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Sunday,
October
19, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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No plan to enter soft-drinks market,
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Accountability to be
fixed for failed projects of PAIC
Panipat set to emerge as petro hub AVIATION NOTES INVESTOR
GUIDANCE Voltas
unveils ACs, refrigerators
Dabur gets HC nod to demerge pharma business
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No plan to enter soft-drinks market, New Delhi, October 18 The company is targetting a 10 per cent market share of the Rs 1,000 crore milk additives market in the first year of the launch of ‘Rasna Shake Up’. ‘Shake Up’ is a pre-sweetened milkshake mix powder with contents of protein, vitamin, calcium, fruit powder and cocoa. Effectively, this could mean that Rasna is now entering a highly competitive market dominated by multinational brands such as Horlicks and Bournvita. The company, however, does not buy this argument. “We are looking at creating a whole new category. No our fight is not with the Bournvitas and Horlicks. Instead, we are filling a gap in the milk consuming households. While children across most households in India consume milk, getting a child to drink two glasses of milk everyday remains the biggest challenge for a mother”, Chairman and Managing Director of Rasna Private Limited Piruz Khambatta told The Tribune in an exclusive interview. The company is hoping that an innovative marketing positioning focussing on the ‘fun’ element of drinking milk rather than a “staid” health product would attract the child’s interest in the product. “We are following the small-sachet-drives-growth strategy. Position the product in such a way that having milk is fun and enjoyable experience. Milk in itself is staid and that is why very few children like it”. He said that the new product has been launched after an extensive research in the milk consumption behaviourial pattern of children. “Through this new product we would be urging the children not to be seedha sadha. Don’t be serious and dull, go on be mischievious and have milk. Pitch the product for fun and not so much for nutrition even though our product is enrinched with protein and other health elements”. For the present, the product will be available with three flavours — chocolate, mango and strawberry — and is packaged in small sachets priced at Rs 3. “We expect this product alone to add Rs 100 crore to our total turnover by selling 40 crore satches in the next one year”, Mr Khambatta said. Currently, the closely held company has a turnover of Rs 225 crore of which about Rs 50 crore comes from the export market. The company plans to invest about Rs 10 crore to support its new product including the cost of machinery, brand promotion and image building. A nationwide multi-media campaign is shortly going to be unveiled with the punchline ‘Don’t be seedha saadha’. To be sure, its flagship product Rasna Utsav did attract popular mileage by its now famous tagline ‘I Love You Rasna’. Presently, the Ahmedabad-based company enjoys a market share of 90 per cent in the soft-drink concentrate market and selling 200 crore glasses annually. “We are growing at the rate of 30 per cent per annum”, Mr Khambatta said even as he ruled any plans to enter the soft-drinks category to compete directly with the big guys — Pepsi and Coke. “We have no plans to get into the soft-drinks market. This is essentially because of the price points which allows for very low margins”. Refusing to comment about the recent controversy on the alleged presence of pesticides in soft-drinks, he said that the milk category was a bigger market it is presently focussing. He, however, did say that the company was looking at other powdered soft-drink concentrates but refused to give out any other information on this. In fact, the recent patterns do suggest that the MNC brands could be looking at in-home dilutable soft-drink concentrates as an area of growth. Coca-Cola for instance has launched Sunfill in the same category where the present size of the market is estimated to be in the range of 40 million unit cases per annum. And reports indicate that the soft-drink majors could well be contemplating the launch of products similar to that of ‘Rasna Shake Up’. Mr Khambatta said that the company is seeking to further consolidate its overseas presence. Currently it is exporting to as many as 40 countries and has manufacturing bases at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and Silvassa and Gujarat in India. Mr Khambatta said that the company’s endeavour was to reach an export figure of Rs 75 crore by the next fiscal. Besides, the company was seeking to clock a consumption of Rasna product to 100 glasses from the present level of 15 glasses by 2005. The company’s retail strategy was on “mass visibility, affordability and availability all across the country”, he added. |
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Accountability to be
fixed for failed projects of PAIC Bathinda, October 18 Mincing no words that strict measures will have to be taken to revive the work culture in government bodies, Mr Jasbir Singh, Chairman, PAIC, told TNS here today that he would leave no tone unturned in restoring the lost glory of corporation. The Chairman was in the city visited the Goniana mandi to oversee the paddy procurement. He said he had visited various mandis in the state during the past few days and was satisfied with the procurement process. He said 40,000 MTs of paddy has been procured in this district till today. Elaborating on the diversification process, he said the corporation has entered into an agreement with a US MNC, Tropicana, to set up a centre for improving the quality of kinnows and other citrus fruits so that the juice could be marketed abroad. So far the juice is not up to the international standards. While a centre will be set up at Pojewal, near Jalandhar, another one would be set up in or around Bathinda keeping in view the interests of the kinnow belt - Bathinda, Abohar and Fazilka, he revealed. Reacting to a query on the partial success of the diversification process in this region, he said he will be meeting farmers to know their side of the story at Faridkot on October 22. Nevertheless, the farmers have been asked to go in for contract farming of durum wheat, hyola and winter maize, he pointed out. During this season, more than 5,000 acres will be brought under durum wheat and the present area under winter maize and hyola too would be increased. The farmers will also be benefited by the move of the corporation to open Kisan centers in all the districts to guide the farmers and provide employment to the educated rural youth, he added. |
Panipat set to emerge as petro hub Panipat, October 18 To be set up at a cost of about Rs 9,269 crore, the projects will usher in a new era of industrialisation and more employment opportunities for the youth. The refinery expansion was cleared by IOC’s Board of Directors in January 2002 at an estimated cost of Rs 4,165 crore and the project envisaged the doubling of the capacity from 6 to 12 million metric tonnes per annum. Located in the heart of the demand hinterland, the expansion project will provide a greater role to the refinery to meet the rising demand of the quality petroleum products in the North Western Region, IOC officials said. The refinery will continue to produce global quality petroleum products meeting norms of Euro-III and IV fuel standards and thus in the way maintaining sustainable ecological balance. The petrochemical (paraxylene/PTA) project marks a major step towards forward integration in the hydrocarbon value chain by manufacturing Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) and Paraxylene from Naphtha. To be set up at a cost of Rs 5,104 crore over an area of 750 acres, the project is scheduled for completion by early 2005. With the commissioning of the Paraxylene/PTA plant, India will become a major producer of petrochemical intermediary in South East Asia. Officials highlighted that the projects give a major fillip to the core industries such as steel, cement and life-style industries. Paraxylene and PTA are used to produce polyester staple fibre (PSF), partially oriental yarn (POY) and polyester filament yarn (PFY) for use in the textiles, video and audio tapes. The project would pave the way for the entrepreneurs for setting up high quality plastic industry, polyester fibre, glass and film industries in the region, they added. The paraxylene plant is designed to process 5,00,000 tons per annum (TPA) of heart-cut naphtha to produce about 3,60,000 TPA of paraxylene. Naphtha will be sourced from IOC’s Panipat and Mathura refineries.  |
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AVIATION NOTES K.R. Wadhwaney INDIAN
airlines is offering promotional scheme in its golden jubilee year to lure passengers and continue with its success story after frequent bumpy flights during the 50 chequered years. Regardless of its not so eventful existence thus far, there are hopes of happy days emerging as the Civil Aviation Minister and the Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Sunil Arora, have struck a resounding harmonious note on re-turned work culture. IA has now eight marketing schemes aimed at generating passenger goodwill. While elaborating various schemes that are in vogue, the minister assured all present that IA would continue to discharge its “social responsibilities”. While some schemes are valid until December 31, 2003, a few have been extended to March 31, 2004. Among important schemes are super saver for international passengers, restoration of flexible conditions for senior citizens and extension of flyaways packages to various destinations. Indian Airlines will induct three of the five dry leased aircraft in the coming winter schedule while the remaining two will be brought early next year. With a view to smoothening the process, the IA board has set up a three-member empowered committee to examine the global tenders. Aviation experts are of firm belief that the airline should go in for buying new aircraft instead of securing aircraft on dry or wet lease. New aircraft generate more revenue than leased aircraft because quite a sizeable amount is given to the country from which the aircraft are taken on lease. Also, the experts, opine that since there is complete harmony between the minister and airline bosses, the “committee culture” should be done away with. The need of the hour is to immediately add aircraft in the depleted fleet and increase operations on several revenue-making routes. The ground-handling is a very lucrative business. Indian Airlines should be sole in charge of ground handling on the domestic sectors since it flies and handles flights on more airports than any other carrier. On the international routes, the responsibility should be given to Air-India. The experts say the less the involvement of the Airports Authority of India the better will be functioning because as AAI has its hands full in construction projects. |
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GUIDANCE A. N. Shanbhag Q: I have deposited around Rs 3 lakh cooperative bank vide cash certificate and the date of maturity is somewhere around 2007 @11.5 per cent. But now I have received a note stating that they are facing problem and hence all these respective bonds are to be foreclosed irrespectively or it would be automatically be foreclosed and renewed at the new rate of interest. Is it really possible to do so where the ;sum assured is clearly stated in the certificate after the date of maturity? If so kindly advice about legal action or a clear picture of the rules & regulations. — Suresh Kumar A: No, this is not legal. It is a breach of contractual obligations unless, the bank has taken permission from a related authority or a court of law. If such a permission has been taken, the letter addressed to you by the bank must have made a mention thereof. You may take recourse to public interest litigation or go to a consumer court. Nevertheless, I would like you to realise that you may lose the entire capital along with the extra interest if you take such actions. If the bank goes bankrupt, where will you get your money from with or without legal action? I would prefer you to accept the immediate exit option. Gift to HUF Q: I have Bonus shares of Infosys Tech. Ltd. A) I had gifted in May 2002 to my wife 50 Bonus shares of Infosys Tech. which she had sold now. She has B/f long term capital loss. What will be the effect in her book as well as in my books. B) Can I give Gift to my H.U.F. for the benefits of children Bonus shares of Infosys Tech. and selling them after one year can claim setoff against B/f long term capital loss. What will be the effect in HUF’s book as well as in my
books. Our I.T. return for year ending March 2003 are yet to be filed. — Ashok Sarvaiya A: In the case of gifts, the cost of acquisition of the donee is to be taken as the cost of the donor whereas the date of
acquisition will be the date of the gift. The character of the asset, long-term or short-term, remains unchanged. In other words, if the asset is already a long-term one in the hands of the donor, the donee is free to sell it even within a few days and claim the concessional tax treatment of long-term assets. Unfortunately, in your case, both the gifts, to your wife and your HUF attract clubbing provisions. Incidentally, the cost of acquisition of bonus shares is required to be taken as nil and therefore, the entire sale proceeds will suffer tax @10 per cent.
Saving bonds Q: If the total savings in GPF and ICICI tax saving bonds is Rs 90,000 (gpf 40,000 and bonds 50,000), do we get tax rebate of 15 per cent on the entire amt. of 90,000 for the financial year2002-03. (b) Is there any change in the qualifying amount for the tax rebate for the financial year2003- 04 for the same set of savings as above? — Rao A:
The aggregate contribution to all these schemes qualifying for rebate is subject to a ceiling of Rs. 70,000. A higher qualifying limit of Rs. 1 lakh is applicable to infrastructure-related instruments. The Tax-saving Bonds of ICICI/IDBI with a lock-in of as low as three years serve the best. The example cited by you will attract a rebate on Rs. 90,000. |
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Voltas
unveils ACs, refrigerators Chandigarh, October 18 Voltas has been in the field of contract manufacturing for the past three years and it has supplied refrigerators to LG, Samsung, etc said Mr K.J. Jawa, Vice-President, sales and services, Voltas. The company is currently manufacturing 65 litres ,175,190,220 and 250 litres refrigerators under the brand name Coldcel and is planning to increase the range in the near future by introducing the frost-free range also. Mr Jawa said the new ‘‘Vertis Gold’’ window air-conditioners (one tonne and 1.25 tonne) will have the state-of-the art American design and technology, offering a major reduction of over 15 per cent in the power consumption. The company under the ‘‘Vertis Gold’’ has extended its range with a capacity of 0.5 tonnes, 0.75 and 0.90 tonnes and is targeted at the middle class segment. The new ‘‘Venture’’ Slimline split air-conditioners, (1.5t, 2t, 3t and 4t) will serve as an alternative to high-wall air-conditioners for the benefit of the commercial segment. This range is highly competitive and it provides American technology at Chinese prices to the India customers, added Mr Jawa. The company also plans to widen its network by increasing its retailers from 400 to 750 and dealers from 270 to 300, within the next 12 months. |
Dabur gets HC nod to demerge pharma business
New Delhi, October 18 “The company will shortly apply to the high court for the certified true copy of the order. “After the court’s nod on the demerger, the company will complete the formalities for listing the new pharma company in stock exchanges,” Dabur spokesman told UNI here. The Board of Directors of Dabur India had decided to demerge its pharma division into a separate company in May this year and subsequently filed a petition with the Delhi High Court seeking its approval. —
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New Delhi, October 18
