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| Thursday, January 20, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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How
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| SBP offers stock trading services CHANDIGARH, Jan 19— The State Bank of Patiala today installed a “request transmitting machine” (RTM) in its Sector 8-C branch here to offer demat services. HC
clarifies cell phone judgement Haryana sales tax norms simplified
Agriculture to dampen GDP growth NEW DELHI, Jan 19 (PTI) — Notwithstanding the recent signs of recovery in the Indian economy, reverses in the agricultural sector are expected to drag down GDP to around 5 per cent, a review by ICICI Securities (I-Sec) has said.The manufacturing sector growth has picked up sharply, with the growth momentum being sustained in cement, automobiles, steel and textiles. However, the agricultural sector is expected to drag down the overall GDP growth with large crop losses in Orissa after a devastating cyclone, I-Sec macro economic update for October-December, 1999 has said. Agricultural output is expected to be only marginally higher than last year as drought conditions in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh and cyclone in West Bengal and Orissa have resulted in loss of 2 per cent of the annual rice production, while groundnut output is estimated to be the lowest in a decade, the report said. Industrial sector recovery appears to have strengthened with the index of Industrial Production growing by 6.4 per cent during the first nine months of the fiscal, compared to 4.2 per cent during the corresponding period last year. The manufacturing index grew by 6.9 per cent during this period against 4.3 per cent last year. On tax collection front excise collections grew by 19 per cent while customs grew by 18 per cent, albeit aided by higher oil prices, in the first nine months of the fiscal. Corporation tax and income tax registered 13 per cent and 18 per cent growth respectively. Trade deficit in the first eight months of the fiscal has narrowed to $ 6 billion from $ 6.7 billion in the corresponding period last year. The performance has been boosted by a sharp upturn in exports, which grew by 21.6 per cent in October and 30.7 per cent in November, it said, adding export growth in April-November has been 12.9 per cent, raising hopes of double-digit growth for the full fiscal. Export growth was led by traditional items like gems and jewellery (22.3 per cent growth), textiles (13.6 per cent growth) and ready-made garments (12.2 per cent growth). Imports grew at 7.25 per cent in the first nine months on the back of 53.8 per cent rise in oil imports, whereas non-oil imports declined by 0.53 per cent, the wholly-owned subsidiary of ICICI said. According to I-Sec, FDI
inflows were $ 1,174 million from April to September,
while net FII inflows (including GDRs) were $ 1.7 billion
in the first nine months of the fiscal.currently at an
all-time high level of 35.1 billion.
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How to do IT business? Ask McKinsey MUMBAI, Jan 19 (PTI) — McKinsey & Company has drawn up an ambitious plan to catalyse business building in information technology and e-commerce in the country. “The ‘India Venture 2000’ initiative will bring under one umbrella talent, ideas, coaching, mentorship and financial resources to help Indian entrepreneurs kick-start or grow their business”, Ranjit Pandit, Managing Director of the firm, told reporters here today. Any professional, student or existing entrepreneur who wants to covert his or her ideas into concrete businesses could participate in this initiative which has been designed as a business plan competition model, at no cost by logging on to the website +www.indiaventure2000.com+, he pointed out. The venture, which aims to create 15 to 20 new businesses in the next few months, has set a deadline of June 2000 for registration of participants. Venture capital funds like Chrysalis, ICICI Venture, Infinity and Walden, who had already set aside funds for venture capital funding in India, have given their commitment to support the initiative. An advisory board comprising among others K.V. Kamath (MD, ICICI), Prof C.K. Prahalad (University of Michigan), N.R. Narayana Murthy (MD, Infosys), Sunil Mittal (Chairman, Bharti group), Kanwal Rekhi (big-time angel investor from the USA), L.N. Mittal (of Ispat International) and Rajat Gupta (MD of McKinsey & Co) has been constituted to provide direction to the programme and monitor its progress. McKinsey Director Ashok Alexander in a presentation diagnosed that start-ups in India suffered due to lack of management, aspiration and support as against their Silicon Valley peers where professional approach ensures that start-ups took-off in 18 months. The McKinsey-led initiative will have a comprehensive adjudication process involving shortlisting of participants’ ideas based on their business potential, encouraging them to further develop their ideas, testing them for financial and market potential and finally business readiness, he added. Participants could draw on workshops, study material and get personalised one-to-one coaching through a network of professionals to develop their ideas. IT entrepreneurs,
professionals, managers, financiers and McKinsey
consultants would coach them and provide functional and
entrepreneurial advice. |
Rabi
output to go up NEW DELHI, Jan 19 —
Rabi procurement during 2000-2001 is estimated at 15
million tonnes. This emerged at a meeting of Secretaries
of Food and Civil Supplies of major wheat procuring
States convened here today. The total procurement of
wheat during the rabi marketing season 1999-2000 was
14.13 million tonnes. Only 50 kg gunny bags will be used
for packing wheat. |
SBP offers
stock trading services CHANDIGARH, Jan 19— The State Bank of Patiala today installed a “request transmitting machine” (RTM) in its Sector 8-C branch here to offer demat services. The Managing Director of the bank, Mr A.K. Batra, inaugurated the RTM while Mr B.V. Goud, Managing Director, Stock Holding Corporation of India, was the guest of honour. The RTM will help investors demat their securities as also to buy and sell shares. The bank proposes to install RTMs at its branches in Ludhiana and Patiala, besides Delhi. Mr Gaud said the Stock Holding Corporation has introduced online services through website, offers loans against demat shares and currently handles 3.5 lakh accounts having assets worth Rs 1,30,000 crore in its custody. The bank’s Sector 8 branch also organised a customer meet with focus on NRIs at Chandigarh Club last evening. It was attended by about 100 customers who were told about various deposit and loan schemes such as housing and auto finance, consumer durables, education loan etc. Mr M. Sitarama Murthy,
Chief General Manager, said the bank plans to
interconnect its branches located at Chandigarh. |
HC clarifies cell phone judgement NEW DELHI, Jan 19 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today clarified that an individual cellular service operator was free to introduce the scheme for free incoming calls on mobile phones and that its order yesterday would not come in his way. “If an individual operator wants to introduce the scheme on its own, he is free to do so,” a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S.N. Variava and Justice S.K. Mahajan told Cellular Operators Association of India counsel, who wanted to know whether any operator could launch the scheme on his own. The court yesterday had struck down TRAIs Revenue Sharing Regulation of May 1999 on inter-connection charges between the service providers and its Calling Party Pays scheme under which incoming calls were proposed to be made free on mobile phones. The court further
clarified that the operators had to pass all those
benefits to consumers, which were given to them by the
Government under the new telecom package, introduced in
August last year. This include reduction of rental
charges from Rs 600 to Rs 475 per month and airtime per
minute call charges from Rs 6 to Rs 4. |
Haryana
sales tax norms simplified YAMUNANAGAR, Jan 19 — The Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana today issued a notification simplifying the procedure for assessment under the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973, and the Central Sales Tax Act 1956. This self-assessment scheme comes into operation from January 1, 2000 covering all assessment cases pending consideration. A two-fold condition has been imposed for the applicability of this new system of assessment. First, the turnover of a registered dealer claiming the benefit of this self-assessment scheme should be less than Rs 50 lakh in a financial year. The second condition relates to 8 per cent increase in tax over the immediately preceding year. However, the condition of 8 per cent increase will apply with prospective effect i.e. only from 1998-99 and not to the cases relating to the periods prior to 1998-99. Importantly in the cases of katcha artias and the registered dealers dealing exclusively in tax free, tax paid and sales to registered dealers without payment of tax the stipulation of turnover being less than Rs 50 lakh and tax increase of 8% will not apply and their cases will be disposed of under the self-assessment scheme regardless of the quantum of the turnover. Talking to this writer,
the Commissioner, Mr Raj Kumar, said the Haryana
Government has abolished all kinds of statutory forms
from January 2, 2000. Now the tax payers will no longer
be required to furnish declaration forms such as ST-14,
ST-15, ST15A, ST-14A, STD-4 forms in support of various
deductions which are claimed from the gross turnover by
the registered dealers. |
cr
ACC in loss ACC on Wednesday reported a loss of Rs 9.96 crore for the nine month period ending December 31, 1999 as against a profit of Rs 55.12 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The cement major has, however, reported higher sales for the period under review at Rs 1990.25 crore as against Rs 1827.20 crore. Cement production this year was also higher at 72.41 lakh tonnes as against 65.07 lakh tonnes in the corresponding nine months of the previous year. Despite the 5.8 per cent growth in sales volume during the quarter ended December 31, 1999 as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, there has been a decline in price realisation of around 4.7 per cent during the same period. During the nine month period, the ACC reported sales volume (including traded cement) of 76.83 lakh tonnes compared to 70.34 lakh tonnes in the same period previous year. Nicholas Pira Nicholas Piramal India Limited on Wednesday reported a 23 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 11.23 crore on a 12 per cent rise in sales of Rs 113.7 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 1999 compared to the corresponding period last year. For the nine months ended December 31, it reported a 22.5 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 36.80 crore on a 12 per cent jump in sales at Rs 350.81 crore compared to the similar period last year. In Q3, it posted other income of Rs 93 lakh (Rs 70 lakh in the similar period last year) and a total expenditure of Rs 94.50 crore (Rs 85.99 crore). Birla Ericsson Birla Ericsson Optical Limited on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 1.88 crore during the third quarter of current financial year against Rs 4.07 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal. The net profit during the nine month period stood at Rs 6.95 crore on a turnover of Rs 106.19 crore. Vindhyas Tele Vindhyas Telelinks Limited, a MP Birla group company, on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 6.85 crore during the quarter ended December, 1999 against Rs 6.93 crore in the same quarter of 1998-99. Official sources said net profit during the nine month period of the current financial year stood at Rs 22.40 crore while turnover stood at Rs 195.36 crore. Turnover during the third quarter came down to Rs 80.11 crore from Rs 84.87 crore. ICICI Bank ICICI Bank has posted a
101 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 28.26 crore
during the quarter ended December 31, 1999, compared to
the corresponding quarter last year. The increase in net
profit for the first nine months of 1999-2000 was 64 per
cent at Rs 72.36 crore, ICICI Bank said. |
nf
by Ashok Kumar Tata Telecom is dark horse bet LAST week we had indicated that the market is on a slippery ground, and this point has been driven home by the developments in the past one week. Had Hindustan Lever not rallied sharply, while infotech stocks continued to tumble like nine pins, the indices would have reflected a much clearer picture of the situation as it is at the bourses. However, the cut in the PPF rates debatable though, will definitely spur market sentiment, sooner rather than later. Once the infotech pivotals are driven down to more realistic levels, it might not be surprising to witness a fresh surge in demand at these counters later in the month. Traders with a bullish temperament can consider taking up long positions at the counter Infosys technologies at Rs 11,625 (square up at Rs 12,490) and HCL Technologies at Rs 1718 (square up at Rs 1796). Short positions could be considered at the counters of Sterlite at Rs 507 (cover up at Rs 471) and Hindalco at Rs 929 (cover up at Rs 901). A long term commitment
could be considered by discerning investors at the
counter of a highly efficient PSU, namely Container
Corporation while the dark horse bet of this week is Tata
Telecom. In the meanwhile, those who had heeded our
advise and booked profits at higher levels in the past
four weeks can now be seated on the fence and await an
opportune moment to re-enter at lower levels. |
bb
Gold medallions Uniform ST Safety meet HDFC Bank |
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