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Saturday,
September 27, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Shourie
meets Advani over disinvestment deadlock Export
orders cancelled for lack of rail rakes Sinha asks
developing nations to retain Cancun spirit 3 projects
for dairy development in HP Petronet
to sell LNG at $3.6
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| Hudco
told to revise interest on housing loans New Delhi, September 26 The government has directed the state-owned Housing and Urban Development Corporation to lower its interest rate on individual loans in line with the rates of nationalised banks.
J&K
exports 430 cr handicrafts Traders
for new taxation system
Escorts
to delist from 4 stock exchanges
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Shourie meets Advani over disinvestment deadlock New Delhi, September 26 The Disinvestment Ministry has also submitted an option paper to the Law Ministry for working out an action plan in wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Today’s meeting between Mr Advani and Mr Shourie follows yesterday’s meeting between the Disinvestment Minister and Mr Jaitley. The confabulations within the government think-tank is taking place to thrash out the broad contours of the disinvestment policy in light of the new developments. The meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) is scheduled to take place on October 3, where the matter is expected to discussed in detail. While Mr Shourie refused to comment on the contents of his meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday he had said that the government was “keeping all options open including review and ratification.” The Law Minister will finalise an action plan based on the detailed paper to submitted by the Department of Disinvestment. This action plan will then be placed before the Cabinet. The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) is scheduled to meet on October 3, 2003 to discuss the Supreme Court’s verdict and its fallout on the disinvestment process.
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Export orders cancelled for lack of rail rakes Chandigarh, September 26 It is finding itself helpless to fulfil its commitment of exporting about two million foodgrains from the state to the Middle East, South East Asia and African countries due to the problem of transport. A senior official of the FCI has said the agency has repeatedly taken up the matter with the Railways but without any result. The delay in the availability of rakes has already caused financial loss worth crores to the FCI, since it will have to spend additional money on the maintenance of stocks, interest costs and contractual labour. The FCI has, so far, facilitated the export of more than 20 million tonnes from the state through the state and private agencies. It has helped it to create required space for the shortage of paddy and rice. The procurement of paddy in the state, he said, was set to start from October 1. According to the provisions of the Central Government scheme to get rid of surplus foodstocks in the country, the FCI and other state agencies had been instructed to facilitate the export of rice up to Rs 7,000 per tonne and of wheat at Rs 5,500 per tonne. The Central Government would subsidise the difference between the market price and export price. The official said that at present 2 million tonnes of rice and 10 million tonnes of wheat were stored in FCI stores. “Had the additional stocks been exported from the state, it would have helped the FCI to store the coming crop in a better manner,” he added. The agency was spending a huge amount on rent of the storage capacity taken from private parties. Regarding the preparedness for the procurement of paddy, the official said, “ As per the provisional estimates, the state is likely to produce about 125 lakh tonnes of paddy. Out of this, the FCI and state procurement agencies have made arrangements to procure about 105 lakh tonnes of paddy.” The FCI would procure about 35 per cent of the total procurement. For this the FCI had arranged about 5 crore gunny bags and required wooden crates, he added. The FCI officials lamented that though the procurement process was all set to start, but the state government had so far not issued the notification regarding the levy rice to be supplied by rice millers to the FCI. Only after the government notification, the FCI would begin the selling of rice to the rice millers. |
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Sinha asks developing nations to retain Cancun spirit New York, September 26 Addressing the 27th annual meeting of the Group of 77 developing countries Foreign Ministers, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said “the solidarity, cohesion and determination shown by developing countries in defending their vital national interests was unprecedented at Cancun.” “Of course,” said Sinha, “we need to be aware that there could be increased pressures on the developing countries to agree to further concessions. The developing countries need to be able to retain their unity of purpose and solidarity that we were able to demonstrate in Cancun when faced with such pressures,” he said. Stressing greater equity in international economic relations and greater voice for developing countries in the decision-making structure in international trade, monetary and financial institutions, Sinha said “we have to remain engaged in a continuous process to forge common positions and to push the concerns of developing countries to the fore front of the international economic and trade agenda.” He reiterated India’s full support and involvement in this effort. He said India remains fully committed to extending technical, economic and scientific assistance in substantial measure to developing countries. India’s various technical and economic cooperation programmes, including the ITEC Programme cover 154 countries and India spends about $200 million annually on these activities, Sinha pointed out. Over the past five decades, India has provided over $3 billion worth of technical assistance to developing countries in four broad fields, civil and military training to promote capacity-building and human resource development, deputation of experts to work with other governments, setting up of projects, organisation of study tours by senior officials from abroad, and humanitarian and disaster relief, principally through supply of food grains and medicines. Over 6,000 representatives of developing countries undergo training or study in over 250 Indian universities and institutions annually. — PTI
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3 projects for dairy development in HP Shimla, September 26 Stating this at press conference, here today, Mr A.R. Thakur, Managing Director of the federation, said a special Rs 5 crore scheme to promote dairy farming among women had been prepared. In addition a Rs 15.47 crore project would be implemented through the district rural development agencies to expand and intensify dairy activities. He said the federation had been incurring losses for the past few years mainly because to low capacity utilisation and high establishment cost. While the total loss last year was Rs 1.50 crore, the accumulated losses had reached Rs 14 crore. This was despite the fact that the federation had been receiving grant from the government to the tune of Rs 3.73 crore. The federation had a chilling capacity of over 40,000 litres but it was able to collect only upto 30,000 litres daily. The average sale price of the milk had already been increased by about Rs 1 per kg to fetch an additional Rs 1.10 crore during the current year. It had been decided to sell about 12,000 litres of milk daily to the Mother Dairy at the national milk grid rates. During the ensuing festival season, particularly Divali, the federation would come out with a range of milk-based sweets like “ kaju barfi” and “gulab jamun” to make its presence more visible in the market. The sweets would be reasonably priced as compared to the market rates.
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Petronet to sell LNG at $3.6 New Delhi, September 26 Petronet CEO and Managing Director Suresh Mathur said here today that the $ 400 million Dahej terminal will be ready for commission by December this year. The first shipment of LNG is expected to reach the import and
regasification terminal on the Gujarat coast by January 2004. “The Dahej terminal is 95 per cent complete and we will commission it in 100 days,” he said. Petronet today signed an agreement with RasGas to purchase LNG at a fixed price equivalent to $ 20 a barrel for 25 years. The price translated into a FOB price of $ 2.79 per million BTU (British Thermal Unit). This includes shipment cost of 26 cents per million BTU. (One million tonnes LNG is equal to 52 trillion BTU). Petronet also signed agreements with GAIL, IOC and BPCL for offtake of
regasified LNG.
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Hudco told to revise interest on housing loans New Delhi, September 26 “I have asked Hudco to revise its interest rates on housing loans and to relax procedures for getting loans,” Minster of State for Urban Development Bandaru Dattatreya told newspersons here today after reviewing Hudco’s operations. The minister said while the market rates hovered around 9 per cent, Hudco charged 9.5 to 10.5 per cent interest on loans depending upon different slabs. Asked why the rates were high compared to the rates prevalent in the market, he said it was Hudco’s borrowing rate that was “very high”. Hudco officials, on their part, said a meeting of the Board of Directors of the company would be held in the next 10-15 days in view of the government’s directive to revise the interest rates. Asked about a full-time Chief Executive for Hudco, Mr Dattatreya said it would be done “shortly”. Mr
Dattatreya, who assumed the independent charge of the Urban Development Ministry recently, said his immediate objective was to bring about improvement in the infrastructure sector and housing and lauded Hudco’s role in this task. The minister said for the success of the programme to construct two million houses for the poor, Hudco had been assigned to take up six lakh units in rural areas and four lakh units in urban areas every year. The minister said Hudco’s profit rose from Rs 114 crore last financial year to Rs 266 crore this year, showing a jump of 134 per cent.
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J&K exports 430 cr handicrafts
Srinagar, September 26 The state produced handicrafts goods worth Rs 600 crore during the 10-month period. The sector occupies an important position in the economy of the state as Jammu and Kashmir produces handicrafts goods worth Rs 760 crore annually. The country earns Rs 600 crore foreign exchange annually from handicrafts and Jammu and Kashmir is a major contributor to it. The design development centre and the craft centre will be set up at Bagh-e-Ali Mardan Khan in Nowshera here and would cost Rs 14.55 crore. The work on the Rs 1.35 crore common facility centre is already underway. To promote exports, the Jammu and Kashmir Department is also planning to participate in exhibitions at Berlin, Germany, and at Atlanta, USA, apart from international fairs in the country.
— UNI
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Traders for new taxation system Fatehabad, September 26 Talking to mediapersons here last evening, Mr Sanjay Sethi, president of the mandal, said the yatra would boost the movement against corruption and appeal traders’ community to be conscious of their rights and duties. He said Mr Ajit Jogi, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, would flag off the yatra which would be received by traders organisations and Chief Ministers of various states. Mr Ramanand Yadav, convener, said the yatra demanded the creation of a traders provident fund and 1 per cent commission from the sales tax collected from traders be deposited in their account to be used in case of tragedy or on medication after the age of 60 years. He also said the traders were demanding industry status for the charging of interest rate and quantum of loan facilities extended by the banks. A special cell in the Police Department for safety and security of traders had also been demanded.
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Escorts to delist from 4 stock exchanges New Delhi, September 26 However, the company’s annual general meeting which was scheduled to be held on September 30 and was to take up the delisting issue along with several other key issues, has been postponed and a fresh date is expected to be announced soon. Escorts will continue to be listed on Delhi, Mumbai and National Stock Exchanges.
— PTI
Ayur to launch herbal lipstick LUCKNOW:
Ayur Herbals will soon launch a herbal lipstick for both men and women under the brand name “Luvstick”. Developed by the city-based National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), the herbal lipstick technology has been transferred to Ayur for an undisclosed sum. Briefing mediapersons here last evening, NBRI Director Dr P. Pushpangadan said: “Luvstick is a concoction of plant extracts blended with herbal colours and aroma for cosmaceutical application.” NBRI has developed the
lipstick in 17 colours, including neutral-coloured varieties for men. “The unique character of this product is that it does not contain animal fat like other products. Its aroma is mood lifting, anti-depressant and anti-microbial in nature,” he informed.
— UNI
Khadi Commission grows 14.39 pc NAGPUR:
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) today announced a sales turnover of over Rs 10,000 crore for the fiscal 2002-03, registering an overall growth rate of 14.39 per cent, exceeding the target of 12 per cent. “We have left behind MNCs like Hindustan Lever by registering this landmark sales figure of Rs 10193.34 crore. And we hope to cross Rs 20,000 mark in the next four years,” KVIC Chairman Mahesh Sharma said. “After some period of stagnation, our flagship Khadi textile sector has shown resurgent gains in the last fiscal due to concerted efforts to upgrade quality of our products. It witnessed sales growth of 9.43 per cent last year recording Rs 577.63 crore against Rs 527.86 crore in 2001-02,” he said.
— PTI
Hind Lever plant to lift lockout KOLKATA:
Hindustan Lever today decided to lift the lockout at its Garden Reach plant here on September 30, following an agreement with the workers union. The decision to lift the lockout was taken after HLL management reached an agreement with the Hindustan Lever Shramik Karamchari Union and Hindustan Lever Thika Karamchari Union here this morning following protracted negotiations, a HLL spokesperson said.
— PTI
COIMBATORE:
The Union Textile Ministry will constitute two high-level bodies comprising representatives of export promotion councils and related associations, a senior official has said. Though, the Centre has implemented various schemes and policies for the benefit of the textile industry, there has been lack of feedback and information pertaining to textiles, Union Textile Secretary S.B. Mohapatra told reporters here, last night.
— PTI
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