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Deb plans to revitalise sick PSUs
Sensex slips on rising global oil prices
A man walks past the BSE building in Mumbai on Tuesday. After opening moderately lower at 5117.52, the BSE Benchmark 30-share index fell sharply by 147.22 points to the intra-day low at 4976.01. Sensex finally ended at 5102.22 against Monday’s close of 5123.23, netting a fall of 21.01 points or 0.41 per cent.
— AFP photo |
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Punjab sellers need not pay market fee: SC
Punjab, Beckons Ind tie up for biotech park
ONGC subsidiary posts Rs 459.41 cr profit
Disinvestment Commission members resign
THAT'S IT
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Deb plans to revitalise sick PSUs New Delhi, May 25 Mr Deb, an MP from Assam, assured that the new Government will revitalise the sick public sector units (PSUs). “Many of the state enterprises are sick. My job will be to revitalise them. As far as disinvestment is concerned, I will go by the policies of my government,” he told newspersons today. Mr Deb had refused to assume office yesterday stating that there was no convention of having a junior minister when a Minister of State has been given independent charge. “I am not a child. I did not barge into the ministry. I talked to the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi this morning. They asked me to take charge and said the mistake will be rectified,” he said. “You ask him,” he said when asked whether RJD MP Taslimuddin, who has also been appointed at Minister of State in the same ministry, will assume office or not. On the issue of offloading further government equity in automobile company, Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL), Mr Deb said that the government will keep in mind the interests of the car maker. The Minister of State of Non-Conventional Energy Sources Vilas Muttemwar also took charge today. The Centre will convene a meeting of state Power Ministers to draw a strategy for tapping non-conventional energy sources on broader scale, particularly in the power-starved rural hinterland. The government is also considering the idea of increasing the contribution of the state along with an enhanced budgetary grant from the Union Finance Ministry to tap various sources of non-conventional energy, which largely remains untapped. “A meeting of all Power Minister of states will be called next month to chalk out a strategy to make non-conventional energy as people’s movement,” Mr Muttemwar told newspersons after taking charge. Despite the universal opinion about the potential of the alternative energy sector, the installed capacity in India at present stands at a meager 5,000 MW. Various estimates have put the potential in the range of 50,000 mw to 1,00,000 mw. Mr Muttemwar said that the government would take steps to actively promote the usage of non-conventional energy sources, particularly among institutions such as five-star hotels and government departments. Referring
to Rajiv Gandhi’s “Urja Village” concept, he said the non-conventional sector had tremendous potential to improve power situation in the country and save precious natural sources. When asked about the scope of private participation in this sector, Mr Muttemwar said, “After discussing the issue with the Finance Ministry, we will take a final decision. However, unlike previous government we want to popularise the use of non-conventional energy in every part of the country,” he added.
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Sensex slips on rising global oil prices Mumbai, May 25 The 30-scrip bellwether Bombay Stock Exchange index fell 0.41 per cent to close lower at 5,102.22 points. Nifty also fell, closing at 1597 down 11 points. The biggest fall was Maruti Udyog Ltd, which fell four per cent to Rs 454.95 and Tata Motors Ltd which dropped 3.5 per cent to Rs 428.95. There were, however, gains elsewhere. ONGC was up 3.3 per cent to Rs 731.60 after reports of subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd making it to the black in the last fiscal. However, stocks of refiners fell amidst reports that the Indian government’s reluctance to increase prices could squeeze margins. BPCL fell 3.9 per cent to Rs 327.85 and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd dropped 4.1 per cent to Rs 320.45. Power-related scrips like BHEL and Tata Power shed over one per cent each. Tech stocks continued to rise with Infosys Technologies Ltd gaining 0.8 per cent at Rs 5,359.06. Wipro rose 0.7 per cent at Rs 1,620.35.
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Indian firm fined £4,50,000
London, May 25 The Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services
(Icstis), which regulates premium rate lines, said yesterday that a fine of £75,000 each was imposed on the companies for various breaches of the Icstis code of practice, including not making clear the price of the call. They have been barred from operating premium rate services. Besides
Indiano, firms fined are Greenbay Ltd and Quartel Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Isles; Fast Way Holdings Ltd of Croatia, US-registered Litmus Ltd and Vertical Media Ltd of Malaysia. The committee said it had received 300 complaints about the frauds being conducted by these companies in January and February. During the investigation, links were found between the companies, including shared addresses. According to a report in ‘The Daily Telegraph’, most of the companies began operating immediately after almost identical scams were closed down.
— UNI
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Punjab sellers need not pay market fee: SC New Delhi, May 25 But the court left it to the state government to amend the law in this regard to make it consonance with the provisions of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act and the Sales Tax Act. A Bench of Chief Justice S. Rajendra Babu and Mr Justice G. P. Mathur, dismissing the Punjab Government’s appeal on the issue against a Punjab and Haryana High Court order, said the laws of the state were not clear on this aspect. The court said under what circumstances the market fee was to be paid, needed to be considered and once it was held that the buyer had an obligation to pay such a fee, it would be the duty of the seller to deposit it on behalf of the buyer. But at present it was not the “legal obligation of the seller to pay market fee on such transactions and thus the amount of the market fee could not be treated as part of sale consideration,” the Bench said. The high court had also given the same ruling when the issue of purchase tax was challenged before it by trading firm Guranditta Mal Hauti Prakash and some others in a petition on the ground that the market fee did not form part of the turnover. Dismissing the Punjab Government’s appeal, the Apex Court said: “If the law is not clear on the issue, it is open to the state to amend it... as this court has explained in an earlier case that under what circumstances the liability to pay market fee becomes part of the turnover.”
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Punjab, Beckons Ind tie up for biotech park Chandigarh, May 25 The Punjab State Council for Science and Technology (PSCST) has signed an agreement with Beckons Industries, Mohali, for setting up of first industrial cluster of biotech park in joint sector. He informed the members that the proposal had been sent to the Department of Biotechnology, to support the incubator facilities in the park on 70:30 sharing basis with the state government. The project will be implemented through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) named "Punjab Biotechnology Park Limited". The total cost of the project was Rs 13.33 crore of which the state government would be required to provide Rs 3.23 crore in three years whereas Rs 90 lakh for the development of infrastructure for industrial modules would be sourced from financial institutions, the Chief Minister said. He had asked Ms Romila Dubey, Principal Secretary, Science and Technology, to approve the state government's share of 30 per cent in the project and expedite its implementation. Dr S.S Marwaha, Director (Biotechnology), said a delegation led by him had visited the Biotech Parks of Saskatchewan and Quebec, provinces of Canada. The delegation interacted with the biotechnology agencies Ag-West Bio Inc and Bio-original Food which were interested in joining hands for promoting the biotechnology sector in Punjab.
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ONGC subsidiary posts Rs 459.41 cr profit
Mumbai, May 25 The turnover for the reporting year rose to Rs 12,612.22 crore as against Rs 8,580.78 crore in 2002-03, ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha told newspersons here today after the board meeting. The net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2004 stood at Rs 551.15 crore as against a net loss of Rs 80.34 crore in Q4 of 2002-03 while net sales stood at Rs 3,635.5 crore as against Rs 2,049.60 crore in Q4 last fiscal. Mr Raha said the net profit was registered after making provisions for finance and interest charges of Rs 373 crore (Rs 567 crore last fiscal), depreciation of Rs 378 crore (Rs 374 crore) and deferred tax liability of Rs 115 crore (Rs 241 crore deferred tax asset). Export sales for 2003-04 jumped by 134 per cent to Rs 4,478 crore as against Rs 1,913 crore in 2002-03, he said. The ONGC is also weighing the possibility of merging Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd with itself even as it has laid out capex plans of over Rs 500 crore for the refinery, including product upgrade to meet Euro III norms. “We are weighing various options but are yet to take a final view on the merger of the refinery, which turned black after losses since its inception,” Mr Raha told newspersons. Meanwhile, ONGC has also entered into a strategic alliance with oilfield services major, Schlumberger, for value addition and value creation.
— PTI
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Disinvestment Commission members resign
New Delhi, May 25 Disinvestment Commission Chairman R.H. Patil along with the members have tendered their resignations which are pending with the government. In fact, the entire commission had submitted their resignations en masse to Mr Arun Shourie, before he demitted office as Disinvestment Minister. The commission has become defunct with only the Member Secretary remaining in office. In fact, when UNI contacted the Commission’s office only a secretariat officer was available. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has not named any minister in charge of the Disinvestment ministry. The Ministry with Secretary Dhirender Singh and four Joint Secretaries would function under the Prime Minister unless it is officially scrapped or transferred to any other ministry, official sources said.
— UNI
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THAT'S IT
New Delhi, May 25 “The size of the deal is approximately Rs 40 crore,” Mr Punit Dalmia, chairman of Jobsahead.com, told newspersons. Monster Asia President and MD Arun Tadanki said the company, which is awaiting regulatory approvals for the acquisition, at this stage could not disclose the size of the deal. “We are expecting the regulatory approvals in the next three months,” he said and added the definitive agreement for the deal was signed two days ago. The combined entity, which will be called Monster, would have a workforce of 200, including 135 from Jobsahead.com. But for the next six to 12 months Jobsahead.com will maintain its separate identity under the ambit of Monster umbrella brand, Mr Tadanki said. With this acquisition, Monster India would be the single largest database of resumes with 25 lakh resumes and 55 lakh job seekers, they claimed. GAILTEL
State-run GAIL (India) Ltd, which has laid a vast network of fibre optic cables along the gas pipeline grid it operates, will sell bandwidth to newspapers, news agencies and TV channels at a 70 per cent discount. GAILTEL, GAIL’s subsidiary for the telecom business, has been leasing bandwidth to phone service providers like VSNL, Tata Teleservices and Escotel. It is now tapping the print and electronic media to expand its business. The company will offer a discount of 70 per cent over the telecom sector regulator TRAI-approved rate of Rs 22 lakh for leasing a 2 Mbps (megabyte per second) line.
L&T Infotech
Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd (L&T Infotech), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), is keen on acquiring banking and financial solutions companies in the US, according to L&T Infotech chief executive V K Magapu. Speaking at the sidelines of a press conference here today, Mr Magapu said that the company is looking at making acquisitions in the US, especially companies specialised in offering complete range of products and services to financial organisations. “We are looking at the Indian market also for acquisitions. We are open to acquisitions. However, we have not identified any companies yet”, Mr Magapu said. Meanwhile, L&T Infotech and Florida-based Fidelity Information Services-a division of Fidelity National Financial Inc-have a partnership to provide information technology solutions to the Indian banking industry including core banking, trade finance, retail banking, offshore banking, cash management and several other ancillary banking solutions.
— Agencies
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Mumbai, May 25
