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Aiyar, FM remain
closeted for 45 minutes on oil price issue
IOC refinery for Nigeria New Delhi, June 9 IndianOil Corp will set up its first overseas oil refinery in Nigeria as part of its drive to expand globally. “The IOC has been invited by the Edo State of Nigeria to set up a grassroot (new) refinery. |
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Job quota
doesn’t amuse MNCs, Maharashtra
Govt dilutes it
Shell, Norwich
drop outsourcing bombshells on USA, UK In order to improve quality and save $ 850 million annually beginning in 2008, Shell Oil Co. is cutting 600 to 800 information technology jobs in the United States and offshoring most of these jobs to India and Malaysia.
Draw VAT road
map, says PHDCCI The PHDCCI has called upon the Central Government to announce a road map for implementation of VAT and phasing out of Central Sales Tax (CST) in the coming Budget. Panel to sort out
industry issues With a view to bringing better coordination between government agencies, including the Departments of Industries and Transport, and industrial associations and truck unions, in the state a proposal to constitute a standing committee has been mooted by the government. 
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Aiyar, FM remain closeted for 45 minutes on oil price issue
New Delhi, June 9 To finalise the government’s strategy, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today. Both ministers will now meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 11 to discuss revision in petrol, diesel and cooking oil prices. “I had a very constructive meeting with the Finance Minister and there is a consensus on our approach to deal with the crisis,” Mr Aiyar told reporters after meeting with Mr Chidambaram. Mr Aiyar is believed to have discussed duty cuts among other measures to soften the impact of $ 7 a barrel rise in crude oil prices. After a 45-minute meeting with Finance Minister to discuss new pricing strategy, Mr Aiyar told reporters: “We hope by June 15, we will be able to announce a full package.” He, however, did not say what the package would include or what he discussed with Chidambaram. The sources in the Petroleum Ministry said the Government will announce by June 15 a new pricing policy for petrol, diesel and LPG that may include lower duties and targeted subsidies. Sources indicated that the government was considering extending subsidies on LPG (domestic cooking gas) and kerosene by two years to 2007 after eliminating the rich from the list of consumers of subsidised cooking fuel. For petrol and diesel, the Government is considering giving freedom to state-run oil firms to fix auto fuel prices on their own within a specified price band. The government is also likely to cut down customs duty on LPG, kerosene and diesel so that the import duty component included in calculating the consumer price of these products comes down and consumers are insulated from the rise in international oil prices. Excise duty on LPG may also be cut. The sources in the Petroleum Ministry said the ministry had suggested to the Finance Ministry to levy specific excise duty on petrol and diesel instead of ad valorem rates. Excise duty in percentage terms meant that consumers had to pay more each time global prices shot up. An official of a leading oil company said without these measures, they would have to raise petrol prices by Rs 3.53 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.25 per litre to offset nearly 18 per cent increase in global prices of both products. The sources said in return for relief in duties and extension of subsidy period, oil companies would be told to set up a Crude and Petroleum Product Stabilisation Fund. The money from the fund would be used to moderate the impact of any abnormal rise or fall in international prices.
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IOC refinery
for Nigeria
New Delhi, June 9 “The IOC has been invited by the Edo State of Nigeria to set up a grassroot (new) refinery. Our board has approved signing of an MoU with the Governor of Edo for the project,” IOC Director (business development) Naresh K Nayyar told PTI here. The capacity of the refinery and the investments had not yet been firmed up. “We propose to take up the project as a joint venture with Edo State,” he said. However, the IOC had conditioned building the refinery on the fiscal regime provided by Edo, which produces Escravos and Forcados crude grades. “We want stake in an oil field so that the refinery gets steady feed of crude oil for processing.” The IOC, which had also bid for revamping the existing refineries in Nigeria, wanted to enter auto fuel retailing business too, he said. Oil-rich Nigeria has four refineries with a total capacity of 445,000 barrels per day (22.5 million tonnes) but output of petroleum products is restricted to just 25 per cent of the capacity as the machines are old.
— PTI
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Job quota doesn’t amuse MNCs, Maharashtra Mumbai, June 9 The private sector and trans-national companies also managed to rope in Shiv Sena to fight the proposed move for introducing reservations in the private sector. The Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra legislature Narayan Rane came out openly to protest the move. Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters on Wednesday those only companies receiving concessions like subsidised land and tax breaks from the government need to reserve 52 per cent of jobs for persons from the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The government would introduce an amendment in the ongoing session of the Maharashtra legislature, sources say. The state government had earlier this year brought about legislation to get private companies reserve jobs for the backward classes. Under these rules private sector reservations in Maharashtra will become compulsory by July 30. Despite the relaxed rules a number of prominent industrial houses that have obtained land on lease from the Maharashtra government will now have to reserve jobs like public sector undertakings. These include prominent hotel chains and companies in the electronic goods sector. Even small units located in industrial estates constructed by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation would come under the new rules. Officials say the government would make it mandatory for companies renewing their leases on public land to carry out job reservations.
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Crorepati
to be so, actually Chandigarh, June 9 The Department of Lotteries has decided not to deduct its 20 per cent of cost on administrative expenses from the prize money of the forthcoming Divali bumper. This will also hold good for winners of other bumper lotteries. Director of Punjab State Lotteries Sher Singh Sidhu said the prize money for various lotteries, including the Divali bumper, had been increased from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore. Nearly 33 persons, who won these annual bumper Baisakhi, Rakhi, Divali and New Year lotteries so far had never got Rs 1.5 crore even after winning it and would get only Rs 75 lakh. The deducted amount ( Rs 75 lakh or so) would include 32 per cent income tax on Rs 1.5 crore, besides 20 per cent (Rs 30 lakh) for administrative expenses. This significant decision would also benefit those winners from whose prize money the department would deduct 10 per cent costs as administrative expenses.
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Shell, Norwich drop outsourcing bombshells
Houston, June 9 “It’s about reducing cost and improving quality,” said Anne Knisely, manager of corporate media relations for Shell Oil Co., which is based in Houston and is part of the Royal Dutch-Shell Group of Companies. Shell hopes to make the reductions by 2006. The job cuts will be made through attrition, reducing the number of contractors, reassigning some employees to other jobs and offering voluntary severance packages. A spokesperson for Shell, for example, told a conference organized recently by FNV, a federation of Dutch unions, that its company’s computer programmers do not work as well as those in India, and sees offshoring as a solution. Currently, Shell has a total IT manpower of 9,300 personnel globally, including 2,200 in the United States. This cutback will be mostly among temporary staff, whose work will be transferred to low-wage countries. A Dutch IT worker costs the company $ 85,000 annually, versus $ 20,000 for an Indian one. The Royal Dutch-Shell Group of companies has reportedly signed contracts with IBM and Wipro Technologies for IT services from India.
Norwich Union
British insurer Norwich Union said on Wednesday it would cut 700 staff in the UK and outsource work abroad in the latest transfer of jobs from the UK to countries such as India as companies seek to cut costs. The jobs are predominately in software development and support services, the firm said on Wednesday, and account for around two per cent of the UK workforce of parent company Aviva, Britain’s biggest insurer. “A substantial part of that work will be outsourced, and a significant part of that is likely to be done in India,” Director of Strategy David Taylor told Reuters. At least 30 firms have shifted more than 50,000 jobs to India since end-2001 as the sub-continent has emerged as the most popular outsourcing destination abroad from Britain, the United States and Ireland, according to Reuters calculations. “Recent market conditions in the UK long-term savings market have been tough and we have to ensure that the company continues its drive for efficiency,” Norwich Union Life Chief Executive Gary Withers said in a statement. Aviva’s key British market has been hit by hard times as a three-year stock market rout, regulatory uncertainty and mis-selling scandals have reduced demand in one of the most equity-based life insurance markets in Europe.
— Agencies
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Draw VAT road map,
says PHDCCI New Delhi, June 9 The chamber in a representation submitted to the Centre pointed out that though the new government was keen to implement VAT across the country at the earliest, yet the VAT legislation of various states were not in line with the Centre’s recommendations. The chamber has called upon the government to convince state governments to abolish state taxes and local levies.
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Panel to sort out industry issues Solan, June 9 At a meeting held recently among representatives of these departments at Shimla, it had been unanimously decided to constitute the body which will look over problems faced by the industry and the truck unions. Confirming the proposal, Director (Industries) B.S.Nainta said the problem of truck unions had become a cause for concern for industrialists.
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