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Jet, Sahara toe IA line
TRAI defines roaming for ADC calculation
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Ratan Tata quits as VSNL chief
World Bank recipe for faster growth
Indo-China group submits report India warned of Vietnamese rice onslaught
ADB grant for Indonesia
MMTC plans IPO to fund Orissa unit
Minister asks banks
to help SSI sector
McGraw-Hill, S&P hike offer to acquire Crisil
HP scouts for investment
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Jet, Sahara toe IA line
New Delhi, April 11 Although the main three airlines have decided to pass on the hike in ATF to the passengers, low-cost and no-frill carrier Air Deccan has decided not to raise ticket prices as profit margins are under control due to the high load factor (seat occupancy). In India, the ATF prices have gone up from Rs 27,250 per kilolitre in March to Rs 32,250 per kilolitre in April, forcing the airlines to raise the fares. Jet fuel prices have severely impacted the cost of airline operations as these account for 30 per cent of the operational costs. All airlines have been holding discussions to assess the situation and take a call on the pricing strategy. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airlines worldwide are likely to suffer a loss of $ 5.5 billion this year due to booming oil prices.
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TRAI defines roaming for ADC calculation
New Delhi, April 11 All calls from the national roaming subscribers shall be treated as long distance calls and all calls from international roaming subscribers shall be treated as incoming international call for ADC purposes. As such for all calls from national roaming subscribers while in different service area, ADC charge as applicable for national long distance calls shall be applicable at the rate of Rs 0.30 per minute. International roaming subscriber while making any call while in India, an ADC of Rs 3.25 per minute shall be applicable. For all calls from roaming subscriber, the access deficit amount is to be collected by the visited network operator and paid to BSNL. Defining the national and international roaming calls for the clarity in calculating the access deficit charge, TRAI said: “It is national roaming when visited network and the home network of the subscriber are in the same country and it is international roaming when visited network and home network of the subscriber are in different countries, subsequent to this definition, applicability of ADC on calls originated from national and international subscribers will be accordingly. With this, TRAI has further amended the Telecommunication Interconnection Usage Charges Regulation, 2003 (4 of 2003). Roaming means the ability for a cellular subscriber to automatically make and receive voice calls, data and to access other services while traveling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network, by using the visited network. — PTI
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Ratan Tata quits as VSNL chief
New Delhi, April 11 Mr Ratan Tata, who catapulated the group to the top-most private sector entity with a market capitalisation of over Rs 100,000 crore, is
succeeded by Mr Subodh Bhargava, whose appointment was cleared by the VSNL Board at the end of a nearly four-hour-long meeting. Mr Bhargava, a former President of the CII and a leading private sector executive, is the longest serving independent Director on the Board of VSNL, acquired by the Tatas from the government in 2002. “The Tata group companies’ investment in the telecom sector will be increased to over Rs 30,000 crore in the next 12-16 months (from the present level of Rs 20,000 crore),” Mr Kishore Chauker, Managing Director of Tata Industries, said.
— PTI
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World Bank recipe for faster growth
New Delhi, April 11 “The main constraints to manufacturing productivity are unreliable and expensive power, regulatory burden and corruption, land and access to finance. A 10 per cent reduction in all these deficiencies will increase average sales growth from 11.3 per cent to 16 per cent,” World Bank Lead Sector Specialist (Finance and Private Sector) Priya Basu said here. This would result in overall increase in growth of 2 per cent, she said at a round-table on ‘Improving India’s Investment Climate’ after the World Bank Report on “Doing Business in India 2005” was released by the bank’s Vice-President (Private Sector) Michael Klein. The report, which benchmarks the regulatory cost of doing business in 145 countries, does not provide a composite index regarding the investment climate in these nations. It compares various nations on a variety of parameters for doing business. “However, India must be somewhere in the middle of the chart if a composite index was made,” Ms Basu said. Currently, India is way behind China and, in most cases, lags behind the South Asian average in the parameters used by World Bank for assessing investment climate. Access to credit, rated by firms as one of the greatest barriers to operation, was benchmarked on two counts — legal rights indicator and credit information indicators. The United Kingdom ranked the highest in legal rights index at 10 while India had 4 as against China’s score of 2, representing low level of legal rights. For credit information, the index measuring whether public or private credit registries have adequate data, the score was zero for India, indicating absence of information sharing while it was 3 for China, also the South Asian average. In terms of entry regulations, while it takes the shortest time to start a business in Australia (2 days), it takes 89 days in India as against 41 days in China and the South Asian average of 47 days. The cost to do business, as a percentage of Gross National Income per capita
(GNIpc), is nil in Denmark, 14.5 per cent in China and a whopping 91 per cent in India as against the South Asian average of 45.4 per cent, the World Bank report said. In terms of employment regulation index — an average of difficulty of hiring, rigidity of hours and difficulty of firing — while Hong Kong and China rank number one, with nil rigidity, the figure was 48 for India and 42 for South Asia. The firing cost, which measures the cost of advance notice requirements, severance payments and penalties due in terms of weekly wages, was zero in New Zealand, indicating least cost as against 79 weeks in India. For registering property, while it takes only a day in Norway, it takes a whopping 67 days in India as compared to 32 in China and the South Asian average of 56 days. The cost of registering as a percentage of property value was zero in Saudi Arabia, 6.1 per cent in South Asia and 13.9 per cent in India, the World Bank said.
— UNI
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Indo-China group submits report
New Delhi, April 11 The report, submitted by the commerce ministers of both countries, recommends a two-track approach, which includes the expeditious implementation of measures to remove impediments and facilitate enhanced economic engagement within an agreed timeframe.The report, which is divided into seven chapters, looks at the constraints and impediments to bilateral trade and gives recommendations to overcome these. It takes up issues such as custom procedures, standards certification and regulatory practices; NTBs, rules of origin, improved infrastructure links, and recommends the strengthening and expanding of existing mechanism coordinated by the ministerial level India-China Joint Economic Group. The report also looks at areas of future investment and recommends transparency in regulations and policies. Besides, recommending cooperation between government agencies such as customs, quality inspection organisations, cooperation in the banking sector etc. it also recommends exchange of information and personnel related to agriculture and rural development and strengthening of agricultural technology cooperation. The study also looks at the benefits of a regional trading arrangement between India and China and recommends India-China Regional Trading Arrangement comprising of trade in goods and services, investments, identified understandings for trade and investment promotion and facilitation, and measures for promotion of economic cooperation in identified sectors. The JSG has recommended that the ministerial level India-China Joint Economic Group consider the recommendations and decide on the manner of the implementation within the next six months. The progress in actual implementation of the measures is to be monitored regularly, the study has recommended.
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India warned of Vietnamese rice onslaught
New Delhi, April 11 The European Union (EU) and the US seem determined to force the developing countries, including India, to accept the proposed Harbinson formula at the next meeting, said Dr Samar Verma, Regional Policy Advisor, Oxfam (India) Trust while releasing a study paper, Kicking down the door: How upcoming WTO talks threaten farmers in poor countries. Under the proposed formula, India may be forced to bring down ‘bound’ tariff on rice from the current level of over 70 per cent to 53 per cent. Besides that, says Oxfam study, country will also have to bring down tariffs on the import of milk powder, maize and wheat as well, thus threatening the interests of millions of farmers across the country, especially in foodgrain surplus states of Punjab, Haryana and western UP.
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ADB grant for Indonesia
Manila, April 11 Most of the funds will be used to restore essential public services, rebuild infrastructure and revive economic activity through livelihood support, an ADB statement said. Indonesia, particularly the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, was the most devastated among the tsunami-affected countries, with at least 1,26,000 dead, about 37,000 missing and about 4,12,000 others displaced. The disaster has left about 20 per cent of Aceh’s population homeless, the ADB said.
— AP
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MMTC plans IPO to fund Orissa unit
New Delhi, April 11 “The project will be set up by the Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), a wholly-owned iron and steel company of the MMTC Ltd., in Orissa and will be partly financed from internal accruals,” MMTC Chairman and Managing Director S.D. Kapoor said. Speaking at a press conference, Mr Kapoor said the company had registered the highest-ever growth turnover of over Rs 15,100 crore during 2004-05, reporting a growth of 66 per cent over the previous year. The business turnover included Rs 3,050 crore as exports and Rs 11,000 crore as imports. The imports mainly included coal and hydrocarbon, agro products, fertiliser and precious metal. The net profit of the company has climbed to Rs 100 crore, up almost by 100 per cent over the last year. “We are targeting to achieve an annual turnover of Rs 30,000 crore by 2009-10, as against the earlier target of Rs 20,000 crore,” he said. The MMTC and NINL managements want to capitalise on the high valuation that the steel companies command in the stock market. NINL is developing iron-ore mine of two million tonnes capacity in Sundergarh, Keonjhar disrict of Orissa. The company envisages turnover of Rs 1,600 crore with net profit of Rs 150 crore during 2005-06. Mr Kapoor said MMTC has identified six locations for promotion of free trade warehouses for providing sustained supplies of raw materials, inputs and other services at Special Economic Zones and de-bottlenecking in logistics. “Focus would be towards investments in development of supply bases for items perennially imported by the country,” he said.
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Minister asks banks
to help SSI sector
Chandigarh, April 11 The committee pondered on ways of unleashing productive energies, creating a new paradigm for economic growth, including all sections of the society in the process of growth and encouraging productive enterprises to attain global leadership at the conference. Punjab’s Finance Minister, Mr Surinder Singla, the chief guest at the conference, appreciated the efforts of banks in implementing various state government-sponsored schemes. He told the bankers to enhance the CD ratio in Punjab, which is only 50 per cent. He added the state government had formulated a power committee for investment in industry. “Punjab is the third best state in the country as far as textile industry is concerned. India is planning to be a global player in textile sector and there is a great scope of investments in textile sector in Punjab,” he stated. Mr Singla exhorted the bankers to participate in these projects in a big way for the development of industry such as textile and IT in Punjab. He also advised the bankers to help SSI units to come out of trouble by meeting their investment requirements in timely fashion. Mr S.S. Kohli, Chairman and Managing Director, Punjab National Bank, presided over the meeting. He said that the Economic Survey 2004-05 besides giving an assessment of performance in key parameters of the economy had also focused on the broad contours of the road map for achieving a growth rate of 7 to 8 per cent over a decade and more. Mr Kohli said that the performance of the Indian economy in 2004-05 so far has exceeded expectations formed at the beginning of the year. The economy had registered a growth rate of 8.5 per cent in 2003-04, the highest ever except in 1975-76 and 1988-89. The economy is likely to grow and GDP is projected at 6.9 per cent in 2004-05. Mr Harwant Singh, General Manager, Punjab National Bank and Convener SLBC (Punjab) emphasised that implementation of government-sponsored programmes and schemes in Punjab is on top priority of all concerned banks. Mr Harwant Singh said while presenting the state’s Budget for the current financial year, Mr Singla had laid emphasis on private sector participation and created a corpus of Rs 100 crore for agriculture diversification, infrastructure, research and development fund which will go a long way in increasing the growth of agriculture sector. The state government also amended the industrial policy 2003 for time bound approval and special incentives for industrial units with an investment of Rs 25 crore or more having potential to employ more than 500 persons.
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Dena Bank to raise Rs 225 cr
Mumbai, April 11 Care Analysis & Research Limited (CARE) has upgraded the rating to the existing bonds of Rs 425 crore to A+ and also assigned rating A+ for the proposed bonds issue of Rs 225 crore, a bank press note said here.
— UNI
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McGraw-Hill, S&P hike offer to acquire Crisil
Mumbai, April 11 According to merchant bankers Kotak Mahindra capital company, the McGraw-Hill Companies of the USA and S&P India raised the offer prices from Rs 680 per share to Rs 775 per share and the offer size from 3,534,488 shares representing 55.57 per cent of the voting capital (55.41 per cent of the diluted voting capital) to 4,170,562 shares representing 65.57 per cent of the voting capital (64.21 per cent of the diluted voting capital) of the target company (Crisil). The revised offer price represents 55.74 per cent premium over the average of the weekly high and low of the closing prices of the 26 weeks prior to the PA and 34.53 per cent premium over the average of the daily high and low prices of the two weeks prior to the PA. Shareholders should note that the offer is conditional on minimum level of acceptance of 2,643,983 shares representing 41.57 per cent of the voting capital (40.70 per cent of the diluted voting capital) of Crisil Limited.
— UNI
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HP scouts for investment
Ahmedabad, April 11 Mr Virbhadra Singh, who landed here with almost his entire secretariat, said the state offered a slew of incentives and concessions under its new Industrial Policy, 2004, in addition to the Rs 9,000-cr Central Government “special packages”. This was the first in the series of such interactive sessions with prospective investors being held at big commercial centres, jointly arranged by the CII. It will be followed by similar roadshows in Mumbai tomorrow and Kolkata on April 13. The thrust areas are eco-friendly industries, food
processing, biotechnology, tourism, IT, electronics and hardware, floriculture, sericulture, precision engineering, hydel power, pharmaceuticals and entertainment. The objective is to generate employment and revenue for the socio-economic
development of the state.
— UNI
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