 |
Friday,
January 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Punjab economy needs tough measures
Indian firms focus on management tools
Contract farming scheme launched
Cotton industry fails to revive |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ranbaxy registers 3-fold rise in net
Markfed may register nominal profit
CDMA ‘technology of tomorrow’ GRAPHIC: PRODUCTION OF NEWSPRINT
Govt invites bids for NFL
|
|
Punjab economy needs tough measures New Delhi, January 16 The revenue deficit was around Rs 3,842 crore in 2001-02, which has increased considerably, the slack in tax and non-tax revenue realisation and the drop in revenue-GDP ratio should be corrected, as this is at present one of the lowest in the country, said sources in the PHDCCI. Sources said tough measures were needed by the Congress-led Amarinder Singh government to put the Punjab economy back on track. The state has not attracted huge investments despite its potential as the incentives offered by the state were not lucrative enough and were less competitive compared to those offered by other states. Apart from fulfilling the commitment of fully-tradeable bonds of Rs 600 crore towards capital subsidy arrears, as stated in the draft industrial policy, the Punjab Government should provide incentives in stamp duty, entry tax. The state’s public debt was around Rs 4,034 crore in 2002-03 as against Rs 1,146 crore in 1996-97. The quantum of government debt should be brought down to the level that reduces interest payment to a reasonable level. The
proportion of interest outgo to revenue receipt, including devolution and grants, should be about 18 per cent against around 25 per cent in the state at present, chamber sources said. On the tax structure, the industrial and trade body said to keep the burden of domestic taxes and not to escalate the price of commodities, the state should have a revenue neutral rate of not more than 10 per cent. The VAT should be a two-slab structure, besides the exceptional rates of 0, 1 and 20 per cent for specified items. There should be a 4 per cent VAT on declared goods and goods of common use and a revenue neutral rate for the remaining goods. On property tax, the industrial association said efforts should be made to enhance the share of property tax in municipal revenue and the unit area method should be adopted. The tax should be applicable on both residential and non-residential properties as the services are utilised by both categories of users. The reimposition of octroi has come under sharp criticism as this has adversely affected the competitiveness of the industry and trade in the state. Moreover, the neighbouring states have abolished octroi, which has made them more attractive for investment. The non-tax revenue in 2002-03 was projected at 35 per cent as against 52 per cent receipt from tax revenue. Sources said the government could raise the revenue by increasing the user charges, which would enable the government to allocate larger quantum of funds for developmental projects, enabling the state to approach international financial institutions for assistance. The state has witnessed a decline in capital expenditure from 94 per cent in 1997-98 to 46 per cent in 2001-02 as only a small proportion of expenditure was incurred on the creation of infrastructure and other capital assets and a large proportion of planned funds were diverted for non-developmental activities. Tourism is one area of least focus in the state, as the allocation for this sector was merely Rs 1.15 crore last fiscal compared to Rs 55 crore by Kerala. Indicating the huge tourist potential in Punjab, chamber sources said the state apart from enhancing budgetary allocation for this sector should also provide incentives as this sector had huge revenue and employment generation potential. |
|
Indian firms focus on management tools New Delhi, January 16 This was stated by Mr David Silverstein, President and CEO of USA-based Breakthrough Management Group (BMG) Inc, while talking to The Tribune. Mr Silverstein was here on a business promotion tour of the company which had recently announced opening up of its office in India. The company has offices in various countries, including South Africa, China, Thialand, Singapore and Turkey. “In India too, organisations are awakening to this realisation that there is tremendous opportunity for breakthrough performance, if a structured and rigorous methodology is adopted”, Mr Silverstein said adding , “ Indians stand a better chance to gain using such techniques as they are more enterprising in comparison to their counterparts in China”. The company, he told The Tribune, started its operations in China only three months ago. The ‘Six Sigma’ model by BMG provides the companies dedicated, well-trained problem solvers working in context of a well-architected support system, a powerful measure, analyse, improve and control (MAIC) process of variable reduction and alignment with the strategic priorities of the business, generally with a sharp focus on financial results. Users of this model include companies like GE, Siemens, Johnson and Johnson, Bausch and Lomb, Du Pont and several others. “While the average improvement in return on investments in this programme in case of companies in the USA varies between six and 10 times, a company can normally expect this increase in return anywhere between four and 20 times”, said Mr Silverstein. |
|
Contract farming scheme launched Chandigarh, January 16 Addressing the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners from all over the state to chalk out an effective strategy to implement the scheme of contract farming in Punjab, Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister Punjab, said,‘‘ In the first phase Punjab had identified crops like Spring Maize 11,000 acres, Sunflower 13,500 acres, Kharif Maize 1,05,500 acres, Basmati 15,000 acres, castor 6000 acres and jowar 5,000 acres.’’ He said that the Punjab Agro had been assigned the task of diversification of agriculture in Punjab. Attempts had been made, he said, to re-structure the cropping pattern through diversification of some area from wheat paddy to high value commercial crops like, oilseeds, fruits, sugarcane and cotton etc. These were not only remunerative but also comparatively less water intensive. Mr Himmat Singh, MD, Punjab Agro said that the corporation had proposed a Multipartite and multi year model for contract farming in the state involving statutory bodies and private companies jointly participating with the farmers. There would be separate organisations responsible for inputs supply, credit provisions, production management, procurement, marketing and processing. Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included Mrs. Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Agriculture & Rural Development Minister, Dr Mohinder Kumar Rinwa, Parliamentary Secretary Horticulture, Mr P.K. Verma, Financial Commissioner Development, Mr Bhagat Singh, Financial Commissioner Revenue.
|
|
Cotton industry fails to revive Bathinda, January 16 For the past six years, a number of cotton ginning and pressing mills have been closed down as its owners have been finding it difficult to run their units in profit due to the shortage of raw material and fluctuating prices of cotton in the international market. The ginning and pressing industry suffered a severe setback in this region when in 1996-97, about 120 mills were closed down. In 1997-98, about 50 mills were closed down. In 1998-99, 27 mills were closed down in this region as on the one hand, there was a shortage of raw material and on the other hand, increase in overhead expenses due to increase in the rates of electricity. Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that in the past five years, about 300 cotton ginning and pressing industries had closed down rendering more than one lakh persons jobless. During the current season, various ginning and pressing mills, which had been in operation last year, had closed down. In Muktsar, out of 10 mills running last year, only six mills have been operating this year. In Abohar, 18 mills were in operation last year against 13 mills running presently. In Sriganganagar, only six mills were running in the current season against the eight mills which were running last year and in Padampur town, only two mills were running in the current season against four mills last year. However, in most of the towns of Haryana, the number of cotton ginning and pressing mills running this year had been the same as last year. Mr Ashok Kapur, president, Northern India Cotton Association, pointed out that about 25 cotton ginning and pressing mills had closed down in the current season due to the shortage of raw material and increase in overhead expenses. |
|
Ranbaxy registers 3-fold rise in net
New Delhi, January 16 Ranbaxy’s net sales rose 45 per cent to about Rs 776 crore in the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2002. RLL and its subsidiaries recorded consolidated sales of around Rs 1,091 crore and Rs 3,832 crore during the quarter, respectively. Net consolidated sales after deducting trade discounts were Rs 1058.9 crore and Rs 3711.3 crore for the fourth quarter last year, reflecting growth of 31 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively, over corresponding periods of
2001.UNI
|
|
Markfed may register nominal profit
Chandigarh, January 16 This was disclosed by Mr Gurbinder Singh Atwal, Parliamentary Secretary, Cooperation, today while inaugurating the physical refinery at Punjab Markfed Vanaspati Plant, Khanna. He said refinery would bring down the process cost substantially and make its product more competitive. Mr S.S. Channy, MD, Markfed, said that the refinery had been designed by Markfed’s own engineers and the project had been executed at nearly 30 per cent of the estimated cost.
TNS
|
|
CDMA ‘technology of tomorrow’
Chandigarh, January 16 CDMA, said Mr Keswani in a press release, was the technology of tomorrow. Since it was only a decade old technology, CDMA had been deployed in the most developed countries of the world including the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Hong Kong etc and had been well received in developing countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, and Israel because of its low cost. CDMA was not a technology for voice communication but for the entire multimedia experience, he reiterated. Commenting on the “proprietary technology” reference given in Thursday’s report, Mr Keswani clarified that it only meant the payment of a certain amount of royalty to Qualcomm and had no impact on the service provider in any other way. CDMA had the ability to offer high speed data applications. The only limiting factor was that under the regulations these facilities were not allowed.
TNS
|
|
Asian Paints has registered an increase of 27.1 per cent in its net profit at Rs 436.7 million in the third quarter ended December 31, 2002 over Rs 343 million posted in the corresponding quarter last year. Asian Paints said here today in a statement that its net sales for the period under review registered a growth of 9.1 per cent to Rs 4,133.6 million compared to Rs 3,787.9 million for the corresponding quarter of the last financial year. Profit before tax was Rs 687.5 million compared to Rs 532.9 million in the third quarter of the last financial year. For the nine-month period ended December 2002, Asian Paints registered a net profit of Rs 1,138.1 million up 35.9 per cent over Rs 837.4 million recorded in the corresponding period last year. UNI
|
|
|
Rising polyestor prices took Indo Rama’s net profit to Rs 38.93 crore in the third quarter ending December 31, up 160 per cent from Rs 14.97 crore in the year-on period. The profit was arrived after provisioning for a MAT of Rs 3.23 crore and deferred tax of Rs 15.04 crore against a deferred tax of Rs 8.31 crore for the corresponding period last year. During October to December 2002, Indo Rama totalled a turnover of Rs 663.87 crore compared to Rs 462.06 crore in the same period of previous year.
UNI
|
|
|
UTI Bank net up 44 pc
Mumbai, January 16 The Bank’s total income has increased from Rs 394.04 crore in the year-ago period to Rs 489.43 crore in the December 2002 quarter.
UNI
Syndicate Bank has posted a net profit of Rs 100.40 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2002, registering a 0.41 per cent growth from the Rs 99.99 crore in the previous comparable quarter.
UNI
|
|
Hind Lever Kochi, January 16 |
|
bb
PSB camp Gramin Bank Pepsi |
 |
| 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 | |
