Chandigarh, April 14
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, today said that a world-class petrochemical hub, to be developed over 5,000 acres near Panipat, would generate an investment of about Rs 25,000 crore and provide employment opportunities to more than 20,000 persons.

He was speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the IndianOil Corporation (IOC) and the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC), here today. The MoU is on the creation of special purpose vehicle so as to develop a world-class petrochemical hub in Panipat.

The MoU was signed by Mr B.M. Bansal, Director, Planning and Business Development, IOC, and Mr Rajiv Arora, MD, HSIDC, in the presence of Mr Hooda and the Chairman, IOC, Mr Sarthak Behuria.

Assuring all cooperation of the state government to the IOC for setting up this mega project, Mr Hooda said the process was on to acquire 1,000 acres for the project and the remaining land would be acquired in a phased manner.

Mr Behuria said the IOC was in the process of commissioning its Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) plant in Panipat at an estimated cost of Rs 5,100 crore. The IOC planned to invest about Rs 30,000 crore in petrochemical business in a phased manner in India and abroad so as to become a leading petrochemical player in South-East Asia.

For Haryana, he said, this project would lay the foundation for creation of a world-class petrochemical hub in the state, which would result in significant industrial activities attracting investments, generating employment and revenue for the state.

He said the naphtha cracker project would cost about Rs 11,000 crore. It would consist of naphtha cracker for generating 8 lakh metric tonnes of ethylene per year and 6 lakh metric tonnes of propylene per year. It also envisaged downstream polymer units for production of high-density polyethelene, linear low-density polyethelene, polypropylene and mono-ethylene glycol.

The major source of raw material for this project would be captive naphtha generated from IOC’s refineries in Panipat, Mathura and Gujarat. With this investment, he said, the total investment of the IOC in Panipat complex would reach a huge level of Rs 20,000 crore, the largest investment by the corporation at any single location so far.

Answering a question, Mr Behuria said the IOC was losing about Rs 2,000 crore per month on the sale of petroleum products.

He hoped that the project would attract investment in a number of ancillary units like blow-moulding, injection moulding, film and pipe production and the multiplier impact thereof would generate an overall investment of Rs 25,000 crore to 28,000 crore in the state.

During the construction, indirect employment generation could be between 25,000 and 30,000. Also, there would be direct employment generation of about 1,500 persons in the IOC for operation and maintenance.

Mr Hooda said he had urged the IOC to set up a power plant at Panipat based on a by-product of the refinery.

Bangalore, April 14
Infosys Technologies today reported a net profit of Rs 673 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2006, as against Rs 649 crore in the same period last year. The 3.7 per cent increase in net profit, however, fell below expectations of brokerages that had projected a 7 to 8 per cent increase for this quarter.

Company CEO Nandan Nilekani said while the annual growth rate of the company had come down to 33.2 per cent and was projected to be between 27 and 30 per cent in the next fiscal, “the very fact that we can stand up and announce such growth rates on a base of $2.1 billion in creditable”.

Revenues in the fourth quarter stand at Rs 2,624 crore as against Rs 2,532 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. Earnings per share increased to Rs 24.45 from Rs 19.01 for the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

For the full year ended March 2006, the IT major reported a net profit of Rs 2,458 crore — an increase of 33.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Revenue rose up by 33.5 per cent to Rs 9,521 crore. The earnings per share for the full year rose to 30.09 per cent at Rs 90.06.

Infosys and subsidiaries added 38 new clients during the quarter. Nine clients contributed more than $50 million each in annual revenues It also announced a gross addition of 5,170 employees for the quarter and 22,868 employees for the year by Infosys and subsidiaries

The company announced its Board of Directors recommended a 1:1 bonus issue (stock dividend) for all shareholders, including the ADR holders. The Board also recommended a silver jubilee special dividend of Rs 30 per share (600 per cent on par value of Rs 5 per share). A final dividend of Rs 8.50 per share (170 per cent on par value of Rs 5 per share) for 2006 has also been recommended.

“This has been a happy, intense, rewarding and exhilarating journey of 25 years,” Chairman and Chief Mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy said.

Mr Murthy, while speaking on the Bangalore vis-à-vis Hyderabad issue, said the company needed to take quick decisions and when land was offered at Hyderabad, the company went ahead to establish a campus there. He said the company was expanding in Mangalore and Mysore in Karnataka and would also expand further in Bangalore once it acquired land to build a new campus in the city.

“It took us 23 years to reach the first billion dollars in revenues while we reached the next billion dollars in 23 months,” said Nandan M Nilekani, CEO.

During the next quarter the company expects the income to be in the range of Rs 2,793-2,816 crore. The earnings per share are expected to be between Rs 24.76 and 25.20. For 2007, it expects the earnings per share to be in the range of Rs 113.85 to 115.61.

New Delhi, April 14
Tooth powder, lantern, tyre, mosquito net, instrument box for students, pressure cooker, bicycle pump, pen, pencil, sharpner and blade may become expensive as they are among the 54 items on which excise duty exemptions are proposed to be lifted.

The prices of television camera, audio recording equipment, video machine, various types of camera, personal computer, type writer and fax machine that are now allowed to be imported duty free by professional journalists may also go up with the Centre proposing to withdraw customs duty exemptions on 21 items.

As part of ongoing indirect tax reforms, the government recently circulated a list of 54 items exempted from excise duty and 21 items exempted from customs duty to seek public opinion on their withdrawal.

The Revenue Department, which has circulated the lists, has given two months for response after which it will take a decision on their withdrawal

Official sources said the 21 customs duty exemptions would in all probability be withdrawn after getting feedback from the public as they had outlived their utility with peak customs duty coming down substantially to 12.5 per cent in the 2006-07 Budget.

Aviation gas and aviation turbine fuel were also among the 54 excise duty items on which exemptions were sought to be removed, the sources said, adding that this was one area where the Finance Ministry might find it difficult to lift the exemptions because of certain sensitivities.

Along with the Budget presentation this year, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had circulated for the first time, a report which estimates the revenue that the government forgoes every year .According to that estimate, Rs 1,58,661 crore was lost due to various direct and indirect tax exemptions in 2004-05. The excise duty exemptions alone cost the exchequer Rs 30,000 crore while those of customs duty Rs 92,561 crore.

These figures included tax sops given to exporters. However, the note circulated by the Finance Ministry said the exemptions given to small scale industries would continue.

The sources said it had not prepared a list of direct tax exemptions, which it proposed to consider for withdrawal now as it would require parliamentary approval unlike excise and customs duties which could be withdrawn through official notifications. —PTI

Chandigarh, April 14
In a move that will discourage the withdrawal of cash from ATMs of other banks, the inter-bank ATM withdrawal and balance enquiry charges levied by 19 nationalised and private banks, which are connected to the National Financial Switch (NFS), have been more than doubled with effect from April 1.

The hike has been made by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, a Hyderabad- based body set up by the RBI, which has set up the NFS to facilitate inter-connectivity between the bank switches which control the individual ATMs of various banks.

The cash withdrawal charges have been increased to Rs 24 per transaction from Rs 11 while the balance enquiry charges have been hiked to Rs 12 from Rs 4 in case an ATM account- holder of any of the 19 member banks makes a transaction at an ATM of other bank.

The cash withdrawal charges were reduced to Rs 11 from Rs 22 in October last year to encourage the use of ATMs of various banks as a number of machines of some banks remained underutilised.

Each ATM is set up at a cost of between Rs 5lakh and Rs 6.5 lakh and also entails regular running expenses.

The 19 banks, which are members of the NFS, in all have 5,986 ATMs at various places in the country. The maximum number of ATMs belong to ICICI Bank (1910), followed by Corporation Bank (854), Punjab National Bank (656), Bank of Baroda (605) and Andhra Bank (341).

The other banks include Allahabad Bank, City Union Bank, Dena Bank, Development Credit Bank, IDBI Bank, the Oriental Bank of Commerce, Tamilnadu Mercantile Bank Ltd, Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd., Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd., Karnataka Bank Ltd., Karur Vysya Bank Ltd., South Indian Bank Ltd., United Western Bank Ltd. and YES Bank Ltd. —PTI

New Delhi, April 14
Manufacturers of test and measurement equipment for electronics and biosciences industry Agilent Technologies today said it will invest $25 million over the next two years for setting up a 10-acre campus at Manesar in Haryana.