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Thursday,
January 23, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Basic phone charges may go up to Rs 1.60 RIL
scholarships for kids
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Tax
collections rise 17 pc Gold
glitters, touches 5,840 Projector
units face closure CORPORATE NEWS
SOTC’s
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Basic phone charges may go up to Rs 1.60 New Delhi, January 22 TRAI is currently busy putting in place a formula where the cost of local calls of fixed line services made from one network to another network could increase. The proposed IUC formula, if implemented, could increase the basic phone charges from Rs 1.20 to Rs 1.60, industry sources say. The new ruling would also mean reduction of cell to fixed line calls and a hike in fixed lines to cell phone calls. Basic telecom operators, who also offer limited mobile services under the WLL platform, have already written to TRAI that the imposition of an access charge on fixed line calls was unwarranted as fixed line operators were not earning any airtime revenue as was the case with cellular phone operators. “Any imposition of access charge will go against the larger consumer interests”, an official of a basic phone operator said. Sources indicated that an access charge of about 40 paise per minute was likely to be imposed on fixed line calls made to cellular phones. Further, indications suggest that the IUC could be structured in such a way that “it hurts everybody a little”. Basic operators were of the view that the proposed IUC regime could tantamount to penalising the 40 million fixed phone subscribers for the benefit of 10 million cellular phone users. They also pointed out that this could boil down to a “back-door entry” for the calling party pay regime by cell phone operators. To arrest any erosion of margins and revenue, basic operators could pass on a significant portion of the access charge to consumers. GSM cellular operators on the other hand point out that under the existing system a WLL mobile subscribers calling a fixed line pays Rs 1.20 per three minutes and the fixed service providers retains 100 per cent with no access charge. On the other hand, a mobile subscriber calling the same fixed line pays airtime plus an access charge of Rs 1.20 per minute of which Rs 1.20 is passed on to the FSP. “WLL operators are grossly misrepresenting facts involved in the matter, cleverly camouflaging their own commercial interests under the garb of consumer interest. They have been beneficiaries of a unidirectional interconnection charge, which, hopefully will be rectified by the coming IUC”, an official of a GSM mobile operator said.
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RIL scholarships for kids
Mumbai, January 22 Reliance’s founder-chairman Dhirubhai Ambani had only one regret in his life that he did not have the resources to pursue higher education and believed that this constraint must cease to exist for India to achieve its rightful place in the world. The scholarships have been instituted as a tribute to this philosophy, the company said. The company has dedicated January 23 as shareholders’ day, the day it got listed on the stock exchanges, 25 year ago. The company plans to begin the year-long silver jubilee celebrations from tomorrow, a company spokesperson said. To set up 5,800 petrol stations
The Reliance Group Chairman Mukesh Ambani said here today the company would set up 5,800 petrol stations throughout the country by 2005. Mr Ambani told reporters on the sidelines of the “Chemtech plus Pharma World Expo and International Conference 2003’’ that the Reliance Group would set up 2,500 petrol stations by 2004 and the entire network of 5,800 petrol stations would be in place by 2005. It may be recalled that the Union Petroleum and Gas Ministry had given permission to the private sector to set up 8,600 petrol stations throughout the country.
UNI
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Tax collections rise 17 pc New Delhi, January 22 Direct taxes increased by 20.47 per cent to Rs 53,499 crore as compared to Rs 44,408 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year. Indirect tax collections registered a growth of 15.41 per cent and stood at Rs 94,678 crore as against Rs 82,036 crore during the
corresponding period in the last fiscal year. Corporation tax collections increased by 29.65 per cent to Rs 29,529 crore during the first nine months of this fiscal as compared to Rs 22,776 crore in the same period last year. Income tax collections increased by a moderate 11.83 per cent to 23,664 crore till December this fiscal as against Rs 21,160 crore a year ago.
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Gold glitters, touches 5,840
New Delhi, January 22 The yellow metal saw the last highest level of Rs 5,810 per 10 gram on February 6, 1996. Gold commenced the day higher at Rs 5,840 per 10 gram level as jitters about the rising US-Iraq tension which triggered buying by stockists pushing general investors to seek refuge in the precious metals. A bullish trend in the international markets as gold touched $ 360 an ounce, the new high since March, 1997, on all-round buying by international traders also supported the rising trend. Marketmen said traders were buying either to adjust the pending short position or shifting their funds in gold market following poor performance of the US equity markets. A profit selling pulled down gold prices in domestic markets here and it climbed down to settle at Rs 5,820 per 10 gram, still showing a significant gain of Rs 40. Ornaments also moved up by a same margin at Rs 5,670 per 10 gram while sovereign rose by Rs 25 at Rs 4,450 per piece of eight gram. Silver also moved up by Rs 65 at Rs 7,995 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 65 at Rs 8,005 per kg. Silver coins were distinctly higher by Rs 100 at Rs 12,100/12,200 per 100 pieces.
PTI
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Projector units face closure Nakodar January 22 Nakodar is the only city in the entire North where cinema projectors are manufactured and repaired. A large number of cinemas in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Nepal and Bangladesh, are either still running projectors made here or using spare parts made by some existing units. Though people setting new cinemas preferred imported projectors nowadays, most of old cinemas and the army authorities still prefer to rely on local mechanics for servicing of their projectors. But as the popularity of cinema theatres declines due to far decade-long militancy, “faulty” policies of the state government and easy availability of alternatives like cable TV, video and VCDs, the projector industry also suffered a jolt and gradually people who were into projector manufacturing had no option but to shut down their units for their growing financial non-viability. The situation has come to such a pass that there are only one or two cinema projector manufacturing units which are still in working condition along with about five ancillary units which manufacture spare parts, for their supply to local units or to Delhi and Mumbai-based cinema projector sellers. Talking to The Tribune, Mr Praveen Kumar of Vishwakarma Projector Corporation said his father had remodelled the famous US-based Century projector and had started selling it under Vipco brand name. He said in the seventies the situation was such that cine owners had to wait for their turn for repair of their projectors or for installation of new ones. “Now you can imagine, our last projector was sold in UP last year. Now as most of cinemas have closed down, their owners don’t want to spend Rs 2000-3000 required for maintenance of their projectors. Moreover the army authorities, which had about 50 mobile or stationary projectors, have discarded most of these or have replaced these with LCD projectors in defence cinemas,” he said. “Growing losses have made people shift to either farming or to sewing machine manufacturing. The industry which was based on a labour force of about 200-300 people has just 20-25 persons now,” said Narottam Lal of the B.N. Industries. He said the repair work had also came to a standstill, particularly, in Punjab.
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CORPORATE NEWS
New Delhi, January 22 The company’s profit before tax for the third quarter ended December 31, 2002, stood at Rs 131.23 crore. Telco had made a provision of Rs 55.52 crore towards deferred and current tax The company’s operating margins in third quarter ended December 31, 2002, improved to 13.1 per cent, the highest in 15 quarters, from 12.1 per cent in the second quarter and 10 per cent in Q3 of 2001-02. The total revenue for the third quarter grew by 24.3 per cent to Rs 2,585.99 crore. Sales of commercial vehicles in the domestic market increased to 27692 in the quarter, an increase of 35 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Passenger vehicle sales in the quarter were 21,903, an increase of 15 per cent year-on-year. The Indigo, launched in December ‘02, has received an enthusiastic response from customers with a good order booking position, a company statement said. The company signed a long-term agreement with MG Rover of the UK for manufacture and supply of Rover-branded Tata Indica vehicles in the UK and continental Europe. HCL Infosystems today announced a profit before tax of Rs 32 crore on a total revenue of Rs 624.5 crore in the second quarter, registering a growth of 109 per cent. With this the company claims to have displaced H-P from the number one slot in the commercial PC market during the July-September quarter. It has captured a market share of 8 per cent as per the latest International Data Corporation report. HCL Infosystem had a profit before tax of 15. 4 crore in Q 2 last year. Ambuja Cement Eastern has posted a net profit of Rs 7.46 crore on a turnover of Rs 86.80 crore as against a loss of Rs 5.39 crore on a turnover of Rs 89.53 crore in corresponding period last year. Ambuja Cement Rajasthan has earned a cash profit of Rs 5.26 crore on a turnover of Rs 77.06 crore against a cash loss of Rs 4.11 crore on a turnover of Rs 72.69 crore for the quarter ended on December 2001. Hind Lever Chemicals Ltd Board will consider a proposal for the merger of the company with Tata Chemicals (TCL) at its meeting on January 24. The meeting is likely to consider the share exchange ratio for the proposed merger, if approved at the meeting, the company said in a notice to the BSE today. The meeting will also consider the draft for the proposed scheme of arrangement for the merger of the company with TCL. Blue Star Infotech earned a net profit growth of 27 per cent at around Rs 12.5 crore in the first nine months of this fiscal. Its consolidated revenue for the nine months, ending December 31, 2002, increased by 30 per cent at about Rs 59 crore, the company said in a statement here today.
Agencies
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New Delhi, January 22
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