Tuesday, October 27, 1998
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B U S I N E S S | Tuesday, October 27, 1998 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Punjab identifies road
projects for private Banks
seek girdawri, offer aid for crop loss |
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LIC eyes pension funds 'Defer
power tariff hike decision' ‘Open
Wagah border’ |
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Mitsubishi to quit Eicher
Motors
TVS
Electronics net jumps 39 pc Curb
on Amritsar finance companies |
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Punjab identifies road projects for private
sector investment NEW DELHI, Oct 26 - The Punjab Government has identified 17 corridors covering a total length of 936 km for private investment in the roads sector. The total estimated cost of these projects is over of Rs 1,500 crore, official sources said.The longest corridor among these is the Kharar - Samrala - Ludhiana- Jagraon -Moga stretch covering a length of 147 km involving an estimated total cost of Rs 371. 85 crore. Besides, the state government is already in the process of finalising two BOT contracts for Rail Over Bridge (ROB) projects.Another six projects are in the tendering stage, sources said. The government has also prepared a master plan for upgradation of roads, bridges and construction of rail over bridges (ROBs) with an outlay of Rs 1800 crore. A ‘Strategic Options Study’ conducted by LEA Associates for the PWD (B&R) Department of the state government highlighted the mapping of volume and capacity data on various road corridors, projection of traffic volumes over 5 to 10 year period and classification of existing road stock and determining adequacy of design/ carriage way capacity. The stretches identified by the study for commercialisation include: Zirakpur-Rajpura-Patiala-Sangrur (116 km), Ropar-Balachaur-Nawanshahr-Phagwara (83km), Patiala-Sirhind (29km), Phillaur-Nawanshahr (36 km), Mulanpur-Raikot-Barnala (60km), Moga-Barnala (67km), Malerkotla-Dhuri-Sangrur (34km), Ludhiana- Malerkotla (46km) , Jalandhar- Hoshiarpur State border (59km), Moga-Talwandi-Bhali (25km), Moga-Baghapurana-Kotkapura (45km),Jalandhar-Kapurthala (20km), Dasuya-Hoshiarpur (41km), Hoshiarpur-Una-State border(19km), Patiala-Patran-Kahnauri-State border (72km) Sangrur-Barnala (37km) apart from the 147km long Kharar-Moga stretch. The state government has
also decided to constitute a high-powered committee under
the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to select BOT
projects, and to regulate and BOT terms and conditions. |
LIC eyes pension funds CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — The Indian insurance market at the moment is ready for two sets of services — pension funds and security policies, says Mr G.P. Kohli, Managing Director, Life Insurance Corporation. In an interview with The Tribune here this afternoon, Mr Kohli maintains that the national insurance sector in general and the LIC in particular are fully prepared for “privatisation” and the advent of multinational companies in the market. “With our pro-active activities, we are both physically and mentally prepared to meet the challenge of foreign insurance companies. With our citizens charter, we are preparing our human resources to reorient themselves to the changing demands of the market besides expressing our commitment to our clientele.It is reflected by 57 lakh claims worth Rs 6,700 crore we settled last year. “In fact, we are already competing with multinational companies as far as financial instruments are concerned. We have been successfully coming out with products to meet the demands of the market. “The areas where we need to concentrate are technology upgradation, skill and competence enhancement, new products and relationship as we have been working like an effective marketing organisation, operating in various segments of the market so that we can encash the core demand with the core strength of our products and services,” adds Mr Kohli. Talking about the LIC, he says, besides the Citizens’ Charter, the LIC has strengthened its Public (Customers) Grievances Cell to sort out problems of policy holders. Transparency in claims resettlement is reflected in the appointment of claims and review committees at each level. We have also drafted high court judges in each of these zonal review committees. The percentage of disputes is negligible. “At present we are managing LIC funds of Rs 105000 crore. In our human resources, we have 1.25 lakh employees besides five lakh agents all over the country. We are managing 10 crore policies and our yearly earnings amount to Rs 22,000 crore. Our total investment in government securities, loans for housing, power sector, water supply and sewerage, state road transport corporations, national housing boards , national housing banks and capital market is Rs 1 lakh crore.” “More than 50 per cent of our policies are from the rural sector. We know our market. We respond to the needs of our customer recognising his demands in any sector, say maturity of his policy, death claims and loan settlement. Besides, we have presence in the UK, Mauritius, Fiji and Bahrain,” adds Mr Kohli. Asked about the possibility of a tie-up with any of the multinational companies, Mr Kohli says that the LIC is open to market exploitation. The LIC is now focussing on the pension market. In the 8th Plan it invested Rs 56,000 crore while in the first year of the Ninth Plan, the contribution of the LIC in national development has been Rs 20,000 crore. Mr Kohli, who originally
belongs to Patiala, was here to address a meeting of
senior Divisional Managers. Accompanying him was the
Zonal Manager, Mr R. Chandrasekhar. |
Banks seek girdawri, offer aid for crop loss CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — NABARD Chief General Manager N R Kannan today requested the Punjab and Haryana officials to take up a girdawri in areas where standing crops have been damaged by rain as also assess the damage to the paddy crop already harvested so that banks could provide relief and issue fresh loans for rabi crops. He was speaking at a NABARD-convened meeting of the chief executives of the state cooperative banks, state land development banks and the RRBs and senior officers of the Punjab and Haryana Governments here to discuss steps to be taken for providing relief to the affected farmers. Mr Sukhbir Singh and Mr S
K Sharma, General Managers of NABARD, requested the banks
to give top priority to the task relating to the
assessment of the damage and sanction relief based on a
case-by-case analysis. |
Defer decision on power tariff hike :
industry CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — Major industrial associations of the city have urged the Chandigarh Administration to keep the decision to effect a hike in the power tariff in abeyance for the time being. In a memorandum to the local MP, Mr Satya Pal Jain, the Industries Association of Chandigarh, the Federation of Small Scale Industries, the Chamber of Chandigarh Industries and the Chandigarh Industries Association have urged him to help in the constitution of the state electricity consultative council for advising the administration on policy decisions, including the hike in the power tariff. It is not an opportunate
time to effect a hike in the power tariff as the industry
is passing through a severe recession, the memorandum
said. |
‘Open Wagah border’ NEW DELHI, Oct 26 — Assocham has suggested the opening of the Attari-Wagah border between India and Pakistan. The President of Assocham Mr L Lakshman , after his return from Chandigarh and Amritsar observed that constraints on official trade have prompted businessmen to do business with each other through third countries. At the same time it is also necessary to remove non-trade barriers, he observed. Pakistan maintains a positive list of about 600 products for imports from India resulting in informal trade between the two countries of about $ 1.5 billion. During 1997-98, Pakistan’s exports to India increased by 8.82 per cent over the previous year from Rs 128.36 crore to Rs 139.68 crore. The major products that showed an extra ordinary increase were sugar and organic chemicals, he observed. In the same year, Indian
exports to Pakistan declined by 3.8 per cent from Rs 558
crore in 1996-97 to Rs 537 crore in 1997-98. However, the
Assocham President said, its figures relating to sugar
are removed from the totals, Indian exports show a growth
of 67.6 per cent. |
Mitsubishi to quit Eicher Motors NEW DELHI, Oct 26 (PTI) — Japanese Auto major Mitsubishi Motor Corporation (MMC) plans to pull out of Eicher Motors by selling off its 7.5 per cent stake in the company, an MMC official has said. “We are considering selling off our shareholding in Eicher Motors as Mitsubishi ceased to be the technology supplier to Eicher Motors a few years back,” Kazuhiko Take, General Manager of MMC New Delhi liaison office told PTI. Eicher Motors had entered into a technical assistance agreement with MMC in 1986 to manufacture the ‘Canter’ range of light commercial vehicles (LCV) at its Pithampur plant. The agreement came to an end in March 1994 after the successful transfer of technology over seven years ago. But MMC still supplies certain spares for the LCVs, Take said. When asked whether MMC had identified any prospective buyer for its share, Take said the company would first approach Eicher Motors itself to buy out the stake. When contacted, an Eicher
group official said they were unaware of any such move by
MMC and would consider acquiring the stake if the
Japanese partner approached them with the buyout
proposal. |
TVS Electronics net jumps 39 pc CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — TVS Electronics (TVSE) has recorded 39.4 per cent growth in its net profits after tax (PAT), which stood at Rs 46 lakh for the first six months of the current fiscal year, compared to Rs 33 lakh for the corresponding period last year. The company’s
turnover was Rs 53.18 crore for the first six months of
1998-99 as compared to Rs 51.84 crore for corresponding
period last year. The gross profit was also higher by
27.4 per cent at Rs 3.48 crore. Currently TVSE is the
market leader in the DoT matrix printers segment and
commands 35 per cent market share. In case of keyboards
and UPS the company commands a market share of 21 per
cent and 10 per cent respectively. |
Curb on Amritsar finance companies AMRITSAR, Oct 26 — The District Magistrate, Mr Narinderjit Singh, has directed all banks not to allow withdrawals or transfers of the companies which had indulged in illegal practices in the past by any name in Amritsar district. The administration apprehended that finance companies might even withdraw the security deposits of their employees and clients, which could disturb the peace as a large number of depositors and employees were involved. The companies are Sazada
Finance, Majitha Finance, Hilton Finance, P S Sadar,
Amritsar, Rehmat Finance, Dhanbir Finance, Vikas Deposits
and Investment Ltd, I S Deposits and Investment Ltd and
Parbhat Finance and Investment Ltd. The companies can
convert deposits of security into payees banks drafts in
the names of depositors applying for refund. This
exception is available for returning the deposits of
so-called employees of the companies.
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Woollen Expo-98 in city CHANDIGARH, Oct 26 — Woollen Expo-98 being organised at the Parade Ground here will remain open till November 2. Kulu shawls, caps,
jackets, mufflers, Rajastan namdas with aplik patchwork,
Gujarati shawls, decorative items and wall-hangings are
among the items on display at the exhibition-cum-sale
show which started on October 24. Over 52 participants
from Himachal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajastan, Haryana and
Gujarat have put up stalls at the exhibition, organised
jointly by the Central Wool Development Board, Jodhpur,
the Ministry of Textiles, and Himbunkar, a leading
weavers’ organisation of Himachal. |
A popular brand of pan masala, herbal medicines, sarees and other ladies wear, electronic goods and automobile spare parts are some of the consumer goods smuggled from India to be sold in Pakistani markets, especially in Karachi and Lahore. Pakistan officially discontinued private trade with India in July 1978 on the plea that it adversely affected local production. However, an extensive survey conducted by Urdu daily Jang says that smuggling of consumer goods from neighbouring countries has shown a marked increase. Karachi has become the biggest market for smuggled goods. About 30,000 shops there sell these without any fear of governmental action. Their daily turnout is estimated at Rs 75 crore of which Rs 1 crore goes to government officials daily as bribes. — UNI Sugar exports Pakistan may be facing a glut of sugar currently, but official figures show that it had bought $ 133 million worth of the commodity from India in 1996-97 and 1997-98. The bulk of this — worth $ 120 million — was imported in 1996-97, according to official foreign trade statistics obtained by the NNI news agency. However, the roles have been reversed now. Pakistan is set to export a huge quantity of sugar to India this year. After the slashing of the minimum export price of sugar last month, local mills bagged new orders of over 150,000 tonnes from India. Earlier, sugar export price by sea was fixed at $ 250 per tonne, $ 270 tonne through the Wagah border to India and $ 310 for Afghanistan and the Central Asian countries. — IANS Bailout talks Already saddled with outstanding debt payments, $ 1.4 billion, Pakistan is seeking a $ 5 billion bailout package from international donors in the “next couple of weeks” or it will have to default. “We are looking forward to negotiate (a bailout package) with the IMF and the World Bank in the next couple of weeks,” Mr Ahsan Iqbal, Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission told AP. Pakistan’s external debt is a massive $ 32 billion. It badly needs to reschedule its debt, but according to Mr Iqbal, it will need emergency funding of about $ 5 billion just to meet its financial obligations for the 1998-99 fiscal year. Of this $ 2 billion will cover debt rescheduling and the remaining $ 3 billion will cover current accounts. — AP Revenue up The Prime Minister’s Adviser on Economic Affairs, Dr Hafiz Pasha, has said that the revenue collection has exceeded the target by Rs 3 billion in the first quarter of 1998-99. Pasha is all praise for the Central Bureau of Revenue, saying that its officials have collected Rs 76 billion in the first quarter. The imports have fallen by 24 per cent during the period under review which is mostly due to the decline in the import of food items, specially wheat and machinery. Exports have also fallen by 8 per cent but efforts will be made to compensate the shortfall. The government borrowing
has touched the Rs 50 billion mark against the target of
Rs 45 billion. — ANI |
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| Modi-Xerox HISAR, Oct 26 (TNS) — The document company Modi-Xerox displayed its range of photocopiers from small portable personal copiers to mid volume and heavy volume photocopiers whose cost ranged from Rs 35,000 to Rs 20 lakh, at an exhibition, inaugurated by Mr Jaswant Singh, Minister for Animal Husbandry, Haryana. Memorandum SBI pensioners Forex rates US $ Rs 42.25/26 Gold weak |
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