Saturday, October 16, 1999
spotlighttoday's calendar
|
B U S I N E S S | Saturday, October 16, 1999 |
| weatherspotlight today's calendar |
|
|
No mid-term taxes to be imposed:
FM NEW DELHI, Oct 15 — Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said no mid-term taxes would be imposed to improve the health of public finances even as he admitted that the country was on the verge of an internal debt trap.
|
|
|
NIIT net profit climbs 32 pc NIIT Ltd on Friday reported a 32 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 143 crore for the year ended September 30, from last year’s figure of Rs 108 crore.
Plan
to study joblessness in Punjab |
|||||||
  |
||||||||
No
mid-term
taxes to be imposed: FM NEW DELHI, Oct 15 — Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said no mid-term taxes would be imposed to improve the health of public finances even as he admitted that the country was on the verge of an internal debt trap. Indicating that some tough measures may be taken, Mr Sinha said that mobilisation of additional resources for strengthening the health of public finances in the country would rather be done by achieving the “ambitious “ disinvestment target of Rs 10,000 crore during the current fiscal year. “It is only after I have exhausted these means that we will think of additional resource mobilisation through extra taxes”,he said while addressing the National Council meeting of the CII. The Finance Minister , however, said the country was on the verge of internal debt trap and there is an urgent need to create awareness about the demerits of living on borrowed money. “ We are on the verge of an internal debt trap as we cannot afford to keep on making interest payments of over Rs 90,000 or Rs 100,000 crore every year”, Mr Sinha added. The Government will try to contain market borrowings within the budgeted level. Expressing the hope that the disinvestment target could be met, he said that an “ innovative, transparent and market friendly” approach would be adopted while making it clear that innovative ways would not mean cross-holdings between different public sector companies. “ I know we have already lost time but I am looking at one or two big suggestions to be placed before the Disinvestment Committee of the Cabinet and the Prime Minister”, Mr Sinha said. Underlining the need for reducing government expenditure to reign in the ballooning fiscal deficit, he said that he would be meeting financial advisers of all departments to discuss how expenditure could be reduced. Regarding revenue generation during the current fiscal, he said that personal income tax, excise and customs collections were close to target. There was , however, some deficit in corporate taxes. “ But September has been good for corporate taxes.The revenue this month has been higher than in the same month last year. If the trend continues we should be close to target by March 2000”, Mr Sinha said. The Finance Minister said that people should be made aware of the direction and sequencing of the second generation reforms. “ A discussion paper on second generation reforms would be placed before Parliament, if possible in the winter session itself”, he said. In this context the Finance Minister said that he has asked officials to list out the impediments which were militating against competition in the country which could act as a ground for national competition policy. Earlier, the CII
President, Mr Rahul Bajaj, presented a 13-point economic
agenda to the Finance Minister. |
NIIT net profit climbs 32 pc NIIT Ltd on Friday reported a 32 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 143 crore for the year ended September 30, from last year’s figure of Rs 108 crore. NIIT’s sales grew by a modest 27 per cent to Rs 581 crore during the period from the previous year’s figure of Rs 458 crore. The company paid a dividend of Rs 4 per share. NIIT’s board, which met here today, said the other income rose to Rs 2.23 crore from last year’s income of Rs 99 lakh. During the last quarter ended September 30, the company reported a 14 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 53.32 crore from Rs 46.54 crore during the last quarter of previous year, NIIT said in a statement here. The interest obligations of the company came down drastically during the period to Rs 80 lakh from last year’s Rs 10.65 crore. Reflecting the average performance for the 12 month period, NIIT’s share prices declined by 7 per cent on the BSE to Rs 2,800. Piramal tie-up The Rs 1,800 crore Piramal Enterprises has entered into a 50:50 joint venture (JV) agreement with BUPA, the UK’s largest health care provider, to provide “one-stop” health facilities in the country. Bupa Piramal Healthcare
Limited, with an equity of Rs 14 crore, envisages setting
up healthcare clinics to provide primary health care and
diagnostic facilities. — PTI |
Kewal Dhillon is Utah trade
counsellor NEW DELHI, Oct 15 — An agro-business leader and Chandigarh-based industrialist, Mr Kewal S Dhillon, was today appointed the first trade counsellor to India for the State of Utah (USA) with his offices located in Chandigarh and Delhi. Mr Dhillon, who is the Chairman of Dhillon Kool Drinks and Beverage Limited, talking to newspersons said: “My goal is to further strengthen business relationship in the key areas of information technology, education, mining and tourism which are priority areas for India and Utah.” “My role will be to provide information about the State of Utah and its policies, investment opportunities and act as a facilitator to promote bilateral investment and trade.” Mr Dhillon, who is Pepsi’s largest franchisee bottler in India, said. Mr Dhillon said that the concept of international business development centre worldwide, which was first initiated by Utah, is an important step. “This office will not only bring the people of Utah and India together but will also help Indian business community in developing strong business relations with 20 other countries where Utah has business development offices. This in turn will help the business community for effective participation in the economy of the next century,” Mr Dhillon said. Mr Dhillon is also a member of the Industrial Advisory Committee to the Punjab Government. Mr Dhillon is among the seven PepsiCo bottlers, worldwide, who were honoured with the “Donald M Kandall Bottler of the Year” award in February, 1999. Mr M.P. Singh, India’s former commercial counsellor in San Francisco said, California has also approved a $ 300,000 fund to set up a trade office in India. There are vast opportunities for cooperation in software technology. There are around 1,700 software companies in Utah, including Intel. With India having an enormous talent, opportunities could be optimally tapped, Mr Dan Mabey, Director of the Utah-based International Business Development Office, said. Besides, Utah has developed a technology whereby any disease in crops could be detected at an early stage through satellite imagery, which could be quite useful to India. Eyeing agricultural opportunities basically, the office in Chandigarh was opened, Mr Dhillon said. Utah also has leading
educational institutions like the University of Utah,
Utah State University and Brigham Young University.
Exchange programmes will be given a fillip in this field,
Mrs Olene Walker, Lt Governor of the State, said. |
Y2K DoT by October end NEW DELHI, Oct 15 — The telecom sector in the country will be Y2K ready by the end of October, the Department of Telecommunications said today. While 2,681 local switching, 386 trunk, 26 transmission systems and other systems like satellite, public data network, intelligent network, network management, telex are Y2K ready, work is in progress in the remaining 103 switching (C-DoT) systems and 55 computer application systems, an official release said. In VSNL, implementation action is under progress in four international gateway exchanges, one telex exchange and eight Internet servers and all other systems are Y2K compliant. The other public sector undertakings MTNL, TCIL, ITI and HTL, the DoT said were Y2K ready. Among the 106 private
telecom operators in operation, 72 have reported Y2K
compliance, the remaining 34 are expected to become Y2K
compliant by October end. The 72 Y2K ready operators
cover basic, Internet, VSAT services and four cellular,
two voice mail, six paging and 19 radio trunking
services. |
Sinha suggests 10 per cent cut YASHWANT Sinha on Friday took the first step to reduce fiscal deficit by directing various Ministries to ensure a strict 10 per cent expenditure cut and gradual phasing out of subsidies. At a meeting with financial advisers, Sinha said the instructions issued in August last to cut non-Plan, non-salary expenditure should now be applied in earnest. Diesel price hike Sinha ruled out any rollback of prices of diesel which were raised by 40 per cent to mobilise over Rs 6,000 crore to offset the burgeoning oil pool deficit. “There is no move to rollback diesel prices,’’ Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of a CII meeting. The country has run out of soft options and the industry will have to put up with hard decisions without which the economy can plunge into an internal debt trap. Cash next day When a farmer goes to bank with a cheque in the Finance Minister’s Hazaribagh constituency, he is told by the manager to come for cash the next day. Such is the state of affairs in the Indian banking, Mr Sinha said at a CII meeting in Delhi while suggesting a blueprint for preparing the banks for globalising their outlook. “I had launched the Kisan Credit Card and I discovered that the bank manager insists upon a deposit of Rs 10,000 for issuing these cards. If he (farmer) had Rs 10,000 why would he need a credit card’’, said the Finance Minister. Life beyond BSE The Finance Minister reminded industrialists that “there is life beyond Bombay Stock Exchange, financial institutions and foreign direct investments. While these are important for the national economy, the economic agenda should include the basic needs for most people like water, roads, electricity, education and hospitals.’’ “There are places which do not even have primary schools.’’ Mr Sinha felt sorry that being a Finance Minister he could not even discuss economic issues like the BSE index and capital adequacy ratio with voters. For them these things have no meaning as long as they live in poverty. The message is clear
that the Government would not be merely concerned with
neon signs, capital markets and FIIs. — UNI,
PTI |
Plan to study joblessness in
Punjab NEW DELHI, Oct 15 — On the request of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Planning Commission has decided to get a study done on the problems of agricultural economy and unemployment in the border districts of Punjab. The study will suggest remedial measures to solve the problem of unemployment and boost agricultural economy in border districts of Punjab, a Home Ministry release said today. The study has been
ordered because Punjab has 554 km of international border
with Pakistan in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and
Ferozepur which have faced the brunt of two wars with
Pakistan and also decade-long trans-border militancy. |
| H |
|
||
| Bullion Gold Std Rs 4850 Gold 22-Ct Rs 4700 Silver Ready Rs 8240 Silver delivery Rs 8290 Forex Missile exports Golden Classic |
 |
 |
| 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 | |
