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New Delhi, March 13  Hutchison Essar is planning an elaborate
rollout of its services in Punjab involving an investment of over of Rs 300
crore. “The Punjab rollout will be the next big thing for Hutchison Essar. The
total project cost, primarily in investment in infrastructure, will be over Rs
300 crore”, Executive Director of the company Rajiv Sawhney said.
TRAI consultation
paper issued In a bid to bring all telecom services under the ambit of a single licence regime, TRAI today issued a consultation paper seeking views on issues, including framework of unified licence regime, registration charges, entry fee, authorisation charges and service area. New Delhi, March 13 Citing poor infrastructure Nokia has politely declined a request from Communication and IT Minister Arun Shourie to set up a manufacturing unit in India. Ind-Swift sets up
subsidiary in US In an effort to increase its brand equity in the world’s largest pharma market, Ind-Swift Laboratories Ltd (ISLL) has set up a subsidiary in the US. |
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Hutch to invest Rs 300 cr in Punjab Gaurav Choudhury Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 13 “The Punjab rollout will be the next big thing for Hutchison Essar. The total project cost, primarily in investment in infrastructure, will be over Rs 300 crore”, Executive Director of the company Rajiv Sawhney said. Hutchison Essar operates cellular services in the circles of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, UP (East) and UP (West). At present, it has a combined subscriber base of over 4.5 million cellular subscribers. Elaborating on the Punjab rollout plan, Mr Sawhney said it will be rolled out “as quickly as possible” and pointed out that the company was focusing on increasing its presence in the North India. He, however, refused to give any specific dates for rolling out the services. “As of now, we are not in a position to give you any dates. We are looking at covering 70 or 80 towns in the state by our network”, Mr Sawhney said. Even as he refused to give any specific details of the company’s plans for the Punjab circle, Mr Sawhney said the launch would be on large scale as “the state represented the largest market in the Indian telecom space”. He disagreed that the Punjab market for cellular services had saturated with the presence of many operators. “It has not saturated. At present, the state has a combined cellular subscriber base of 2.2 million in a population of about 22 million”, he said. Hutchison is a part of Hutchison Whampoa LImited (HWL), a Hong Kong based multinational conglomerate operating in 41 countries. The company is currently investing Rs 1,800 crore to strengthen its national cellular infrastructure, IT backbone, customer service network and “provide innovative value added service”. On tariff wars and predatory pricing strategies he said no operator has been able to enjoy tariff advantages over another. “Tariff cuts in the telecom industry work in a similar pattern to that of the airline industry. Both markets are extremely competitive and if one player resorts to a price cut, the other will follow suit immediately”, Mr Sawhney said. Eventually “companies will earn the respect of the consumers on the quality of services that it delivers”. Regarding the recent controversies in the telecom industry with the WLL players entering the market using the CDMA technology, Mr Sawhney said it has actually helped in the acceleration of the market. “The growth of the cellular industry has only accelerated because of the CDMA players”, he said. The industry has also been agog with projections that a large scale consolidation exercise would happen with the advent of the of the Universal Access Service Licence (UASL) regime. “In recent times two cellular service entities RPG Cellular and Escotel has ceased to exist as they have merged with other companies. The consolidation exercise has thus started to happen”, Mr Sawhney said. In Delhi, the largest market for the cellular industry in the country, Hutch has the second largest subscriber base after Airtel . Mr Sawhney said Hutch’s subscriber base was fast increasing and latest figures show that the company has the largest growth rate in terms of additional subscibers in the Delhi region. “Net additions for Hutch in Delhi, from Octover, 2003, to December, 2003, has been 1,50,000 subscibers”, he said. “We have crossed the one million subscriber mark
in December, 2003, and have earmarked an investment of Rs 250 crore for
the Delhi market during 2004. This investment is towards expanding the
network infrastructure and improving the coverage footprint across Delhi
and other satellite towns. |
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TRAI consultation paper issued
New Delhi, March 13 “It is envisaged that a new licensing regime — the Unified
Licensing/authorisation regime — be implemented in which service
providers may be able to offer any or all services, using technology of
his or her choice with area of operation so defined as to promote
greater participation of all types of big and small entrepreneurs,” TRAI
said in a release. The key objectives of the new dispensation are to
encourage free growth of new applications and services leveraging on the
technological developments in Information and Communication Technology
area. TRAI will also look into ways of simplifying the procedure of
licensing in the telecom sector, ensuring flexibility and efficient
utilisation of resources keeping in mind the technological developments
and ensuring a “no-worse off” situation. TRAI has also sought comments
from stakeholder on issues like annual licence fee, interconnection,
spectrum charges, numbering and resale of services by April 30. — PTI |
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No unit in India, says Nokia
New Delhi, March 13 A senior Nokia official, who
recently met Mr Shourie, told the minister that while India was fast
reaching a critical mass, the infrastructure bottleneck would come in
the way for starting a manufacturing facility in the country. “For a
unit of 10 million sets, they will need to import 4 billion components,
some of which are like dust particles. With strikes at the airport,
problem at the customs and electricity failure, they are not willing to
take a chance’’, Mr Shourie said at the ongoing India Today Conclave”
here. The Disinvestment and Communication Minister gave the Nokia
example to illustrate how the maze of bureaucracy could dissuade big
global firms from setting up their manufacturing base in India. Mr
Shourie said the government departments are like silos where the ‘’files
move from one silo to the other’’. The initial draft forms the basis
of any decision by the government. The trouble is that most of the
initial drafts are formulated by officers who do not have proper
exposure and perspective. — UNI |
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Ind-Swift sets up subsidiary in US Chandigarh, March 13 Mr N.R.
Munjal, Managing Director, said “the subsidiary under the name Ind-Swift
Laboratories Inc has been incorporated and is expected to commence
operations by April, 2004. The company has already recruited top
officials for its US office. Mr Vikas Narendra, a techno commercial
professional has joined the company, who will head the operations of the
ISLL Inc from the USA. The new firm will essentially seek custom
research, custom manufacturing arrangements and strategic partnerships
in this market. Mr Vikas Narendra said “We are not a late entrant in the
US market. In fact we have already tied up with 4 US companies, which
figure among the top 15 companies in the US, for supply of our products
The presence in US will augment the business relations and long-term tie
ups, he added. |
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by A.N. Shanbhag Long-term capital gains tax-free Q: I read your column in ‘The Tribune’. Please clarify that which type of shares, I mean only of companies or mutual funds also, are exempt from capital gains purchased after March 1, 2003 and what is the limit of holding those shares? Also sir, what is BSE 500 and from where (in web) it can be seen or had its copy? — G.Lal A: Long-term capital gains arising from transfer of shares purchased through a recognised stock exchange, on or after April 1, 2003, but before April 1, 2004, are exempt from income tax. This exemption is restricted to only those shares figuring in the BSE-500 index as on April 1, 2003. If during the course of the year, any of these shares are replaced with another stock in the index, investors who had purchased the share prior to its replacement will continue to enjoy the benefit.The benefit is also extended to shares of companies making initial public offers during the year. There is a possibly unintended fall-out of this provision. Since the word used is purchased, the benefit is not available to bonus shares. Since the long-term gain is tax-free, the long-term loss arising out of such shares cannot be setoff against any gains. As a logical step, the benefit should have been extended to equity-based MF schemes, but that has not happened. These are after all pass-through vehicles and for all practical purposes represent the collective investments of the investors. You can get the list of individual names of scrips featuring in BSE-500 on www.bseindia.com Tax refund Q: I had taken VRS from the bank in January 2001. The bank had deducted income tax for Rs 1,56,744 on total amount of taxable income of Rs 5,89,924, (gross income Rs 11,51,757 less exemption of Rs 5,65,642. I had filed the return for 2001-2002 and claimed refund of Rs 34,557 (as rebate under Section 89(1)). I have so far not received any refund. Please guide me whether I am eligible for the refund. Many of my friends have received the refund long back through their chartered accountants. — Sam N. Mistry A: The Madras High Court in the case of CIT v M. Raman, Abdul Hadi and N. V. Balasubramanian JJ, (ITR vol 245, 2000) decided on April 4,1997 that — the amount received by the employee at the time of voluntary retirement of service would be regarded as salary and the relief under Section 89 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, would be admissible in respect of such sum."The assessee has taken voluntary retirement from the service and received an amount of compensation at the time of his voluntary retirement. The question that arises is whether the compensation received by the assessee at the time of voluntary retirement would fall within the provisions of Section 17(3)(i) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, that is, whether it can be regarded as salary and the assessee would be entitled to the relief provided under Section 89 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. This court in the case reported in CIT v. J. Visalakshi (1994) 206 ITR 531, held that if an employee receives at the time if resignation, the amount could be regarded as salary and the assessee would be entitled to the relief provided under Section 89 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The said principle rendered by this court in the case of resignation would equally apply to the case of voluntary retirement of an employee from service." Broker’s commission Q: I believe cost of share includes broker’s commission and depository account transaction and maintenance fee. Are indirect expenses the investor incurs like travel to broker’s office, investment magazine and paper subscription, portfolio advisory charges considered cost of share acquisition of share? — Khaza Yousuf Uddin A: The broker’s commission is included in the broker’s note and therefore, there is no problem to take it into account as addition cost of acquisition when shares are purchased and as reduction in sale proceeds when shares are sold. Other expenses mentioned by you can be taken into account in theory but in practice, it will be very difficult to do so. |
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Karisma Kapoor Forex reserves LIC-UTI Bank
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buyers
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Ahmedabad, March 13