 |
Sunday,
May 12, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Punjab to
bring economy out of red
Chautala
invites Nepalese investors
CST
Amendments to hit industry Now fuel
from grass, straw UTI
declares dividend Graphic: JOB-SEEKERS
— Number of Job-seekers on the Live Register of Employment Exchanges as on 31-01-2002 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Satellite
system for airports security
Effect
of forgery
|
|
Punjab to bring economy out of red Bathinda, May 11 While stating this at a function organised by the CII in connection with the second award ceremony here today, Mr Surinder Singla, Chairman, High-Powered Finance Committee, Punjab, said relentless development of state and anti-corruption drive of the government would run together. Mr Singla pointed out that to boost agriculture and industrial production and making both economically well off, the partnership between agriculturist and industrialists was need of the hour and this was what the Punjab Government was going to do to bring the state economy out of red. The Punjab Government’s main focus was on development as promised by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh before the assembly election. Today’s was the first function in that connection. Under the new model of development being introduced by the Punjab Government for the first time, every section of society would benefit and employment for youths would be generated to a great extent. Agro-based industrialists should arrange funds to educate the farmers to adopt new techniques to enhance their yield and increase profits by cutting down the cost of cultivation. The industrialists should pump in money for agro-based research and development. On the other hand, the government should make arrangements for securing exemption of relevant taxes on that amount which the industrialists would pump in R and D. Under the new model of development, the industrialists would get quality raw material at their doorsteps while the farmers would face no problem in disposing of their produce at remunerative prices. There was a strong need to bring the farmers out of the wheat paddy cycle and cash crops could play a major role into this. The Punjab Government had also contemplated to revive two spinning mills of Bathinda to develop it into textile city of Punjab. Mr Lal Singh, Food and Supply Minister, Punjab, said the economy of Punjab derailed due to fiscal mismanagement by the previous government. Mr Parkash Singh Badal indulged in wasteful expenditure and initiated the economic crises in the state. The previous government was scam-ridden which were coming to light now. He claimed that the Punjab Government was committed to carry out planned development in nook and corner of the state and to generate enough opportunities for employment. All scams of previous government would be brought to light. Mr S.P. Oswal, Chairman, the High-Powered Finance Committee, Punjab, said the CII would contribute its mite in the economic upliftment of the farmers by educating them to adopt new techniques and cash crops.
4 farmers get award
Our Correspondent adds: The CII gave away cash prizes and citation to four farmers at the second award giving function held today. Mr Lal Singh, Punjab Finance Minister has given away the prizes. Mr Sikander Singh of Ganga Ablu Ki village in the district was given a cash prize of Rs 25000. The second, third and fourth prize, in which Rs15000 each was given to the farmers, were given to Mr Jarnail Singh of Dasnodia of Mansa district, Mr Lakhwinder Singh of Raniwala Muktsar and Mr Avtar Singh Nawanpind in district. Mr Sikander Singh, Mr Jarnail Singh, Mr Lakhwinder Singh and Mr Avtar Singh had produced 1,461kg, 1,325 kg, and 1,288 kg per acre of cotton, respectively.
|
|
Chautala invites Nepalese investors
Kathmandu, May 11 Chautala, who is on a three-day visit to Nepal, invited Nepalese investors to add to the Rs 2,700 crore foreign investment in Haryana saying that the state is free of any terrorist problem. He said Nepalese youths can learn from the progress made by Haryana in software industry, which accounts for Rs 3,000 crore export, and students can benefit from IT institutes of Haryana. Chautala accompanied by Minister for Urban Development Subhash Goyal is currently leading a delegation to Nepal with the aim of promoting tourism and fostering industrial cooperation between Nepal and Haryana. Haryana with its growing IT industry can benefit from the hydro-power, in abundance in Nepal, he said. On insurgency in Nepal, Chautala said it is India’s duty to help its neighbour in easing its trouble. Earlier he met with the members of the Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and held discussions on the possibility of establishing joint ventures and promoting industrial cooperation. Chautala also called on Nepalese Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supply Purna Bahadur Khadka and held extensive discussions on fostering cooperation in the fields of trade and commerce.
PTI
|
|
Home Trade CEO surrenders Nagpur, May 11 Agarwal was produced here before a Magistrate who remanded him in police custody till May 14, state CID said. In a related development, the CBI registered a case against Agarwal, broker Ketan Sheth and Arun Kumar Ghond, a former Commissioner of Seamen’s Provident Fund organisation, following loss of Rs 92.78 crore which was given to broking firms Home Trade Ltd and Gilt Edge for investing in government securities and the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation.
PTI
|
|
CST Amendments to hit industry The Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 that governs the levy of tax on the transactions involving inter-State sales is proposed to be amended. Introducing in Lok Sabha The Finance Bill, 2002 (Bill No. 6 of 2002) in the recent past, the Union Finance Minister proposed drastic amendments to the existing provisions of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. The term “sale” as contained in clause (g) of section 2 of the Act is proposed to be redefined so as to include within its ambit and scope even non-sale transactions such as transfer of property involved in the execution of works contract, hire-purchase agreements, transfer of goods otherwise than in pursuance of a contract between the parties and transfer of right to use any goods. These transactions involving inter-State movement of goods will now be attracting sales tax in view of the artificial meaning proposed to be assigned to “sale” under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 despite they otherwise are not recognised as such in the commercial field. Not only these amendments are bound to affect adversely the free flow of inter-State trade and commerce across the country but this development is going to become a source of countless disputes between the
assesses and the tax administrators. The judicial interpretation placed upon the provisions of section 6-A of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 governing the procedure for claiming deductions on account of stock or branch transfers, emphasised that it was not mandatory for the assessees to produce form ‘F’ in support of the statutory returns furnished by them. In other words, it was hitherto permissible for the assessees to furnish any other evidence in support of the claim of stock transfers or consignment transfers in lieu of statutorily prescribed form ‘F’. However, amendments are now proposed to these provisions so as to make the requirement of producing form ‘F’ mandatory. It will now become open to the sales tax authorities to assess to tax the transactions involving stock or branch transfers considering them as inter-State sales where the dealers registered under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 won’t be able to furnish forms ‘F’ at the time of assessment or within the period extended thereafter. Another significant feature of these amendments is the requirement of producing form ‘C’. Under the existing provisions of sub-section (5) of section 8 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, the state government were authorised to issue a notification dispensing with the requirement of production of form ‘C’ in respect of the claim of concessional rate of tax or exemption on inter-State sales by any class of dealers. However, this legislative power of exempting the assessees from producing forms ‘C’ exercisable by the States is proposed to be withdrawn. What precisely is provided in the proposed Finance Bill presented in the Lok Sabha (which stands approved by Lok Sabha) is that it will now become mandatory for every dealer claiming the benefit of either exemption or the concessional rate of tax to produce before the sales tax authorities forms ‘C’ at the time of assessment. This is seen in the trade circles as a severe blow to the process of simplification of the sales tax laws and the procedures. The provisions of section 15 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 governing the levy of tax on declared goods (also commonly known as goods of special importance as defined in section 14 of the Act) are also proposed to be amended. Hitherto, the states were specifically debarred from providing double taxation on the local sale or purchase of declared goods as clause (a) of this section provided that no State shall impose tax on commodities known as declared goods at more than one stage. However the amendments now proposed in the Finance Bill, 2002 seek to remove this statutory restriction thereby giving unbridled powers of levying multi-point tax on the items like iron and Steel goods, cereals, food-grains, coal, cotton, crude oil, jute and oil seeds etc. It will now become open to the State Legislatures to provide for double taxation on the sale or purchase of declared goods as far as their nature as intra-State transaction is concerned. The legitimate interests of the trade and industry have not been taken care of while introducing the proposed amendments. On a question whether the scheme of self-assessment wherein no declaration forms are required upto the turnover of Rs 1.00 crore in support of the returns, Mr Raj Kumar, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana, Chandigarh told this columnist that this facility will continue to be provided to the assessees even after introduction of amendments to the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.
|
|
Now fuel from grass, straw
London, May 11 A Canadian company is busy developing the bio-fuel, which, if mixed with conventional petrol, could substantially reduce our reliance on fossil fuel. The Logan Energy Corporation's technology has already attracted the attention of the oil giant Shell, which has invested 20 million pounds in the firm. Logan President Brian Foody said he thought UK drivers might have bio-fuels routinely mixed into their petrol within the next three to four years. Some countries, such as Brazil, already blend ethanol into their petrol, but "green fuels" have yet to make a major impact on British forecourts. "What we have developed is a process that takes straws and grasses, breaks them down into sugar, then ferments that sugar in the same way you would wine or beer. You then distil it and you get the natural fuel ethanol... It is made in a natural way. Burning the bio-ethanol in cars makes no net contribution to the greenhouse gases thought to be accelerating climate warming. Foody said bio-ethanol would to be mixed with ordinary petrol — the ratios would be variable. "You can imagine a situation where bio-ethanol goes from 10 per cent of fuel components up to perhaps 85 per cent. Flexible-fuel cars have already been developed — I drive one myself — that can run on any combination". A Shell spokesman said it was too early to say when motorists would find the new fuel at the pumps. "This is the first step on a long road, but we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think there was the potential," he said.
ANI
|
|
UTI declares dividend
Mumbai, May 11 A five per cent dividend (per annum payable monthly) has been declared for MIP 99 (II), MIP 2000 (II) and MIP 2000 (III) plans while it was 6 per cent in case of MIP 2001, UTI said in a release here today. UTI has declared a dividend of 5 per cent (per annum payable quarterly) for its GCGIP 94 plan, it added.
PTI
|
rc
by K. R. Wadhwaney Satellite system for airports security Air India has the knack of buying negative publicity. Its commercial and engineering units had planned diversion of flight before it took off from Hong Kong. Airport staff should have told passengers at the Hong Kong airport that the flight to Mumbai had been routed via Delhi. Had it been done there would have been no agitation on board the flight. The commander of the flight announced on public address (PA) system of the diversion only when the aircraft had entered Indian airspace. The passengers felt that they were being taken for a longer ride than necessary and virtually
gheroed the cabin crew. There was chaos and ugly scenes as some passengers threatened to be violent with the airline crew. When the flight landed at IGIA, the passengers locked up the aircraft doors with a view to preventing passengers from Delhi to board the aircraft. The diversion of the flight, according to the AI officials, was necessary as there was no aircraft available to operate a scheduled flight to Daman. As a result of an avoidable tussle between the passengers and the crew, the flight was inordinately delayed for more than six hours. Instead of saving money and time, it had to shell out more by way of additional parking fees and also withstand the wrath of the passengers. The government’s gesture to present three Airbus aircraft to Afghanistan is well received. The aircraft are 17 years old and Afghan pilots will be trained by AI commanders. Rigid maintenance of aircraft will be essential for smooth operations. If and when the aircraft are presented to Afghanistan, Air India will be three aircraft short. The depleted fleet will become more deplete. The airline has to obtain aircraft on lease without any loss of time so that its schedule does not undergo further hiccups. Satellite system All international airports will have a satellite-linked passenger profiling system to streamline security. The profiling details will carry full information about passengers. It will be monitored by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The estimated cost on the new system will be Rs 5 crore. BCAS and CISF officials will be provided training so that they are able to pick up odd “suspected” men in a crowd. The system is expected to provide a fool-proof security cover. According to aviation experts, the system will be a success if there is well coordinated effort by all agencies concerned. As it is, there is little understanding between two ministries — aviation and tourism. Bilateral services Bilateral air service agreements have been beneficial to AI and Indian Airlines. The agreements have been signed with more than 30 countries and the capacity considerably increased. Incidences of offloading have of course reduced and Air India has gained a sizeable profit through bilateral agreements. While the code-sharing has helped Air India, there is at present growing uncertainty of arrangement between the national carrier and Virgin Airline. There are conflicting reports. Air India says one thing, but the Virgin authorities paint a depressing picture. The start of the Air India-Virgin operation was rousing but likely severing of partnership may cause concern to both.
|
sti
by Praful R. Desai Effect of forgery Q: Whether application of the tenant should be allowed, where his signature on A.D. pertaining the notice and eviction petition as well as Vakalatnama were all forged? Ans: Delhi HC was considering this point in Smt Narinder Kaur v Smt Tejinder Kaur (2002 (1) RCJ 85) as under: The application of the tenant U/0.9 R.13 35-144 CPC was allowed by the Rent Controller on 6.7.94. In the intervening 3-1/2 years, however, the landlady had taken steps to ensure that this order would remain abortive and ineffectual. This was achieved by her firstly mentioning that an agreement to sell the suit property had been entered into a transaction purporting to be a sale of the property with the petitioner. The courts below have disbelieved the genuineness of the transaction of sale keeping all these facts in perspective. The HC was in total agreement with their findings. The case put forward before HC is that consequent upon the sale of the property, no doubt by a registered sale deed, the petitioner (new owner but may well be a proxy of the original landlady) had carried out wide spread construction on the demised premises. It is argued that equities are in her favour, but HC thought otherwise. She was legally bound to make requisite enquiries as to the legitimacy of the sale. On the strength of the decisions rendered in Mahesh Chand v Swaran Kaur (1974 Rajdh L.R.26), petitioner contends that instead of reshifting the property to the tenant, the proper relief would be to grant him compensation instead. That case in the opinion of the HC is not similar in facts. In the view of the HC where there has been a palpable abuse of judicial process thereby resulting in a miscarriage of justice of the most startling nature, adequate recompense should be made. The trauma and suffering of a tenant who finds himself on the road-due to the illegal machinations of the landlord cannot and must not be overlooked. If would give a fillip to the perpetration of trauds and illegalities similar to the one effected in this case. In these circumstances, the HC held that there is not reason to exercise jurisdiction U/Art 227 of the Constitution. In that way, the petition was dismissed. However, in addition to the costs of Rs 5,000 imposed by the Rent Control Tribunal, which has not deferred the petitioner in any manner in filling this frivolous petition, the petition is dismissed with further costs of Rs 10,000. The petitioner will deposit with the Registrar of this Court these costs of Rs 10,000 within 15 days, payable to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (Gujarat Earthquake) for onward transmission by the Registrar. |
co
Next Hometrade? The grapevine is abuzz with rumours that another dotcom could go the Hometrade way very shortly, and worse still take a co-operative bank down with it. Which one? Well, watch this space as the drama unfolds.
ISD rate war-Part II Remember what we said last week — ‘Take a ringside view and watch the ISD rate war unfold opines a veteran industry watcher who expects rates to be slashed by another 30 per cent very shortly’. Didn’t exactly that happen, and the best part is — there is a buzz that yet another cut is in the offing.
Box office seats It seems the management of a film production company is learning the tricks of the corporate trade. Special preview screenings of its forthcoming film are being organised for fund managers. But will that enhance the film’s box-office appeal? |
ty
*
The UTI Bank stock is trading at attractive valuations. With a steady earnings outlook, the stock should rise, going forward, says a notable value investor. *
Kinetic Engineering, the laggard in the motor cycle segment, seems to be making amends for the delay. Punters have opted for some pillion riding and might get off when volumes and interest gets sufficiently generated. * A domestic brokerage has come out with a buy call on
Thermax Limited. The brokerage is betting on the restructuring efforts of the company which is expected to gradually show up in the bottomline during the current year. * You could call it a case of old wine in new bottle. But one must also remember that older the wine, better the taste. So never mind the fact that players have lost count of the times the
Sify stake sale rumours have surfaced at the Satyam counter in the recent past. There always seem to be takers for the story. *
Reliance Industries may advance on further buying after the company announced a hike in product prices for the fourth time since March this year. The company hiked the price of partially-oriented yarn (POY) by 12.9 per cent, that of polyester staple fibre (PSF) by 9.4 per cent, and that of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by 6.2 per cent. *
Sterlite Optical may look up on hopes of a turnaround in the optical fibre industry. * The recent correction could be a good opportunity to accumulate
Geometric, says a trader. * A foreign brokerage has retained its underperformer rating on
Castrol, despite the improvement in operating margins during the March ending quarter. The brokerage has pointed to the degrowth in volumes and expects the trend to continue, along with rising raw material prices as base oil prices tend to catch with high crude prices. * General Musharraf’s victory in the referendum and India’s test firing of the missile seems to have charged up bulls at the
Bharat Electronics counter. Add to this the PSU angle and the better than expected rise in net profits, and bulls have every reason to run amok at the counter. *
Bajaj Auto may see some action after the company said its vehicle sales volumes rose 15 per cent in April 2002 over the same month last year, riding on motor cycles whose sales rose 65 per cent. * Indian call center business revenue expected to compound at 61 per cent to touch Rs 200 bn FY08. This will create bright growth prospects for an equipment supplier like
Tata Telecom, says a research analyst. * Moving over to commercial vehicles, players now seem to be lining up at the
Eicher Motors counter, which is regularly hitting 52-week highs. Eicher is the second largest player in light commercial vehicles segment after Telco. The company has been outperforming the domestic LCV sector growth for the last six years. *
Telco has recovered well to wipe enough red ink. Long-term performance continue to be suspect though, says an analyst. *
Cipla’s latest performance has impressed several brokerages, which have retained their buy call on the stock. However, a foreign brokerage is not convinced about the sustainability of omeprazole exports, given the ongoing litigation for the same between Andrx and Astrazeneca. *
Rolta India may see some action after the company announced that it has bagged a geo-engineering project valued at US $ 2 million from a leading electric and gas utility company based in USA. * Taking into account the one-time loss of Rs 50 crore,
Grasim’s results appear better than market expectations. Grasim is poised for an improved performance in the next few quarters, says a veteran industry watcher. * There are unconfirmed reports that
IOC is bidding strongly for IPCL. The increased presence of PSU’s in the bidding process for their sister concerns is a major concern. This has not gone down well with the market. * The market would remain range bound in the medium term until some major trigger comes in. The
Sensex will move in a range of 3,300-3,700. Since people don’t have confidence on recovery of the broad market, the activity would be stock specific, says a renowned investor.
— Ashok Kumar
|
bb
Buyer-seller meet Uco Bank UBI
Fine Switchgears Big B fans Deltron |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
