related to the civil aviation sector, Mr Khola said that the only service that was not compliant was aircraft stimulators, which could be compliant by November 1999.

He said that a contingency plan for the civil aviation sector had been drawn up and letters of agreement with adjacent countries for the contingency plan implementation had been signed.

National Y2K Management Centres would be set up at the four metros, and activated on December 31, 1999, Mr Khola said.

Kale issue opens on Sept 17
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 10 — Kale Consultants Limited is entering the capital market with a public issue of 31,87,500 equity shares of Rs 10 each, for cash at a premium of Rs 110 per share Rs 120 per equity share) aggregating Rs 38.25 crore.

The issue opens for subscription on September 17 and closes on September 23. The amount payable on application is Rs 40 per share and the balance of Rs 80 is payable on allotment.

Kale Consultants, promoted by Mr Narendra Kale and Mr Vipul Jain, is an ISO 9001 certified company, providing a range of application of software products and software related services. The company specialises in solutions for service industries, particularly banking and airlines.

LIC ready for competition
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 — Mr Ho Sonig, Executive Director, LIC of India, said here today that the General Insurance and Life Insurance Corporations were fully ready to meet competition from the private sector.

Inaugurating a workshop on “Industrial safety and insurance” organised jointly by the PHDCCI and the HRD Foundation of India here this morning, Mr Sonig said these corporations were coming up with innovative, customer-oriented insurance covers at competitive premiums in order to keep up their position in the market.

He said the threat of competition had made these corporatikons more vigilant and efficient. There were 2000 branches of the GIC and LIC in the country which were using the latest information technology tools to serve the customer. The Local Area Network (LAN) computer facility had provided better connectivity to all customers in the four metropolitan cities. The facility, which will be extended to other cities soon, will also anable the customers to deposit premium or secure relevant information anywhere in the country.

Mr Rajiv Bali, Co-Chairman, Chandigarh Committee, PHDCCI, urged the insurance companies to introduce innovative policies at low premium covering the risk of fire, theft and natural calamities adequately. He called upon insurance companies to adopt necessary strategies to penetrate the untapped life insurance market in the rural area.

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Uco Bank
CHANDIGARH, Sept 10 (TNS) — Mr Sharda Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of Uco Bank today handed over a cheque for Rs 1.11 crore, on behalf of the employees of the bank who contributed one day’s salary, to Mr A.B. Vajpayee as their contribution towards the National Defence Fund.

HPCL
MUMBAI, Sept 10 (PTI) — The shareholders of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) today approved the proposed issue of bonus shares in the ratio 1:2.