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TRAI proposes
unified licence Reliance Info to
abide by govt decision
Austrian Airlines
begins daily flights to Delhi
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Cruise tourism to
sail into India
Banks writing off
bad loans, say staff ICRA pegs 6.9 pc
GDP growth Aftek Infosys net
rises 31 pc
Banks performing
better: PSB chief
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TRAI proposes unified licence New Delhi, October 27 Cellular operators, however, will not be required to pay any additional fee for migrating to the new regime. At the same time, TRAI has imposed penalties on Reliance Infocomm for offering mobile services using WLL technology. Communications Minister Arun Shourie said the recommendations will come up for discussion at the meeting of Group of Ministers on telecom (GoM) which is scheduled to meet on Thursday. According to the recommendations, the entry fee paid by the fourth cellular operator in various states will be the benchmark for working out the amount to be paid by basic operators who wish to migrate to the new regime. Under the proposed dispensation as recommended by TRAI, Reliance Infocomm will have to pay Rs 221.04 crore for its WLL mobile services in 17 circles, while Tata Cellular Services will have to shell out Rs 129.13 crore for offering WLL (M) in four circles. Bharti Tele-Ventures will also have to pay an additional entry fee of Rs 19.13 crore but only if it is offering WLL (M) services. Over and above this, Reliance Infocomm will have to pay Rs 1,096 crore, the amount equal to the licence fee that it has paid and that of the fourth cellular player and penalty of Rs 485 crore if the company desires to shift to unified licence regime once the proposed regime comes into force. TRAI Chairman Pradip Baijal said the penalty has been imposed on Reliance Infocomm as it was already offering services under the WLL platform which was similar to that to GSM cellular operators. He, however, clarified that the penalty will not be imposed if the company does not wish migrate to the new system. But in that case it would have to limit its service to a short distance charged area (SDCA). “We hope with this new regime coming into force, the telecom sector will come out of litigations over services and technologies”, Mr Baijal said. Responding to the recommendations made by TRAI, Arun Shourie said the proposals will be placed before GoM on Telecom which is meeting on October 30. “Everyone will be benefited. I hope everybody will cooperate and see that
after all it is such a big market and we can all take advantage of this”, Mr Shourie said. The Minister hoped that the new regime will put an end to the ongoing slugfest between various service providers but it will depend on operators. “ If everybody is going to block every move, things will continue the way they are”, he said. Mr Baijal said there will not be any additional entry fee if the operator is not providing WLL services and will be imposed only in those circles where fourth cellular operator is providing services. Under the proposed terms, entry fee for basic service operators offering WLL (M) services has been estimated at Rs 69.75 crore in Delhi, Rs 55.81 crore in Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Rs 44.80 crore in Maharashtra (including Mumbai), Rs 19.03 crore in Punjab, Rs 3.6 crore in Karnataka and Rs 28.07 crore in West Bengal (including Kolkata).
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Reliance Info to abide by govt decision MUMBAI:
Reliance Infocomm today welcomed TRAI recommendations for a single licensing scheme for basic, landline and cellular telephony services. “We welcome the move which will put an end to licensing raj, as this will help to provide uninterrupted and good quality services to customers,” Reliance Infocomm spokesperson Amit Khanna said here today. He reiterated that “millions of Reliance customers will continue to enjoy the company’s services without any hindrance”. Meanwhile on TRAI’s recommendations to penalise Reliance Infocomm for violating licence rule and offering mobility services almost similar to cellular phones, Amit Khanna stressed that “these are recommendations from TRAI to GoM and are not final”. The GoM would have to submit the recommendations to the government, which will take a decision, he said, adding that Reliance Infocomm will abide by the rules and regulations.
— PTI |
Austrian Airlines
begins daily flights to Delhi New Delhi, October 27 Austrian Airlines Country Manager Bernhard Baeck said the airline had increased its flights from five to seven a week with effect from October 26, following an over 80 per cent passenger load factor. The carrier, which had recently completed six years of operations in India, would use the latest airbus A330-200 on the Delhi- Vienna route, having 24 business class and 235 economy seats. “The Indian market looks very promising to us. So, we have asked the Indian Government to let us fly to other cities starting with Mumbai. The request is still pending with the government,” Mr Baeck told a news conference here. Claiming a market share of 30-35 per cent on the Delhi- Vienna sector, he said Vienna could serve as a hub for Indian passengers travelling to Europe and America as the Austrian Airlines group served 120 destinations worldwide. The flights were being operated through a codeshare arrangement with Air-India, Mr Baeck added. Austrian Airlines planned to initially operate three flights to Mumbai and ramp it up gradually, subject to clearance from the Government of India, Mr Baeck said.
— PTI |
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Cruise tourism to sail into India
Mumbai, October 27 The Shipping Ministry has already constituted a committee headed by Mumbai port Chairperson Rani Jadhav to look into the marketing and infrastructure facilities for promoting cruise tourism. Currently, cruise tourism in India is limited to the backwaters of Kerala despite the country having a coastline of 7,000 km. The Tourism Department will share the expenditure for building cruise infrastructure on the port premises. Tourism Joint Secretary Amitabh Kant, while addressing a cruise tourism seminar organised by the Mumbai port here, had announced the government scheme to fund projects for infrastructure creation to meet the viability gap. In November, the port-tourism team will also offer a variety of tourist packages to leisure travellers. Cruise tourism had been identified as a thrust area by the government. It was creating a cruise circuit of five ports — Mumbai port (Maharashtra), Murmagoa port (Goa), New Mangalore port (Karnataka), Kochi port (Kerala) on the West coast and the Tuticorin port on the East coast, Union Minister for Shipping Shatrughan Sinha said. India is the seventh most preferred tourist destination and the trend reveals that the number of Indians going in for leisure travel is shooting up. According to Ms Jadhav, 26,000 Indians opted for the international cruise major Star Cruise for leisure travel last year. The passenger base of India was around 30,000 in 2002 and it was expected to go up, she said. She said cruise shipping, hit hard by September 11, 2001, attacks and SARS saw a dramatical fall in booking, but was now poised for recovery with new destinations and routes.
— UNI |
| Banks writing off bad loans, say staff Chandigarh, October
27 Some banks announced to cut down NPAs up to 0.75 per cent by the end of current financial year. The All-India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has lamented that neither the government nor bank managements were giving importance to the recovery of NPAs worth over Rs 1,10,000 crore. Rather they were opting the short cut route of writing off bank loans, thus cutting down the NPA figures. Despite legal provision, it has said, the banks have failed to initiate action against about 200 borrowers who owed over Rs 24,000 crore to them. The association has threatened the government either to initiate an action against the
willful defaulters or bank employees will go on an indefinite strike in December. The AIBEA has pointed out that 27 banks have written off over Rs 23,000 crore during the past four years from their balance sheets, including Rs 8,938 crore during 2002-03, to cut down NPAs. The association in a document published on 'Public Sector Banks Statistics' has claimed that by March 31, 2003, the banks had recovered just Rs 440 crore from 7,656 accounts under the Act, though 28,886 notices were issued to defaulters involving Rs 10,171 crore amount. It has pointed out that under the corporate debt restructuring scheme, 60 corporate houses had applied during 2002-03, asking for re-adjustment of Rs 44,369 crore loans. Out of these, 22 corporate houses in the cement, chemical, fertiliser, textile and steel sectors were granted a relief worth Rs 29,167 crore, thus affecting the financial health of the banking sector. Deploring the Centre approach to buy back high yielding bonds from the banks at market rate, and asking them to make a provision for NPAs, the association said, "the banks have booked profit worth Rs 4,960 crore by selling government bonds at market value in July, but that amount was paid by the government from the state exchequer. The government has exempted that amount from the income tax, and it will be entirely used to adjust the bad loans of the corporate houses. " The AIBEA passed a resolution urging the public and civil right forums to oppose the government move to protect the defaulters at the cost of public money. The resolution said the Centre should amend the Act to empower the banks to attach the properties of wilful defaulters. It has called for government sanction to publicise the list of wilful defaulters and to make defaulting a criminal offence. |
New Delhi, October 27 “Excellent monsoon and a likely new record agricultural output, fiscal year 2003-04 appears set to clock growth well in excess of 6.5 per cent. Perhaps approaching 6.9 per cent, the increase contributed by a very sharp increase in agriculture GDP by as much as 9 per cent,” ICRA said in its report “Money & Finance” released here today. ICRA revised upward its own growth target to 6.9 from 6 per cent based on good monsoon followed by record harvests. Expecting a record kharif crop at 110 million tonnes along with better oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton output, ICRA also said the country is poised to post a record rabi harvest. The rating agency, however, pegged growth of non-agriculture sector at 6.4 per cent with growth in the industry and services slowing down a bit this fiscal. The industry is slated to grow by 5.8 per cent this fiscal compared to 6 per cent in 2002-03, ICRA said. ICRA attributes the slower growth in the industry to depressed growth in mining and quarrying, gas, electricity generation and water supply sectors.
— PTI |
Aftek Infosys net rises 31 pc Mumbai, October 27 The company’s total income rose to Rs 31.46 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 20.78 crore registered during the same period of FY-03, Aftek Infosys said in a release here today. Aftek’s net sales rose by 55 per cent at Rs 31.11 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 20.11 crore posted during the same period of FY-03, it said, adding that this included Rs 23.30 crore from software exports.
— PTI |
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Banks performing better: PSB chief
Tarn Taran, October 27 Mr Gujral who was at Khadoor Sahib today as a chief guest at the annual prize distribution function of Baba Gurmukh Singh Uttam Singh Senior Secondary School while talking to this correspondent said the new banking policy of the Union Government had enabled the banks to collect enough foreign currency.
— OC |
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