 |
|
Jet Airways keen
on airport privatisation Exports growth up
9.99 per cent Spice demands Rs
533 cr refund |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Restructuring
plan by DCM
A-I should cash in on China
operation
LIC pension scheme not
attractive
|
|
Jet Airways keen on airport privatisation New Delhi, November 1 At the same time, the airline has envinced interest in participating in the proposed airport privatisation programme. "After two successive years of unfavourable financial results, the company is seeking to implement various measures during the current year so as to return to profitability. Besides concentrating on its core competencies, the thrust of the company is also on achieving a better utilisation of resources and improve productivity in all areas", Chairman of Jet Airways, Mr Naresh Goyal told The Tribune in an exclusive interview. Mr Goyal said that the airline was seeking to enhance utilisation of existing fleet and strengthening of network and was also considering options of leasing out excess capacity (if any), re-negotiation with vendors and service providers. "We are reviewing the network to optimise capacities deployed on major sectors and align the business strategies with changing political, economic and industry conditions", he said. In addition, the company was "increasing the partner base with respect to interline agreements so as to achieve increased global presence", he said. Reports suggest that despite an increase in market share the accumulated losses of Jet Airways have increased from Rs 21.6 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 81 crore in 2000-01 and Rs 177.5 crore in 2002-03. Mr Goyal said that the events of 9/11 leading to a slowdown in the aviation industry worldwide, as well as the economic slow-down and adverse political scenario such as Indo-Pak tensions, Gujarat riots etc since early 2001 have affected the airline industry negatively as also Jet Airways’ operations, resulting in lower seat factors and increased financial pressure in the last two years. "Increase in operational costs occurred mainly due to escalations in fuel, landing and navigation insurance and security-related costs", the Jet Airways Chairman said. With a marginal recovery being witnessed in the economy during the current year "we expect the air travel market to grow by around 3.5 per cent per annum during the next five years". Welcoming the recent decision of the government to privatise the two metro airports (Mumbai and Delhi), Mr Goyal said that "if the new guidelines permit, Jet Airways would be keenly interested in participating in the ownership and management of privatised airports". "It is widely recognised that metro airports need rapid upgradation to be brought up to international standards to meet the growing demand", he said. During the last one decade when private players were allowed to enter the domestic aviation sector, the fares have steadily increased during this period though the recent introduction of advance purchase tariffs give the impression of the customer getting a better deal. Mr Goyal said that the progressive increases in the domestic air fare during the last decade are "primarily attributable to the sharp increases that have occurred in the prices of aviation turbine fuel and landing navigation and parking charges and of other input costs". The fare increases thus have mainly been aimed at offsetting these increases and thus maintaining the viability of the domestic aviation sector. The progressive devaluation of the rupee against the dollar also contributed towards cost
increases of the airlines, he said. "Airlines found it advisable to introduce differential pricing measures to increase the passenger traffic base by attracting passengers currently using surface transport and thereby generate additional incremental revenues at minimal additional costs and fill up empty seats on the flights", Mr Goyal said. On the controversy over the alleged links of Jet Airways with the underworld, he dismissed these as "totally baseless and motivated". "Over the last decade of its operations, Jet Airways has fulfilled and complied with all legal and statutory requirements and furnished all relevant information to all the regulatory authorities as and when asked for", Mr Goyal said. He said that a "reform-oriented approach by the government towards civil aviation sector is of prime importance" for growth of the sector. "A well-defined and dynamic regulatory framework, rationalisation of existing policies with respect to route dispersal guidelines, customs duties, landing and navigation and parking charges are some of the areas that need to be addressed more proactively", Mr Goyal said. In fact, only two private players -- Jet Airways and Air Sahara -- have survived the rough and tumble of the domestic market while the likes of Modiluft, East West and Damania have crashed out. The Jet Airways Chairman appeared unperturbed over the
initiatives taken by Air Deccan which is set to become the first low-cost carrier to connect all the regional centres in the South and has offered a much lower price band to travellers vis-a-vis the prevailing industry price points. "Since Air Deccan has commenced operations only recently it is too early to assess their impact on our kind of operation. However, we expect the Air Deccan operations as a low cost no frills airline to create a totally new segment of air traffic on domestic sectors and thus expand the air market", he said.
|
|
Exports growth up 9.99 per cent
New Delhi, November 1 Exports in September, 2003 grew to $ 4982.20 million from $ 4297.54 million during the same month last year. “Exports keep changing month after month. Decline in one month should not lead to a panic,” Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after release of trade data. As a result of a smart recovery in September, the overall six-month export performance for the April-September, 2003 has also improved to a shade below the double digit figure of 9.99 per cent. It reached a level of $ 27,438.95 million against $ 24,946.03 million in the first half of the previous fiscal. Imports for September, 2003 amounted to $ 5,911.96 million, representing an increase of 16.25 per cent over the level of $ 5085.74 million in the same month last year. There was a big rise of 28.02 per cent in non-oil imports in April- September 2003, reaching a level of $ 25,339.78 million from $ 19794.12 million in the same period last year. The six-month imports amounted to $ 34,554.76 million representing an increase of 21.42 per cent over the comparable period of the previous year.
— UNI |
|
Spice demands Rs 533 cr refund Chandigarh, November 1 In a letter to the government, Mr Ashok Goyal, President, Spice Communications, said the new TRAI recommendations allowing convergence of WLL licence with that of cellular licences meant that any fixed service provider can provide cellular service by paying licence fee. Spice has been one of the front-runners in the cellular telecommunication and obtained licences for the Punjab and Karnataka circles by paying
Rs 891.52 crore. The licence will now be available for Rs 358.58 crore under the new recommendations. It means that Spice Communication has paid
Rs 532.93 crore extra than the existing WLL firm that can migrate to the full mobility based on the recommendations. |
|
New Delhi, November 1 Besides, Rs 74.5 crore will be raised from disinvestments and sale of investments and Rs 14.1 crore from the sale of surplus land at Hisar and income from textile operations, DCM Ltd Chairman Vinay Bharat Ram told a press conference here.
— PTI |
bb
by K. R. Wadhwaney
A-I should cash in on China operation As India, China are now on a friendly mode, it is a welcome sign that Air-India will start operating flights to Shanghai. China is a leading aviation power in the world currently. Its airports are ultra-modern. Frequent travellers to Shanghai say regardless of weather conditions, flights operate ontime. China’s aviation record is virtually unblemished. Air-India’s exercise to Shanghai will be successful if its officials draw a leaf out of the book of Chinese workers. The time of entry on the route to Shanghai via Bangkok is judicious but whether Air-India will cash in on the favourable climate is difficult to say at this point of time. More than a decade ago, Air-India had started operations to South Africa when India was on a historic three-month cricket tour. A lot of glamour was attached to these flights. Sadly, the operations did not last long although there is a huge Indian population in South Africa. Judging from present mood in two countries, Chinese will certainly undertake trips to India, if befitting tourist conditions are provided. Bilateral trade between the two countries is bound to increase manifold. It is to be seen how Air-India handle this operation. During winter Air-India will increase its flights to Newwark (US) via Paris from five to seven a week. It is a great going on paper. Dleased aircraft will be used on this route. The planes B-747-400 and Airbus, A-310s are huge. The facilities to passengers in first and business class has been improved. But the fate of economy class passengers remains poor. Also, according to travellers, there is not much improvement in snack/meal service. Reducing fare is, indeed, laudable but service on board should also be given priority. Following terrorist upheavals worldwide, there had been alliances among several airlines. Air-India has also tied up with Lufthansa. It enters new territory after undertaking a proper homework. On paper, both carriers should be able to make success of the alliance. But Air-India’s handling has always been “dubious”. Some year age, it entered an alliance with a UK-based airline. It is said to have surrendered more advantages to it than gained from this cooperation. Hopefully, Air-India will not be loser in relations to Lufthansa. Lufthansa’s current focus on the South India. It will operate more flights than it does at present. |
bb
by A.N. Shanbhag LIC pension scheme not attractive Q:
You have mentioned in your article pension scheme that the LIC Pension Scheme is not attractive compared to Post Office MIS / PPF due to lower post-tax yield. You have expressed surprise why so many people are making a beeline to buy the scheme. The answer perhaps lies in the fact that this scheme ensures immunity from declining rates of interest for lifetime of the pensioner. No other scheme has this feature. MIS/PPF post-tax yield may be 8% today, but tomorrow it may come down to 5-6%; Pension Yojana will continue to give 9%. — D.K.Tawakley
A: I agree with you. However, the future is unpredictable and the MIS returns may descend down after 6 years. What if they rise? I always take action on the basis of the current scenario and not on ifs and buts in the future dimension. Six years is a long period and the tax laws may be amended drastically. Unknown is unknown. It may be better to neglect it. PPF account Q:
I am having my PPF account with SBI since 1996. I want to check my interest of previous years. I request you to kindly mail me the different effective rates with effective date. — Astha Kapoor
A:
In 86-87 interest rate of PPF was 12 per cent and remained put ever since. For the first time on 15.1.2000 it was pushed down to 11 pc. On 1.3.01 it was further reduced drastically to 9.5 pc. Then again, it has been reduced by FA02 to 9 pc w.e.f. 1.3.02. FA03 has reduced it further to 8 pc, w.e.f. 1.3.03. The account gets credit of the amount on the date of the deposit of your cheque, unless the cheque bounces. Interest is calculated on the lowest balance between the close of the fifth day and the last day of every month and is credited to the account at the end of each financial year i.e., on 31st March. Unfortunately, many of the officers do not know these rules related with PPF and since these are different from those applicable to bank deposits, the following types of errors are very common: 1. Interest is calculated on the lowest balance between the close of the tenth day and the last day of every month. 2. The PPF account is credited on the basis of the date when the cheque gets cleared. 3. Interest is credited to the account on the date when the clerk computes it and this may be 2 to 3 months away from the 31st March of the last year. I fail to understand why the incidence of such errors has not vanished when most of the branches of banks that handle PPF are computerised. I recommend that all my readers having a PPF should check the accuracy of the interest computations.
Govt securities Q:
1) What are so called “Government Securities”? Can you please give the names of these instruments and from where these can be purchased? 2) NRIs can invest in National Saving Certificates (NSCs). Does money invested by an NRI in NSCs from NRE a/c repatriable? Whether rebate on tax u/s 88 is available on such investment? Interest rate on NSC and PO-MIS is same, then why investment in latter is not allowed for NRIs? — Mahendra P. Shukla
A:
Govt Securities are basically borrowings made by the government through RBI. These are securities such as g-secs issued by the central and state governments for various maturities, typically of very long-term. The interest rate is understandably low and does not attract a retail investor. T-Bills etc. which the minimum deal size is quite high and generally it is the institutions that deal with such securities. These are normally not available to the retail investor. However, an attempt has been made by the authorities by making these available for screen-based trading, but the success is not much. A retail investor can take exposure to Government Securities by way of investing in Gilt Mutual Fund schemes. Both NSC and PO-MIS being post office instruments are not available to NRIs. |
bb
IT Ombudsman Can Bazar TVS Motor |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Private domestic air carrier Jet Airways is
presently undertaking various initiatives including realignment of its
operational strategies and a phased capacity expansion programme to turnaround
the company’s balance sheet and return to profitability in the current year.
