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Tuesday,
August 19, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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PTL sold at throwaway price,
USA trying to hijack Doha agenda, says India
Rice millers for review of charges on
Ambassador gets facelift |
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J&K Bank to fund viable projects
BPCL to foray into oil exploration
Net One in Rohtak, Panipat soon GRAPHIC: COST
INFLATION INDEX
M&M to bid for Valtra’s
business
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PTL sold at throwaway price, alleges SAD New Delhi, August 18 “The profit making PTL has been sold to the British firm at a throw away price of only Rs 220 crore when the company itself was making a profit of over Rs 100 crore each fiscal,” said the SAD General Secretary, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, to The Tribune. He said the company had been valued at Rs 1,000 crore as it was the flag ship company of the Punjab government which was running on profit over the years. Alleging that the throw away price accepted by the Congress Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for the PTL is a clear indication that “not everything is overboard.” “If Captain Amarinder Singh claims that everything is overboard, he should order a CBI probe or judicial inquiry to come out clean on this issue, as even a iota of doubt could wreak the future disinvestment process in the state,” Mr Badal said. The SAD leader, who whose premises have been raided by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau sleuths for disproportionate assets, said “the Congress chief minister claims that his drive against corruption is not confined to political opponents but against corrupt practices and persons indulging in it. If such is the letter and spirit of his corruption drive, then he should order a CBI probe or judicial inquiry to remove the iota of doubt that has creeped in the minds of the people.” Financial analysts, closely monitoring the disinvestment process in the country, have expressed serious concern about the manner in which PTL stakes were disinvested by the Punjab government. He said the management control of the PTL would pass on to the banks and financial institutions in the post disinvestment period, which has never
happened earlier. Exit of tractor major from the bidding process at the eleventh hour due to lack of clarity on management control also raises a question mark on the whole process. Further, whether SEBI has actually not categorised PTL as a PSU or whether CDC has been exempted by SEBI from making an open offer, he added.
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USA trying to hijack Doha agenda, says India New Delhi, August 18 “We want to maintain a sufficient level of border protection for our farmers... we cannot agree to any outcome that will call into question the livelihood security of our farmers, who are largely subsistence and marginal producers”, Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley said, speaking at a seminar on `Strategies and preparedness for trade and globalisation in India”. Mr Jaitley said efforts were being made to move ahead only on those items which were of interest to developed nations while relegating to the background the issues which were of primary interest to the developing world. “The phase of progress on development and implementations issues are significantly slower”, the minister said. He regretted that the all deadlines set by the ministers at Doha have not been met. “What is disturbing is that while issues of development interest to the developing countries are being soft
pedalled, those of interest to the developed countries are attempted to be put on top order”, Mr Jaitley said. On negotiations in agricultural reforms, the minister said India cannot agree to any outcome that will call into question the livelihood security of farmers. Regarding negotiations on TRIPS ( Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights), the minister said the draft text did not appear to be encouraging. “The scenario does not appear very encouraging”, he said, adding that India was in favour of having a “reasonably high tariff bound rates”. On competition policy, Mr Jaitley said a consensus was still elusive among the member nations as many issues on the non-discrimination provisions need to be clarified.
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Rice millers for review of charges on gunny bags Ludhiana, August 18 The Punjab Rice Millers Association has decided to hold protest rally after August 31 and offer themselves for arrest if their demands are not met. Talking to The Tribune here yesterday, Mr Tarsem Saini, Mr Harish Devgan and Mr Harjit Singh, president, patron and chairman of the association, said milling operations in the state would be hampered if the government did not shed its indifferent attitude. Mr Saini said the Chief Minister, while flagging off trucks of rice to Rajasthan in November, had announced that the cost of surplus gunny bags left with the millers after the custom milling of paddy during 2001-2002 would be charged at 60 per cent of levy rate of gunny bags as was being done in previous years. He said nine months had passed but no formal orders had been issued. In the absence of any directive, the
procurement agencies were arbitrarily charging Rs 16-17 per gunny bag from the millers for every 75 kg bag. Further, during the kharif season 2002-2003, the agencies charged Rs 12.03 per gunny bag of 50 kg for used gunny bags retained by the millers whereas state procurement agencies like Markfed and the Warehousing Corporation had purchased such gunny bags at the rate of Rs 5.34 per gunny bag. The association had been emphasising upon the government to either take back the surplus ‘bardana’ or charge the rate of used gunny at par with the aforesaid rate. Mr Saini said the milling rate of par-boiled price had been arbitrarily reduced from Rs 23.87 per quintal to Rs 13.20 per quintal during the kharif season 2002-2003, whereas the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (BICP), in its report submitted to the Centre, proposed for a substantial hike in milling rate of par-boiled and raw rice. The millers demanded that the old milling rate of par-boiled rice be restored till the implementation of BICP recommendations.
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Ambassador gets facelift New Delhi, August 18 It has been the official car of Prime Ministers, politicians, senior officials, judges and generals since it hit the road in 1957. Its odd dome-shaped look made it for years an Indian icon when few other brands were seen on the roads. But for the first time since Hindustan Motors— one of the country's oldest vehicle makers — rolled out the Ambassador in the late 1950s, the car is getting an all-new look, as it struggled to stay in a market where it was getting increasingly squeezed out by sleeker, aerodynamic models. “We have been improvising Ambassador in recent years as per the demands of the car market,’’ said Soni Shrivastav, General Manager (corporate communications) of C.K. Birla Group, a diversified conglomerate that owns Hindustan Motors. “But for the first time since the launch of the vehicle over five decades ago, we have made major exterior and interior changes that are more visible and gives Ambassador a new look," Shrivastav told IANS. The Ambassador Grand, as the new model will be called, was launched in the Capital on Monday. A national roll out will take place in a phased manner over the next couple of months. The changes in the exterior include a new grille, large tail lamps, new transparent headlamps and a new rear number plate. Front and rear self-coloured, large integrated bumpers and stylish wheel caps have been added. The car’s interiors have also been spruced up with all leather seats, a wider choice of fabrics for the upholstery, a more powerful air-conditioner and music system, glass and magazine holder, reading light and digital clock. While the existing Ambassador sells for slightly over Rs.4,00,000, the Grand will be priced at Rs.4,45,000 for the diesel and Rs.4,20,000 for the petrol edition. “Our target audience for the new model will continue to be government officials, politicians and individual buyers. But this model will not be available to taxi operators,’’ declared Shrivastav. “We are also expecting an increase in demand for Ambassador Grand in our existing export markets such as Bangladesh and Britain. The new model will also address this design fatigue syndrome in the domestic market." Hindustan Motors will continue to sell the old look Ambassador that has found pride of place in the Smithsonian museum in Washington as a vintage. Analysts say the launch of the new look Ambassador is part of the company’s move to rev up the sales of Amby, as it is popularly called, which has been badly affected by the launch of a slew of sleek cars by domestic and foreign firms. Besides Ambassador, Hindustan Motors makes the Lancer sedan in collaboration with Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp and the Trekker and RTV utility vehicles. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003, Hindustan Motors sold 14,000 Ambassadors, down from 18,000 in the previous financial year. The government picks up about 16 per cent of production. A market leader until the early the 1980s, Ambassador’s share in the domestic car market has come down to around 4 per cent as a host of auto companies such as Ford, Hyundai, Honda and home-grown Maruti vie with each other to increase sales. Ambassador has achieved the unique distinction of being the first Asian car whose photographs are on display at the gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.—IANS
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J&K Bank to fund viable projects Chandigarh, August 18 He disclosed that after decade long militancy, the state economy was on revival path. “The new industrial policy of the state government has created an environment to attract investment to the state. We would like to make investment in any project which is economically viable,” he said. The Indian Bankers’ Association has already committed to pump in additional Rs 1,000 crore in the state economy. Further, large scale investments worth Rs 20,000 crore to set up power projects of over 15,000 MW in the state are in the pipeline. Mr Khan said the bank would open a new branch at Dubai apart from 15 new branches in the country. In collaboration with Master Credit Card, he said, the bank would soon launch global credit card, that would be operational at more than 6.35 lakh ATMs worldwide. Within next two weeks, he added, the bank is launching Master cards, that would be operational at over 4700 ATMs in the country. He claimed that the tourism sector was once again finding its due place in the state economy. During the first three months of the current financial year, he said, over 1.15 lakh tourists visited the state as against 20,000 tourists visiting during the corresponding period last year.
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BPCL to foray into oil exploration
Mumbai, August 18 The company “will look into a mix of exposure of exploration, development and production with a budget of Rs 1000-1500 crore over the next five years”, BPCL Chairman and Managing Director S Behuria said here today. Addressing shareholders at the annual general meeting, he said it has become necessary for BPCL to explore other avenues for securing crude by entering the upstream sector in order to have reasonable supply security, hedging of price risks and benefits of an integrated supply chain in the volatile oil market. Behuria said it had also become imperative to enter the gas business to maintain its share in the energy market in view of the recent trend of increasing displacement of liquid fuels by natural gas as an environment friendly product. On the government decision to divest 41 per cent stake in BPCL through a public issue, he said the company was taking necessary steps in preparing accounts as per US GAAP. Behuria said the capacity of the Mumbai refinery was being increased to 12 million metric tonnes per annum by October and would also produce base oils. —
PTI
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Net One in Rohtak, Panipat soon Ambala, August 18 Talking to mediapersons here today, Mr Nagpal said the account-less Internet service was launched in Gurgaon and Ambala on August 14. “Net One will give freedom to customers to access Internet without having any internet account. The access charges are only 10 paise per minute, excluding call charges,” he said. The access and call charges will be included in the telephone bill separately. The telephone number will be the user number. The service is based on call line identification to provide secure and hassle-free Internet connection. To use Internet service through Net One, the consumer needs to dial 172222 through landline. Then enter netone as username and password. In the Explorer, enter domain name “netoneamb.bsnl.co.in”. Mr Nagpal said BSNL has launched a one-time scheme for reconnection of telephone without payment of rental for the disconnected period. “Under this scheme, a telephone disconnected for non-payment of bill may be reconnected without payment of rental for the period.
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