Sinha moots Fiscal Responsibility Act
NEW DELHI, July 28 — Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today mooted the idea of a Fiscal Responsibility Act to rein in the growing fiscal deficit and prevent the economy from slipping into a possible internal debt trap.

Wheat glut may force price slash
NEW DELHI, July 28 — Wheat prices for open market sale are likely to be slashed to reduce the overflowing buffer stock of the foodgrain, official sources said today.

Group to prop up telecom exports
NEW DELHI, July 28 — The Department of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Commerce and the Electronic and the Computer Software Export Promotion Council have jointly set up a group for boosting exports of indigenous telecom equipment, services and technologies.

18 per cent rise in Bank of Punjab profit
CHANDIGARH, July 28 — Bank of Punjab has registered a growth of 18 per cent in profit before depreciation, tax and provision to Rs 11.22 crores for the first quarter of this financial year.

Russia proposes Re account with RBI
NEW DELHI, July 28 — Russia today proposed setting up of a rupee account with the RBI to utilise rupee-rouble debt for investments in India.

Laggards: ACC, Bata & MRF
Despite registering an increase of 17 per cent in volume of sales, including traded cement, ACC has reported a decline of 17.22 per cent in the current financial year against Rs 8.48 crore last year.

• Better performers

Sinha moots Fiscal Responsibility Act
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, July 28 — Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today mooted the idea of a Fiscal Responsibility Act to rein in the growing fiscal deficit and prevent the economy from slipping into a possible internal debt trap.

“ We are facing a situation today where if we do not wake up we would definitely move towards an internal debt trap”, Mr Sinha said while speaking at a seminar on electoral agenda organised by Assocham here.

Over 40 per cent of the Government’s revenue is are utilised for interest payment “which is going to go up exponentially”.

The Act was necessary for altering the mindset that the government can infinitely go on borrowing, he said adding that his party (BJP) would press for such legislation in Parliament after the elections.

Regretting that fact fiscal reforms is one area where political consensus does not seem to be emerging,the Minister said that maintaining fiscal discipline should be the prime national responsibility of the Government.

“ I am not a fiscal extremist or a fiscal terrorist and neither am I following an IMF mantra”, he said adding that the Government which comes to power will have to set its priority on controlling the fiscal deficit which is having an adverse impact on both State and Union Budgets.

Mr Sinha, however, maintained that political instability has not affected the broad directions of the economic reforms and there appears to be a broad consensus among the political parties.

AICC General Secretary, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, however, differed with Mr Sinha and said that political instability has affected the economic growth process.

“ If there is in-built instability in the composition of the House, can any mechanism bring about stability,” Mr Mukherjee said adding that “ if we cannot bring about political stability , economic progress will get jeopardised”.

Mr Mukherjee said that to achieve and sustain a GDP growth rate of 8 per cent it was necessary to have investment level of 32 per cent.For this purpose it is important to raise the domestic savings levels to match the investment requirements.

The Finance Minister said that though frequent elections could affect the economic development process, trade and industry during the last couple of years has managed to maintain the momentum of growth.

Sinha said it was up to the RBI to decide whether to bring down the interest rates.

“I leave this to the RBI Governor (to decide),” Sinha said when asked whether the Government would consider a cut in the interest rate due to the decline in the inflation rate.

He, however, refrained from commenting on a query whether the government would favour a reduction in the number of Ministries.

The Finance Minister also called building of infrastructure of international standards to accelerate the GDP growth rate.

Senior Janata Dal leader, Jaipal Reddy said that there was a need to evolve methods by which the economic reforms process can be insulated from the frequent changes in the political scenario.

CPM spokesperson Sitaram Yechury called for a ban on corporate funding of elections and said that a corpus could be set up by the Election Commission to which corporates could contribute.

“This( corporate funding) is one single source of anarchy in decision-making and corruption”, Mr Yechury observed.

Wheat glut may force price slash

NEW DELHI, July 28 (PTI) — Wheat prices for open market sale are likely to be slashed to reduce the overflowing buffer stock of the foodgrain, official sources said today.

Several measures are being considered by the Food Ministry which include lowering of offer prices and sale of wheat to all interested parties as against the current stipulation of selling it only to genuine roller flour millers, officials told PTI.

The Food Ministry had earlier allowed the FCI to sell a maximum of 10 lakh tonnes of wheat only to genuine roller flour millers at prices fixed by it.

However, due to the higher prices fixed by the Ministry Rs 690 a quintal in the FCI’s north zone, Rs 747 in south zone, Rs 725 in west zone and Rs 748 in east zone — lifting by millers has been almost negligible, officials said.

“The Ministry is currently contemplating lowering of the earlier fixed prices, besides lifting the ceiling on purchase by a miller,” they said.

Group to prop up telecom exports

NEW DELHI, July 28 (PTI) — The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Ministry of Commerce and the Electronic and the Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) have jointly set up a group for boosting exports of indigenous telecom equipment, services and technologies.

The group called the Focus Action Group (FAG) will evolve a strategy for enhancing exports by way of focussed promotional programmes like exhibitions and delegations in major export potential areas in SAARC, South-East Asia, West Europe, Africa and North America.

India’s telecom and services exports for 1998-99 were estimated at Rs 3,050 crore recording a growth of 5 per cent in rupee terms over the previous year, Mr R.H. Naqvi, Executive Director, ESC said.

While in dollar terms, India’s exports amounted to $ 735 million, an insignificant presence in the worldwide telecom services and the telecom equipment sector accounting for 42 per cent and 8 per cent respectively of the worldwide information and communication technology market estimated at about $ 1,500 billion.

FAG, headed by Vijay Kumar, Advisor (Production) with the Telecom Commission, will have other members representing DoT, Commerce Ministry and the industry, an ESC release said.

The major items of telecommunication exports from the country include pagers, transmission apparatus, telecom modules, terminal devices, rural automatic exchange, telecom software, EPAB, EPAX, intercom, communication connector box, telecom cards and data communication equipment during 1998-99.

One of the main agendas for the focus group will be to interact with the SAARC Secretariat for inclusion of export of telecom items under the aid programme of the Government of India to SAARC and other countries.

18 per cent rise in Bank of Punjab profit
Tribune New Service

CHANDIGARH, July 28 — Bank of Punjab has registered a growth of 18 per cent in profit before depreciation, tax and provision to Rs 11.22 crores for the first quarter of this financial year. The profit after tax surged to Rs 8.02 crore during the present quarter from Rs 7.01 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, registering an increase of 14 per cent.

The overall business of the bank as on June 30 1999 is Rs 2519 crore. The total income of the bank grew by 24 per cent from Rs 52.52 crore to Rs 65.14 crore for the quarter year ending June, 1999.

The bank has plans to exponentially increase its ATM network, including Off Site ATMs, enabling the bank’s customers to access their accounts anywhere in the country.

A tie-up with Mastercard is on the anvil and the bank will be shortly introducing Maestro Debit Cards along with the Cirrus ATM network.

Russia proposes Re account with RBI

NEW DELHI, July 28 (PTI) — Russia today proposed setting up of a rupee account with the RBI to utilise rupee-rouble debt for investments in India.

The offer was made by Russian Federation First Prime Minister Dr Vikto Khristenko at the review meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Government Commission (IRIGC) here.

He asked India to provide concession to rupee trade with Russia on a par with other hard currency exports to increase bilateral trade between the two countries, which fell by 23.3 per cent in 1998-99.

Indian Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who co-chaired the meeting, said New Delhi had already given a draft proposal for using the rupee debt fund for investments.

Laggards: ACC, Bata & MRF

Despite registering an increase of 17 per cent in volume of sales, including traded cement, ACC has reported a decline of 17.22 per cent in the current financial year against Rs 8.48 crore last year.

The decline in the net profit was attributed to stable selling prices which resulted in 6 per cent decrease in price realisation.

Sale of cement increased to 27.03 lakh tonnes from 23.90 lakh tonnes while total income increased to Rs 707.02 crore from Rs 623.87 crore in the first quarter of previous year.

Bata India on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 13.05 crore during the second quarter ended June 30, 1999, against Rs 18.09 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The Board of Directors which met in Calcutta to consider unaudited results announced that the net profit during the first six months came down by 26.80 per cent to Rs 17.34 crore from Rs 23.69 crore.

MRF Limited has registered a 25.8 per cent drop in the net profit during the third quarter ended June 30, 1999, to touch Rs 22.03 crore as against Rs 29.7 crore a year earlier.

The Board of Directors has declared a 30 per cent interim dividend for the year.

Ramco Industries has posted a net profit of Rs 2.31 crore during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal as against Rs 2.19 crore a year earlier.

SKF Bearings turned the corner during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal to record a net profit of Rs 3.4 crore as against a net loss of Rs 10.4 crore in the same period last year. Net sales for the period stood at Rs 88.9 crore as against Rs 83.8 crore a year earlier.

EIH Limited has recorded a 33.33 per cent decline in the net profit during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal. The net profit stood at Rs 12.97 crore as against Rs 19.51 crore a year earlier.

Rhone-Poulenc has registered a 33.7 per cent drop in the net profit during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal to Rs 5.4 crore from Rs 8.15 crore a year earlier. Net sales stood at Rs 55.38 crore as against Rs 48.32 crore in the same period last year while other income was Rs 16 crore from Rs 1.68 crore a year earlier.

BPCL has posted a 25 per cent surge in the net profit during the first quarter of the current fiscal to touch Rs 201.6 crore from Rs 161.1 crore a year earlier.

BHEL has posted a net profit of Rs 16.25 crore in the first quarter of 1999-2000, an increase of 10.6 per cent over the corresponding period last year. The turnover went up by 19.2 per cent to Rs 1227.44 crore in the first three months of the current fiscal from Rs 1029.45 crore.

Madras Cements on Wednesday reported an 8 per cent drop in the first quarter revenues at Rs 135.15 crore from Rs 148.68 crore achieved last year. The company’s post-take profits also slipped by 21 per cent to Rs 15.03 crore for the April-June period from Rs 19.9 crore achieved a year ago.

Clariant India has posted a 15 per cent growth in the net profit at Rs 3.61 crore for the first quarter of this fiscal on sales turnover of Rs 56.2 crore as against Rs 51.2 crore last year. Managing Director P.R. Rastogi ruled out a merger of Clariant with group company Colour-Chem in the near future.

Usha International has increased its net profit by 14.1 per cent to Rs 89 lakh in the first quarter of the current fiscal compared to Rs 78 lakh in the corresponding period last year.

EID Parry on Wednesday reported a 24 per cent increase in revenues at Rs 222 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year.

Usha Beltron Limited’s net profit jumped to Rs 7.79 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year from Rs 4.49 crore during the corresponding period last year. Net sales during the quarter increased to Rs 180.94 crore from Rs 159.38 crore last year while total expenditure stood at Rs 151.32 crore (Rs 129.61 crore).

CMC Limited has recorded a 120.5 per cent jump in the net profit during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal to touch Rs 1.95 crore from Rs 88 lakh a year earlier. — Agencies

Better performers

Swaraj Engines has announced Rs 5.50 per share as interim dividend. For fiscal 1998-99 the company had paid a dividend of 200 per cent.

Profit before tax has grown by 35 per cent, moving to Rs 5.20 crore for the April-June quarter representing a margin of 15.7 per cent (last year 14.1 per cent). Profit after tax grew by 26 per cent at Rs 3.60 crore, representing an EPS of Rs 34.8 (Q1 of last year Rs 27.5).

BSES Limited has recorded a net profit of Rs 87.61 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 1999, as against Rs 78.66 crore a year earlier. Net sales of electrical energy was Rs 470.08 crore while income of erection, procurement and construction contract, computer and international division stood at Rs 193.32 crore.

Navneet Publications has reported a 41 per cent rise in the net profit for April to June as against a profit of Rs 11.1 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The Navneet’s Board has declared a higher interim dividend of 30 per cent compared with the 20 per cent paid last year.

Bullion
Gold Std Rs 3995
Gold 22-Ct Rs 3845
Silver Ready Rs 7800
Silver delivery Rs 7800

Fastener units
LUDHIANA, July 28 (FOC) — The fastener manufacturing units here are up in arms due to a hike in the iron and steel prices by the local steel rolling mills. A number of small units have been closed and some are on the verge of closure.

IT workshop
CHANDIGARH, July 28 (TNS) — The two-day PHDCCI workshop on “Increasing software development productivity” concluded here yesterday. Inaugurated by Mr Ashok Khanna, the workshop emphasised various techniques to be adopted by software project managers. The workshop was attended by project managers, system analysts from private and public enterprises. The key speakers were Mr Piyush Gupta, Mr Rajiv Malhotra, Mrs Simi Hans, Mr J.K. Suri, and Mr S.P. Singh.

SBI facility
CHANDIGARH, July 28 (TNS) — The SBI for the first in northern India, has installed systems at selected branches to enable them access to the Nostro accounts in New York and London. Mr T.S. Bhattacharya, Genera Manager (Commercial banking), said today this facility will provide immediate credit to exporters, NRIs and their relatives.

Avon Cycles
NEW DELHI, July 28 (TNS) — Avon Cycles has been awarded the prestigious “Top Exporter Award” for the second consecutive year in 1999. The Export Promotion Council, Ministry of Commerce, gives the award for excellence in the export performance each year.