Sunday, October 10, 1999
spotlighttoday's calendar
|
B U S I N E S S | Sunday, October 10, 1999 |
| weatherspotlight today's calendar |
|
|
C-D ratio of public
sector banks less than average
Moot ways to end graft, CAs urged |
 |
|
|
11.21 lakh tonnes paddy procured NEW DELHI, Oct 9 — Food Corporation of India has so far procured 11.21 lakh tonnes out of the total purchase of 40.33 lakh tonnes of paddy in Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu in the current kharif marketing season 1999-2000. Verma
panel selects SBP as best bank Pilkington to launch sunglasses in
India Discourage hoarding of knowledge All in the family and still good |
|||||
 |
||||||
C-D ratio of public sector banks less than average MUMBAI, Oct 9 (PTI) — The credit-deposit (C-D) ratio of public sector banks and regional rural banks (RRBs) worked out to much less than the all-India average of 54.1 per cent as on June 25, 1999, according to RBI. The ratios were much lower for nationalised banks at 48.3 per cent and 42.9 per cent for RRBs but it was relatively high for foreign banks (67 per cent), SBI and its associates (64.7) and other scheduled commercial banks (55.4) Population group-wise, metropolitan centres had the highest C-D ratio of 75.2 per cent followed by urban centres (41.2 per cent), rural centres (40) and semi-urban centres (33.5), RBI said in its “Banking Statistics: Quarterly Handout — June 1999”. The top hundred centres, arranged according to size of deposits, accounted for 59 per cent of the total deposits and when arranged according to the size of bank credit, constituted 73.6 per cent of the total bank credit. Nationalised banks as a group have contributed 54.4 per cent of the aggregate deposits while the SBI and associates accounted for another 24.8 per cent, the report said adding, the shares were 10.8 per cent for other scheduled commercial banks, 6.3 per cent for foreign banks and 3.7 per cent for RRBs. On gross bank credit, the report stated that nationalised banks accounted for a share of 48.5 per cent of the total bank credit, while SBI and its associates claimed a share of 29.7 per cent. Other scheduled commercial banks, foreign banks and RRBs followed with shares of 11.1 per cent, 7.8 per cent and 3.0 per cent, respectively, it added. Among the States/Union Territory, the annual (point to point) growth rate of deposits was highest in Sikkim (31.2 per cent) followed by Lakshadweep (26.9), Dadra & Nagar Haveli (25.1), Mizoram (22.8), Goa (20.9) and Pondicherry (20.7). The annual (point to point) growth rate of bank credit was highest in Jammu and Kashmir (44.9 per cent) followed by Chandigarh (39.4), Lakshadweep (31.3), Mizoram and Dadra & Nagar Haveli (29.5 each), Arunachal Pradesh (22.5) and Himachal Pradesh (22.2). Six states namely Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat together accounted for a total share of 59.7 per cent of aggregate deposits, the RBI report said. Similarly, the six
states namely Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal together accounted for
a total share of 69.2 per cent of gross bank credit, it
said adding, Maharashtra alone contributed 18.8 per cent
of total bank deposits and 25.2 per cent of total credit. MUMBAI, Oct 9 (UNI) — Private sector Times Bank today registered an impressive 61 per cent jump in net profit to touch Rs 9.5 crore the first half of financial year 1999-2000 from Rs 12.1 crore a year ago. The Bank’s total income in the first half rose by 24 per cent to Rs 194 crore. Total deposits of banks as on September 30 was Rs 2879 crore, up 25 per cent from total deposits a year ago. Total loans and advances extended by the bank stood at Rs 1,538 crore, 51 per cent higher than loans and advances a year earlier. With this issue, equity
capital of the bank has increased to Rs 135 crore from Rs
100 crore earlier. |
Aircraft to take precautions on December 31 night NEW DELHI, Oct 9 (PTI) — Aircraft on international routes would fly above 12,000 feet and those in the domestic sector below that level on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 as per international guidelines to avoid Y2K problems. Specific routes had been charted out for international and domestic travel during that period as per the Asia-Pacific Regional Plan, Civil Aviation Secretary P.V. Jayakrishnan said. Stating that the Indian civil aviation sector had become Y2K compliant, he said while Y2K monitoring and control systems would be activated at 1 p.m. on December 31, a contingency plan chalked out by the Ministry and concerned departments would be activated on 9.30 p.m. the same night. The Indian civil aviation authorities have also taken steps to account for the leap year problem of February 29, 2000, Jayakrishnan, accompanied by Director General Civil Aviation H.S. Khola and Airports Authority of India Chairman D.V. Gupta, said at a presentation here. The volume of air traffic within and over India was very major and about 1200 flights, half of them overflying India, were handled on a daily basis. The rest carried an passenger load of 70,000 every day. To a question about Pakistan deciding to stop all flights at 6 p.m. on December 31, Jayakrishnan said “we have no such plans at this point of time. We are very confident of keeping aircraft on air during that period.” “All critical systems, including communication, landing, navigation, surveillance, security, flight management and reservations, have been assessed and made compliant,” Khola said. He said the civil aviation sector was now awaiting external audit by International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and other bodies. Replying to questions,
Jayakrishnan said international bookings for December
end-January beginning so far has been “much
less” than in the past as this was a peak holiday
season. |
11.21 lakh tonnes paddy procured NEW DELHI, Oct 9 (PTI) — Food Corporation of India (FCI) has so far procured 11.21 lakh tonnes out of the total purchase of 40.33 lakh tonnes of paddy in Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu in the current kharif marketing season 1999-2000. The procurement during the corresponding period, last year, was of the order of 12.41 lakh tonnes. The farmers in Punjab and Haryana are getting the advantage of the scheme of Minimum Support Price (MSP) by selling their paddy in the mandis, says a FCI release adding the staff and officers involved in the procurement operations have been advised to strictly follow the specifications issued by the Centre. The farmers have also
been requested to co-operate in selling their paddy in
mandis after proper drying and cleaning.
|
Pilkington to launch sunglasses in
India NEW DELHI, Oct 9 — Pilkington Special Glasses Limited (PSGL) has set its eyes on the Indian sunglasses market and is soon going to launch high-quality branded glasses in the country. PSGL, a division of the £ 3 billion Pilkington Group has drawn out an extensive plan for making inroads into the Indian market starting with the launch of UV 415 brand of sunglasses in the market. Speaking to The Tribune, Business Line Manager of PSGL, Mr Brian McDermott said that the strategy is to create a high level of demand for both prescription and protective lenses. “PSGL has created a market base in India with traditional glasses and more recently photocromics. However, even though the company has been present in India since last 40 years,there appears to be not much awareness about the products”, Mr McDermott said. Mr McDermott said that during the last 18 months there has been major changes in the company’s operations in India and the Country could eventually serve as a major export base for PSGL for South Asia, Africa and the Middle-East. The company is, however,
not putting in place a full sales network and amount of
money envisioned for investment in India has not yet been
finalised. “We are going to depend on existing
distribution network”, Mr McDermott said adding the
network will primarily be operated by the traders. |
Verma
panel selects SBP as best bank PATIALA, Oct 9 — State Bank of Patiala has emerged as one of the two best banks in the public sector banking industry which satisfy all the seven efficiency criteria laid down by the “Working Group on restructuring weak public sector banks”, appointed by Government of India. The working group, headed by the former Chairman of SBI, M.S. Verma, selected the following seven parameters to judge weakness/strength — capital adequacy ratio (CAR), coverage ratio, return on assets (ROA), net interest margin, ratio of operating profit to average working funds, ratio of cost to income and ratio of staff cost to net interest income plus all other income. These parameters indicate solvency, earning capacity and profitability of banks. “A comparative position of 27 public sector banks reveals that only two banks one of which is State Bank of Patiala satisfied all these criteria and had emerged as best banks in the country”. The bank has planned to
computerise 50 more branches during the year and have
fixed a target to taking the number of fully computerised
branches to 135 by March, 2000. The bank computer system
are all Y2K compliant. |
Moot ways to end graft, CAs urged PATIALA, Oct 9 — The Chartered Accountants must devise ways and means to contain the epidemic of corruption in the Indian society” said. Mr S.P. Chhajed, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) while inaugurating the Patiala Branch of the ICAI here today. The chief guest of the function, Mr A.K. Batra, Managing Director of the State Bank of Patiala, called upon the Accountants to act as the catalyst of economic change under the ambit of ICAI. Mr B.M. Singh, Commissioner Income Tax said that the new branch will open new vistas for the members to upgrade their knowledge and skills to face the challenges of globalisation and liberalisation. Mr Navdeep Singh
Chaudhary, Chairman of the local branch of the ICAI
exhorted its members to introduce greater transparency
and accountability in financial accounting and reporting
systems to meet the growing needs of the new world
economic order. |
Discourage
hoarding of knowledge EVALUATING emerging technologies is a tricky business. There is no yardstick to track those which will succeed and those which won’t. This is particularly true for information technology (IT) and R&D organisations which are basically knowledge organisations. Emerging technologies after their technology trigger phase go through a set pattern of pack of inflated expectations, trough of disillusionment, slope of enlightenment and finally plateau of productivity. These phases are extremely useful and informative for tracking those emerging technologies that will make it and those that will not, and also equally importantly, the approximate time frames for their evolution. Knowledge of work force who provide the necessary input in the evolution process in a key parameter world over because of inherent challenges being posed to the HR functions. Powers in the HR functions in the corporate world include “Position power” and ‘Knowledge power”. Although the HR manager has ‘position power’ it sometimes gets threatened by ‘knowledge power’. Consider the situation, when a scientist working on a crucial formulation in a pharmaceutical company suddenly decides to abdicate and walks away with his years of professional knowledge acquired during the period and lying with him and most of which the said company even might not have used so far, but could possibly have used it in the near future? The organisation obviously has been duped and put to a loss. In fact these are the characteristics of knowledge organisations, besides their employees are highly educated or experienced and they tend to be very competent and are highly ambitious. Knowledge organisations are always learning and as such their employees always want to learn something new. The employees work with leading edge technologies and are constantly in the process of upgrading their competencies. The proper HR strategy of the 21st century to manage such eventualities coupled with the profile of knowledge workers should be to advance the skills and expertise at knowledge creation as a distinctive way to innovate, capture, store and leverage the employees knowledge with the following HR functions: — Assume more of a strategic role than an operational role by aligning the various HR processes with the business strategy. — HR functions be positioned in a manner which would discharge the strategic role effectively. — Invest in people i.e., work more towards attracting, retaining and motivating the best talented people with a view to enhance the intellectual capital which would ultimately ameliorate the competitive position of the organisation. — Undertake a “Culture Building Role” which must touch every single person everyday in the organisation. — Expose employees to challenges to keep the fire burning. — Shift gears from controlling to liberating the potential energy of employees, i.e., give far greater responsibilities. — Function as an enabler and a change agent to facilitate the transformation of the organisation from mechanistic, bureaucratic mode to an organic, vibrant and centreless mode. — Encourage credibility and innovation through boundryless behaviour. — Create ‘learning centres’ and encourage, ‘knowledge sharing’. — Publicly recognise the employees for dissemination of knowledge. — Discourage hoarding of knowledge and hiding of information. — The compensation policies should be so designed that even the knowledge workers may get paid more than their superiors. — Focus to attract and retain highest level of professional intellect. — Make the work environment friendly and the office a fun place to be in. — Training efforts be focused on self motivated creativity, intellectual stimulation and career growth of employees. — Provide international exposure. — Last but not the
least, right recruitment policies should be critical to
the survival of knowledge organisations. |
All in the family and still good NEW DELHI, Oct 9 (UNI) — Family-run companies in India with clear focus have created more wealth and better performers amongst them, and have excelled even over the MNCs, according to Booz Allen and Hamilton (BAH). According to Dr Shumeet Banerji, Vice-President, BAH, in the Indian context family run businesses are very relevant and the dynamism shown by these entities are similar to that of comparable set-ups world over. Yet, he observed that the promoter model has to erase the value discount often expressed in the media and thrive over generations. Many concerns that are expressed over family run businesses in the media are ill founded. Based on an analysis made on a sample of 350 companies about their average market capitalisation over the period 1996-1999, Dr Banerji said that the growth in market capitalisation of promoter companies was 14 per cent as against 34 per cent by MNCs. The growth for the professionally led companies was only 1 per cent and that of PSUs (-) 12 per cent. This, he said, disproves the widely held paradigm about the doubts cast on promoters about their inability to add value and the perception that the role of promoters in a developed economy is much smaller. Among the promoter company, the empirical evidence indicates that entrepreneurs do better than inheritors. The reasons for the lacklustre performance of inheritors as compared to the first generation entrepreneurs could be the old rules in which the inheritors operate. These enterprises are asset focused, diversification centric and were the product of licence raj. They do not have the right to exit because of the labour Laws. The companies which are
creating values in the new paradigm are more focused,
knowledge based and have core capabilities. The old rules
are based on market imperfections, under developed
distribution networks, variable ethical standards, under
developed consumer protection mechanisms and have little
protection for minority shareholders. These imperfections
in the market were characterised by lack of skilled
labour and management of talent. The communication
infrastructure was inadequate so also discretion in
applications of rules. Lucrative business opportunities
were only to those who have access to capital and have
developed superior deal making capabilities. |
Q: Could you please amplify the following points in connection with the filing of income tax return under one: Six scheme for the financial year 1999-2000:- (i) The area of the residential house for Jalandhar City specified for individual and HUF. (ii) Whether the return is required to be filed if the house is owned by one’s wife. — Tara Singh, Jalandhar City Ans: The area of the residential house for Jalandhar City specified for individual and Hindu undivided family is 1100 sq.ft. Similarly, the occupancy of floor area of 175 sq.ft. or more in respect of immovable property used for commercial purposes is the limit for Jalandhar City. If the house is owned by the wife then it is treated that the economic criterion is fulfilled by the wife in which case the Income tax return will be filed not by the husband but by the wife. However, it is suggested to you that if you are having taxable income whether or not you fall under the economic criteria you must file income-tax return regularly to avoid any problem at a later stage. Q: I am a retired permanent government servant. I am a senior citizen of age 69 years. Kindly let me know my income tax liability if any on my total income of Rs 1,50,000 i.e. Rs 65,000 from pension and Rs 85,000 from house property for the year 1997-98 assessment year 1998-99. In reply to a question in this column you have mentioned that ¼th of the annual value (rent received-house tax = annual value) towards repair. How much deduction for repairs for A.Y. 1998-99. — Inder Jit Singh, Jalandhar Ans: From your gross total income of Rs 1,50,000 you will be eligible to standard deduction @ 331/3 rd of your income arising from pension. In respect of income from house property you will also get deduction equal to ¼th of the annual value on account of repair and collection charges. This deduction is available to you irrespective of the fact whether you spend the money on repairs or not. The deduction on account of repair for the assessment year 1998-99 was 1/5 th of the annual value. You are a senior citizen, hence, you will also be eligible for tax rebate u/s 88B of the Income Tax Act, 1961. This tax rebate will be available from the total tax payable by you. The maximum amount of tax rebate permissible would be Rs 10,000. On the facts stated by you, you will not be liable to make any income tax on your income. Q: I am a Punjab government employee. I have purchased a plot from PUDA Punjab for which I am paying Rs 50,000 plus interest yearly. My question is that can I get any relief in my income tax for the above amount. Secondly, Punjab government has a rule to advance 50 per cent of entitled house building advance for purchase of plot. If I get this advance for payment of the remaining instalments of plot can I get any relief from my income-tax. — Malkeet Singh, Ludhiana Ans: As you are making the payment of interest etc. for the plot you will not be eligible to claim any tax benefit at all. If, however, the loan is taken for construction of a house, then once the house is completed, you will get tax deduction on account of interest or loan u/s 24 of the Income Tax Act. Similarly, you will also get the tax rebate u/s 88 for repayment of the principal amount but if the payment is only for plot, no tax benefit or deduction is permissible. Q: I am a bank employee. I underwent open heart surgery at Tagore Heart Care Centre, Jalandhar. I paid Rs 1,50,000 as medical expenses. Rs 70,000 has been reimbursed to me by my bank. Please let me know that I have to pay Income Tax on the amount which was reimbursed (Rs 70,000) to me by my bank or not. — G.S. Narula, Amritsar Ans: If
the hospital to whom the payment has been made is
recognised in income-tax then no amount will be treated
as perquisite. In case it is not recognised entire
reimbursement received by you from your employer will be
treated as a perquisite. Apparently on the facts stated
by you assuming the heart centre where you got your
treatment is a recognised institution for Income tax
purposes then also the payment for the same should have
been made by your employer because you have been made the
payment and got the reimbursement to the extent of Rs
70,000 from your employer which will be liable to income
tax. Please remember the maximum deduction or exemption
which is allowed for reimbursement of medical expenditure
is to the tune of Rs 15,000 P.A. However, if the payments
are made directly by the employer to the recognised
hospital, etc. then it is not treated as the perquisite. |
THE recent Supreme Court judgement holding LIC liable for the fault of its “agent” in not paying the premium under the salary savings scheme has once again given the nominees of insurance policies under this scheme the right to knock at the doors of the consumer court for relief.In a judgement of far-reaching import, Justice Saghir Ahmad and Justice D.P. Wadhwa on September 28 directed LIC to pay the widow, Ms Basanti Devi, the insurance amount of Rs 50,000 along with 15 per cent interest and Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking Rs 25,000 towards the cost of the proceedings. (Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking vs Basanti Devi and another) Ms Basanti Devi husband, Mr Bhim Singh had taken an insurance policy under the salary savings scheme of LIC, Under the scheme, the employer deducts from the salary of the employee every month, the premium payable towards his/her insurance policy and remits it to the Corporation. The Corporation does not send the policy holder any notice of premium due nor any receipt for premium received. It only sends a demand invoice to the employer, who pays through one consolidated cheque the premia of all employees coming under the scheme. In this case, Mr Bhim Singh’s employer, DESU, had deducted regularly, the premium amount from Mr Bhim Singh’s salary, but not passed it on to LIC, resulting in lapsing of the policy. Following Mr Bhim Singh’s death, when his widow claimed the insured amount, LIC promptly repudiated it. The consumer courts in this case held that LIC could not be faulted for repudiating a claim on a lapsed policy. But DESU was liable as it had deducted the premium amount from the salary and failed to transfer it to LIC. DESU was therefore asked to pay the insured amount to the widow. DESU appealed against this decision. In the meanwhile in a similar case (State of Orissa vs Divisional Manager, LIC) where the Orissa Government as an employer had failed to remit the premium under the scheme to LIC, the National Commission had directed the State Government to pay the insured amount of Rs 1 lakh to the nominee. However, the Supreme Court set aside this order on the ground that firstly, the service provided by the Government under the SS scheme was under a “contract of personal service”, involving an employer and an employee. Secondly, the Government was rendering the service of transferring the premium to the LIC free of charge. Since a “contract of personal service” as well as “free service” attract the exclusionary clause of the Consumer Protection Act, the complainant’s claim for damages from the Government was outside the purview of consumer courts, the apex court said. This judgement meant that in the case of Basanti Devi too, DESU would not be liable to pay the widow the insured amount, as directed by the National Commission. Fortunately, the judgement of September 28 has now come to the rescue of many widows and aged parents in similar predicament. The Supreme Court, which examined the SS scheme in detail, concluded that DESU, as an employer who had undertaken to pay the premium of the employees, was acting as an agent of LIC as defined in Section 182 of the Contract Act. Under the scheme, there was no obligation cast on Mr Bhim Singh, the policy holder to pay the premium directly to LIC. On the other hand, under the agreement between LIC and DESU, the latter had implied authority to collect premium from Bhim Singh on behalf of LIC. The Corporation therefore was liable for the failure of its agent, in this case DESU, to pay the premium, the apex court held. The court also distinguished this case from that of Harshad J. Shah vs LIC of India, where the Supreme Court has held that LIC was not liable for the failure of an agent to pay the premium collected from a policy holder. In Harshad Shah’s case, the agent was appointed under Section 42 of the Insurance Act and was governed by the Regulations framed under it, which expressly prohibited him from collecting the premium from policy holders on behalf of LIC. In this case DESU
certainly was not an agent appointed under the Insurance
Act, but as per the SS scheme, DESU had been assigned the
role of collecting the premium from the policy holders
and remitting it to LIC. Thus as far as the employee was
concerned, the employer was the agent of LIC. The apex
court also referred to Hasbury’s Laws of England,
where it was held that under the law governing contracts
of insurance, the premium may be paid by the assured to
the insurers or to an insurance agent acting on behalf of
the insurers and if the agent has authority to receive
the premium, then the payment binds the insurers. The
authority need not be an express authority, it may be
implied from the circumstances. |
Kotak Mahindra KOTAK MAHINDRA is undoubtedly a leading player in the financial services segment in India. But have they gone for an overkill with their financing scheme for the Hughes Software issue? Seems, there is trouble brewing on that front. At least that is what the grapevine reports. Watch this space! Reliance Ind The share price of this Ambani group flagship company is up yet again. Well, as usual it has something to do with whispers, and fairly loud ones at that, suggesting that the half-yearly results will be better than expected. Yawn......haven’t we been through this rigmarole dime a dozen times before too! Nestle The grapevine has it from sources claiming to be in the know of things that Nestle is one of the MNCs planning to start the new millennium with a liberal bonus issue. Well, looking at its healthy reserves position, the same cannot be ruled out as mere speculation. Keep an eye on this counter. NSE With the further
intensification of the race for the numero uno spot
between the NSE and BSE, the grapevine has it that NSE
will soon announce a relaxation of listing norms by
admitting companies engaged in “intellectual
capital” activities. |
Q: Whether Baba Balak Nath Temple Trust is an ‘Industry’ and persons engaged as daily rated labourers are ‘workers’ under I.D. Act? Ans: Himachal Pradesh in the case of State of H.P. v Rakesh Kumar (1999-II-LLJ 304) was expressing the view thus: The contention of the Trust is that it is not an industry as it is involved in religions and spiritual activities and the offerings of the temple are used for development of temple and providing facilities for puja as well as facilities for the stay of the devotees and no profit is made out of these activities. The H.C. observed that in the facts and circumstances stated in the replies of the Trust, it had no hesitation to hold by applying the tests laid down in Bangalore Water Supply case (1978-1.LLJ-349 SC) that the trust is an ‘industry’ being undertaking which is engaged in (i) systematic activity, (ii) organised by co-operation between employer and its employees (iii) for the production and/or distribution of goods and services calculated to satisfy human wants and wishes of devotees and pilgrims visiting the temple of the trust by carrying on activities of construction, development and maintenance of the buildings and properties of the trust including that of the temple, running of langar, canteen, maintenance of mini museum, library, school, colleges etc. It is of no consequence, the HC added, that the langar is being run on no profit, no loss basis as absence of profit motive or gainful objectives in the activities of the undertaking is irrelevant. The true focus is functional and decisive tests is nature of the activity with the special emphasis on the employer-employee relations having semblance of trade or business which test is satisfied by the facts brought on record by the trust to hold it ‘industry’ as defined in S.2(j) of the Act. Consequently,
petitioners who were engaged for such activities being
its daily wage workers are workmen. They were retrenched
without being given notice and compensation as provided
U/s. 25(F). Hence, the HC allowed the petition and held
that those workers who have completed 240 days of working
under the Act are entitled to reliefs as claimed by them.
|
| H |
|
||
| Bullion Gold Std Rs 4760 Gold 22-Ct Rs 4610 Silver Ready Rs 8350 Silver delivery Rs 8335 Shrirama Romesh
Wigh |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
