Thursday, February 11, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Thursday, February 11, 1999 |
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Private telecom operators
are violating contract: Jagmohan Indica
allotted to 10,000 persons |
Maruti 800,
Omni to ply as taxis in Delhi NEW DELHI, Feb 10 — Gone are the days when ramshackled Ambassador and Fiat taxis used to hog the Delhi roads. With the first four Maruti Omni vans being registered as black and yellow cabs, Delhi roads and the atmosphere in the national capital region is all set to move towards a better tomorrow. |
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Budget at
11 a.m. No
shortage of pulses, says government Commodity
code system on anvil Indianoil
to rehabilitate villagers |
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Private
telecom operators are violating contract: Jagmohan NEW DELHI, Feb 10 — Communications Minister Jagmohan today questioned the moves of private telecom operators to sell their equity at a premium without fulfilling contractual obligation of paying the licence fees to the government. Criticising the private operators for non-payment of licence fees of Rs 3700 crore on the grounds of poor health, Jagmohan said: “How is that some companies have sold their equity at a premium if they are not doing good business.” The real issue was non-payment of licence fee and the consequent violation of the contractual obligation, he told operators at a telecom conference organised by the CII. How should the public, Parliament, the Auditor General and the judiciary view the non-recovery of a whopping Rs 3700 crore dues to the exchequer from the telecom operators after signing licence agreements, he wondered. Reacting to the demands by the private operators for a moratorium from payment of 20 per cent of licence fees by February 15 till the announcement of the new telecom policy, Jagmohan said as each company signed a separate agreement for its own operations, why should all cases be taken up as if they constitute a single one. Chairman and Managing Director of MTNL S. Rajagoplan said his company favoured a level playing field, but all operators in the sector should be prepared to oblige the promises. The one-day conference was organised in the background of the government deadline of February 15 extended to the cellular and basic operators to pay at least 20 per cent of the licence fee dues to the government and as a forum for discussion on the draft telecom policy. The draft telecom policy vetted by the Group on Telecom (GoT) headed by Jaswant Singh will be submitted to the Prime Minister later this month for declaring it by March 31. Earlier, addressing the delegates, the Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Justice S.S. Sodhi said while the original liberalisation policy was a step in the right direction, the essential pre-requisites for liberalisation were not thought of. “For lack of a
powerful and independent regulator, conflicts have
reached courts. While the court will give its decision in
due course, the delay has resulted in investor confidence
taking a beating”, Justice Sodhi observed. |
Telco makes 10,000 Indica allotments MUMBAI, Feb 10 (PTI) — Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Ltd (Telco) has completed the process of random number generation of the first 10,000 priority allotments of “Indica” cars, after the first round of bookings closed on January 23, 1999. Communication regarding the successful allottees is being sent separately to customers, dealers and financiers for deliveries of cars scheduled to commence later this week and expected to be completed in the March-April 1999 timeframe, Telco said in a release here today. Applicants who have not figured in the initial phase of 10,000 allotments are being contacted to ascertain their interest in having their bookings retained for the next round of a maximum of 50,000 allotments for which no fresh bookings are being invited. Telco said it would accept responses for the second round till February 20, 1999, at its dealerships subsequent to which priority numbers would be generated in the first week of March 1999. Deliveries for the second round of 50,000 cars are expected to commence in April-May and production was being stepped up to meet demand at the earliest. Indica had received an
overwhelming response with over 1,15,000 bookings being
recorded. |
Maruti 800, Omni to ply as taxis in Delhi NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (UNI) — Gone are the days when ramshackled Ambassador and Fiat taxis used to hog the Delhi roads. With the first four Maruti Omni vans being registered as black and yellow cabs, Delhi roads and the atmosphere in the national capital region is all set to move towards a better tomorrow. The first four Omnis have already started plying on the city streets and many more are expected in the near future. Besides, the State Transport Authority has also approved registration of the Maruti 800 car for use as a black and yellow cab. What’s more, to give it a greener look, Maruti Udyog is providing the cabs in a BI-fuel option of CNG-petrol. The Omni five seater is normally retailed at Rs 1.98 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). However, with the excise duty for taxis being lower by 15 per cent, the effective price becomes Rs 1.76 lakh. A further exemption of 8 per cent in local sales tax and a 4 per cent subsidy in interest rate has been offered by the Delhi Government to 1,652 taxi operators seeking a replacement for their taxis. Besides, Maruti is offering a special incentive which means that the Omni will cost only Rs 1.59 lakh for the replacement buyers. Fitting of the CNG kit involves an additional outlay of about Rs 33,500. A Supreme Court directive in September ordered all commercial vehicles over 15 years old in the Capital to be taken off the road by December 31, 1998. As a result, over 17,500 vehicles were affected of which 1,652 were black and yellow cabs. According to Mr Rohtash
Mal, Chief General Manager (Sales and Marketing) MUL,
Maruti expects a sizeable chunk of the replacement of
these 1,652 taxis to be Omni vans. Along with the petrol
version of the Omni five-seater van, Maruti is
encouraging taxi owners to go in for CNG kits which will
make the vehicle economical to run and extremely
environment friendly. |
Budget at 11
a.m. NEW DELHI, Feb 10 — The Centre today amended the Central Excise Rules, 1944, following its decision to present the annual Budget for 1999-2000 at 11 a.m. instead of the traditional 5 p.m. on February 27. The restrictions which
were applied from 5 p.m. would now apply from 11 a.m. All
other procedures relating to declaration of stock and
clearances on pre-Budget and Budget days will remain the
same. |
No shortage of pulses, says government NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (PTI) —The government today dispelled any fears of a supply shortage in pulses saying the country was set for an all-time record pulse production of 148 lakh tonnes, up from 131 lakh tonnes cultivated last year. According to an assessment made by the National Crop Forecasting Centre (NCFC) under the Ministry of Agriculture, the year 1998-99 is likely to maintain reasonably satisfactory supply scenario as acreage under cultivation is estimated to have gone up by 60,000 hectares to 229.1 lakh hectares over the previous year. The highest production of pulses in the country so far was 143 lakh tonnes in 1991-92, an official release said here. NCFC has attributed the good prospects of pulses this year to favourable climatic conditions in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan which account for nearly 50 per cent of the country’s pulses production. Punjab, Haryana, Orissa
and West Bengal contribute about 6 per cent of the total
production, the release said. |
Commodity
code system on anvil CHANDIGARH, Feb 10 — Sales Tax Department will soon introduce a commodity-based code system to facilitate sales tax collection in Punjab. This was stated by Mr C.L. Bains, Principal Secretary Excise and Taxation, and Mr Sudhir Mittal, Commissioner-Excise and Taxation at an interaction organised by the CII here today. Some of the other measures under consideration of the Sales Tax Department are provision of photograph of the registration certificate, self-assessment of dealers to be accepted without any scrutiny if he declares a 20 per cent increase in tax revenue over the previous year and computerisation of the department. Mr Mittal assured the
Industry that introduction of VAT is on the cards.
Department is working on the draft VAT legislation. |
Indianoil to
rehabilitate villagers CHANDIGARH, Feb 10 — A rehabilitation committee consisting of representatives of Indianoil and the Panipat district administration has been formed to resettle villagers uprooted by the refinery. Villagers’ cooperative societies have been formed and given contracts for low-skilled, temporary jobs worth about Rs 60 lakh, besides eight shops in the refinery township. In a press release here
today, Indian Oil Corporation denied issuing any
statement that one member each from displaced families
would be employed in the refinery and termed press
reports to this effect misleading.
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Management
awards to be given in May JALANDHAR, Feb 10 — The 1998 Management Excellence Awards instituted by the Management and Industrial Development Institute, Jalandhar, and sponsored by Standard Electricals Ltd, will be presented to outstanding organisations, entrepreneurs and professionals during May, 1999. Mr Som Parkash, Deputy
Commissioner, Jalandhar, and Mr Vijay Chopra, Chief
Editor Hind Samachar group of newspapers, have been
appointed Chairman and Co-Chairman , respectively, of the
awards committee. |
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