Ambuja Cement unit
for Bathinda
CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — A cement grinding unit is being set up by Ambuja Cement at Bathinda that will use fly ash to produce cement. Chief Minister P.S. Badal will lay the foundation stone of the unit tomorrow. Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union Minister for Industry, will also be present.

Escorts to halve share capital
NEW DELHI, Sept 4 — Escorts’ equity restructuring plan was today approved at its annual general meeting, ending speculations that the financial institutions — the second largest share holders of the company — would block the move.
Verdict on ITC boosts sentiment
MUMBAI, Sept 4 — Pivotals sought higher levels on the Bombay stock exchange today on hectic short-covering coupled with fresh speculative buying for squaring up positions on the last day of the current settlement.
Tribunal waives ITC penalties
NEW DELHI, Sept 4 — The Central Excise and Gold Appelate Tribunal (CEGAT) today ordered the recalculation of ITC Ltd’s excise liability on a new formula in the Rs 803.78 crore excise evasion case and waived penalties imposed on the company and its Directors.
Industrial estate for Jhajjar
CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — Haryana, which exported leather goods wroth Rs 157 crore during 1996-97, is emerging as a major producer of leather as 20 more tanneries of Delhi are setting up an independent industrial estate at Jhajjar.
Call for police, banker tie-up
CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — The RBI conducted a symposium on currency notes today. The symposium underscored the need for coordination between the police, investigating agencies and the bankers.
Threat to move CLB
NEW DELHI, Sept 4 — Tempers flared at the 53rd annual general meeting of Escorts Limited as some shareholders threatened to move the Company Law Board and Sebi over the company’s capital restructuring plan, which includes halving equity capital.
NTPC offers pact on SEB dues
NEW DELHI, Sept 4 — To recover huge outstanding dues from the defaulting state electricity boards the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd has proposed a tripartite agreement with state governments, and the RBI.
RBI pleads safety nets
MUMBAI, Sept 4 — The Reserve Bank of India has urged for the creation of suitable safety nets for weaker segments of the population to make economic reforms sustainable.

Only packed edible oils to be sold
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 4 — The Centre is considering a new law under which edible oils, including mustard oil, will be allowed to be marketed in retail only in packed form to check their adulteration, the Edible Oil and Sugar Department Secretary, Mr R.P. Sinha, said here today.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the Food and Consumer Affairs Minister, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, and attended by officials from the ministries of Health and Food and other related agencies here yesterday.

It was decided that a separate edible oil packaging order under the Essential Commodities Act would be promulgated in the next couple of days to ensure that edible oil is not sold in loose form.

All packers would have to be registered with the Directorate of Vanaspati, Vegetable Oils and Fats (VVOF) and the registration number would have to be displayed conspicuously on each pack.

It was decided that there would be a multi-agency testing and clearing group headed by the Chief Director, VVOF, with members from different agencies and state governments to pool all available resources, including manpower and testing facilities.

Mr Sinha said there was a need to integrate testing mechanisms with the sale of edible oils. The government was not satisfied with the nitric acid test to check adulteration and it would insist on a more genuine TLC test.

To counter shortage, if any, due to the ban on loose sale of mustard oil, the government would import edible oils when necessary.

Mustard oil, which has been banned for sale, would be tested by a multi-agency testing group and only after clearance by this group would it be made available for sale in packed form, preferably through state agencies.

The Department of Sugar and Edible Oils has intensified quality control measures and surprise checks of all units engaged in the manufacture of vegetable oil products and solvent extracted products would be carried out.

The government has initiated action to ban the use of mustard oil in the manufacture of vanaspati till further notice.

The state governments have been advised to ensure that edible oils are not marketed in loose form. Packing should be allowed by manufacturers only and packers may be considered only if they are registered and have adequate analytical facilities for testing the purity of samples.

The states have been asked to make the monitoring of quality of edible oils more stringent and it should start from the raw materials stage itself.

Mr Sinha said the government had decided to import 1.5 lakh tonnes of edible oils, of which the STC had already contracted 98000 tonnes. The canalising agency had been asked to contract another 52,000 tonnes and make it available in October.

The total requirement of edible oils in the country is 78 lakh tonnes of which domestic production accounts for 62 lakh tonnes. The remaining quantity is imported.

Mr Sinha said there should be no shortage of edible oils during the festival season and as of today four vessels containing about 25,000 tonnes of oil had reached India. Palmolien accounts for a majority of the imports.

High court judge to probe adulteration

NEW DELHI, Sept 4 (PTI) — A one-man judicial inquiry panel headed by the Delhi High Court Judge Anil Dev Singh will probe the spread of dropsy in the Capital which has so far claimed over 44 lives and affected many.Though the exact terms of reference for the inquiry are yet to be finalised, the entire exercise would aim at identifying those involved in adulteration of mustard oil and responsible for spread of the disease, Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma told reporters today.

Bungling in steel furniture tenders?
Tribune News Service

JALANDHAR, Sept 4 — Steel furniture to be supplied to government offices in the state will cost 25 per cent more this year due to an alleged nexus between the Controller of Stores and dealers. The state exchequer is likely to lose crores of rupees.

Tenders for buying steel furniture for government offices were invited by the Controller of Stores for the Industries Department on July 6 this year. Dealers hiked the prices by 25 per cent even though the prices of the steel furniture have not increased. The Controller of Stores is alleged to have bought steel almirahs for Rs 3,850 a piece last year. While the actual price in the market was Rs 3,500. This year with the new quotations the government will be paying Rs 4,550 for a steel almirah.

The favoured dealers make a pool and quote exact figures in the tenders. Interestingly, the monthly capacity quoted by the dealers is Rs 10,000 and the delivery period is also the same whether they are from Ludhiana, Chandigarh or Jalandhar.

Other dealers had quoted 25 per cent lower rates in their tenders, but their samples were not passed by the four-member technical committee constituted by the state government.

Surprisingly two members of the technical committee are non-technical. The dealers demand that the Controller of Stores should reinvite the tenders and a technical committee should pass the samples. They have already approached Industries Minister Sucha Singh and the Secretary, Mr Ramesh Inder Singh.

Escorts to halve share capital

NEW DELHI, Sept 4 (PTI) — Escorts’ equity restructuring plan was today approved at its annual general meeting, ending speculations that the financial institutions — the second largest share holders of the company — would block the move.

The representatives of the LIC, GIC and the Unit Trust of India approved the company’s proposal to halve its share capital to Rs 36 crore from the present Rs 72 crore, company Vice-President Umesh Banerji said here.

The FIs together hold 29 per cent of the equity of Escorts Limited, flagship of Escorts group.

Escorts had earlier announced the restructuring exercise under which the company wanted to convert 50 per cent of its equity capital into 12 per cent cumulative redeemable preference shares (CRPS).

The CRPS would have a face value of Rs 90 each and are redeemable at par.

Poll prank on Aussie PM’s website

AUSTRALIA’s ruling Liberal Party’s election campaign received a jolt after it was discovered that a computer hacker had broken into the party’s official website, changing ministers’ titles and adding links to hard-core sex sites.

People surfing Internet found the Australian Prime Minister renamed “The Dishonourable John Howard, Prime Minister, Minister for Pain, Suffering and Inequity”.

Treasurer Peter Costello was described as “Minister for the Rich, Stomping the Poor and Wrecking the Economy”. His rival to succeed Howard, Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith, was described as “Minister for Destruction of Workplace Fairness, the Gestapo and Propaganda”.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported that requests for ministerial profiles led to a XXX-rated pornographic website.

A Liberal Party spokesman said the offending website pages had been removed. Howard has called an early election for October 3. (ANI)

Loitering

Internet can be bad for your psychological health. It may increase loneliness and depression, cause you to drop friendships and weaken your bonds with members of your immediate family, says a US academic study.

Too much time spent using e-mail and loitering in online chat rooms appears to degrade most people’s social lives, according to Prof Robert Kraut of Carnegie Mellon University, who led the study.

Socialising via computer screen turns out to be less fulfilling that other methods of human interaction. “It’s like spending all of your life at a cocktail party,” Kraut said.

The study, to be published in the journal of the American Psychological Association, attempted to measure the effects of Internet on the social and psychological well-being of a broad group of people over a period of two years.

The effects of this cyber-malaise were not spread evenly-teenagers appeared to suffer more than others, perhaps because they spend more time in chat rooms. (TNS)

Match-making

Depressed on the Internet? Not so, says Match.com, Internet’s leading matchmaking service. Contrary to the recent ‘HomeNet’ study by Carnegie Mellon’s Human Computer Interaction Institute, Match.com claims its members are finding happiness online.

More than 50 per cent meet for face-to-face dates — and significant numbers develop meaningful friendships, relationships or marriages.

“Match.com offers hope to any single who has been frustrated or depressed by lack of access to romantic partners in the off-line world,” commented Trish McMermott, Match.com’s online dating expert.

Match.com is responsible for over 700 married members as well as thousands of relationships and engagements. (TNS)

Web access

The government has finalised guidelines for prospective Internet service providers (ISP) allowing cable television operators to offer web access through their networks and fixing zero licence fee for the first five years.

The 13-point guidelines, arrived after month-long discussions between the Department of Telecom, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the National Task Force on Information Technology,will be notified soon.

Without additional licencing, but guided by the cable laws, all cable TV operators can become ISP either by directly hooking to the earthstations through a V-sat or to the local nodes by a wired connection. (PTI)

Ambuja Cement unit for Bathinda
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — A cement grinding unit is being set up by Ambuja Cement at Bathinda that will use fly ash to produce cement. Chief Minister P.S. Badal will lay the foundation stone of the unit tomorrow. Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union Minister for Industry, will also be present.

This will be the second cement grinding unit being set up by the Rs 1,100 crore Ambuja Cement in Punjab, the first being at Ropar, which produces over 1 million tonnes per annum of cement, using fly ash of Guru Teg Bahadur Thermal Power Plant. The second unit at Bathinda, near Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Power Plant, will be commissioned soon.

Ambuja Cement, the only manufacturer of cement in Punjab, uses fly ash released from the thermal power plants of the state to produce cement, branded as Ambuja Silicate.

Fly ash is a byproduct of thermal power plants and is considered to be damaging to the ecology. Air polluted with fly ash poses health hazards. It also requires a huge dumping space. At present, 28,000 hectares of agricultural land is used for dumping 45 million tonnes of fly ash in India. Ambuja’s Ropar unit consumes about 2,00,000 tonnes per annum of fly ash, says Mr V.K. Pandya, General Manager, Technical Services of Ambuja Cement in Punjab.

Verdict on ITC boosts sentiment

MUMBAI, Sept 4 (PTI) — Pivotals sought higher levels on the Bombay stock exchange (BSE) today on hectic short-covering coupled with fresh speculative buying for squaring up positions on the last day of the current settlement.

The verdict given in favour of ITC Ltd by the Central Excise and Gold Appellate Tribunal ordering recalculation in a tax evasion case and waiving penalties imposed on the company and its Directors had a positive effect on the market sentiment.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made fresh bids to corner shares of some blue chip companies such as ITC, MTNL, BHEL, Reliance and Mah. & Mah. encouraged by the FIIs buying domestic funds. Institutions also purchased shares of heavy weighted companies such as Reliance, SBI, MTNL, BPCL, HPCL, Satyam Comp and Infosys Tech.

Software shares came under heavy selling pressure for profit-booking. ITC was in the limelight on all round buying. Reliance attracted support from company circles and firmed up moderately. Elsewhere, shares moved both ways in a narrow range on alternate bouts of buying and selling.

Reflecting the market activity, the BSE sensitive index opened higher at 2930.63 and touched a high of 2985.49 before reducing the gains to close at 2975.10, up by 56.21 points from the previous close of 2918.89. The BSE-100 ended higher at 1323.25, showing a rise of 20.90 over the previous close of 1302.35. The BSE-200 closed up at 306.11 and the dollex at 119.80 from the last close of 302.19 and 118.21 respectively.

The total turnover on the BOLT system was Rs 1226.60 crore. ITC Ltd notched a remarkable turnover of Rs 384.19 crore, Satyam Computers Rs 147.91 crore, Reliance Rs 139.69 crore, Zee Telefilms Rs 94.04 crore and SBI Rs 57.33 crore.

NEW DELHI: Huge short-covering by speculators and large-scale purchases by domestic financial institutions today pushed up the stock prices closing with widespread gains at the Delhi stock exchange.

In the wake of the end of settlement players were seen covering-up their short positions giving a further push to the rising stock prices.

Tribunal waives ITC penalties

NEW DELHI, Sept 4 (PTI) — The Central Excise and Gold Appelate Tribunal (CEGAT) today ordered the recalculation of ITC Ltd’s excise liability on a new formula in the Rs 803.78 crore excise evasion case and waived penalties imposed on the company and its Directors.

The tribunal also set aside Rs 118 crore excise liability on the company’s contract manufacturers.

A two member Bench comprising Justice U.L. Bhatt and K. Sankararaman set aside penalties slapped on the ITC, its six directors and seven contract manufacturers by the Excise Department.

The ITC is likely to get reductions on the excise claim of Rs 803.78 crore after the recalculation, in addition to waiving off demand on contract manufacturers of Rs 118 crore.

The revised excise liability of the ITC is likely to be around Rs 500 to 600 crore, Mr M. Chandrasekharan, the counsel for the government said after the pronouncement of the order.

ITC counsel Ravindra Narain said it was too early to say what the exact liability would be. However, he added that it was not likely to be substantially higher than Rs 350 crore, already deposited by the company following an earlier order by CEGAT.

The penalty waived off by the CEGAT includes Rs 66.5 crore on the company, Rs 7 crore on contract manufacturers and Rs 3.15 crore on six directors of the ITC.

The ITC counsel Narain did not rule out the company moving the Supreme Court on appeal against the tribunal’s order. “We will reassess the situation after going through the order,” Mr Narain said.

The company will have to approach the apex court within 60 days of the receipt of the tribunal’s order.

Mr Narain said since the tribunal had set aside the penalties on the Directors of the ITC on merit, there should not be any prosecution of Directors also.

The 256-page order of CEGAT said “differential duty would be payable by ITC, though quantification has to be done afresh on the basis of our findings”.

The excise evasion case against the ITC is that the company “knowingly and fraudulently” printed lower price as maximum retail price on their cigarette prices to deliberately misdeclare prices before the Central Excise Department to claim assessment of duty at a lower rate.

Industrial estate for Jhajjar
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — Haryana, which exported leather goods wroth Rs 157 crore during 1996-97, is emerging as a major producer of leather as 20 more tanneries of Delhi are setting up an independent industrial estate at Jhajjar.

The Haryana Chief Secretary, Mr Ram S. Verma, who inaugurated a one-day seminar on investment opportunities and growth potential in the leather sector in the state in New Delhi today said that Haryana had immense potential for the development of the leather industry.

In his keynote address, Dr T. Ramasami, Director of Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, said while India possessed the largest livestock population in the world, Haryana enjoyed one of the largest densities of livestock population in the country.

The Commissioner and Secretary, Industries, Haryana, Mr M.L. Tayal, gave a detailed account of the status of the leather industry in the state and said it was for the first time that a seminar on leather industry had been organised. The state had made rapid strides in the manufacture and export of leather items.

Call for police, banker tie-up
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — The RBI conducted a symposium on currency notes today.

The symposium underscored the need for coordination between the police, investigating agencies and the bankers. The RBI believes that equipping the bankers and the police with the necessary technical competence will go a long way in dispelling rumours about the notes in circulation. Mr K. Vijayaraghavan, General Manager, Officer-in-Charge, Mr G. Jaganmohan Rao, Deputy General Manager of the Chandigarh office as also Mr V.R. Gaikwad, Dy. General Manager, and Mr E.A. Machado, Asstt. General Manager from the Central Office of the RBI, addressed the symposium. The RBI informed the bankers and the police that it would depute officials to other places to conduct similar exercises for the benefit of bankers and the police.

Threat to move CLB

NEW DELHI, Sept 4 (UNI) — Tempers flared at the 53rd annual general meeting of Escorts Limited as some shareholders threatened to move the Company Law Board (CLB) and Sebi over the company’s capital restructuring plan, which includes halving equity capital.

Even though a resolution to this effect was passed but subject to a final consent from financial institutions, the shareholders were not happy as they felt that the entire exercise is being done to cheat them.

NTPC offers pact on SEB dues
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 4 — To recover huge outstanding dues from the defaulting state electricity boards (SEBs) the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) has proposed a tripartite agreement with state governments, and the RBI.

The Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the NTPC, Mr Rajendra Singh, told newspersons that the proposal had been sent to the Centre for approval.

The receivables from different state boards and other utilities touched a staggering Rs 8538.66 crore which include principal of Rs 5339.13 crore and a surcharge of Rs 3199.53 crore.

“Mr Singh said adding that the major defaulting states were from the eastern region apart from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Notices have been sent to the defaulting states asking them to expedite payments and avoid rescheduling and stalling of power supply to them, he said.

An amount of Rs 399.18 crore was received directly from the Central Government during 1997-98 by direct appropriation out of the central allocation to state plans of major defaulting states.

The current level of LCs is Rs 1037.60 crore equal to 87.52 per cent of the average monthly billing of the last quarter, he added.

Also, the total amount of bonds outstanding as on March 31, 1998 was Rs 1755.84 crore and the cumulative public deposits stood at Rs 289.28 crore.

He said that the NTPC recorded a plant load factor (PLF) of 85.3 per cent (other than the eastern region ) in 1997-98. Average PLF, however, came down to 75.2 per cent including that of the eastern region ,where the PLF was only 45.7 per cent due to backing down of units.

Elaborating on the corporate plan of Navaratna PSUs, Mr Rajendra Singh said the corporation intend to become a 30,000 mw capacity company by 2007 and aim to have a generation capacity exceeding 40,000 mw by 2012.

In addition, the company is contemplating to set up a 1000 mw gas-based combined cycle power project in Bangladesh at a suitable location through joint venture.

In the Ninth Plan, NTPC has scheduled capacity addition programme of 6270 mw (3170 mw from ongoing projects and 3100 mw from new projects ).This includes a 400 mw project at Faridabad.

RBI pleads safety nets

MUMBAI, Sept 4 (PTI) — The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has urged for the creation of suitable safety nets for weaker segments of the population to make economic reforms sustainable.

In its 1997-98 annual report released today, the RBI said economic reforms need large scale restructuring and redeployment of workforce.

Fiscal consolidation often entails reduction in consumption expenditures as well as cutbacks in distortionary expenditures like subsidies, it said.

The 1998-99 Budget has proposed to constitute a separate restructuring fund which would take care of the fund requirements of public sector enterprises to offer compensation packages to the workers.

This would, however, solve the issue of only a small segment of the workforce, the report said.

To make reforms sustainable, adequate protection would need to be provided, particularly to weaker segments of the population by creating suitable safety nets, RBI said.

This would be in addition to existing poverty alleviation programmes such as integrated rural development programme, Nehru Rozgar Yojana, Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana and the targeted public distribution system.

Social safety net would alleviate the adverse effects of reforms that underline economic restructuring and fiscal consolidation.

It pointed out that experience of western economies has, by and large, given clues to emerging economies to take sufficient safeguards while evolving social security nets as part of their economic reform processes.

In India, RBI said, issues relating to introduction of a social safety net are multifarious. First, the general provision of social services are essentially facilitated by state governments.

Though some social security schemes like work injury benefit, sickness, maternity and medical care and old age invalidity and survivors pension are in existence for some time, these schemes are restricted to a small proportion of the workforce in the organised sector.

The majority of the population, which works in subsistence agriculture or in urban informal sector, does not come under the purview of any formal social security system.

The central bank said the common elements of social safety net as part of economic reform package, as specified by the World Bank, encompass targeted subsidies, provision of permanent social security and unemployment benefits.

Gold rises
NEW DELHI, Sept 4 (UNI) — Gold and silver moved up sharply at the local bullion market today. The rates: Gold (per 10 gms) standard Rs 4,220, ornaments Rs 4,070, sovereign (per eight gms) Rs 3,500/3,525, silver .999 ready (per kg) Rs 7,410, silver coins (per 100 pieces) buyers Rs 10,000 sellers Rs 11,000.

New SBI GM
CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — Mr R.C. Agrawala has taken over as General Manager (Development & Personal Banking) SBI, Chandigarh circle comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, J&K and Chandigarh.

Commodities
From Our Correspondent
CHANDIGARH, Sept 4 — Wheat 575 to 577, dara 577 to 578, superior 580 to 582, maize 400 to 450, sarson 1600 to 1700, taramira 1350 to 1450, rice basmati 2500 to 5500, parmal 900 to 1200, sella 900 to 1200, maida (per bag 90 Kg) 650 to 700, Suji 675 to 725, atta 650 to 725, urd (per quintal) 1400 to 1700, urd dal 1400 to 1800, moong 2000 to 2200, moong dal 2400 to 2600, moong dhuli 2400 to 2600, masoor 2000 to 2500, dal masoor 2000 to 2300, kabli channa 2000 to 2780, kala channa 1250 to 1600, dal channa 1450 to 1700, malka masoor 2200 to 2600, arhar 2200 to 2900 rajmashchitra 2900 to 4000. Sugar -M-grade 1485 to 1515, S-grade 1470 to 1485, khandsari 1550 to 1600, gurkhurpa 1200 to 1250, gurperi 1250 to 1300, shakkar 1300 to 1350. Oils:- Sarson (per quintal) 4700 to 4750.