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Friday,
November 9, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Need to
widen tax base to cut deficit Shanta
calls for debate Intel to
invest $ 12 b in R&D
Revised
cost of Punjab projects okayed
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Grasim
to diversify into garment trade Ways to
revive sick units SBP
gives 101 loan cheques
IA rules
out retrenchment
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Need to widen tax base to cut deficit New Delhi, November 8 Inaugurating a international conference on tax management and emerging fiscal issues, organised by FICCI, Mr Vasudev said the tax-GDP ration in India was around 8-9 per cent which was very low compared to other global economies. Mr Vasudev pointed out that present only a small portion of the economy was taxed and the agriculture sector, which contributes to nearly 30 per cent of the economy, was not taxed. The services sector constituted 50 per cent to the economy but then a major part of it was in the unorganised sector which made it difficult for the taxman to collect taxes. Low user charges collected for services provided by the government like irrigation, power, water supply and railways was adding to the government’s fiscal pressures and steps should be taken to reverse it. He suggested that user charges could be indexed against some macro-economic indicators to reduce the gap between the cost of providing the services and the actual charge collected. There is very little room for the government to manoeuvre on the expenditure front as a huge portion of it is comprised interest liabilities, defence spending and salaries and pensions. However, he said subsidies, particularly food and fertiliser subsidies, can be better targeted so that it reaches those who really want it. Mr Vasudev said efforts should be made to bring down revenue deficit as close to zero as possible and this was possible if tax base was widened. Disinvestment of public sector companies also need to be accelerated to boost the efficiency in the economy.
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Shanta calls for debate New Delhi, November 8 Addressing the Social Editors’ Conference here, the Minister said the rising foodgrain stocks, which were expected to touch 75.5 million tonnes by April next year, was getting difficult to manage and there was a need for completely overhauling the foodgrain management system. He favoured delinking the minimum support price from procurement. The farmers should be able to sell their produce at open market price and the difference in MSP can be paid by the Centre, he added. “The proposal being considered is to reduce government’s role in fixing MSP and doing away with the procurement which has become unmanageable and was costing the government around Rs 21,000 crore annually,” he said. He said the system would be linked with the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme enrolment which is compulsory for all farmers and under which loanees records are maintained. Average production of each farmer, his family’s consumption and surplus would be recorded and after taking the market price and MSP into account, payments are made. Requirements for the PDS and buffer stock would be met at the state level itself through open tender. Existing surplus over and above the buffer stocks would gradually be disbursed through various Centrally sponsored schemes. This would be a much better system as farmers nationwide could benefit unlike the present one where 80 per cent of the
procurement was from the three states of Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
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Intel to invest $ 12 b in R&D Chandigarh, November 8 Disclosing this here today, Mr Jayant Murty, General Manager, Marketing, Intel South Asia, said the dynamism of the industry was such that it had to look years ahead to ensure that products it was developing remained top-of-the-line. New applications continued to emerge. Innovations, at times, were hard to predict. Giving a presentation on “Bringing new excitement to the PC industry”, Mr Murty said Intel processor-based PCs now had more power, lower cost while providing better experience to more users. Desktop computers now put more power in the hands of consumers than the US government first used to send men to the moon. Pentium4 processor with 40GB or more hard drive, 128MB RAM and colour monitor was half the cost or original PCs. There was greater availability of the PCs now. As many as 835,000,000 PCs had been sold between 1981 and 2000. Pentium4 had now become Intel’s highest performance processor for desktop PCs which was targeted at the consumer enthusiasts and business power users. New PCs take entertainment to a completely new level. One can immerse oneself in gameplay that came alive with advanced 3-D graphics and sound. PC can also be transformed into a virtual classroom. Today’s websites and software offer enhanced multimedia capabilities and interactivity to make learning more true-to-life and easier to comprehend. One can join online tutorials for faster learning, or for sharing information with students and colleagues over the web.
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Punwire — victim of human wireworm Chandigarh, November 8 But the incident at Kharar, where the Chief Minister had gone for a “sangat darshan”, has not only led to rounding up of 200 agitators by the police it has also brought home the woeful tale of Punwire that has “ceased to exist”, as officials claim. Punwire, contrary to the public perception, is not a public sector undertaking. It was “owned and promoted” by the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC). It commenced commercial operations in 1979. For all practical purposes it was solely run by the Managing Director, Gurpal Singh, and his small coterie of “professionals’’. The top management — directors — oblivious of the internal hollowness, continued to wallow in the belief that all was well. “The directors had no inkling that they were heading a Titanic about to sink’’, records Justice (Ms) H.K. Sandhu (retd.) in her 319-page Inquiry report, submitted to the government in January last. Like the proverbial hen that laid the golden eggs, Punwire, in the beginning, made and showed profits growing up into a multi-product company with seven subsidiaries till it sank. As a consequence, the Punjab and Haryana High Court appointed a Liquidator on July 17, 2000. At that point of time, Punwire owed several hundred crore to the market. The first signs of decay in Punwire appeared in June 1999, though symptoms were visible even earlier. Then everything changed. It was struck by internal ailments—wireworm of human greed and passion for personal enrichment eroded internal controls. Soon checks and balances disappeared. Payment of salaries was deferred. Statutory financial obligations were seldom met. Balance sheets were fudged. These were deceptive. Integrity, honesty and merit stepped out. In stepped corruption, misappropriation of huge sums of money, misconduct, acts of omission and commission. Superfluous figures were presented to the board of directors. In the wake of the incident on Wednesday, TNS probe revealed that at the time of closure of Punwire and appointment of a Liquidator, Mr B.K.L. Srivastava, the share of PSIDC was 24.82 per cent. Since the state government never held any equity in the company, it has no direct responsibility towards the agitating employees or their demands. Sources said the employees’ unions were a party to all the litigation that took place in the High Court. When Punwire was wound up, the employees were a party to that and even their LPA was dismissed by a Double Bench, comprising of the Chief Justice, A.B. Saharya and Justice V.K. Bali. Legally, Punwire is closed. Therefore, the question of payment of wages and re-commissioning of the company had to be addressed by the employees to the Liquidator. While the MD has reportedly fled the country, several government agencies had invested in Punwire. A separate inquiry is on as to on whose behest several institutions, boards, corporations and departments invested huge sums in Punwire. There are still many a loose wires as are lessons to be learnt from the failure of Punwire. When it comes to apportioning blame for the unplugging of Punwire, can those who have successfully used the art of pulling wires be absolved?
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Revised cost of Punjab projects okayed New Delhi, November 8 Planning Commission sources said the estimated revised cost of the two projects was Rs 5,065.48 crore. The Commission while giving the approval to the state government has stipulated that Punjab will use the water to the extent of its share of 4.22 MAF till the finalisation of report by the Ravi Beas Tribunal. The Ranjit Sagar (Thein) Dam is scheduled to be completed by March 2003 while the Shahpurkandi Dam project would be completed by March 2007 and the capital accounts would be closed by March 31, 2003 and March 31, 2007 respectively, the Commission said. In the projects, the cost chargeable to irrigation is Rs 621.26 crore. The other stipulated conditions of the 160-m high gravel shell Ranjit Sagar Dam project on Ravi river near Thein village are: — Release pattern should be submitted to Central Water Commission. — Timely submission of environmental safeguard monitoring reports shall be ensured. — Jammu and Kashmir is to bear 10 per cent of cost of Ranjit Sagar Dam chargeable to irrigation sector, which at that time was taken as 11.4 per cent of cost of the dam. As for the Shahpurkandi Dam project, Punjab would abide by the Bhakra-Beas Management Board (BBMB) and duly consider the views of co-basin states. Sharing of power by Haryana and Rajasthan will be governed by the Supreme court decision.
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Grasim to diversify into garment trade
Kolkata, November 8 “The issue which we have been toying for sometime now, may come up for discussion in the next Board meeting itself, likely to be held in March next year”, Executive Director, Grasim Industries, S. Krishnamoorthy, told newsmen here today. Highlighting Grasim’s overall business scenario in a wake of
India’s fast changing fashion trends, Mr Krishnamoorthy said despite maintaining a moderate 10 per cent overall sales growth for the past several years, the company management had been considering all pros and cons of gradually changing over to the garment business from textile manufacturing only.
UNI
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Ways to revive sick units Chandigarh , November 8 It was suggested that the state governments should concentrate on providing a package for rehabilitation of Small Scale Industrial units. Various improvements which are required include factoring services by banks, proper infrastructure setting up of statutory body on lines of BIFR and technological upgradation etc, the Chamber suggested.
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SBP gives 101 loan cheques Chandigarh, November 8 Mr Ghai explained the salient features of new schemes to customers that the bank is according top priority for technological upgradation of its branches, quality assets and ambience. Over 330 branches of the bank have already been computerised and the bank propose to computerise all its branches by March , 2003, Mr Parveen Sharma, Branch Manager, also spoke on the occasion.
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BoP NRI cell NRI function Malaysian firm Monte Carlo Warehousing |
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