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Friday, February
22, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Rail
Budget to be tough Regional
stock exchanges in poor health 209 MT of
foodgrain output estimated Eight-lane
highway for Gurgaon |
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Raise IT
exemption limit: INTUC, INBC BSNL
cellular services by July
CII
gives computers to Haryana schools Assan
Gas Cracker project reviewed No FDI
in print media, says PMO ICICI
to raise Rs 350 cr Spice
Buzz launched
Iraqi oil
sales slip further to 1.5 m bpd
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Rail Budget to be tough New Delhi, February 21 Having played to the galleries for the past two years, thanks to populism displayed by his predecessor Mamata Banerjee, Mr Kumar has no other option but to present a difficult Budget this year. A hike in the rail freight tariff on several goods and a moderate hike in passenger fares is on the cards. Moderate hike in passenger fares because the Railways last year introduced the surcharge for safety works, which would yield around Rs 800 crore in the next fiscal. Mr Kumar has gone on record saying the budgetary support of Rs 3540 crore to his ministry in 2001-02 was very small to meet the whopping Rs 38,000 crore funding needed for various projects. “It is a difficult task to present the Railway Budget. Expectations are high in every quarter and it is difficult to keep everyone in good humour” he said when asked about the coming Budget announcement. Railway Board officials said though some deficit could be made up by hiking passenger fares moderately, it would be a tough task to tinker much with freight charges. Already the road transport is giving tough competition to the Railways in carting freight and this is one factor the minister has to take into account. Indications are that freight rates on essential commodities such as foodgrains, salt and fertilisers, which have remain untouched for some time, may be hiked. It costs the Railways around 65 paise per tonne per kilometre to transport essential commodities whereas they are charged at the rate of between 25 paise and 47 paise per tonne per kilometre. On the thrust areas of the Budget, the Railway Minister said efforts would be made to keep in mind the projects being launched on the first year of the Tenth Plan and special emphasis would be laid on rail safety. Another difficult area for the minister would be to find ways to generate resources for fresh investments. Efforts to raise resources from non-traditional sources like commercial utilisation of Railway land and air space, commercial publicity and right of way rents for laying optic fibre cables for broadband services have not been satisfactory. Indications from the Railway Ministry are that the Budget would go slow on announcing new projects and focus on completing existing projects. Mr Kumar will also announce broad reform measures and operational and marketing strategy for the Railways in the Budget. |
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Regional stock exchanges in poor health Ludhiana, February 21 Among the fifteen regional stock exchanges which have switched over to the subsidiary system are Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Baroda, Rajkot, Coimbatore, Cochin, Bangalore and Mangalore. Mr Jaspal Singh, President, Ludhiana Stock Exchange, in an exclusive interview told this reporter today that no trading was taking place in these regional stock exchanges. He also denied the reports that Ludhiana Stock Exchange had been closed and maintained that it was still functional although no brisk trading was taking place. Instead, the business was taking place on the LSE Securities Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary of Ludhiana Stock Exchange. The daily business on the LSE Securities was worth about Rs 50 crore. Why the regional stock exchanges have to face the financial crisis? Mr Jaspal Singh said that the fast changes in the capital reforms was one of the major reasons which was followed by the decision of the SEBI in 1994-95 to setup the NSE. This finished the concept of the regional stock exchanges as the SEBI allowed the NSE to have its terminals in all the cities across the country. Further the BSE was also allowed to go anywhere in the country with the result that the regional stock exchanges received a severe setback. “The financial muscle power of these two stock exchanges cannot be met by the regional stock exchanges. With the terminal of these stock exchanges in the cities, the people started getting better marketing”, he said. Mr Jaspal Singh also laments that a sum of Rs 150 crore spent by the regional stock exchanges in the country to have computerisation has been wasted as the same is not being utilised. Ludhiana Stock Exchange was the first to start LSE Securities Ltd. a wholly owned subsidiary to watch the interest of the member. If the LSE Securities Ltd had not been floated two years ago, the members would have been left without any work and this would have given a big set back to the investors. Out of Rs 50 crore business daily of the LSE Securities, 10 per cent to 15 per cent contribution is made by the investors. To given boost to the business and safeguards the interests of the members, the Ludhiana Stock Exchange has got the permission to start derivative trading. The LSE Securities - Subsidiary of the Ludhiana Stock Exchange has got the ticket as sub broker of the NSE and its registration has been cleared. The LSE Securities Ltd. has deposited a sum of Rs 1.26 crore with the NSE. According to Mr Jaspal Singh formal derivative trading is likely to start within a week as the software is ready and they have also got the ID for the same. Mr
R. C. Singal, Former President of the Ludhiana Stock Exchange while welcoming the decision to have derivative segment says that this will increase the volume of business and also allow the futures trading. This will replace the Badla trading indirectly and facilities the entry of the financiers in the market as was prevalent during the Badla regime. The Board of Director of the Ludhiana Stock Exchange has also accepted the direction of the SEBI that no broker members could become the office bearers — President and Vice-President of the stock exchanges in the country and decided to amend the articles of association of Ludhiana Stock Exchange to facilitate this direction. The SEBI had directed the LSE to amend the articles by March 10. The generations of the LSE has been summoned on March 18. Mr Jaspal Singh maintain that SEBI is required to make amendments is consultation with the stock exchange. But in the case of above decision of what is known as demutulisation of the stock exchanges on the directions of the Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, no consolation took place. Moreover, proper reasoning should be given for the amendments in the act and nothing was done in this regard. Enquiries further show that the financial position of the regional stock exchanges has become bad because the listed companies are not making payment of listed free regularly. Ludhiana Stock Exchange has as many as 455 listed companies and the annual recovery of listing fee should be Rs 1.30 crore. But the actual recovery is Rs 90 lakh. There are about one hundred companies which are defunct and are not making the payment of annual listing fee. Mr Jaspal Singh revealed hat there were seven thousand companies listed with the stock exchanges and only 1500 companies were working in the country.
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209 MT of foodgrain output estimated New Delhi, February 21 Addressing a one-day workshop on cultivation cost of principal crops, Mr Srivastava said the Agriculture Ministry has commissioned a study to study the cost of cultivation of crops. India is required to bring down the rates of import duties under international commitments and it’s already facing competition in several commodities. In view of this, transparency in estimation of the cost of cultivation of crops will help devise the right strategy for the WTO. The Chairman of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Prof G.K. Chaddha, said the workshop is the first of its kind and has been organised following suggestions from several farmer’s organisations, state governments and policy analysts that the basis for computing cost of cultivation under the comprehensive scheme for studying the cost of cultivation of principal crops needs to be reviewed.
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Eight-lane highway for Gurgaon New Delhi, February 21 The ambitious project of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), involving an estimated expenditure of Rs 550 crore, seeks conversion of the Delhi-Gurgaon section of National Highway 8 into access-controlled eight to six lane highway from Rao Tula Ram Marg in south-west Delhi to Gurgaon having a distance of 14 km. It will further extend up to 42 km in Haryana having a combined distance of 54 km. Announcing this at a press conference here today, Delhi Lt-Governor Vijai Kapoor said NH 8 is an important route for Delhi as it connects the capital city with Gurgaon and moves towards Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Surat and Mumbai. It also feeds the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Besides, the project road section caters to through traffic from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. “The volume of the traffic, both passenger and freight, along the road is very high and is to the tune of 145,000 vehicles which outclasses existing width of the road and necessitates the need for implementation of the eight-lane highway scheme,’’ he added. Giving details of the project, NHAI Chairman Deepak Das Gupta said the expressway, a joint venture between Jai Prakash Industries and British firm D.S. Construction, would be carried out on the build, operate and transfer basis and commuters would be asked to pay toll taxes.
UNI
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Raise IT exemption limit: INTUC, INBC Ludhiana, February 21 In a joint memorandum, Dr Shiv K. Gupta, General Secretary, INTUC and Mr K.R. Tripathi, President, INBEC, have urged the Finance Minister to raise income tax limit from Rs 50,000 to at least Rs 1 lakh and exempt dearness allowance from the income tax, which was also the main demand of the BJP when it was in opposition. Both appealed to him to consider the demand of employees to restore the rate of interest on provident fund and small savings to 12 per cent which has been decreased to 9.5 per cent recently. There was no justification, said Dr Shiv Kumar, in imposing taxes on small benefits provided to employees by employers like food, transport, housing, health care and subsidised loans. Since there has been no increase in real wages of the employees for the past many years, the Bonus Act should be amended to remove ceiling of Rs 4,500 p.m. and it should be paid to all employees without any salary limit. The surcharge at 2 per cent on income tax should be withdrawn. If the government could do everything to allure foreign direct investment, it should also withdraw tax deducted at source (TDS) on bank deposit interest to boost small savings and pension funds. They said the government should introduce a single flat rate of 10 per cent income tax and abolish other slabs of 20 and 30 per cent. The limit of Rs 9,000 interest limit under Section 80L should be abolished.
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BSNL cellular services by July
New Delhi, February 21 “Our all-India cellular operations will start by July this year. In the first phase, we will cover over 1000 cities across the country for the GSM services”, senior officials told PTI. “Turnkey orders have already been placed with the selected vendors and they are likely to supply the equipment soon”, they said. Site testing, setting up of cell sites, equipment deployment and test-run throughout the country are about to be started soon for the GSM services, officials said. BSNL will install 1.5 million lines during the first year out of the total four-million line GSM project, they added. The telecom major which is the all-India basic service operator (except Mumbai and Delhi) has already started its cellular service in parts of Kolkata and Bihar as the fourth operator. BSNL’s vendors for its GSM project — Lucent-ITI, Ericssion and Motorola. In Bihar and Kolkata, BSNL’s cellular service is being run on the GSM technology provided by public sector company C-DoT. MTNL is operating its cellular services in Mumbai and Delhi.
PTI |
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CII gives computers to Haryana schools Chandigarh, February 21 Appreciating this initiative of the industry, Mr P.K. Chaudhery, Commissioner and Secretary,
Education, Haryana, assured the industry good returns on any investments made in education. He called on the industry to adopt primary schools to provide basic infrastructure and improve the quality of education. The high level of dropouts and the education of the girl child were critical issues that would benefit by the industry’s efforts to mobilise the community, he said. Mr Adesh Gupta, Chairman, CII, Haryana State Council, outlined CII’s community efforts in the state, notably in Bhoj Palasra village, which has been adopted by CII. Villagers now had access to clean drinking water and regular medical check-ups and eye camps. In the next phase, CII would also help with primary education in the village. Besides, the CII community reach programmes were being initiated in two villages — Pingli and Shamgarh — in Karnal district. The initiative would be extended to more villages in a phased manner.
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Assan Gas Cracker project reviewed New Delhi, February 21 There are two major issues to be settled in the implementation of the project —availability of land and availability of feedstock. The meeting was attended by the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Ram Naik, Minister for Disinvestment and Development of North East, Mr Arun Shourie and Chief Minister of Assam, Mr Tarun Gogoi. The Chief Minister assured that the land for the project would be made available anytime it was required. |
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No FDI in print media, says PMO New Delhi, February 21 Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had said in Lucknow last week that the government was awaiting the report of the Parliamentary Committee examining the issue of allowing FDI in print media, a PMO spokesman today said. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has referred the issue of foreign equity in print media and related matters to the Standing Committee on Information Technology. Reports in a section of the media said the PMO had approved allowing 26 per cent FDI in periodicals, including weeklies, fortnightlies and monthlies.
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ICICI to raise Rs 350 cr
New Delhi, February 21 “We have roped in ICICI which will raise Rs 350 crore in the first tranche from the market through bonds to finance the VRS,” official sources told PTI here. |
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Spice Buzz launched Chandigarh, February 21 While the night speak service will offer free airtime to subscribers between 10 pm and 7 am on a monthly charge of Rs 100, group voice conference will enable the subscribers to indulge in group chats and discussions by creating a group of friends . Using the group SMS, a subscriber can send SMS to his entire group of friends in one go. Another service is the friend-finder service where a subscriber can create his personal profile and initiate SMS chat sessions with them. The games option has SMS-based games like hangman, scrabble, cows, bulls and brain teasers which a user can play with a group of people. As an introductory offer, Spice is not charging any subscription fee for these services except the night speak till April 13.
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New SEBI chief Mumbai, February 21 Mr Bajpai succeeds Mr D.R. Mehta who retired after a long-inning of seven years as SEBI chief today.
UNI
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Allahabad Bank HAL bags order SSI awards SBP branches Amartex Pasco Auto Exporter awarded |
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