Saturday, July 31, 1999
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B U S I N E S S | Saturday, July 31, 1999 |
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Govt to keep status quo
on telecom policy Sahara plans flights to Amritsar,
Chandigarh |
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FM: why reservations for
SMEs? CTV prices set to fall ICICI net inches up ITC, Excel & Indian Shaving
put up good show |
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Govt to keep status quo on telecom policy NEW DELHI, July 30 (PTI) — The Union Government today undertook before the Delhi High Court to maintain status quo on the new telecom package till August 3, even as the court sought details of the estimated revenue earning under the controversial scheme. The Attorney-General (AG), Mr Soli J. Sorabjee, assured a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S.N. Variava and Mr Justice S.K. Mahajan during the hearing on a public interest litigation seeking to quash the new telecom package that no fresh agreements or commitments would be made in regard to the package till then. The petitioner, the Delhi Science Forum, sought stay of the new package, but the court did not pass any restraint order. The Bench asked the Union Government to file an affidavit answering "whether under the new policy the government would earn the same amount of money they would have got under the existing licence fee regime". The package allowing private telecom operators to shift from fixed licence fee regime to revenue sharing arrangement from August 1 had drawn flak from the Opposition, which alleged that it was the "scam of the millennium". Petitioner's counsel Indira Jaisingh contended that "the government is giving away the public money to the private telecom operators". Ms Jaisingh challenged the government's contention that telecom companies were turning sick and the new package was aimed at making these firms financially viable. Meanwhile, hearing on the petition filed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was deferred by a special Bench comprising Mr Justice Arun Kumar and Mr Justice Manmohan Sarin for August 13. TRAI has sought to
replace the private telecom operators as appellant in the
case before the Division Bench and pleaded for
pronouncement of the order reserved by it on a bunch of
appeals by the Cellular Operators Association of India
(COAI) and other telecom operators.
Telecom issue: BJP agrees to
debate NEW DELHI, July 30 — Tired of daily grilling of the Vajpayee government on the Telecom issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party today invited the Congress and the CPM for an open debate on the allegations and charges of corruption in the implementation of the New Telecom Policy (NTP). Briefing reporters, the BJP spokesperson,Mrs Sushma Swaraj, said that since the Congress and the CPM has been raising the telecom issue for the past three days, it would be better if they came for an open debate under the full public glare so that the issue was settled. Giving replies to the opposition’s allegation of corruption in the NTP, Mrs Swaraj said that every decision has been taken with objectivity, transparency and taking the opposition’s view into account The government has not
violated the Election Commission code of conduct, Mrs
Swaraj asserted saying that the NTP was implemented on
July 6 while the code of conduct came into effect on July
11. |
ITC, Excel & Indian Shaving put up good show ITC Limited’s net profit in the first quarter of 1999-2000 has grown by 14 per cent at Rs 193.58 crore over the same period in the previous year. The profit before tax of the company stood at Rs 299.97 crore, registering an increase of 20 per cent over last year. Indian Shaving Products on Friday reported a 43 per cent rise in the net profit at Rs 4.69 crore in its second quarter ended June 30, 1999. The total sales of the company went up by Rs 20 per cent to Rs 58.04 crore during the second quarter over Rs 48.34 crore in the corresponding period last year. MTNL has recorded an 8.3 per cent growth in the net profit during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal to touch Rs 325 crore from Rs 299.89 crore a year earlier. Income from services during the quarter was 1.3 per cent lower at Rs 1,263.67 crore as against Rs 1,280.99 crore in the same period last year. Gujarat State Fertilisers Corporation has recorded a 57 per cent drop in the net profit during the first quarter of 1999-2000 to touch Rs 4.12 crore as against Rs 9.59 crore a year earlier. VSNL on Friday announced a 14.07 per cent increase in the first quarter’s net profit ended June 30 at Rs 355.1 crore as against Rs 311.3 crore last year. VSNL’s total income increased to Rs 1,780.9 crore compared to Rs 1,690.8 crore during the corresponding period last year posting a growth of 5.33 per cent. Excel Industries has recorded a net profit of Rs 8.49 crore during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal as against Rs 5.24 crore a year earlier. Net sales stood at Rs 122.68 crore from Rs 101.61 crore last year while other income was Rs 1.30 crore as against Rs 1.67 crore. Century Textiles and Industries has registered a higher net loss of Rs 13.9 crore in the first quarter of 1999-2000 as against Rs 13.8 crore a year ago. Its income from operations stood at Rs 455.20 crore as over Rs 502.44 crore in the same period last year. Jindal Strips has posted a growth in the net profit during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal to Rs 8.38 crore as against Rs 6.35 crore a year ago. The Board of Directors has recommended a 30 per cent dividend. Gujarat Gas has recorded a 9 per cent drop in net profit during April-June 1999 despite a 22 per cent growth in sales. The net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 8.85 crore from Rs 9.74 crore a year earlier while sales in the three-month period rose to Rs 51.61 crore from Rs 42.19 crore. IPCL has recorded a net profit of Rs 31.89 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 1999. This was lower from the net profit of Rs 56.67 crore in the previous quarter. United Phosphorus has posted a net profit of Rs 5.87 crore in the first quarter of 1999-2000 as against Rs 5.62 crore a year earlier. HMT Limited Has reported a 44 per cent higher net loss during the first quarter of 1999-2000 at Rs 68.87 crore as against Rs 47.79 crore a year earlier JK Industries reported a 100 per cent rise in its net profit during the first quarter of the current fiscal of Rs 9.55 crore, as against Rs 4.76 crore during same period last year. Hind Lever Chemicals Ltd has reported a 163.5 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 13.7 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 1999, from Rs 5.2 crore in the corresponding period last year. Hindustan Motors has posted a net loss of Rs 23.10 crore during the first quarter of the 1999-2000 fiscal as compared with a loss of Rs 3.08 crore in the same period last year. Kinetic Motor Company has recorded a turnaround in the first quarter of the current fiscal recording a net profit of Rs 1.23 crore as against a net loss of Rs 5.93 crore a year ago. Titan Industries loss rose from Rs 0.92 crore to Rs 5.18 crore in the first quarter of this year despite a 15 per cent growth in the turnover. GE Shipping has recorded a 40.7 per cent decline in the net profit at Rs 20.01 crore in the first quarter of 1999-2000 from Rs 33.77 crore a year earlier. Indian Hotels has registered a 7.7 per cent drop in the net profit in the first quarter of 1999-2000 to touch Rs 22.22 crore as against Rs 24.06 crore a year ago. GNFC has posted a 45.8 per cent decline in the net profit at Rs 5.34 crore during the first quarter of 1999-2000 as against Rs 9.86 crore a year earlier. India Oil Corporation on Friday announced a 9.6 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 646.77 crore on a turnover of Rs 19,478.41 crore during the first quarter of the current fiscal. Cheminor Drugs recorded a 31 per cent increase in the turnover for the quarter ending June 30. Sales for the first quarter touched Rs 5502.5 lakh form Rs 4194.5 lakh in first quarter 1998-99. The company’s profit after tax increased by 423 per cent to Rs 660 lakh. Container Corporation posted a 23 per cent growth in the net profit at 39.80 crore during the first quarter of this fiscal compared to Rs 32.34 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year. Ceat Ltd’s net profit has increased by 58.6 per cent to Rs 3.98 crore during April-June 1999 compared to Rs 2.55 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Glaxo India reported a 5.1 per cent increase in the net profit at Rs 27.83 crore for the half year ended June 30, 1999, compared to the corresponding period last year. Colour-Chem’s profit after tax for the first quarter ended June 30 has shown an increase of 20 per cent over the comparable period of the previous year. Burroughs Wellcome India Ltd, has reported a decline in the income by 9.82 per cent but an increase in the net profit by more than 35 per cent in the first half of this year. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) on Friday announced a bonus share issue at the rate of 1:2, raising the paid-up capital of the company from Rs 225.59 crore as on June 30, 1999, to Rs 676.77 crore. The company had reserves to the tune of Rs 4,811.62 crore as on June 30. After the bonus issue, this stands reduced to Rs 4,360.44 crore. LML Limited recorded a 33.4 per cent drop in net profit during the first quarter of 1999-2000 to touch Rs 4.05 crore as against Rs 6.09 crore a year ago. The deop was mainly due to ongoing recession in the scooter market. Gross profit for the period stood at Rs 16.58 crore, down 23.6 per cent from Rs 21.73 crore in the same period last year. —
Agencies |
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MUMBAI, July 30 (PTI) — ICICI Ltd’s net profit in the quarter ended June 30, 1999, increased marginally to Rs 262 crore from Rs 258 crore last year, despite enhanced provisions and write-offs of Rs 113 crore against Rs 78 crore for April-June 1998. During the quarter ICICI’s approvals aggregated Rs 12,561 crore against Rs 8,922 crore in the previous year’s first quarter. In the same period, ICICI’s disbursals were up by 5 per cent to Rs 4,422 crore.. IDBI’s net profit
dipped by 19.39 per cent to Rs 291 crore in the 1999-2000
first quarter, from Rs 361 crore in the corresponding
period last year. IDBI’s income from operations was
marginally up to Rs 1,861 crore from Rs 1,811 crore
during April-June, 1998, but interest expenses increased
by 19.87 per cent to Rs 1,556 crore from Rs 1,298 crore
in 1998-99 first quarter.
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FM: why
reservations for SMEs? NEW DELHI, July 30 — Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha today called for a relook at the reservation policy for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) while urging these units to evolve a joint marketing strategy to face the challenges from multinational corporations. “The reservation (for SMEs) should be debated. I am not saying they should end today. We have to analyse the impact of the reservation on the viability of the SMEs”, Mr Sinha said while inaugurating a seminar organised by the PHDCCI here. The minister called upon the trade and industry associations to evolve a joint marketing approach and establish linkages from the “village heart to the international market”. “Though there can be decentralised production, marketing should be undertaken jointly”, he said adding that it was essential for SMEs to undertake a marketing strategy on “mega scale” to improve their sales. He cautioned that unless concrete steps were taken to provide technology and finance for this sector, SMEs of the country may not be able to face the challenges of multinational corporation. Regarding financing of these units, Mr Sinha urged the public sector banks to go to the doorstep of these enterprises to provide loans. “There has to be a fundamental shift in the functioning of the banks”, he said adding that “the banks should go to the needy instead of waiting for the needy to come to the banks “. Mr Sinha said that he has asked the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to evolve a supervisory system so that the headquarters are kept informed about the operations at the branch level. Loan approvals for these industries had come down during 1997-98 as compared to the previous years. He expressed concern over the growing number of sick SME units. The banks should have a system where the branch manager is going out and meeting the people to make an assessment about the viability of small scale units, he said. Morever, it was important to emphasise on micro-banking which has been extremely successful in many cases through self help groups. “ Even in areas of complete illiteracy, there has been cases of 100 per cent recovery “, he pointed out. On credit insurance, which was proposed in this year’s Budget, Mr Sinha said that this should not mean that the losses of the banks becomes a burden of the Government. Mr Ashok Khanna,
President, PHDCCI, urged the Finance Minister to
constitute a high-powered task force to examine how to
enhance availability of finance to the SMEs. The task
force be directed to give its recommendations within two
months, he added. |
Some offices are ‘meaningless’ NEW DELHI, July 30 (UNI) — Some of the offices of the Industry Ministry are meaningless as their creativity is nil, according to Industry Minister Sikander Bakht. The minister was addressing the 10th annual convention of the Institute of Directors here yesterday. Holding that lack of innovation and competitiveness was responsible for the growing sickness of public sector enterprises, the minister said these undertakings with a total investment of Rs 250,000 crore had failed to bring in the desired results. Majority of these enterprises had become sick while their functionaries continued to draw their salary, he said. If the public sector units had yielded at least 10 per cent returns on the cumulative investments, the country’s economic development would have been on a much sounder footing,he said. The Industry Minister lamented that the Government’s efforts to build a patent office at a cost of Rs 75 crore in Delhi were blocked through a public interest litigation in the Calcutta High Court by some vested interests. The minister told the Directors to understand the new rules governing competition which has induced changes in production strategies. Professionals have a
great role to play in bringing about innovations,
improvements and competitiveness. |
Sahara
plans flights to Amritsar, Chandigarh NEW DELHI, July 30 — Sahara Airlines is launching a new company, Sahara Connect, which will operate flights to 35 destinations, including Delhi-Amritsar and Delhi-Chandigarh in October-November, 1999. Mr Kapil Kaul, General Manager of the airline, said that twelve 30-seater turboprop “Embraer 120” aircraft are being inducted which will operate 85 flights daily to 35 destinations, including Amritsar and Chandigarh. The proposed Punjab flights will be convenient for international travellers, bringing them to Palam well in time for checking in to the earliest west-bound flights. The flight will leave
Chandigarh at 6.55 p.m. and reach Delhi at 7.40 p.m. The
departure from Amritsar will be at 4.15 p.m. The proposed
fare on the Chandigarh-Delhi sector will be Rs 2,010 and
Amritsar-Delhi, Rs 2,825. |
CTV prices
set to fall CHANDIGARH, July 30 — The Baron group is now set to trigger a price war in the colour television segment by offering 21-inch sets at Rs 5,000 and 29-inch sets at Rs 12000-15000 per piece. After Akai (now handled by Videocon), Aiwa and Hitachi, the Baron group is bringing in TCL, one of the top three Chinese colour television brands into the Indian market. A joint venture with the Chinese company TCL Ltd is in the offing. The TCL television will be targeted at the lowest end of the CTV market. Meanwhile, Aiwa and Baron have decided to jointly set up an audio and TV factory in India. The factory will have
the capacity to manufacture 1.2 million TV sets, 0.5
million Hi-Fi systems, and 0.5 million general audio
products. Technical know-how for the factory is being
provided by Aiwa. |
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