 |
|
Oil price hike likely from April 1
Airfare war hots up
IA seeks Amritsar-UK route
G-20 wants export subsidies to go
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Jessop coach factory workers move SC against privatisation
No tsunami in capital market: PC
Maruti revises production plans
MTNL, BSNL short on service quality: Trai
Dell to open Mohali centre on Monday
Pharma units up in arms against excise on MRP
Banks to strike work on Tuesday
NFL to shut CAN plant
|
|
Oil price hike likely from April 1
New Delhi, March 18 Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar is expected to raise the issue at the Cabinet meeting on the demand of public sector oil marketing companies. They have sought an increase of Rs 5 per litre in petrol and Rs 4.30 a litre hike in diesel prices from April 1 to set off the steep rise in the cost of crude oil and to meet new investments to supply cleaner fuel as per the Supreme Court deadline. Despite the demand from oil companies, Petroleum Ministry officials said, the government is likely to allow them only a marginal hike of Re 1 per litre, in petrol and diesel prices. The ministry is keeping a close watch on international crude oil prices, and fear that prices may not come down in the short term in view of the increased demand from China and the USA. They admitted that the ministry had got representation from the oil companies, but said, the final decision would be taken by the Cabinet in view of its “political implications”. The Petroleum Minister said he would try to convince his Cabinet colleagues to clear the marginal hike in petrol and diesel prices. Replying to questions in the Lok Sabha last week, he admitted that oil marketing companies had reported “an under-recovery of over Rs 18,000 crore due to supply of subsidised kerosene and LPG. Further they have to make huge investment in the refineries to supply fuel as per new guidelines.” Since the government is not providing any budgetary allocation to them, they would have to increase the petrol and diesel prices, he said. Officials said with the cost of the Indian basket of crude oil touching an all time high of $ 51.64 per barrel, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum
Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation have sought a Rs 3.50 per litre increase in petrol and Rs 2.80 a litre hike in diesel prices. Besides, the oil firms also want a Rs 1.50 per litre increase in the two fuel prices commensurate with the investments they had made for producing ultra low sulphur Euro III grade petrol and diesel for 11 major cities and Euro II auto fuel for the rest of the country from April 1. Fearing stiff opposition even from its alliance partners and subsequent embarrassment, the government has decided to defer the decision till the end of the ongoing Budget session that is scheduled to close on March 24. The oil companies have claimed that they would have to incur losses worth over Rs 700 crore this month due to increase in international crude oil prices.
|
|
|
|
|
Airfare war hots up
New Delhi, March 18 "While the first Singapore-Delhi flight would start on May 11, the Chennai-Kuala Lumpur service would be launched on May 14. Both return services would be daylight flights," Air Sahara CEO Rono J. Dutta said here. The lowest available market fares on both these destinations is Rs 16,000. The major private airline, which recently changed its colours akin to the
tricolour, would be getting six new aircraft between April and June, taking its total fleet strength to 19 Boeings and seven Canadian Regional Jets. Replying to questions, the Air Sahara chief said the airline was looking at launching two flights to London Heathrow before July. The carrier has also applied for launching operations to Hong Kong and Bangkok. Meanwhile, the Indian Airlines (IA) today announced 28 new flights a week as part of expanding its operations to southeast Asian destinations from March 27 while Air Sahara said it will launch 14 flights a week from May. IA is also launching one flight a week on the Delhi-Kabul-Amritsar-Delhi route during the summer schedule which comes into effect from the last week of March. The Kabul flight will resume for the first time after November 1989. The government-owned airline is also adding a daily flight on the Mumbai-Sharjah sector, officials said. There will be daily flights on the Mumbai-Bangkok-Mumbai route and Delhi-Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur route, thrice a week on the Hyderabad-Singapore-Hyderabad, Chennai-Bangkok-Chennai, Kolkata-Bangkok-Kolkata routes, twice a week on the Bangalore-Bangkok-Bangalore and Hyderabad-Bangkok-Hyderabad routes, besides once a week on the Gaya-Yangon route.
|
|
IA seeks Amritsar-UK route
New Delhi, March 18 While Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel informed Parliament earlier in the week that the Indian Airlines might be given seven slots to the UK by winter, officials at the airlines said they were seeking slots specially to Birmingham and Manchester with one specific flight between Amritsar and Birmingham. The Indian Airlines is looking at operating four flights per week to Birmingham and three flights per week to Manchester. Officials at the airlines were still not sure when the final allotment would be made but were hopeful that the Amritsar-Birmingham flight which is at present with Air-India would come to it. They said that two public sector airlines’ still have to get together to work out the details for the flights which the Indian Airlines may get. However, they were optimistic that the airline would be able to get the Amritsar-Birmingham sector flight and felt that any slot at London Heathrow would be the icing on the cake. Incidentally, the go-ahead for the Indian Airlines would come six months after the private airlines -- Jet Airways and Air Sahara -- start flying to UK cities. Of the two private airlines, Jet airways had found more favour with the Civil Aviation Ministry which allotted it with seven flights per straight to London Heathrow.
|
|
G-20 wants export subsidies to go
New Delhi, March 18 Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, said there was serious work ahead for member countries on the road to the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) scheduled later this year so as to ensure that the “concerns and positions of developing countries could be reflected in the modalities of the negotiations in different areas as well as the final commitments that members would agree to undertake”. “The gathering here today signals a coming together in the common cause of almost the entire developing world”, Mr Nath said. India is hosting for the first time a WTO event. G-20 is powerful lobby comprising Brazil, Argentina, China and India among others. The Ministers today deliberated on agriculture issues relating to export competition and domestic support and discussed market access issues. The draft ministerial statement which is being circulated and discussed in the meeting, the G-20 members said that substantial reductions in trade distorting domestic support negotiations should determine the base periods. “Tariff reduction formula is the main component of the market access pillar and should be negotiated before addressing the issue of flexibilities”, the ministers said. Mr Kamal Nath said that agriculture remains at the “core of the Doha Work Programme for most developing countries”. “The centrality of the well being of our agriculture sector to the rest of the economy has been noted by political thinkers, economic researchers and civil society alike. On market access, members noted that the critical “gateway” issue for developing countries were related was the issue of conversion of specific duties (non-ad valorem tariffs) to their ad valorem equivalents. The Ministers also exchanged views on other areas of negotiations such as non-agricultural market access (NAMA), services, development issues etc. so as to have a composite assessment of the current state of play in the ongoing Doha Round of the WTO multilateral trade negotiations.
|
|
Jessop coach factory workers move SC against privatisation
New Delhi, March 18 Filing of an application challenging the government proposal was mentioned by senior advocate Deepankar Gupta before a Bench of Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Mr Justice H K Sema and Mr Justice G P Mathur, which fixed hearing on it on April 4. The Jessop and Company Ltd Staff Association (JCLSA), whose main petition challenged the government’s earlier decision about disinvestment of the public sector company’s 72 per cent equity, had been pending before the court along with various other petitions against disinvestment of some other PSUs during the NDA regime, said that the government could not off load its 27 per cent remaining equity as it was against the national interest. Seeking early hearing of the matter, Gupta told the court that recent media reports attributed to the government, had suggested that the Centre wanted to off load its remaining 27 per cent equity in the company. In its main petition as well as the present application, the JCLSA has contended that rail wagon manufacturing was a “strategic” activity and total privatisation of it would go against the national interest. The government should not be allowed to sell off its share more than 49 per cent in any “strategic sector”, the workers’ association said. The main petition of the JCLSA, filed last year, was a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the Calcutta High Court’s order, dismissing the workers’ plea against the earlier disinvestment decision of the government.
|
|
No tsunami in capital market: PC
New Delhi, March 18 Replying to a question on whether the share markets experienced steep and sudden fall in the prices of shares of several occasions between the period from April to January ( 2004-05), Mr Chidambaram said the regulator was keeping a close watch on the market. Price movements and fluctuations in markets are phenomena which depend upon several factors such as domestic and international events, economic fundamentals, market sentiments and corporate performance etc. “However, for the fall observed in May, 2004, Sebi during its course of investigation, has observed certain irregularities and appropriate proceedings have been initiated against the entities, who have been prima facie found to have violated the provisions of the Sebi Act 1992 and Sebi regulations. Show cause notices have so far been issued to 12 entities”, he said. The Finance Minister said it is not possible to quantify the extent of the loss on account of the fall in share prices in May. “The loss suffered on account of the fall in the market price will depend on the composition of the portfolio and cost of acquisition of securities and subsequent corporate benefits comprising the portfolio”, he said.
|
|
Maruti revises production plans
New Delhi, March 18 "Expecting a major growth in the passenger car market during March, 2005, MUL had planned substantially higher production for the month. The growth, however, has not materialised to the extent anticipated. In view of that, we have decided to revise our production plans for March," the company said in a statement. Despite this, we expect that the company's sales during this month will be the highest monthly sales ever in the company's history, the statement added. MUL's facilities will also be closed for two days on March 19 and March 25 upsetting the company's production plans for the month. MUL's sales in February this year grew by a modest 3.17 per cent, which the company attributed to lower demand due to expectations from Budget.
— PTI
|
|
MTNL, BSNL short on service quality: Trai
New Delhi, March 18 The Trai report -- Quality of Service performance of Basic and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service for the Quarter ended 31st December, 2004-- covers 63 service providers in 27 service areas. While performance has improved for a number of parameters compared to the previous quarter ended September 30, 2004, most of the operators have not fully met the Quality of Service (QOS) benchmarks. The highest fault rate is 17.06 per cent by MTNL, Delhi followed by 10.82 per cent in BSNL, Chhattisgarh and 10.66 per cent in BSNL, Jammu and Kashmir. Among the private operators, Tata Teleservices has not met the benchmark in Delhi, Mumbai and Maharashtra circles. MTNL has failed to meet the benchmark in both Delhi and Mumbai. Amongst the private operators, only Tata Teleservices, Andhra Pradesh, has not met the benchmark, Trai said in a statement.
|
|
Dell to open Mohali centre on Monday
Chandigarh, March 18 It will be inaugurated by Punjab Chief Amarinder Singh and Mr Michael Dell, Chairman of Dell Computer Corporation, on Monday. This will be Mr Dell’s third visit to India and he is likely to come in directly to the city for the inauguration ceremony and return the same day. According to sources in Dell, it has during the past few months hired technical support and customer relations agents as well as managers. These employees have been given intensive information training in technology and customer relations skills in line with the company’s policy to reach customers directly. They will be required to offer multiple services to various Dell business segments, including sales, customer care, technical support, e-mail support, and shared services. Dell selected Mohali because of a talented work force in the Chandigarh area and high quality of life. A recruiting and training centre opened in downtown Chandigarh in November. While 300 employees have been recruited, the number would eventually go up to over a 1,000. The new 180,000-square-foot centre will include a cafeteria, gymnasium and other modern recreational facilities. for its employees. Work is going on a war footing to complete the building and the same would be ready by March-end. India has always been a top priority with Mr Dell for he’s confident of a triple digit growth here. The size of the call centres will correspond with the size of the business and the group would focus on companies that are building large data centre and internet infrastructure. Dell opened its first Indian customer centre in Bangalore in 2001. “Since then, we have added a Product Group and Global Software Development Centre to that operation,” said Romi Malhotra, Managing Director, Dell India. “The accomplishments we made encouraged us to open an additional customer contact centre in Hyderabad in 2003.” Dell employs 6,000-7,000 people in the other two centres at Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company had opened its first India customer centre in Bangalore in 2001, which also expanded to include Dell’s product group as well as global software development centre operations. Dell Inc. is a premier provider of products and services required for customers worldwide to build their information-technology and Internet infrastructure. Company revenue for the past four quarters totalled $45.4 billion. Dell, through its direct business model, designs, manufactures and customises products and services to customer requirements, and offers an extensive selection of software and peripherals.
|
|
Pharma units up in arms against excise on MRP
New Delhi, March 18 The Confederation of Pharmaceutical Drugs, an umbrella organisation of various small scale organisations in pharmaceutical sector, later submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Representatives of drug industry from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and other states participated in the rally. The memorandum stated: “The decision has widened the price difference up to 30 per cent between the cost of drugs produced by the units set up in tax-exempted hilly states like Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Uttaranchal and units in other states.” Government has though offered 40 per cent abatement of MRP, it has not yet satisfied the small units. Mr Jagdeep Singh, President, Punjab Drug Manufacturers Association, said, “large number of pharmaceutical units, especially in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh set up on the borders of tax- exempted Himachal, Uttaranchal and J&K have been badly affected by the government’s decision to impose 16 per cent excise duty on the MRP value of the drugs.” He said over 200 pharmaceutical units from across the country have already registered their units in Himachal Pradesh, where under the Central package they would get 10 year tax exemption on excise duty besides benefits under the Income Tax Act. The association has claimed that the government’s decision would affect over 8,000 small-scale pharmaceutical units providing direct and indirect employment to 20 lakh persons. The decision would also severely hit around 300 pharmaceutical units in Punjab, he said. Industry representatives said the small-scale units would be forced to close down their shops soon than later. They are already apprehending that the new Patent Act would make it difficult to survive against the onslaught of big players. Mr Jagdeep Singh wondered, what was the point of changing the rules, when under the proposed Vat Act, they would be covered under new system. “The government will not be able to get the project revenue as most of the units would prefer to shift to the tax-exempted states,” he claimed. The industry has urged the government to defer the decision till the implementation of Vat. They said as against the proposed 4 per cent tax under VAT, they were ready to pay higher tax.
|
|
Banks to strike work on Tuesday
New Delhi, March 18 United Forum of Bank Unions General Secretary Shantha Raju told a news conference today that the handing over of private banks to foreign operators will affect the country’s economic development. “The branch network as well as rural branches, which are loss-making, are sought to be closed. A large number of employees and officers will be rendered surplus through the so-called merger and acquisition among public sector banks,” he added. Mr Raju said public sector banks have accounted exceedingly well for themselves during the last few years. “Therefore the question of reducing the number of banks to a manageable level and creating a large base is totally misleading.” The union leader threatened to step up the agitation if the government did not address the protesters’ concerns.
— UNI
|
|
NFL to shut CAN plant
Nangal, March 18 The decision would affect the apple production in Himachal. The state has been a major consumer of the CAN from NFL. Every year, the state produces 4 to 5 lakh tonnes of apples. While officials of NFL plant are tightlipped over the issue, a copy of the decision circulated by Mr Dhawan is available with The Tribune. As per the order, the Deputy Manager has been directed to stop procurement of raw material, bags and other consumable items required for CAN production of CAN. To cope with the problem of manpower which would be subsequently left surplus, the production and maintenance departments have been directed to work out a solution and to submit report within a week.
|
bb
Inflation New juice pack Unibic India Awarded Sunflame BoT chairman Angular pen |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
In video (
