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Thursday,
March 13, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Industrial production grows 6.4 pc in January
Plea to raise power tariff challenged
Haldea report & power reforms in Punjab
Jet Airways, Amadeus sign agreement |
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Withdraw duty on edible oils: chamber Czech firm offers to help HAL on AJTs Punjab Govt floats loan
Coca-Cola bonanza for consumers
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Industrial production grows 6.4 pc in January New Delhi, March 12 Indicating a continuous uptrend, the industrial production recorded a 6.4 per cent growth in January 2003 alone as against 3.8 per cent recorded during comparable month of the last year, according to the data released by government today. While performance of mining and electricity sectors during the period was good, the most heartening feature was the upsurge in the capital goods sector which is bound to have a catalysing effect on the overall industrial production. The manufacturing sector, which accounts for about 80 per cent weight in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), shot up by 6.9 per cent in January while recording a healthy 5.8 per cent growth during April-January period of the current financial year. The mining sector followed close to clock a 5.4 per cent growth during the first ten months of 2002-03, which is quite an improvement over the one per cent growth recorded during the comparable period of the last fiscal. Electricity generation posted only a moderate growth at 3.8 per cent so far during the current fiscal as against 2.9 per cent increase recorded during April-January 2001-02, as per the quick estimates of IIP released by the Central Statistical Organisation.
PTI |
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Plea to raise power tariff challenged Chandigarh, March 12 In its tariff petition, the board has projected a net revenue gap of Rs 1,862 crore in 2003-04 based on the current tariff and expenses. It has projected the average cost of supply for the next financial year at Rs 3.85/kWh as against Rs 3.11/kWh, approved by the commission last year. It has claimed that despite Rs 950 crore subsidy from the state government, there would be a short fall of Rs 1,401 crore revenue against the estimated annual revenue requirement (ARR) of Rs 8,161 crore during 2002-03. During the public hearing conducted by the Regulatory Commission here yesterday and today, the industrial, consumer and farmer associations have pleaded that the board should be asked to bear the additional expenses, as it has failed to cut down T&D losses from 26.5 per cent to 24.5 per cent, and to implement the station heat rate to 2500 Kcal per unit at its plants, transit loss in coal supply to 3 per cent and payment to the Railways in time. The board had agreed to execute these measures, during the previous tariff petition. Mr R.C. Pahooja, Assistant Resident Director, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in his petition to the commission, said, ‘‘Had the board implemented the promised measures, besides checking the annual power theft worth Rs 500 crore in the state, adjustment of liability of surplus staff at Thein Dam and other sites, the actual tariff rates would have come down to Rs 2.65 per unit.’’ The CII has also urged the Regulatory Commission to issue directions to the state government to release subsidy worth Rs 1,400 crore for the subsidised supply to the agricultural sector during 2002-03. The state government has also to pay Rs 365 crore to the board, on account of additional supply of 915 MUs to the farm sector due to drought like conditions. Farmer unions in their submission today, warned the Regulatory commission, against any tariff increase. Mr Sukhdev Singh Bhopal, president, Khetibari and Kisan Vikas Front, said; ‘‘The average consumption of power per tubewell is 1100 hours per year, against the board’s claim of 1700 hours. Mr Angad Singh, General Secretary, Consumer Protection Forum, said: ‘‘Since the board has failed to implement the directions of the commission to check its expenses and power pilferage, the tariff should not be hiked.’’ |
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Haldea report & power reforms in Punjab ELECTRIC power has become the fourth basic need of modern human society: next only to food, shelter and clothing. The Punjab State Electricity Board, envisaged to be an autonomous organisation under the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948, has played a major role in ushering the Green Revolution in Punjab to make it one of the most progressive states in India. In utter violation of the Act, the PSEB has never been allowed to function as fully autonomous by the state bureaucracy and politicians. Due to the hard work put in by the engineers and staff since the reorganisation of the PSEB in 1967, many achievements have been made up to March, 2002. The energy consumption increased from 700 million units to 19,851 million units/annum, the consumer number from 6.35 lakh to 54 lakh per capita consumption from 160 units to 806 units (highest in India), installed generation capacity from 553 mega watts to 5700 mega watts, electric pump sets from 46,000 to 8.3 lakh each pumps set adding 45 tonnes of food production. The 100 per cent rural electrification was achieved in 1976, bringing a great rise in the standard of living of the rural population of Punjab. The PSEB’s thermal plants achieved an average plant load factor and a plant availability factor of 80.2% and 87.87% respectively against an all India average of 69% & 80.3%. While these are no mean achievements, the PSEB could function much better than it has functioned had the suggestions given by the PSEB Engineers Association from time to time to the PSEB management and the Punjab Government on ensuring financial viability, autonomous working, professional and fixed tenure management, reduction of line losses and control of thefts etc. been implemented. The PSEB, which registered a cash surplus of Rs 105 crore during 1995-96, is now running into a commercial loss of Rs 2,000 crore, mainly due to the populist policies of the successive state governments. Different sections of consumers were allowed subsidised power, including free power to agriculture, without compensating the board. During 1997-2002, eight Chairmen, most of them from the IAS cadre, were shuffled. The free agricultural supply and other populist steps alone cost more than Rs 8,500 crore to the PSEB to make it financially sick. And now, the vested interests are forcing a failed model of power sector reforms on the PSEB through the Haldea Committee by advocating trifurcation of the PSEB structurally into generation, transmission and distribution corporations: the distribution corporation to be further divided in sub-companies while the superstructure will be watched by a holding company. The PSEB will be taken out of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948, and governed by the Companies Act to draw huge loans from the capital market and international agencies and privatised in stages. While this shall help the vested interests to siphon off public funds, the common masses of Punjab will be crushed, as the people will have to pay a tariff of Rs 5 to 6 per unit. The example of greatly eulogised Andhra Pradesh is before us where the domestic, industrial and commercial tariff has touched Rs 5.50, Rs 4.50 and Rs 7 respectively despite the state government’s cash subsidy of over Rs 1,600 crore to the transmission company. For public knowledge, some facts regarding power sector have been briefed below: (i) The corporation/privatisation and introduction of market forces in the power sector has not only failed miserably in Orissa, Haryana, Andhra etc but also the world over. The famous “California black out” is the future of Punjab where the tariffs rose from 13 cents per unit to 100 cents per unit during peak hour and parts of California remained without power for long periods. Similarly, in the UK the cost price of electricity rose from Rs 1.93 per unit to Rs 750 due to an artificial scarcity created by the power trading companies in the private sector. (ii) In the recently unbundled Delhi Viduyt Board, while the government controlled transmission company purchasing power at Rs 2.50 to Rs 3.25 per unit, it is forced to sell power to private distribution companies (two companies of BSES and one of the Tatas) at a rate of Rs 1.35 to 1.38 per unit who are in turn selling it to Delhi consumers at per unit rates ranging from Rs 3.60 to Rs 5.00 to make windfall profits. The loss to the state owned company due to the supply of below cost price power to private companies will be borne by the Delhi Government. This golden Delhi formula to load the Government Company with losses and award private distribution companies with huge profits will be applied to Punjab consumers also. (iii) In Haryana the unbundling has resulted in costly tariff @ 50% higher than Punjab on an average), multiply the posts for bureaucrats in power companies, power sector placed practically under the control of the district administration while the financial crunch in the power sector continues unabated. The distribution companies are running under bureaucratic control while the purchase of engineering equipment has been put under political control. This may be the type of “corporate culture” which the policy makers want to introduce in the name of “power sector reforms”. (iv) In Orissa while the US-based AES distribution company has left the state with unpaid power bills of over Rs 403 crore after it failed to restore power following cyclone in the coastal areas for over nine months, the tariffs have gone up by leaps & bounds. As per the Kanungo Committee Report, the private sector BSES owes Rs 680 crore to the Government transmission company GRIDCO. The T&D losses, which were 46.97% in 1995-96 are now 46.63% and theft of energy continues unabated even after four years of private sector control of distribution business. (v) In Rajasthan despite corporatisation, no private sector company has come to take over the distribution system even in the creamy area of Jaipur what to talk of rural & suburban area. (vi) Reliance on the private sector for generation has miserably failed. During the Ninth Plan, the private sector added only 28.8% of its targeted generation capacity as against 87.91% achieved by the state sector. In Punjab, the Goindwal Sahib Thermal Station of GVK has not come up despite the fact that this plant was allocated to GVK more than five years ago & a power purchase agreement signed in 2000. The private sector transmission company, KERPL, preferred over Government of India company Power Trading Corporation could not deliver a single unit to the PSEB against a target of 50MW. Enron is the greatest misadventure of the power sector in India. (vii) During the severe drought of year 2002 caused by a partial failure of the monsoon, the PSEB diverted over 900 million units to tubewells to save the paddy crop by restricting power supply to industry, including highest paying steel furnaces. In a market-operated power industry advocated by Mr G. Haldea, this would not have been possible and the paddy crop of Punjab would have been destroyed. While the structural unbundling of the PSEB with a whopping investment requirement of over Rs 16,000 crore being proposed by the Haldea Committee will result in a rise in tariff to Rs 5 to 6 per unit, the Functional unbundling of the PSEB along with a tripartite agreement of the Government of Punjab, PSEB engineers/ employees as proposed by the association will ensure reliable power supply at an affordable rate. In a functionally unbundled PSEB, accountability and empowerment will be ensured all across the PSEB from the Technical Member to a JE. The implementation of the Haldea Committee report is far from being a powerful challenge. The real challenge lies in implementing the proposal of functional unbundling given by this association coupled with leasing activities like capacitor installation ensuring minimum power factor at 0.95, rectification of inefficient pump sets, installation and replacement of energy meters, implementation of the online computer system to the private sector on a shared profit basis. This will not only achieve competition between the private sector and the PSEB but also ensure that no kickbacks are received by the “vested interests” in the procurements. We are all out for competition with the private sector on a level-playing field. This is the second powerful challenge. (The writer is the patron of the PSEB Engineers Association) |
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Jet Airways, Amadeus sign agreement New Delhi, March 12 The partnership between Amadeus and Jet Airways underlines a joint commitment of the two companies to work towards delivering an immense value to the travel agents. With this partnership, Amadeus’ Central Ticketing Server will now capture all bookings made on Jet Airways by agents across India and will post the data records to the airline everyday. This will enable the airline to access detailed sales reports at the end of each day, as against once a fortnight earlier. The airline will now know, on a daily basis, the sales made by a travel agency, changes in demand in a particular class of booking and the regional status of demand as a part of this agreement. This will give the airline, among other advantages, time to analyse and take quick decisions based on sales trends — a unique step towards adding efficiency to the information management system of the airline.
TNS |
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Withdraw duty on edible oils: chamber New Delhi, March 12 “Imposing an 8 per cent excise duty on branded and packaged vanaspati and refined oils will create serious price imbalance in the edible oils and vanaspati market as there are also packaged and branded products like raw or semi-refined oils (mustard, groundnut or soyabean) originating from expellers which will not be covered by the excise duty”, said PHDCCI today. The chamber said this would make the branded products costlier by Rs 3.50 to Rs 4 per litre. Moreover, other consumer items like branded flour, bread, tea, coffee, spices and milk are exempt from excise duty. “During the past one year, due to the steep rise in global prices of edible oils and shortfalls in indigenous production of edible oils, the consumer prices have already gone up by an average of over 40 per cent, the chamber added. |
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Czech firm offers to help HAL on AJTs New Delhi, March 12 Aero Vodochody, which has been trying hard to enter the bidding race for the long-pending AJT deal for the past year or so, had apparently made this move to attract the attention of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) which will soon take a final decision on the issue before the clearance by the Cabinet. It has also offered to help HAL in marketing the AJTs globally also. The Czech company was also in full strength at the recently concluded Aero-India show at Bangalore where it gave a full aero display of the L-159B. In a release issued here by Aero Vodochody, it said the offer made would bring state-of the art AJT to India and make HAL a major global supplier of the AJTs. Aero Vodochody has offered its technological and marketing assistance to HAL to co-produce and market L159B for India as well as other markets.
TNS |
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Punjab Govt floats loan
Chandigarh, March 12 Disclosing this here today, an official spokesman said that this ten years tenure loan would bear interest at 6.75 per cent per
annum, and interest would be paid half yearly on September 12 and March 12 each year. He said that the RBI would have the discretion to accept or reject any or all applications either wholly or partially if it deemed it appropriate to do so, without assigning any reason at the time of closure of sale.
PTI |
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Coca-Cola bonanza for consumers
Jalandhar, March 12
Addressing a press conference here today, Mr Aseem Mathur, Regional Marketing Manager, said that the unique scheme provides a prize or a discount offer with each bottle of Coca-Cola. “All prizes except walkman and TV set will be given to the winners instantly at the outlet itself,” he said. “The prize offers include 21 inch colour televisions, Walkmans, 500 ml mobile PET, 300 ml coke bottles, single serve Sunfill pouches, Cremica Salties biscuits, Cash prizes of Rs 25 and Rs 5 and discount coupon of Rs 5 on purchase of 1 litre Ginni oil pouches,” Mr Mathur added.
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