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| Saturday, June 10, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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PSIDC losses attributed to “inefficiency” Chandigarh boy flies high |
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Haryana
committee to privatise PSUs CHANDIGARH, June 9 — The Haryana Cabinet today approved the constitution of the Cabinet subcommittee to suggest ways and means for disinvestment or privatisation or merger to make Haryana’s public sector undertakings viable. The committee, to be headed by the Town and Country Planning Minister, Mr Dhirpal Singh, will also suggest ways and means for the closure of those public sector undertakings which are not viable. The Minister of State for Education, Mr Bahadur Singh, Minister of State for Health, Mr M.L. Ranga, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Board, Mr R.S. Chaudhary, Chief Secretary, Mr Ram S. Verma, Financial Commissioner, Finance, Mr A.N. Mathur will be its members, while the member-secretary of the Haryana Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr Sanjay Kothari, will be its member-secretary. Petrol stations: The Cabinet also approved the proposal of the Tourism Department to upgrade five of its nine petrol stations from ‘B’ to ‘A’ category.These petrol pumps are run at various tourist complexes at Oasis in Karnal, Tilyar in Rohtak, Badkhal Lake at Faridabad, Hodal and Panipat. The petrol station at Asakhera will also be upgraded shortly. The Cabinet authorised the Haryana Tourism Corporation to sign an agreement for taking dealership of category ‘A’ petrol stations from the Indian Oil Corporation. According to the agreement, the land of the petrol stations would be leased out to the IOC for 25 years on an annual rent to be fixed on the basis of land cost or the present turnover of these petrol pumps. During the period of lease, the dealership of these pumps would remain with the Tourism Corporation. In case the dealership is terminated under any circumstances, the lease agreement of land would also stand terminated. The IOC would maintain these pumps and provide additional facilities at its own cost. The IOC would provide spacious sale buildings, modern canopy, public conveniences, store, auto car wash, PCO booth, concrete drive way and yard illumination.
CHANDIGARH, June 9 — The Haryana agricultural implements manufacturing industry is on crossroads. The decision of the Haryana Government to levy Local Area Development Tax on agricultural implements has sent shock waves among 150-odd manufacturers of the State. Apprehending that they would be thrown out of the competition because of levying of Local Area Development Tax, the manufactures have called on the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, and other senior functionaries of the State Government to demand that the agricultural implements manufacturers may be exempted from the Tax. Mr D.R. Dhawan, President, Haryana Agricultural Implements Manufacturers Association, and Mr R.M. Chandna, President, Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Karnal Chapter, who led the deputation maintained that the Government had earlier exempted the industry from Central excise and sales tax. At present, Haryana, which imports 80 per cent of the raw material and inputs required for the manufacture of agriculture implements, caters to 60 per cent of the demand of agricultural implements of the country and supplies these to farmers at most competitive rates. They said that imposition of Haryana Local Area Development Tax on this industry will push up the cost of production in Haryana and the manufacturers would be at a disadvantageous position compared to other manufacturers, including those in Punjab and elsewhere, thus leading to either shifting of these units out of Haryana or their closure. They further said that imposition of this tax would also affect the farmers adversely as they will have to pay a heavier price for the agricultural implements. They may also divert their purchases to the neighbouring States, where these would be cheaper, as no such tax is levied. Another argument advanced by the manufacturers has been that since agricultural implements manufacturing industry is not very large, even its exemption from this tax would not make much of difference to the state revenue.
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PSIDC losses attributed to “inefficiency” CHANDIGARH, June 9 — The Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) incurred a loss of Rs 20.35 crore in 1998-99 as per the audited balance sheet despite its efforts to reduce the same. In fact “true and correct” loss is Rs 48.16 crore. The difference of Rs 27.81 crore is because : PSIDC did not provide for liability of Rs 4.77 crore interest paid to the government; showed more interest income (Rs 4.19 crore) contrary to norms of IDBI; showed Rs 2.41 crore as income receiveable on sale of Northland Sugar Ltd to increase the profit; provision of doubtful debts (Rs 11.33 crore) advanced as unsecured loans to Punjab Wireless Ltd not made; and provision of Rs 6.34 crore for doubtful other unsecured loans also not made. The audit report in a telling comment says “the corporation has tried to reduce losses by making adjustments against accounting principles in profit and loss account during the year and reduced losses from Rs 48.16 crore to Rs 20.35 crore”. Moreover, all reserves accumulated out of profit of earlier years were wiped off during the recent years. Now the corporation was in great losses due to “inefficiency of the management”. PSIDC has been loosing sheen for quite sometime. The report on accounts as on March 31, 1999, gives enough hints of what has gone wrong where. From the information and explanations obtained from the PSIDC, the audit report and balance sheet states that adequate internal control procedures do commensurate with the size and nature of its business for making investments, granting loans and advances and for purchase of other assets, except in respect of: (1) effective recovery in sticky and problem loans and advances; (2) follow up of investments in companies whose book value of shares are declining; and (3) in cases where amounts are contributed as share application money but shares are not allotted within reasonable time. Though PSIDC has invested in share application of various companies, in most cases these have not made the allotments for a period ranging from 3 to 8 years. Moreover the Corporation has not followed the guidelines of either the IDBI or the RBI in respect of “valuation of investments in particular to the unquoted shares which are to be valued at Re 1 per share where balance sheets of these companies are not available. This affects the annual accounts to the extent of 90 per cent of the value of unquoted shares and application money, the report observes. PSIDC’s internal audit system needs strengthening to make it more effective. The corporation changed its policy of booking profit on sale of investments from showing the amount received as advance till the duly executed transfer deeds are actually delivered to the decision to sell and or deliver share scrips
along with duly executed transfer deeds to the transferee irrespective of the time at which the consideration for the same has been received. This effects the profit having been overstated by Rs 60.83 lakh and current liabilities under advance against disinvestment being underestimated . It is also revealed that PSIDC has not provided for interest of Rs 63.12 lakh for 1998-99 and Rs 413.88 lakh for the earlier years paid on share application money received from the government refunded
along with interest in1999-2000. The corporation booked interest income of Rs 296.39 lakh, including Rs 118.18 lakh for earlier years and Rs 1778.21 lakh for the current year, on four loans against equity contrary to the income recognition, assets classification and provisioning norms of IDBI. PSIDC did not make a provision on Rs 634 lakh loans equivalent to 100 per cent on outstanding unsecured amount. It booked interest income of Rs 241 lakh received from Chadha Papers Ltd on sale of assets of Northland Sugar Complex on behalf of Sugarfed, which has already claimed the interest recovered from Chadha Papers. The matter is pending with the government. The said income is thus overstated. On the advance of Rs 11.33 crore as unsecured loan to Punjab Wireless the report comments “In our opinion there is potential threat to the recovery of the same and, therefore, the company should have made a provision of Rs 11.33 crore on this loss asset”. |
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Chandigarh boy flies high NEW YORK: Though he could work in any information technology (IT) start-up or blue-chip company, Indian-American Manoj Tripathi, who grew up in Chandigarh, has opted for the tangy fruit juices industry. Listed among the Top 100 IT leaders by “Computer World” magazine last month, Tripathi, (40), as chief information officer of San Francisco-based Jamba Juice, a 10-year-old company, deals with 350 outlets and 5,000 employees across the USA. The Kanpur-born Tripathi earlier worked for the popular natural-cosmetics chain, ‘The Body Shop’ (1992-97) as chief information officer. He oversaw that company’s exponential growth to 500 outlets in the USA before leaving to join Jamba. “I’m used to this kind of high growth. Jamba wanted me for precisely that reason,” he said. “As important as technology is, you have to keep your business hat on. You have to pick horses that can go for the marathon. You have to choose solutions that are scalable, your alliances have to have strength, and you have to continue to leverage your expansion,” he explained to IANS his decision to work at Jamba. When he joined Jamba it had only 40 stores. Every year since he joined, Jamba has grown by 50 to 100 stores, and he plans to see it grow by the same number this year. Jamba Juice stores now also sell high fibre breads and soups. Founders say Jamba’s goal remains the same as when the company started offering a healthy fast food experience. Its juices contain a full-day’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-recommended fruit requirement, plus other inputs. The company claims to search the world for the best possible fruits and vegetables, then sends them to the blender with no added sugars, preservatives or artificial flavours. Tripathi, who was brought up in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh and whose father was the Dean of the Faculty of Management at Panjab University, Chandigarh, has his own ideas on how businesses can be made successful. The engineering graduate, who also has a Masters in Business Administration from Panjab University, served for several years in the information technology field and came to the USA in 1982 on a contract to do consulting for Burroughs (now Unisys) in their applications systems group in Philadelphia. He left after a year to join Hyster-Yale, a manufacturer of forklift trucks, and stayed there for seven years becoming manager of systems development. In 1989, he joined Raychem, a telecommunications firm where he worked as manager of business systems for two-and-a-half years, before switching tracks and joining ‘The Body Shop’. Because Jamba is still private, Tripathi did not reveal revenues, but said the company made significant profits. “We sell something that people actually consume. And we sell 50 million of them. That is 50 million customer experiences! It is something you have to deliver everyday,” he stressed. —
IANS |
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IT billionaires
rewrite rules NEW YORK: Indian information technology (IT) billionaires are changing the face of business in their country, says Forbes magazine in its latest edition. Entitled “Billionaires who are wiring Asia,” the Forbes report takes a comparative look at Japan and India and says birth or family no longer determine the path taken by today’s Indian youth who are more willing to take risks and become rich earlier in life. India’s software industry has bypassed and speeded up business processes despite government regulations, according to IT experts and billionaires quoted by Forbes in its latest edition. Successful high-tech developers like N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys Technologies and Wipro’s Azim Premji have become household words for aspiring young entrepreneurs are quoted in the report. The software industry has been able to bypass the slow regulatory process and “today kids are far more willing to take risks because they’ve seen high rewards,” says Murthy. Till liberalisation began in the early 1990s, Forbes notes, “inward-looking Delhi pursued an economically destructive mix of socialist and protectionist policies. An oppressive bureaucracy and bloated public sector suffocated entrepreneurship,” leaving India way behind the Asian miracle experienced by some of the Southeast Asian economies. But software is different. A satellite dish can enable global communication, and that is the story in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune. The “dotcom fever” has hit India and there is no turning back, big time entrepreneurs like Premji, the richest man in India, say. “You can’t expect a small man to set up an automobile company or a chemical factory,” Premji told Forbes. “But IT entrepreneurs with talent and ideas are able to draw venture capital funds.” “More than any other industry, IT is integrating India’s insular economy with the rest of the world,” maintains Forbes. While the “hapless bureaucracy” installed only 25 million phone lines in the country in a century, the private sector has connected 30 million in less than a decade. “Our people have started to see how life is outside India. Their aspirations have been raised,” Murthy contends, and Premji adds, “Once you start liberalising, the process becomes irreversible. A government can slow it down, but a government can’t stop it.” Other Indian billionaires who cropped up because of the IT industry include Subhash Chandra of Zee Telefilms, Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies and B. Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Infoways. —
IANS
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Night shifts for IT
women likely CHANDIGARH, June 9 — The information technology and electronics industry requires flexible working hours for women workers and the relevant Act will be amended to allow them to work in night shifts. A common format for various labour laws like the Factory Act and the ESI Act is required to simplify rules. This was stated here today by Punjab Labour Minister Balramji Dass Tandon while addressing a PHDCCI meeting on labour laws. Mr Ashok Khanna, former President of the Chamber, said that the small scale sector provides direct employment to 18.3 million persons, accounts for 40 per cent of the total industrial production and 35 per cent of national exports. Mr Khanna said labour laws are proving to be counter-productive to the generation of new opportunities. The Chamber suggested that those SSI units which employ up to 100 workers should be exempted from the rigorous labour laws, except the protection of minimum wages. Mr Amarjit Goyal, Chairman, Punjab Committee, PHDCCI suggested that inspecting officers be directed to accept computerisation as a modern phenomenon and should not insist on manual
records. |
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SBI deposits
grow 19.59 pc CHANDIGARH, June 9 — State Bank of India, Chandigarh Circle having a network of 665 branches recorded a net profit of Rs 251.39 crore, said Mr Prabhakar Sharma, Chief General Manager, SBI for the year 1999-2000. He said the deposits has risen to Rs 12001 crore (up by Rs 1966 crore from Rs 10,035 crore in 1999, a growth of 19.59 per cent). The net advances rises to Rs 6,652 crore (up by Rs 1,211 crore from Rs 5441 crore, a growth of 22 per cent). The forex business is up by Rs 499 crore from Rs 3165 crore, a growth of 16 per cent. This rate of growth of business compares favourably with the All-India growth rate for the SBI of 18.37 per cent, 13.73 per cent and 15.26 per cent respectively for deposits, advances and forex business. By March 2000, 147 branches of the bank have been fully computerised with increased business hours
up to 4 p.m. on working days and up to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. It is planned to increase the number of computerised branches to 200 by March 2001 and to link select computerised branches the country over. Mr Prabhakar said the operationalising of the sale of gold at 5 branches where during the year 4,399 kg of gold, of assured purity has been sold to individuals and to goldsmiths. The commencement of gold deposit scheme of the bank whereby deposit of unproductive gold held by temples, trusts and individuals both in the form of ornaments and of bullion is taken, and returned with interest in the form of gold, after the designated period of the deposit. The bank has planned to mobilise as much as 6000 kg of gold under this scheme during 2000-01. The bank also plans to provide the facility of Internet banking to customers of NRI, Overseas and Personal Banking Branches. |
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He earns 2.5 million daily STOCKHOLM: Half-a-million Swedish kronor is what Pakistan-born Fred Hassan, President and CEO officer of the Swedish-owned pharmaceutical multinational Pharmacia Corporation, earns daily. That translates into a hefty Rs 2.5 million. Hassan’s annual salary adds up to 170 million Swedish kronor (SEK) plus sundry perks. His basic salary is 11.7 million SEK, a 17 per cent increase since last year. That is matched by an equal, results-related sum in annual bonus. Added to this are the Pharmacia shares he has received which he can cash in on December 31, 2004. Worth 1,500 SEK per share today, they add up to another 150 million SEK. Fred Hassan also received 500,000 share options which he can cash within three years for a set value that is tied up with future performance. Last year Fred Hassan had received a portfolio of two million shares. Then the company consisted of only Pharmacia and Upjohn. Since then it has expanded further to include another American company, Monsanto. According to a company spokesperson, “Fred Hassan is a principal architect of the merger between Pharmacia & Upjohn and Monsanto that created Pharmacia Corporation on April 3, 2000.” The salaries and perks in Pharmacia Corporation are decided by a benefits committee that has expressed itself “very much satisfied with the excellent results that have been produced by Fred Hassan”. Fred Hassan has been tied to the pharmaceutical industry for more than 25 years. He joined Pharmacia & Upjohn in May 1997 and brought about a spectacular turnaround in the performance of the company. Before Pharmacia & Upjohn, Fred Hassan was Executive Vice President of American Home Products (APH) Corporation, and also headed Genetics Institute Inc., a wholly owned biotechnology subsidiary. While at AHP, Hassan played a critical role in the acquisition of American Cynamid Corporation and was elected to the APH Board of Directors. Earlier, in his career, Hassan spent 17 years with Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corporation (now Novartis). He joined Sandoz in 1972 and became Sandoz Head of US Pharmaceuticals in 1984. Fred Hassan graduated from the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London in 1967 with a B.Sc in chemical engineering and in 1972 obtained an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
— IANS
Benefits for gay staff DETROIT: The three leading US automakers have announced they will extend medical benefits to employees’ gay and lesbian partners beginning august 1. Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., and Daimlerchrysler Corp. unit agreed to study the issue with the UAW, which represents 350,000 hourly workers at the three automakers, during last autumn’s labor contract negotiations. The agreement covers some 465,260 US hourly and salaried workers at the three companies. But based on their study of benchmark corporations IBM, Xerox, and American Airlines, the automakers anticipate fewer than 1 per cent of those eligible will apply for the benefits. At Ford, for example, that would add just $ 5 million to the company’s 2.4 billion annual health-care bill. In return, “we let people know Ford is committed to diversity and a welcoming place to work,” said a spokesman.
— AFP
P & G loss
steps down
CINCINNATI: Procter and Gamble’s boss Durk Jager is stepping down unexpectedly from the three top jobs at the huge consumer products company that has been dogged by disappointing earnings. Its stock price has tumbled. Moving quickly to fill the gap, the maker of well-known brands like Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste named Alan G. Lafley, (52), president of its divisions for global beauty care and North America, has been made president and chief executive. John E. Pepper, (61), who had headed P and G before Jager became Chief Executive in January 1999 and has been heading its board ‘s executive
committee, was named as Chairman. Jager, (57), said he would retire effective July 1, after 30 years with the company. The
Netherlands-born Jager had led a global restructuring of the company also known for making Pampers disposable diapers. Jager’s plan was to cut 15,000 jobs and close about 10 plants to increase sales and get new products to the market sooner. But the rapid changes took a toll on P and G’s earnings, Pepper and Lafley acknowledged. — AP |
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Service tax Tisco ESOP ORG-MARG CII training Kellogg MD SPL net up |
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