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Thursday,
June 19, 2003, Chandigarh, India
  
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Punjab hires consultancy firm for report on SEZs
Excise Dept to go online
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Vita move kicks up row
VSNL signs pact with MobileFirst
Khaitan to set up new plant in HP
GAIL strikes oil, gas near Ahmedabad
Satyam in pact with WB
IOC to import crude oil
ICICI Bank offers VRS Satnam Overseas net up 24 per cent
Exports to Russia falls 13.97 pc
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Punjab hires consultancy firm for report on SEZs Chandigarh, June 18 Talking to The Tribune, he said the state government had announced to set up three SEZs in its New Industrial Policy. However, no progress could be made in this regard as the state government had failed to arrange the required land as per the specifications of the Centre. The government had now assigned the task to the Punjab Small Industries and Exports Corporation, headed by Mr Arun Goyal. Feedback Ventures, which is already providing consultancy services to the state government on various infrastructure projects run by the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board, has made a presentation to the high-powered committee of the government. Now it has been asked to submit a preliminary report on the feasibility of the project by June end, after consulting various departments of the state government and industrial associations. The official said the report would be put before the state Cabinet and then before the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to get sanction for the project. He said the ministry had already given sanction to eight SEZs, including Visakhapatnam, Surat, Madras, Noida, Cochin, Kandla and Falta SEZs. The Centre had reportedly turned down the request of the Punjab Government to give clearance to set up three SEZs in the districts of Patiala, Amritsar and in the Ludhiana-Jalandhar belt, claiming that the state government should submit a detailed feasibility report of the project. The state government had also reportedly pleaded the Centre to relax the condition of keeping at least 1,000 hectares for each SEZ in view of the fact there was scarcity of land in the state. It has submitted that the state had the infrastructure and raw material required to set up SEZs for the production of textiles, auto-parts, machine tools and agro-processing items. So the condition of land should be relaxed. The Centre had asked the state government to come up with a detailed project report based on some professional consultancy. The textile and auto parts industrial associations of the state have been making efforts to convince the state and Centre to speed up the process, arguing that the state could emerge as big foreign exchange earner by adopting the policy. The SEZs, if established, would turn up as a designated duty-free enclave and would be treated as foreign territory for trade operations and duties and tariffs. |
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Excise Dept to go online SAS Nagar, June 18 This was stated by Mr Sardool Singh, Excise and Taxation Minister, Punjab, addressing a press conference here today. He said computerisation was a step towards E-governance and would provide employment to about 300 to 400 persons. The work on the project would start from next month. The agreements were signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Excise and Taxation Technical Services Agency (ETTSA) in the presence of Mr D.P. Reddy, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Punjab. Mr Reddy, who accompanied the minister, said computers would be installed at all 35 information collection centres located on the inter-state borders and five offices functioning at Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala headquarters. He said the aim was to make the offices paperless. The project would be implemented on a turn-key basis. The minister said DSPs would be deputed at the division-level, along with other staff, to check the smuggling of liquor. He said letters to the Home Secretary and the DGP, Punjab, had been written requesting for additional staff on deputation. Nakas would be set up at the state borders and night patrolling conducted. The police staff on deputation would now work under the Department of Excise and Taxation and the service reports of the staff deputed would be written by Excise and Taxation officials. Mr Sardool Singh said the Punjab Government was ready to implement VAT but consensus from the Centre was awaited. The second agreement was signed between ETTSA and M/s GTIC (India) Pvt Ltd, a branch of the GTIC of the USA. They had been selected as software developers for the system. The project would provide a discernible attitudinal change in the organisation. The training of all users, beginning from a clerk to the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, was an integral part of the project which would be provided by M/s GTIC (India) Pvt Ltd. Among other proposals to modernise the tax administration, the adoption of VAT as a measure of tax
reform, was also in the mandate of ETTSA. With the objective to facilitate smooth switchover from sales tax to VAT, M/s KPMG Consulting Pvt Ltd had been appointed as a consultant. |
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Vita move kicks up row Chandigarh, June 18 The federation is currently holding interviews for selecting new distributors for the union territory of Chandigarh, which has been divided into three zones. At present Vita milk is being supplied in the union territory by three distributors. While the federation has invited applications for appointing distributors in Chandigarh through advertisements in various newspapers, no such formality was observed when it appointed an additional dealer in Shimla and Panchkula. The existing dealers allege that the federation issued letters of intent (LoI) to additional distributors at these places a day after the receipt of applications. In Panchkula, the additional distributor is the owner of a sweet shop of the town, who is allegedly close to a senior official of the Haryana Government. In Shimla, the additional distributor is a homoeopath and is allegedly operating through a person who sells milk brands rival to Vita. The federation invited applications for new distributors for Chandigarh first on May 9 last. According to the advertisement, applicants must have an experience of marketing at least 10,000 litres of milk everyday. However, on May 22, the federation published another advertisement in which the condition relating to experience was dropped. A senior officer of the federation said the condition was dropped so that even fresh faces could enter the business. He said for the past several years, the sale had been stagnant around 14,000 litres against the sale of over 1 lakh litres of Verka milk. However, the existing distributors allege that the condition was dropped because the persons whom the federation wanted to oblige did not fulfil the condition. A spokesperson of the newly-formed Vita Distributors Association said out of about 14,000 litres of Vita milk being sold in Chandigarh everyday, about 12,000 litres were being sold in the areas which had been categorised as zone III by the federation. He said while there were no takers for the distributorship of zone I and II, the distributorship for zone III, which was already a developed market for Vita milk, was predetermined. He claimed that it would go to a partnership firm owned by two influential persons whom the federation had already obliged in other towns. He further claimed that even the partnership deed was drafted after the influential persons had separately applied for distributorship of zone III, which comprises areas like Mani Majra, Sectors 7, 26, 27, 28, Industrial Area and a number of villages. He said the move would ruin the existing distributors who had worked hard and had made a huge investment to promote Vita milk in the face of tough competition posed by Verka. The federation officer said the new or additional dealers were being appointed purely to promote the business interests of the federation. He said there was a provision in the agreement with the existing distributors that the federation could appoint additional or new distributors at any time without giving notice. |
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VSNL signs pact with MobileFirst
New Delhi, June 18 With an existing subscriber base of over three million, the MobileFirst alliance is one of the biggest consumers of long distance minutes. Through this agreement VSNL will be able to leverage the size of the alliance to increase its market share of long distance traffic. Apart from the alliance partners, VSNL would also carry long distance traffic for Hutch and Idea who are the strategic partners of the MobileFirst alliance. The widespread MobileFirst subscriber base with a contiguous pan-India foot-print will now have full access to the VSNL network. With this agreement, VSNL will be the first-in-route for all outgoing ILD traffic for the MobileFirst alliance, said Mr S.K. Gupta, Managing Director, VSNL. — UNI
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Khaitan to set up new plant in HP
Kolkata, June 18 “We are setting up a new facility in Himachal Pradesh. Manufacturing at the plant is expected to start from July,” company vice-chairman Sunil K. Khaitan told PTI here today. The new facility, the company’s fourth after Kolkata, Faridabad and Hyderabad, would have a production capacity of five lakh units per annum, he said. While investment for the new plant was not substantial, “it will enable us to avail the benefit of exemption of excise duty for manufacture in the hilly state”. With the beginning of operations at the new plant, the company’s total production capacity would increase to 30 lakh units per annum. Meanwhile, the company, upbeat about its new launch ‘Epro’, was planning to explore new markets for enhancing its export performance. Total export remained stagnant at about one lakh units in 2002-03. “We are trying to explore markets for our new line of portable fans. We strive to compete with the Chinese fan manufacturers in the segment,” he said. Export last year had taken a beating mainly due to uncertainties in trading circles over war in Iraq, he said. On the domestic market, he said the high excise duty and sales tax along with uneven competition from the unorganised sector posed a problem for the growth of organised fan manufacturers. — PTI
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GAIL strikes oil, gas near Ahmedabad
Mumbai, June 18 “GAIL, along with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC), which has a 50 per cent participating interest, has discovered oil and associated gas reserves in NELP-II block in the Cambay basin”, Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said at the gas operations and maintenance conference here today. Mr Naik said the Union Cabinet would take a decision on freeing the pricing of heavily subsidised gas by next month-end. Referring to reserve estimates, Mr Naik said “we have to wait for some time because only the first well has been drilled.” GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Proshanto Banerjee said the discovery was made last week and estimates were expected to be known in the next four or five weeks. As of today, the well had been drilled up to a depth of 1,736 metres and while drilling, three hydrocarbon-bearing zones had been identified from the logs, he said. The target depth of PK-1 well is 1,800 metres, he said adding that detailed production testing of the PK-1 well would be carried out shortly and simultaneous drilling of the second well would be taken by the last week of this month. Mr Banerjee said there were seven wells in the block and the phase I involved an investment of $ 6.6 million. Referring to the Myanmar gas reserves found on an off-shore block, he said the first well would be drilled in November this year. — PTI
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Satyam in pact with WB
Hyderabad, June 18 The contract was won against stiff competition from other global IT companies, a Satyam release said here today. The World Bank has chosen Satyam as its primary offshore IT services partner for this contract, it said. Commenting on the contract, Rakesh Asthana, Director, Corporate Information Services of the World Bank, said “With this contract, our relationship with Satyam has matured from a contractual relationship to a strategic partnership. Over the next five years, we see Satyam as a key contributor to the implementation of World Bank’s IT strategy.” Satyam was preferred for its relationship management, high quality work and responsiveness to meet a full range of IT service needs, the release said adding the company would deliver solutions like ERP, Java, NET, Notes/Domino, Document Management, Messaging among others. “This is a very prestigious contract and we are delighted to work with the World Bank. We have done many successful projects for them in the past. — PTI
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IOC to import crude oil
New Delhi, June 18 Besides, IOC would import 5 million tonnes of Iranian crude for Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd. IOC, which imported 31.26 million tonnes of crude in 2002-03, will buy about 16.7 million tonnes of crude this fiscal on annual term contracts with national oil companies of producer countries while the remaining would be procured from spot market on short monthly tender, he said. — PTI
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ICICI Bank offers VRS
Mumbai, June 18 Under the option, those who seek to leave would be given three months salary for every year of service completed or one month’s salary for balance of service left, she added. The present employee strength is around 11,000 and the option may be exercised by eligible employees between July 1 and 30, the bank said. —
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Satnam Overseas net up 24 per cent
New Delhi, June 18 The turnover of the company rose by 30 per cent in the last fiscal at Rs 455 crore over Rs 350 crore in 2001-02, a company statement said. On the paid up capital of 1.96 crore outstanding shares of Rs 10 each, the dividend outgo would be Rs 1.96 crore, it said, adding, the company would be paying a dividend after a gap of two years. — PTI
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Bank of Punjab Amara Raja IBM India Jenson & Nicholson Blue Star Info |
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