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| Friday, February
23, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Was Balco sold for a song ?
Salt production, exports get a jolt
Himachal industry seeks tax concessions |
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Where have NSCs disappeared? Apple upgrades Macs with flowers, speed Wockhardt profit climbs up 29 pc Computer show
in Chandigarh Microsoft’s
new software on Java Spice mobiles ring
in Mansa district India’s babudom deterrent
to FDI inflows : Economist JP Morgan targets India
for outsourcing
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Was Balco sold for a song ? New Delhi, February 22 For a company that has been consistently making profits, net profit of Rs 134.79 crore in 1997-98, Rs 134.77 crore in 1999-2000 and Rs 110 crore in the current fiscal, critics feel the sale price of Rs 551.5 crore for 51 per cent of government equity in Balco was on the lower side. The Minister for Disinvestment, Mr Arun Shourie has defended the deal saying the government has got the best price from Sterlite Industries. He has pointed out that the actual value realised from the entire disinvestment process was over Rs 800 crore if the capital restructuring, which took place prior to disinvestment was taken into consideration. Under the restructuring, the equity base was reduced by 50 per cent bringing down the equity from Rs 488 crore to Rs 244 crore. An additional Rs 30 crore was realised as tax on the amount treated as deemed dividend. “The deal smacks of scandal and reeks of corruption”, the Congress spokesman, Mr S.Jaipal Reddy, said on the deal. He said the price was low when one considers the fact that Balco has cash reserves and surplus of Rs 460 crore. Balco employees union has demanded a CBI probe into the decision alleging that the proceeds were undersold and should have yielded Rs 3900 crore. “There was no transparency in the entire evaluation process which was done in a great hurry”, President of the union, Mr Madan Lal, said. “The government did not even reveal the reserve price which was a loss to the national exchequer and anti-worker in spirit”, he added. The erstwhile Disinvestment Commission had recommended immediate offloading of 40 per cent equity in favour of a strategic buyer, with an agreement for further dilution of 26 per cent through public issue within two years. The government was suggested to divest its balance holding of 26 per cent in full at an appropriate time in future. The government had decided to sell 51 per cent equity to a strategic buyer. Sterlite, Alcoa and Hindalco were the leading bidders for Balco. Balco was incorporated in 1965 with an integrated alumina-aluminium complex at Korba. The alumina plant has a capacity of 2,00,000 tonne per annum and is based on Hungarian technology. The aluminium smelter, with 1,00,000 tpa capacity, is based on Soviet know-how. Balco got another unit at Bidhanbag, near Asansol, in West Bengal, by way of nationalisation in 1984. The new owners of the company, Sterlite Industries India Ltd is a major player in copper mining, telecom, optical fibre cables and aluminium foils and conductors. In the financial year 2000, it achieved sales of Rs 2920.5 crore and net profit of Rs 241.9 crore.
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Salt production, exports get a jolt Bhachau (Kutch), February 22 It may take several months before the salt industry could be brought back on the rail. What has spelled doom for the industry is that the earthquake not only hit the salt refineries, the cultivation of raw salt along the seashore had also been affected. The worst hit are the small scale salt manufacturers who put an estimated annual loss of over Rs 10 crore to the salt industry in this part of Gujarat alone. Several units engaged in loading, crushing, iodisation and refining of salt along the Kandla-Bhachau road have suffered the maximum damage with building and machinery of many of the units being completely razed to ground. Heaps of salt and mangled machinery lie scattered around. The exodus of labour engaged in the production, loading and crushing of salt has been reported from the region. In the Kutch region over 40,000 acres of land along the seashore under salt cultivation produced 25 lakh tonnes of salt annually. A visit to the area revealed that muddly water which had gushed out of the cracks developed by the January 26 earthquake had diluted the sea water stored for yielding salt. As a result the residual left after the evaporation of sea water was muddy coloured salt-meaning unfit for production. The small scale manufacturers put their annual production loss at around nine lakh tonnes. Around 10,000 work force engaged in the industry has left the place after their dwelling units were ravaged by the earthquake. As normalcy is returning some of the labourers of the Agria community, engaged in the cultivation of raw salt were returning. Mr Samji K. Kanjad, President of the Kachchh Small Scale Salt Manufacturers Association, says the industry will suffer production loss for the coming two to three months. The season for cultivation of raw salt is from September to June. He says the production loss due to shortage of labour will compound their problems. Mr Mohan Goyal, an offical of the Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Gujrat was contributing at least 70 per cent of the total salt production of the country and the share of Katch to it was over 40 per cent. The salt was being exported to the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Uganada, Japan and some other countries.
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Himachal industry seeks tax concessions Chandigarh, February 22 Stressing that infrastructure in terms of better roads, communication, readily available and economically priced electricity and water had been steadily provided over the past three years, he promised to look into all concessions and tax related issues raised in this interaction to foster a healthier industrial climate in the state. Capt Alok Sharma, Chairman, CII HP State Council, put forward an agenda of tax and related issues. Industry requested the government to include “D” forms in lieu of “C” forms to avail of concessional rates of tax. It also wanted a revision of the value addition norms for electronics and IT hardware industries located in HP. At present, sales tax incentives were only applicable to those units with a value add of over 14 per cent. This was, however, not feasible under the present competitive set up, given the national as well as the global context. The minister promised to discuss this matter with the Department of Industries. Another suggestion was to extend the concessional rate of tax (HP GST) at 1% to the sale of goods by manufacturing units to trade, and vice versa. At present, the concession was only available on sale of goods by one manufacturing unit to another. Manufacturing units in the state were sourcing almost 80% of their inputs from traders of adjoining states, who enjoyed lover taxation rates. Such a move would benefit local traders. Industry also sought the abolition of additional goods tax on core sector industries like steel and plastic. Conceding that in plastics the tax had been reduced to one way, it was still two way in terms of steel, said members. In fact, in some cases, the charge was four-fold, as in the case of steel entering the state, being sent out for job work, returning after job work and finally as finished goods ready for sale. Responding to the minister’s request to facilitate revenue gathering means and procedures for the state, industry suggested that depots located within the state be permitted to sell goods at concessional CST rates for inter state transactions as well as local ones. This would enable depots within Himachal to serve the entire northern region. Even with the concessions, considerable revenue would accrue to the state, it was felt. Mr R.K. Rewari, President, Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Industries Association, said that industry in the state did not want subsidies rather it wanted to compete. However, he sought government help in enabling industries and enterprise to flourish, spending less time on paper work and more on production. The meeting also discussed issues like RN-1 & RN-2 Forms, “running bonds” and “specific bonds”, the introduction of quarterly charges vs the present per time charges on vehicles per journey for goods vehicles entering Himachal.
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Where have NSCs disappeared? Sangrur, February 22 The NSCs are reportedly not available with the stock depot in Ludhiana as the local depot has reportedly failed to get the supply of the NSCs from Nasik where these are printed. Talking to TNS this afternoon, Mr M.R. Chikersal, Postmaster, Sangrur, admitted today that his stock of the NSCs except for Rs 500 denomination was nil for the past 15 days. He said a majority of persons were not ready to get the NSCs of Rs 500 denomination as they would have to pay more commission (Rs 5 against each NSC) to a bank in case they wanted to get loan against the NSCs of a big amount. Mr Mohan Sharma, District Savings Officer, also confirmed the acute shortage of the NSCs in the district. He said there was a shortage of the NSCs in the state for a fortnight as these were out of stock at the delivery office at Ludhiana which supplied these throughout the state. Mr Sharma, however, declined to admit that this shortage would put an adverse affect on the small savings target. He said in the absence of the NSCs, the small savings agents were now issuing NC-IV receipts to the buyers of the NSCs in place of NSCs. He also claimed that there was no adverse affect on the deposits of the small savings in the district despite the shortage of the NSCs. He also stated that the NSCs were now under print at Nasik which would reach Punjab in two or three days. Mr Vijay Goyal, an agent of the small savings, said the buyers of the NSCs were not ready to give money to them without having NSCs in their hand. So many of them had already returned without purchasing the NSCs because they were even not ready to hand over the payment to them with the NC-IV receipt. My Goyal claimed that in this peak season of the sale of the NSC, in small savings business had suffered about 10 per cent loss. There is also a rumour that the interest on the NSCs is being reduced after February 28. |
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Apple upgrades Macs with flowers, speed Tokyo, February 22 Apple, which had already admitted it was late in joining the wave of storing and exchanging music on digital music files, released an upgraded version of its music management software iTunes, which works with the more than 25 third-party supplier for CD drives that write -- or burn -- music and data onto discs. "The next stage in the evolution of the Internet will have the PC focused around digital devices and the user experience," said Jobs at the Macworld Tokyo exhibition. A new iMac series with faster computer processors and drives that read and write CD-discs was unveiled. Two new designs, the flower-sprinkled "Flower Power" design and the dotted "Blue Dalmatian" were added, along with upgraded software to manage digital music stored in MP3 files. The snazzy new products come as Apple and its share price are reeling from $195 million in losses in the October-December quarter, the first in three years since Jobs returned in 1997 to run the company he founded. Apple also unveiled new Power Mac G4 Cube models, its compact desktop PC, that also come with CD-read/write drives and are available with processor speeds of up to 500 MHz. The upgraded iMacs are available at processor speeds of up to 600MHz on the older version G3 chip for $899-1,499, while the G4-chip Cubes will cost at least $1,599, depending on the speed of the processor and other features. Most of Apple's major announcements, including the launch of its ultra-thin notebook Powerbook G4, were made in San Francisco on January 10 which helped boost
its stock up 13.95 per cent until its close on Wednesday at $18-7/8. In the same
period, Dow Jones index has remained flat. Reuters |
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Wockhardt profit climbs up 29 pc Mumbai, February 22 The company also announced a final dividend of 30 per cent (Rs 3 per share) taking the total dividend for the year to 60 per cent, Wockhardt said in a press note here. Net income stood at Rs 558.3 crore, up by 34 per cent as against Rs 418.3 crore in 1999 During the quarter ended December 31, the company recorded a 16 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 21.2 crore. The company’s research and development expense rose sharply to Rs 31.6 crore as compared to Rs 1.56 crore in 1999,while for the quarter ended December, 2000, it grew by 31 per cent to Rs 35 crore( Rs 26.7 crore). "Our enhanced thrust on R&D is beginning to deliver results and we have filed 15 patents. In the domestic market our branded business grew by 17 per cent and exports grew by29 per cent and now contribute 22 per cent of the company’s overall sales, Chairman Habil Khorakiwala said. Welspun bags order Welspun India said today it has bagged orders worth Rs 80 crore from Walmart, USA, a Fortune 500 company and ASDA, UK. Executive Diretor RR Mandawesala said Welspun now has a healthy order book position with plant capacity booked for the next 12 months.
Hindalco’s loan Hindalco today concluded a deal for refinancing $ 48 million euro-market syndicated loan. The company has refinanced the loan with a residual maturity of five year at margin of 55 basis points over six month LIBOR, Bank of America, sole arranger of loan.
Eveready As part of the restructuring exercise to separate its tea and battery divisions, Eveready Industries has decided to sell its entire holding in Energizer India. The company will sell its 49 per cent holding comprising of 83,38,722 equity shares of Rs 10 each at a lumpsum price of the rupee equivalent to $ 1.5 million to its joint venture partner EBC (India) Company Limited. PTI, UNI |
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Computer show
in Chandigarh Chandigarh, February 22 If you are planning to buy a PC, the latest ones at the most competitive prices as low as Rs. 27,000 are available here. For those who aim to become software professionals, now is the chance they can get details on the latest courses being offered by the best of the institutes in the country. The lucky ones may also get a chance to be the winners who will be given hundred per cent discount on these courses. For four days, the city will host “The National Computer Show” organised by the Business India group and inaugurated at the Parade Ground here today. Nearly 70 companies are participating in the show which will continue till February 25. The companies participating in the exhibition include Intel, VSNL, CEDTI, Dishnet, Informatics, HCL and TCIL. HDRC has come up with data recovery through head transplantation. This comes to use when the head of the hard disk drive gets broken and no software utility can recover the data which had been stored. Training institutes CEDTI, Jetking, Infopark, Arena Multimedia, Infomatics, CICST etc. are offering attractive schemes for their software and hardware courses. Other attractions being offered by the companies are branded internet addresses, software and hardware accessories, peripherals, CDs etc. Microsoft’s
new software on Java Hyderabad, February 22 Announcing this at a press conference here, Managing Director of Microsoft India Centre, Srini Koppolu described the new programme as an achievement of the Indian centre which could be a strategic contribution to the development of
Microsoft .NET platform. JUMP to .NET (Java User Migration Path to Microsoft .NET), a set of independently developed tools and technologies which include an integrated
development environment (IDE), a component framework and runtime libraries, a conversion tool and others, would be a path for Java developers, he said. Developed by a group of 30 engineers, mostly from India, the programme would bring Java into multi-language environment and would be easy to develop web services, he said. PTI |
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Spice mobiles ring
in Mansa district Mansa, February 22 Mobile coverage in this region will boost food grain and cotton business. The facility will also benefit the project staff working on the mega refinery project being set up at Rama Mandi. Mr Rajiv Gupta, AGM of Spice Telecom, who was here today on the launching
ceremony, said that Spice Telecom also plans to cover Samana and Nangal by March, 2001. He said new coverage sights have been installed in Sectors 46, 49 in Chandigarh and Phase 3B1 in Mohali. More sites are also being planned in Sectors 8, 15 and 22 in Chandigarh for enhanced capacity. New sites are being planned in Ludhiana at the focal point, Miller Ganj and Urban Estate Dugri. New sites in Jalandhar are planned in the Urban Estate and on the Kapurthala road. Mr Gupta said that in Amritsar new sites are planned on the Sultanwind road and in Anand Avenue. These developments are expected to enhance indoor coverage as well as network capacity in these cities. |
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India’s babudom deterrent to FDI inflows : Economist Hong Kong, February 22 The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a report released here that FDI inflows into the Asia-Pacific region had risen markedly each year since 1992, with a record total of $ 126.80 billion invested in the region in 2000 fuelled by a wave of merger and acquisition (M & A) activity. Although the report said India had vast potential to attract FDI, its poor infrastructure, slow privatisation and excessive bureaucracy would continue to prove major deterrents to a rapid increase in inward direct investment. India ranked 24 in the list of 60 countries. A slowdown in mergers and acquisitions would result in a slowing of FDI inflows into Asia to 123.10 billion in 2001 from 126.80 billion in 2000, the report said, but would rise steadily thereafter to 170.7 billion dollars in 2005, the report said. EIU Editorial Director Daniel Franklin said merger and acquisition activity would hit a “road bump” this year. “We expect M & A’s sharply to contract and that will drive this contraction in FDI globally. “We expect M & A activity to pick up in following years and that’s why FDI globally will also be recovering.” Although developed countries attracted the highest FDI, developing countries would “be holding up rather better in the coming years and we expect their share of global FDI to recover to nearly 30 per cent” from just over 20 per cent over the next five years. The report predicted world FDI inflows to slow from $ 1.4 trillion in 2000 to $ 771 billion in 2001, rising progressively thereafter to 986 billion in 2005. Total world FDI flows would recover for the five year period 2001-2005 to 4.4.Trillion dollars from 3.6 trillion in the previous five year period. Ten countries were expected to account for as much as 70 per cent of the world FDI total between 2001-2005. The USA was expected to retain its top position as the primary FDI recipient with an annual average of $ 236.17 billion or 26.6 per cent of world share during the period. China was fourth, behind Britain and Germany. However, the mainland topped the list of emerging market recipients, ahead of Brazil in 10th spot. Over the same period, mainland China would receive 57.60 billion dollars per year, or 6.49 per cent of world share. Hong Kong was ranked ninth globally with an annual average FDI of 20.50 billion dollars.
AFP |
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JP Morgan targets India
for outsourcing Hong Kong, February 22 A growing number of fund houses in Europe and the U.S.A. are outsourcing back office, risk management and other areas of their operations to custodians like JPIS, a unit of JP Morgan Chase & Co, and the firm said it expected the trend to catch on in Asia. “Outsourcing enables fund managers to cut their costs and focus on their core business, but very few fund managers in this region have outsourced,’’ said Laurence Bailey, a Hong Kong-based senior vice president of JPIS. He expects India, Korea and
Taiwan to ease restrictions on cross-border investment, allowing domestic mutual funds to invest more widely in overseas assets, and says that will spur investment in their mutual fund markets. “In India the mutual fund market is growing by 30-40 percent a year and there is the potential for cross-border investment so it is very attractive to us,’’ Bailey said. The opening of China’s mutual fund market is three to four years down the road, Bailey said. But JPIS is trying to create a foothold there.
Reuters |
SBIMF scheme LKP Forex SMEs using IT Power exhibition Award for Wipro |
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