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Tuesday,
November 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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All help
for Ranjit Sagar Park assured Worries
grow as China’s WTO entry looms ‘Real
estate stock exchange needed for growth’ No more
tax for capital market |
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Maran to
lead WTO delegation Food
processing policy prepared OPEC may
cut oil output
Pak gets
$ 950m boost from ADB
PSB
records 22.31 pc fall in net profit
PNB to
interconnect branches, ATMs UBI
ties up with HDFC Life
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All help for Ranjit Sagar Park assured New Delhi, November 5 “All possible help will be extended for Ranjit Sagar Tourist Park,” Mr Jagmohan said after inaugurating the Tourist Reservation and Information Centre (TRIC), set up here by the Hotel and Restaurant Association of North India (HRANI). The minister also wanted the hotel industry to give its valued suggestion and consultancy to the state government to make the proposed park adjacent to the majestic Ranjit Sagar Dam a major tourist attraction. Sharing the concern over the decline in the international tourist arrival in the country and the demands made by the hotel industry to rationalise taxes and slash expenditure taxes to give a fillip to the industry in the post-US attacks scenario, Mr Jagmohan said: “We have already made recommendations to the Finance Ministry and are vigorously pursuing the matter.” In a lighter vein, the Minister said “Next time I will meet you after we get the approval (on rationalisation of taxes on hotel industry) from the Finance Ministry or I will bring the Finance Minister along.” Emphasising that the Centre was committed to developing new international tourism market for India, Mr Jagmohan said his Ministry has planned a series of tours to foreign countries to launch several new Indian tourist packages. “We are also developing Buddhist circuits and many other cultural heritage places as tourist spots,” he said adding that “We need to project India as a spot with rich cultural heritage.’ He also warned strict actions against touts, cheats and others who indulge in cheating tourists, especially international tourists. “If you come across any such illegal activity refer it to us we will handle it with all firmness,” the Minister assured. The HRANI has launched TRIC to promote domestic tourism in North India, covering Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
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Worries grow as China’s WTO entry looms
Beijing, November 5 Few doubt that Chinese membership — to be approved by the WTO at a meeting in Qatar this week —will bring fundamental change to an economy opened to the outside world little more than 20 years ago. But with the ink on the agreement barely dry, foreign firms are tempering their optimism and governments are seeking strategies to deal with the emerging economic superpower as it becomes the world’s workshop. “What WTO does is basically give the last kick for China in the transition to a market economy,” said economist Yiping Huang of Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong. The market openings required for membership will, in theory, help China make its state sector more efficient, shore up a shaky banking industry and give private firms a bigger role in the economy. But China could find ways to slow reforms as economic growth falters, if only to prevent jobless state workers from taking to the streets in protest. And local officials bent on protecting local firms, or simply ignorant of WTO rules, could throw up roadblocks. “I think when economic growth slows significantly, certainly they (reforms) will slow down. Implementation of all these agreements could be much more difficult,” Huang said. WTO ministers are due to approve China’s entry on November 10 at a meeting in Doha and sign the documents the following day, Chinese officials say, Lawmakers in WTO member nations must then approve the move but formal entry is expected about a month later. Chinese leaders vow to live up to WTO commitments. “Following entry to the WTO, China will improve its legal system, increase government efficiency, protect intellectual property rights and provide a level playing field,” said Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng. But no one is saying that will be easy. “Which part of China will be the least adaptable to WTO? it’s government, not enterprises,” said Yu Youjun, mayor of the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. ‘’We’ve been busy with cleaning up more than 700 rules issued by the government in the past 20 years. We’ve scrapped more than 300 of the rules and are revising the rest. We are also drafting new rules.” China’s foreign trade ministry has just set up three new departments devoted solely to WTO issues. The WTO Affairs Department will handle trade negotiations, the China-WTO Notification Enquiry Centre is responsible for compliance and the Fair Trade Bureau will deal with anti-dumping, both overseas and domestically. However, many of China’s laws have not yet been revised for WTO and preparations for legal recourse to handle violations are even further behind. “This is a very complex issue,” said Wang Lianzhou, Chairman of the financial and economic committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament. The delays have left many foreign firms, eager for the vast market opening expected after China joins the WTO, waiting for change. Mutual fund giant Franklin Templeton Investments hopes to set up a joint venture with a domestic securities firm to sell to millions of Chinese investors. Once in the WTO, China is to allow minority foreign-owned ventures into fund management. But Beijing has yet to announce the rules and Franklin Templeton has no choice except to stand by. “Nobody knows. We don’t act until there is a policy in black and white,” said Frank Liu, Franklin Templeton’s chief representative for China.
Reuters |
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‘Real estate stock exchange needed for growth’
New Delhi, November 5 “Setting up a stock exchange allowing exclusive trading in real-estate based mutual funds is
absolutely necessary for the growth of the sector,” Sanjay Verma, Director, Cushman & Wakefield, told PTI. He said real estate investment trusts (REITs), like the ones existing in the USA, to allow buying and trading of real-estate based shares should also be established. “US experience in REITs offers us an innovative option of permitting investors to buy and trade shares in the real estate sector, Verma said and added “permission should be also be given to collect dividends from capital appreciation and rental incomes”. An REIT is a company that buys, develops, manages and sells real estate assets and allows participants to invest in a professionally managed portfolio of properties. Mr Verma said introduction of real estate mutual funds and mortgage-backed securitisation would help to provide a much-needed fillip to the domestic real estate sector. Current economic slowdown coupled with the uncertain global security environment has affected the domestic real estate sector with property prices plunging by over 10 per cent this year. Hudco Chairman V. Suresh thinks REIT is a “viable option with requisite tax and regulatory structures”. “This would result in increased rental housing generation,” he says. Outlining the primary difference between REITs and other real-estate companies, Suresh says “it is primarily a clearing entity which distributes the majority of its income cash flow to investors, thereby saving taxation at corporate level”. REITs are generally classified into three categories — Equity REITs, Mortgage REITs and Hybrid REITs. Majority of REITs in the USA are equity-based. Currently, there are over 300 publicly-traded REITs operating in the USA with total assets of over $ 300 billion and with average daily share transactions of over $ 260 million, according to Suresh. Over 149 REITs are listed in the New York Stock Exchange. Suresh also advocates permitting FDI in real-estate sector with necessary checks and balance, saying it “would bring competitiveness into the sector.” On the issues impacting the growth of real estate in India, Sanjay Verma believes there is a need to draw up conducive investment guidelines for the sector.
PTI
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No more tax for capital market
New Delhi, November 5 Speaking on the sidelines of a function here, Sinha said that there would be “no more taxes for the capital market.” He, however, ruled out possibilities of imposing a “share transaction tax” in the forthcoming Budget. He also indicated that there would be no more sops to the capital market. The government has already announced a number of measures to boost the capital market including relaxation of buyback norms and FII limits at par with the sectoral FDI cap. Last week, the Finance Minister has indicated that any change in the tax system would be advantageous to the industry.
PTI
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Maran to lead WTO delegation New Delhi, November 5 “India favours the strengthening of the rule-based multi-lateral trading system,’’ an official statement said here. It said developed nations had broadly sought to have a comprehensive agenda which would include new subjects also. However, India has been emphasising that the implementation issues of concern to the developing countries should be satisfactorily addressed and non-trade related issues should remain off the agenda for negotiations. Others in the Indian delegation for the Ministerial Conference — the highest decision-making body of the WTO — will include Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Commerce Secretary Prabir Sengupta, senior officials of several other ministries, including external affairs, agriculture, information technology, environment and forests and small scale industry. The importance of the Ministerial Conference lies in the fact that they set the future work programme of the WTO besides giving an opportunity to the ministers to review the operation and functioning of the multilateral trading system. India has already expressed its disappointment with the Draft Ministerial Declaration (DMD) and the revised DMD. The Indian stand approved by Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Cabinet Committee on the WTO has maintained that the Doha meeting should address the work of resolution of the implementation-related concerns, assess the progress and give policy directions for the ongoing mandated negotiations in agriculture and services.
UNI
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Food processing policy prepared New Delhi, November 5 The Minister for Food Processing Industries, Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, told a meeting of food processing representatives from North India, organised by the PHD CCI, that several policy measures taken by the government have resulted in this kind of investment. Prof Gupta said 6,587 industrial entrepreneurs memoranda involving an investment of Rs 53,869 crore with a potential to employ 11.7 lakh persons have also been filed with the Food Processing Department. His Ministry has already prepared a national food processing policy and processed food development act to create enabling the environment for investment and sustained growth of the food processing industry. The Centre has already approved setting up of food processing projects to enable entrepreneurs to set up a cluster of food industries in selected areas, adding that 20 such projects have so far been approved. During the four years of the Ninth Five Year Plan, a sum of Rs 140 crore has already been provided as assistance for various projects. Appealing to the food processing industry to maintain quality, he said quality has never been the Indian manufacturer’s priority. There was need for providing investments for inputs like power, where costs are much higher in India than the international
level. |
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OPEC may cut oil output Kuala Lumpur, November 5 OPEC ministers meeting November 14 in Vienna would decide whether to slash output by a million bpd or more if prices plunged further, Ali Rodriguez told a press conference on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) oil conference here. He said the outcome hinged on the cooperation of non-OPEC members in cutting output in a bid to boost prices that have slumped to two-year lows since the September 11 attacks on the USA. “We will make some decision in the next conference in Vienna. The first is to ensure full compliance of our committment (to market stabilisation), the second probably is to reduce production again by one million bpd,” he said. “But it is very important, extremely important (to have) cooperation of non-OPEC producers. We should reduce production again in order to balance the supply with the demand.” Under the present OPEC agreement, member nations are producing about 23 million bpd, he said. Rodriguez described the current oversupply situation in the global oil market as “transitory” and said he believed the outlook would improve next year. “We have no concerns about the medium-term or long-term but we have to fight the problem in the short-term,” he said. Asked how far oil prices are expected to fall, Rodriguez said: “That’s impossible to say... I am not a prophet but I believe that this is directly related to the performance by the economy.
AFP
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Pak gets $ 950m boost from ADB Islamabad, November 5 “The recent and ongoing events in the region have greatly worsened the economic situation in Pakistan,’’ ADB President Tadao Chino told a news conference. “In this connection we propose to increase our development assistance for this year to around $ 950 million. It is a substantial rise from the $ 626 million planned before the events of September 11,’’ he said. Chino said $ 350 million was on concessional terms and the rest were normal ADB loans. Pakistan has suffered from falling trade in the wake of the conflict but has also received substantial aid since agreeing to back the US campaign in Afghanistan triggered by the attacks on New York and Washington. Pakistan’s military government of general Pervez Musharraf is pursuing a medium-term economic reform programme agreed with the International Monetary Fund, winning praise from multilateral donors. The Manila-based ADB has been a key backer of
Islamabad's economic reforms and has committed up to $ 10 billion in economic assistance to Pakistan, of which $ 7.8 billion has been disbursed since 1968, ADB officials say.
Reuters
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PSB records 22.31 pc fall in net profit New Delhi, November 5 The net profit fell by 22.31 per cent to Rs 18.80 crore from Rs 24.20 during the corresponding period last year, while the operating profit registered a growth by 8.41 per cent to Rs 56.95 crore from Rs 52.53 crore during this period. Giving details of the result, Bank Chairman and Managing Director N.S. Gujral said the bank posted 5.30 per cent rise in interest income at Rs 644.25 crore compared to Rs 611.83 crore during the corresponding period last year. The bank’s deposits increased to Rs 12180.75 crore from Rs 11904.71 crore after shedding Rs 780 crore of high cost deposits during the first half of the current fiscal. The advances of the bank and investment portfolio also have registered an increase. Karnataka Bank net rises
The Karnataka Bank Limited recorded significant increase of 88.32 per cent in net profit for the half year of fiscal 2001-2002 on a year on year basis. The net profit stood at Rs 44.01 crore as against corresponding previous year figure of Rs 23.37 crore. The first half saw increase of 29.01 per cent in the bank’s total income to Rs 449.16 crore previous year figure of Rs 348.15 crore. Operating profit also rose to Rs 97.82 crore from previous year figure of Rs 54.62 crore, registering a growth rate of 79.09 per cent. The capital adequacy ratio has improved from 10.27 per cent to 12.17 per cent. |
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PNB to interconnect branches, ATMs Patiala, November 5 Addressing a press conference here yesterday after the conclusion of a doctors meet here, PNB head office General Manager D.L. Rawal said PNB is celebrating festival season from October 15 to December 31. During this period various concessions, including waiver of processing fee and lower rates of interest were being offered to bank customers. Speaking about the Punjab zone, its General Manager P.N. Khurana said the zone with its network of 484 branches and 51 extension counters handled 38 per cent of export business of Punjab. Earlier Dr O.P.S. Kande, President, the Indian Medical Association, Punjab, inaugurated the doctors meet. Senior Regional Manager N. C. Jain was also present.
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UBI ties up
with HDFC Life Mumbai, November 5 Both UBI and HDFC Standard Life expect the tie-up to be of mutual benefit with the pooling of synergies, UBI said in a release here today. Besides offering Standard Life’s products, there are plans to structure insurance products that would be wrapped around UBI’s banking products thus offering a composite service to their customers, the release added.
PTI |
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IOC chief Coin mela M&M scheme DSIL Corpn Bank |
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