The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	G20 Summit India tells rich nations to be prudent with debt Seoul, November 11 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will tell Group of 20 leaders on Friday that advanced deficit economies must pursue policies of fiscal consolidation that ensure debt sustainability in the medium term, a draft speech showed. Rancorous debate over global economic imbalances and currency strains have dogged the G20 world leaders gathered for a summit in Seoul, raising doubts if action will go beyond expected avowals of cooperation. The G20 club of rich and emerging economies had hoped to use the summit to soothe tensions over foreign exchange rates generated by imbalances between cash-rich exporting nations and debt-burdened importers. Efforts by several nations to hold down their currencies to prop up exports and growth and the U.S. Federal Reserve's bond-buying spree blamed for the dollar's weakening have spurred fresh calls for coordination of national policies. Singh will tell an opening plenary session to "at all costs avoid competitive devaluations and a resurgence of protectionism", according to the draft speech. "Advanced deficit countries must follow policies of fiscal consolidation consistent with their individual circumstances so as to ensure debt sustainability over the medium term," the speech, seen by Reuters, says. "Credible fiscal sustainability over the medium term is probably more important than front-loaded fiscal correction." Singh will also call for such fiscal correction to be accompanied by "credible reforms in products and the labour market which would increase efficiency and competitiveness". Germany and several other nations have hit out at a U.S. plan to consider limiting current account imbalances, while some countries, notably China, have come in for criticism for intervening in currency markets to get a trade advantage. Singh is expected to speak out against competitive devaluation. "Exchanged rate flexibility is an important instrument for advancing a sustainable current account position and our policies must reflect this consideration,” the draft speech says. — Reuters
	VAT Evasion Excise, police join hands to save crores K.S. Chawla Ludhiana, November 11 Activities of the “peti” mafia, allegedly involved in illegal activities during the peak hosiery season, this year have been curbed by the Excise and Taxation staff and they have succeeded in saving evasion of VAT worth several hundred crores. The mafia indulges in illegal activities during the peak hosiery season starting from July till Diwali when the hosiery manufacturers send their consignments to other states allegedly using illegal means. “Peti” mafia consists of a group of anti-social elements comprising musclemen who help the hosiery manufacturers get their goods booked at the railway booking agency. The goods are sent without making the payments of VAT to the state exchequer. According to information, hosiery goods are sent to various destinations during the peak season. Sometimes, the peak season is extended till December. The officials of the state Excise and Taxation department, police and the booking agency staff of the railways are allegedly part of this clandestine business. The initiative to curb these illegal activities was taken by Rishipaul Singh, Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner, who was supported by Police Commissioner Ishwar Singh. Rishipaul Singh told The Tribune that on an average 300 boxes of hosiery goods were booked daily from the local railway station for different places. Each consignment consists of goods worth Rs 30,000 to 50,000. Normally, the mafia operates during the night time. During this peak season, goods worth Rs 5,000 crore were sent to different states. Ishwar Singh, Commissioner of Police, disclosed that they had put an Addl DCP Harsh Bansal along with three SHOs and the police personnel on duty to check the activities of the mafia. A member of the “peti” mafia gang involved told The Tribune that the mafia had raised the rate of each “peti” to Rs 1,200 from Rs 800 this year because of the stringent measures taken by the Excise department and the police. Besides sending hosiery goods to other states, the dealers in Ludhiana were also getting electronic goods, mobile phones and garments from Delhi and Kolkata.
	Apollo Tyres H1 net dips 40% Chairman says govt policy encouraging investment outflow Sanjeev Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi November 11 Faced with an unprecedented rise in natural rubber prices, Onkar S Kanwar, chairman, Apollo Tyres today criticised the duty structure for rubber imports and said the government policy is driving companies to invest abroad rather than home. Recently Apollo has made several international acquisitions. In a statement on the company’s second quarter results, Kanwar said, “It’s been a very difficult 6 months managing the unprecedented rise in natural rubber prices. I do hope the government will look at some measure to check speculation, as well as bring down the unreal duty structure we have. With no action over so many years, despite understanding the plight of the Indian tyre industry, even an optimistic person like me is forced to consider greater investments outside India, rather than at home.” He added: “Unfortunately, even when international natural rubber prices were significantly lower than Indian prices, we were unable to import in large quantities due to the duty policy of the government. We have had no option but to pass on the price increase to our customers, though it is impossible to pass on a near 50% increase in the course of one year. Natural rubber constitutes 60% of our raw material costs, and if I look at the November-to-November period, natural rubber was at Rs 76 a kg in November 2008, Rs 113 in November 2009 (a 14% rise) and is at Rs 192 now, an increase of nearly 70% in a single year and 150% in 2 years! This has affected all aspects of our operation.” Apollo Tyres said it has been fighting adverse conditions and its profits have been impacted by rubber costs. The company said the spiraling prices of natural rubber to current all-time highs, which have sharply impacted the Indian operations are of great concern. The Board said the company had been able to maintain the growth trend even while overcoming the difficulties of a lock-out in one plant in India and a general tyre industry and port strike in South Africa, alongside escalating rubber prices. For the half-year ended September 30 2010, net sales were at Rs 3,770 crore compared with Rs 3,681 crore in the same period last year. Operating profit was down to Rs 388 crore from Rs 498 crore. Net profit was at Rs 127 crore from Rs 203 crore the previous year.
	Corporate Results Ranbaxy Q3 profit doubles on US sales Mumbai, November 11 Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's top drug maker by sales, on Thursday said quarterly net profit more than doubled, aided by higher sales in its key US market and forex gains. Ranbaxy, controlled by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo is on track with the plans that it made at the beginning of the year, Managing Director Arun Sawhney said in an investor call. In February, the company said it expected a rise of 48 per cent in net profit in 2010 to Rs 460 crore and sales growth of 6 per cent. It had posted a profit of Rs 310 crore last year, after a loss in 2008. "The surprise was in the operating profit margins," said Sarabjit Kour Nangra, sector analyst at Angel Broking. "We will closely watch this number, because we think that is where they can improve performance on a sustained basis." Ranbaxy said its operating margins stood at 8 per cent for the quarter, compared with a market expectation of around 5 per cent. Global demand for generic drugs from drugmakers such as Ranbaxy and local rivals such as Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Cipla Ltd is booming as nations battle rising healthcare costs. The Indian generics business boom has lured Western drug makers who want to raise exposure to fast-growing emerging markets where a burgeoning middle class wants the assurance of cheap and safe drugs. "As we move forward, our focus will be on bettering operational performance, maximising synergies with Daiichi Sankyo, and on seeking a speedy resolution to the challenges in the USA," Sawhney said in a statement on Wednesday. Jubilant net up 42% to Rs 82 cr Jubilant Life Sciences today said its consolidated net profit rose by 41.37 per cent to Rs 82 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2010 over the same period previous fiscal. The company, which was formerly known as Jubilant Organosys, had a net profit of Rs 58 crore in the same period last fiscal. Consolidated revenue for the second quarter stood at Rs 988 crore with international business contributing 62 per cent to the top line. "Long term contracts on hand, along with the newly signed contracts and deals in pipeline, confirm buoyancy trend towards outsourcing in contract research and manufacturing (CRAMS) space,” Jubilant Life Sciences (JLS) CMD Shyam S Bhartia said. He added: "As for the agri and performance polymers (APP) business performance, the strong growth has been driven by robust sales in agri products which is expected to continue." During the second quarter, the company signed a long term contract worth USD 51 million in CRAMS business with a leading US Life Sciences company. The company is further in discussions to increase the contract value to more than 2.5 times, JLS said, adding that it also signed another contract worth $33 million with a US-based firm in CRAMS segment. — Agencies
	Use mobile as wallet by month end Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 11 Mumbai based My Mobile Payments Ltd (MMPL) is all set to allow mobiles to pay for everything - from your power bills to your groceries, getting your mobile recharge to DTH recharge, and from buying movie tickets to your air/ rail tickets. Having launched this service in eight telecom circles last month, MMPL is now all set to launch this service in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan circles by the month end. The company hopes to get 30 per cent of its total business from these circles, given the high mobile penetration. Initially, subscribers in these circles will be able to avail these services through dealers (called mobile merchant dealers); December onwards users could avail of the services personally, by registering themselves on the company website www.money-on-mobile. com. Shshank Joshi, MD, MMPL, said: “We expect to get almost 30 per cent of the total business from here. In Chandigarh alone, we propose to have 1,000 retailers by March 2011,” he said. The company is all set to launch its operations pan-India by December. Joshi added the dealers registered with them get a bulk of the commission they get from the mobile operators, general retailers, power utilities, airlines et al. “We will be charging a 3 per cent commission, of which 2.4 per cent will be passed on to the retailer who sells this service to consumer. We will get only 0.3 per cent commission, while the remaining 0.3 per cent will be the distribution cost,” he said. Joshi said that by September 2011, they are looking at a sales of Rs 3,000 crore at a profit of Rs 30 crore.
	IOC beats Reliance to become nation’s No. 1 refiner New Delhi, November 11 State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has surpassed Reliance Industries to regain its position as nation's biggest refiner after it completed expansion of its Panipat unit. “We have this week completed expansion of our Panipat refinery (in Haryana) to 15 million tonnes (from 12 million tonnes),” IOC Director (Refineries) B N Bankapur said today. Before the expansion, IOC's eight refineries had a total crude oil refining capacity of 51.2 million tonnes a year and together with its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corp, it had a combined refining capacity of 61.7 million tonnes. After the Panipat expansion, IOC group's refining capacity has increased to 64.7 million tonnes, ahead of 62 million tonnes of refining capacity that Reliance Industries has at Jamnagar in Gujarat. IOC was the largest oil refiner in the country before Reliance started its 29 million tonnes a year only-for-exports unit adjacent to its 33 million tonnes a year plant at Jamnagar. "This year have raised Haldia refinery capacity by 1.5 million tonnes to 7.5 million tonnes," Bankapur said. IOC is mulling raising the capacity of its Koyali refinery in Gujarat to 16 million to 18 million tonnes a year from current 13.7 million tonnes a year. "We will conduct feasibility of raising Koyali refinery capacity to either 16 or 18 million tonnes in next 3-4 months," he said. IOC has sought approval from Supreme Court to raise capacity of its 8 million tonnes Mathura plant to 11 million tonnes. — PTI
	Satyam gets IRDA contract Mumbai, November 11 IT firm Mahindra Satyam today said it has received order from Insurance regulator IRDA to implement software solution in the organisation that will help the firm manage accounts and payroll related services. The company will implement business software which will help IRDA cut cost and help manage payrolls, self-service portals, accounts and provide post implementation support, Mahindra Satyam (earlier known as Satyam Computers) said. The company did not disclose the financial details of the contract. "We look forward forward to helping Irda deliver fast, accurate business decisions and provide exceptional value to its numerous employees more effectively," Mahindra Satyam Senior VP Business Head-- West Asia, Africa & India Dilip Jha said. — PTI