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Punjab Annual Plan hiked to Rs 4,005 cr
LIC may absorb service tax of policy-holders this fiscal
Airlines face oil price turbulence |
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IRDA norms soon on regulating corporate agents
Bollywood actress Diya Mirza wears a gold necklace at the start of a weeklong gold extravaganza in New Delhi on Monday. — Reuters
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Corporate Briefs
Chennai tech firm acquires US co
Italian envoy meets Jaya
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Punjab Annual Plan hiked to Rs 4,005 cr
New Delhi, October 18 A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia here today at Yojana Bhavan. The Planning Commission has convened a preliminary meeting of the officers of the State Planning and Finance Department on October 27 to finalise the modalities of mid-term appraisal of the Tenth Five Year Plan. Taking parts in the deliberations, Capt Amarinder Singh argued that the Planning Commission had already approved and fixed the size of Annual Plan 2004-05 at Rs 3,480 crore against the proposed size of Rs 3,583 crore by the Punjab Government. He, however, said that the Central assistance and loans under different programmes had been slashed by Rs 700 crore by the previous year. Capt Amarinder Singh urged Dr Ahluwalia to enhance the balance allocation of Rs 175 crore forthwith to enable the state government to execute various projects. He lamented that the growth rate of the state domestic product had declined during the nineties and consequently the per capita income growth had also declined in comparison to fast growing states like Maharashtra. “While the country has witnessed an average growth rate of over 6 per cent during this period, the state economy grew at a rate of about 4 per cent during this period. The GSDP at constant prices (1993-94) has increased only by 1.80 per cent in 2002-03,” said the Chief Minister. Referring to the Central Road Fund, he urged the Planning Commission to release funds to the tune of Rs 234 crore to Punjab as per the norms approved by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under this scheme only Rs 37.36 crore had been approved in 2004-05. He requested to release Rs 196.64 crore as backlog of the previous year during 2004-05. The Chief Minister also pointed out that under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the state was contributing about Rs 150 crore annually in the form of cess on diesel, but the allocations were only Rs 24.66 crore, Rs 74.29 crore and Rs 28.45 crore during 2000-01, 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively. Thus, there was a backlog of Rs 510 crore for Punjab that may be provided by the Centre during the current financial year.
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LIC may absorb service tax of policy-holders this fiscal
New Delhi, October 18 This was stated by LIC Chairman S B Mathur today. “The LIC is currently growing at 60 per cent in terms of business income. But we are looking at 35 per cent growth during the current financial year,” he said adding the LIC may not have to pay service tax on premium this year. He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference on “Indian Insurance Industry: New Avenues of Growth” organised by Ficci here. “It looks pretty difficult to pass on the service tax burden to consumers this fiscal,” said Mr Mathur. He said during 2003-04, the LIC had sold 2.70 crore new individual policies and was looking for sale of 3.10 crore policies this year. By March 31, 2004, the LIC had sold a total of 15.60 crore policies. During the first six months of the current financial year, LIC’s new premium income rose by 62.71 per cent to Rs 3,476.34 crore against Rs 2,136.57 crore in the same period of 2003-04. Mr Mathur said the LIC would bring out four new products by this year-end. ”One will be a high net worth product with a minimum sum assured of Rs 10 lakh, another will be a pension product while third one will be a children’s money back policy.” he added. He said the LIC’s unit-linked scheme was doing well and Bima Plus was bringing in 29 per cent of the new premium income. The state-owned insurer earned an income of Rs 1,00,000 crore for the year ended March 2004 and its total asset base stood at Rs 3,50,000 crore on March 31, 2004. The LIC is working out the net burden of the 10 per cent service tax and 2 per cent education cess on the risk premium and the impact on the price of its products. Rejecting the plea of the insurance sector, the Finance Ministry has recently given an option for insurance consumers — either to pay 10.2 per cent on the risk cover or pay 1 per cent of the gross premium. The service tax proposed in the Budget would not only increase the insurance premium for consumers, it would also pose difficulties for insurers in calculating the tax on different consumers having varied risk profile. Incidentally, most of the private players have decided to hike the premium on account of the service tax. Meanwhile, IRDA Member T.K. Banerjee told newspersons that the issue of imposition of service tax will be discussed threadbare on December 1 at a meeting, which will be attended by the Life Insurance Corp (LIC) as well as private companies.
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Airlines face oil price turbulence
New Delhi, October 18 All three — which account for 99 per cent of domestic air traffic within the country —hiked fares as galloping demand for oil from developing nations like India and China coupled with fears of supply disruption in countries like Russia and Nigeria propelled crude prices to historic highs. Oil prices are now hovering above $ 55 a barrel on concerns over a winter fuel supply crunch. Airline officials say the latest round of fare hikes could dampen demand for air travel, just as passenger traffic figures were beginning to recover from a series of setbacks. In India, the tourism sector gathered steam this year and the country appears poised for a big boom as foreign tourist arrivals are expected to touch the 3.5 million mark. Still, most airlines — with the exception of maybe low-cost carrier Air Deccan — are set to report huge losses during ’04-05. The IA is factoring a jump of Rs 550 crore in its fuel bill this fiscal. It is estimated that a one percentage point increase in prices of air turbine fuel (ATF) adds over Rs 14 crore per annum to total operating cost of an airline. Besides spiralling ATF costs, the weakening rupee is also negatively impacting airlines. Crude oil prices surged past an unprecedented $55 per barrel today as uncertainty swirls over production, high demand and tight global supplies. Crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $55.33 per barrel around noon in Asia, up 40 cents from its Friday settlement price.
— UNI, AP
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IRDA norms soon on regulating corporate agents
New Delhi, October 18 “We are getting feedback from various people. And in a couple of months, we will come with micro-insurance regulations, but only for a specified target group,” Chairman of IRDA C.S. Rao told newspersons on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) here today. He also said the IRDA will issue guidelines for regulating corporate agents. “The insurers will have to be extremely careful in dealing with corporate agents and keep a vigilant eye on the way sales are affected. The IRDA will be issuing some guidelines on the manner of selection of corporate agents, the manner in which their activities should be monitored and precautions to be taken to ensure that there is complete disclosure to the clients of the policy implications,” Mr Rao said. He said that currently only a few lakh policies are sold through corporate agents, and the IRDA has come across some advertisements given by corporate agents which give the impression that they have become insurance companies and are not corporate agents. “It can become a big problem. We would like to prevent it before it becomes bigger,”
he said. The IRDA chairman also said that insurers would have to be extremely careful in dealing with corporate agents and keep a vigilant eye on the way the sales are affected. Expressing concern over slow growth in health insurance cover, the IRDA also mooted ways to allow consumers to switch over from one company to another for mediclaim policies and prevent rejection of claim by insurers. “We are exploring various options available to overcome the problem of repudiation of claims on grounds of pre-existing conditions,” Mr Rao said. There have been several instances when insurers rejected the claims of policyholders citing certain preconditions embedded in the policies. The IRDA also pitched for a hike in foreign direct investment cap from 26 to 49 per cent and amendments in legislations to enable greater flexibility in investment, as part of efforts to sustain high growth in insurance sector. “It (FDI hike) is a matter of policy. Finance Minister has already announced it in the budget... Of course, we do support it,” he added.
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Demand for gold import shines
New Delhi, October 18 India is a major importer of gold in the world market, besides high consumption in the domestic market. Chairman and Managing Director of the Minerals and Metal Trading Corporation of India (MMTC) S. D. Kapoor, said that the average growth of gold imports this year is 10 per cent and the gold imports during 2004-05 are likely to remain in the range of 880 tonnes. He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of “Festival of Gold” organised by the corporation. Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath inaugurated the festival.Bollywood actress and Miss Asia Pacific Dia Mirza was present on this occasion. Nath said the exports of gold jewellery had increased by 141 per cent by August this year as against the corresponding period last year. Mr Kapoor said with the onset of the marriage and festival season, the company’s gold imports are likely to reach 125 tonnes for the full fiscal year. When asked about the volatility in the international gold prices, he said, the marriage season in India alone could not influence the international gold prices. “They are related to a host of factors like euro/dollar parity, hedging by funds and treasury management of the banking system. I do not see much fluctuations in the international prices except for a band of $5 to $10,” he said. Earlier, the Commerce and Industry Minister stated that while India was the largest consumer in the world, it has no role in influencing the prices. “It is an aberration,” he said. The Indian jewellery market is growing at an impressive rate of 15 to 20 per cent. While the country imports over 800 tonnes of gold, India is a major player in the world gems and jewellery market. Pegged at Rs 54,900 crore, gems and jewellery exports is growing at an impressive rate of 24 per cent.
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IPCL profit jumps 155 pc
Mumbai, October 18 Net turnover during the period under review was higher by 35.24 per cent at Rs 1,819 crore as against Rs 1,345 crore in Q2 of Fy’04, a company press release said here today. For the half year ending September 30, the company reported a 180.64 per increase in its net profit at Rs 261 crore (Rs 93 crore in April-September 2004) while the net turnover stood at Rs 3,629 crore (Rs 2,700 crore). Balaji Telefilms
Entertainment software company Balaji Telefilms Ltd has posted a 20.73 per cent drop in its net profit at Rs 11.28 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2004, as against Rs 14.23 crore in the same period last year. The total income for the reporting quarter rose to Rs 46.77 crore as against Rs 43.51 crore in July-September 2003.
Hexaware
IT company Hexaware Technologies Ltd has posted a 11.06 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 16.55 crore for the third quarter ended September as against Rs 18.61 crore in the same period last fiscal. However, it raised its income and net profit forecast for the year ending December 2004 at $ 118 million and $ 13 million, respectively.
— TNS, PTI
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Chennai tech firm acquires US co
Chennai, October 18 Addressing a press conference here today, Mr H. R. Srinivasan, founder of Take Solutions, said his company, which has 300 employees, will retain all 40 employees of cliMetrics, assisting the company to enter the large North American markets. He said the acquisition involved 25 per cent cash component and 75 per cent payout as stocks in Take Solutions. Take Solutions, notched a revenue of $ 3.42 million in the year ended March 2004. It hopes to promote its flagship product Take RTE (real-time enterprise enabler) among cliMetrics’ clients in the pharmaceutical industry. He said Take Solutions would further invest about $5 million in the US markets in the next two years to expand its business in the North American markets.
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Italian envoy meets Jaya
Chennai, October 18 An official press statement said Mr Armellini told the Chief Minister that Italy was strong in this particular segment and its technology was more suitable to medium-scale industries in the state. Ms Jayalalithaa highlighted the several possibilities of trade and commerce between Italy and Tamil Nadu particularly in engineering, textiles and the leather industry. She informed the Ambassador that Anna University could cooperate with Italy in the areas of “design”. She agreed to pursue his suggestion to promote awareness on the Italian language in Tamil Nadu through collaboration with Madras University. The Ambassador was accompanied by Consul-General of Italy in Mumbai, Mr Guiseppe Zaccagnino.
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