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Tuesday, February 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Anti-dumping
duties on textile opposed India, UK
to boost cooperation in SSI 29 cr
Nabard aid for cold storages Decision
on VSNL, IBP bids today Private
agency to examine quality of telecom operator |
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ONGC not
awaiting proposal from BG Dappar
dry port begins operations Gontermann
turns sick
Birla
Sun Life, JK Insurance tieup
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Anti-dumping duties on textile opposed New Delhi, February 4 Addressing newspersons, Indian Cotton Mills Federation Chairman Rajaram Jaipuria today alleged that the steep anti-dumping duties on PSF were being introduced, which have been recommended by the designated authority in the Ministry of Commerce, at the behest of the two domestic PSF manufacturers. “We would be ruined if these duties were imposed”, Dr Jaipuria said adding that the petition filed by PSF manufacturers alleging injury did not disclose any evidence of dumping and also failed to substantiate the injury caused to the domestic producers or a casual link between the alleged dumped imports and alleged injury. Aggrieved by the unsubstantiated claims of the PSF producers, some of the users and importers of PSF have gone to the courts challenging the public notice of initiation of investigation, Dr Jaipuria said, adding that the Karnataka High Court has admitted an appeal on the question of jurisdiction of the Designated Authority in initiating the anti-dumping investigation. The Rajasthan High Court has on the same question restrained the authority from finalising the investigation. Both high courts, however, have allowed the anti-dumping investigation to proceed, he said. In the given situation, the authority should have waited for the court proceedings to be over for recommending to the Central Government anti-dumping duties. Instead, the authority has come out with the recommendation of steep levels of anti-dumping duties in the range of 35 to 100 per cent depending on the landed value of imports. This is in addition to the high customs duty of 26 per cent, which the PSF is subjected to, Dr Jaipuria pointed out. Ironically, the Designated Authority has announced the preliminary findings without giving any opportunity to the user industry to present their case before the authority, the Chairman said, adding that this is in violation of the principles of natural justice.
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India, UK to boost cooperation in SSI New Delhi, February 4 At a meeting between the British Minister for Small Business, Mr Nigel Griffith, and Minister of State for Small Scale Industries, Mrs Vasundhara Raje, it was decided that one of the leading business links would act as the single contact point within the business link network for the Indian Ministry to further boost cooperation in the SSI sector. Mr Griffith said his country was looking at ways to strengthen the institutional links between the universities of both countries which were working on small business development. The Small Business Services of the UK are in the process of creating a specific area on the business link extranet for Indian officials working on business support to exchange information and views. The UK, which is the second largest business trading partner of India, has introduced the “Enterprise Initiative: India” which is designed particularly to help British SMEs enter the Indian market successfully and set up business partnership with Indian businesses. Britain was keen to take full advantage of India’s emergence as one of the greatest IT nations of the world. Later addressing a joint press conference organised by National Small Industries Corporation Limited, Mr Griffith said his government had identified areas in the small sector for cooperation, including software and small engineering manufacturing units.
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29 cr Nabard aid for cold storages Chandigarh, February 4 This re-financing has been provided under the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme announced by the Central Government. The scheme provides for back ended capital subsidy up to 25 per cent of the project cost or Rs 1,000 per metric
tonne of the created capacity, subject to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh for the construction, expansion or modernisation of cold storages and godowns. The aim is to strengthen post-harvest storage and marketing infrastructure for horticulture produce. “The total amount of eligible subsidy is Rs 13.33 crore of which we have already disbursed Rs 8.66 crore, thereby leading to creation of additional capacity of about 1,69,300 MT by the cold storages”, said Mr A. Ramanathan, Chief General Manager, Nabard. Nabard is providing concessional refinance at an interest rate of 8.5 per cent per annum up to 90 per cent of the bank loan, he said. The scheme is operative till March 31, 2002.
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Decision on VSNL, IBP bids today
New Delhi, February 4 “The CCD meeting slated for tomorrow is expected to finalise strategic partners for VSNL and IBP,” official sources said. The Tata group and Reliance Industries are reported to be the only two bidders for the governments’ 25 per cent stake in VSNL. In the case of IBP, as many as seven bidders are reported to be in the race, including Reliance which has put in two bids through Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum. Among the other contenders are IOC, HPCL and BPCL. International oil giants Kuwait Petroleum along with Royal Dutch Shell is also learnt to be in the fray while there was no confirmation about the participation of French oil major TotalFina Elf. The government will offload a 33.9 per cent stake in IBP to a strategic partner along with management control thereby diluting its stake to 26 per cent. In case of VSNL, the government shareholding will stand diluted to 28 per cent down from 53 per cent while 1.97 per cent has been reserved for employees. It has mandated SBI Caps to act as global advisers.
PTI
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Private agency to examine quality of telecom operator Chandigarh, February 4 “A quarterly report of the assessment of services provided by the operators all over the country and the level of customer satisfaction from the operators, will be published which will not only help the operators improve, but also act as a guide to the people who can choose the most suitable operator for themselves”, said a senior official of TRAI. The first one of it’s kind, the survey by IMRB will include a sample of almost 1,20,000 telephone subscribers across the country and all the operators — both in basic and cellular services. Voice quality, interruptions in calls like breakdowns and faults, complaint redressal procedure, directory enquiry services, billing accuracy and timing, complaint redressal in case of wrong billing, supplementary services like call waiting etc will be the main parameters on the basis of which the level of customer satisfaction will be determined. In case of customer satisfaction for cellular services factors like coverage area and services like voice mail, SMS will also be considered. IMRB which will start working on this will come out with it’s first report in around May, said sources. The agency can have access to operator network and service management systems. The operator could also be requested to submit data and reports for various Quality of Service indictors. This, said sources, could also be audited by the surveying agency. The Authority will publish the results with comments, which are relevant to consumers, such as, deficiencies in services if any, reasons for under-performance regionwise, if need be, proposed improvements and audit procedures. “The customer will get a free choice to select an operator on the basis of quality of service and price. This would also bring in more competition, thereby, improving the efficiency of the operators as well”, an official stated. Not only the technical aspects, human related aspects which might as well be ignored by a certain operator will be assessed. “Since the present Quality of Service standards are far below the international standards, the idea is to have short term and long term targets with a view to induce the operators to review, upgrade and improve the existing QoS levels in a phased manner”, said the official.
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ONGC not awaiting proposal from BG
New Delhi, February 4 “There is no question of ONGC waiting for any proposal from British Gas or anyone else on ownership or operatorship of these fields,” the company said in a statement here. ONGC rejected the British oil and gas major’s claim for operatorship of the producing field upon purchase of entire 30 per cent equity of present operator Enron Oil and Gas India Ltd (EOGIL) in the three way joint venture, saying it “was confident of its own capability in this area.” It claimed expertise in operating such fields and insisted that the management of Panna-Mukta and Tapti field should go to the largest shareholder upon exit by the present operator. The Navaratna oil PSU is the largest shareholder in the joint venture with 40 per cent stake while reliance industries owns the remaining 30 per cent. BG Group Plc, which stuck a revised deal with Enron Corp for buying its stake in Panna-Mukta and Tapti for $ 350 million, wants operatorship of the fields and had earlier offered equity oil and cash settlement to ONGC in lieu of it foregoing its claim. “Earlier, British Gas, on their own initiative, had made, and also withdrawn, several proposals to ONGC. At this point of time, there is no negotiation between ONGC and British Gas related to these fields or any other issue,” the statement said. BG had not made any fresh offers to ONGC for giving up its claim for operatorship of the fields.
PTI
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Dappar dry port begins operations Chandigarh, February 4 A spokesman of the corporation said the first consignment of the Nahar group and Winsome Yarns was flagged off by Mr Amresh Jain, Deputy Commissioner, Customs and Mr Arun Goel, Managing Director , Punjab State Warehousing Corporation. The Shipping Corporation of India and the Teng-ming Shipping Line were also routing their first containers through the dry port.
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Gontermann turns sick Shimla, February 4 The unit, which employs about 1,300 persons, has suffered an accumulated loss of Rs116 crore till December last after having started production in 1996. It started full scale production in 2000. Sources in the company said the unit was established keeping in consideration the incentives that were being offered by the state government under its Industrial Policy of 1991. The policy was suddenly changed in 1996 when almost 50 per cent of the project was already implemented. The revised incentives have adversely hit the viability of the project.
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Can Fin Home J.K. White Cement SBP rural branch J&K Bank SBI schemes ICICI bonds Dabur |
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