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| Thursday, June 8, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Plan to sell VSNL, MTNL
$62m WB loan for India
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Spice floats new card
Planning Commission abolishes 153 posts NEW DELHI, June 7 (PTI) — The Planning Commission has abolished 153 posts saying these were no longer relevant, as part of downsizing its huge staff and cutting down administrative costs. "We have abolished 153 posts which we feel are no longer relevant and also there is no need for in-house expertise. We can hire experts as and when required,” the Minister for Planning and Programme Implementation Arun Shourie told PTI. There are 91 sets of recruitment rules in the Commission. An employee recruited for a particular department cannot be moved to another as each department is governed by different set of recruitment rules, he said. The commission last month appointed a 3-member staffing committee, headed by Secretary of the Commission, to review the recruitment rules of the commission and suggest appropriate changes. The staffing committee would also consider converging the 91 set of rules to simplify internal movement of staff, Shourie said adding that it would also consider redeploying of staff, and reverting officials to their parent departments who had been sent on deputation. Shourie said the Commission was closely interacting with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to get outside support on specialised areas like infrastructure, information technology and research. Since most of the Task Forces set up in the Commission are of short duration ranging from three to six months, hiring of staff on regular basis turns out to be more expensive than hiring experts for stipulated time period, Shourie said. Commenting on restructuring of the Planning Commission, the Minister said the Commission should have the principal task to give policy options to the government with regard to various schemes rather than being a mere ‘project appraiser’ body. The Commission should also play a monitoring role in the centrally sponsored schemes like poverty and employment generation programmes, he said adding that the Commission should function as an ‘advance warning system’ for future technologies like bio-technology to help gear the country to adopt these technologies in line with the rest of world. The Minister has submitted a note detailing ways to restructure the Planning Commission.
NEW DELHI, June 7 (PTI) — The government today said it will prepare a road-map for its downsizing, review all subsidies and chalk out strategies for recovering cost through imposition of user-charges. The Expenditure Reforms Commission, set up by the Centre recently, has called for suggestions for reducing its functions, activities and administrative structures and avoiding overlap of functions, an official release said. In this context, the commission is planning to review the adequacy of staffing and rationalising the staff and cadres of different services, arrangements for redeployment and retraining of surplus staff, it said. The commission has also asked for suggestion on reducing subsidies and to maximise their impact on the target population at minimum cost. The government called for devising an effective strategy for cost recovery through user charges. The commission sought measures for effecting improvement and reducing budgetary support for government funded autonomous institutions.
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Plan to sell VSNL, MTNL NEW DELHI, June 7 (PTI) — The government is likely to decide on privatisation of telecom giants VSNL and MTNL and chart a roadmap during the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) scheduled for June 23. ‘‘We will meet on June 23 to fix up a calendar for the entire process of disinvestment in Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Videsh Sanchar Nigam... The process is not as simple as it looks and various issues needs to be sorted out first,’’ Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh told reporters after the first meeting of National Telephone Advisory and Services Committees here. He, however, did not comment on the quantum of disinvestment in the two corporations. Stating that VSNL, in which government has 59 per cent stake, had a long distance monopoly till 2004, he said government would have to decide if it wanted to end the monopoly earlier and how in the light of corporation’s proposed overseas issue. He said that the government would also have to take a complete view on corporatisation of Department of Telecom before taking a final decision on MTNL, which was confined to just two basic circles. |
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NEW DELHI, June 7 (UNI) — The World Bank today announced sanction of a $ 62 million loan to India for the telecommunications sector reform technical assistance project for modernising the government agencies dealing with the
sector. The project would strengthen the government agencies regulatory roles and improve the management of the radio frequency for radio stations, cellular phones, satellite communications and long distance telephone and data traffic, a press note by the World Bank’s South Asia regional office said. Specifically, it would help the Department of Telecommunications update radio frequency licensing and management systems, including financing software and hardware equipment. It would also provide technical assistance through training and consultative studies to support the regulatory activities of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The total cost of the project is $ 72 million, of which $ 10 million would be provided by the Indian Government. Although the sector has been growing at a rate of about 20 per cent a year for the past decade, it has not been able to cope with the rising demand for new connections. The level of fixed phone density in India is low at about 2.6 lines per hundred people, compared to the world average of 10.5 per cent. ‘‘India’s low level of teledensity for both fixed and cellular phones reflects the need for initiatives to attract the very large scale private investment required to meet the growing demand for telecommunications services,’’ according to the bank’s Principal Telecommuni-cations Specialist Peter Smith. |
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States plead CST uniformity NEW DELHI, June 7 — After having achieved success on uniform sales tax, the States are now moving towards uniform floor rate of Central Sales Tax (CST), a proposal that would come up for examination here later this month. The Standing Committee of Finance Ministers today reviewed a working paper on the subject which will come up for discussion before the meeting of the State Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers called by the Union Finance Minister here on June 22. A majority of 205 items on which floor rates in sales tax have been agreed to, will be discussed for the new measure. The Punjab Finance Minister, Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, who is on the eight-member Standing Committee, said the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy had prepared a working paper for bringing about uniformity in floor rates of CST. He said most States had taken up the issue of CST specially with Union Territories having low rates as they are highly subsidised by the Centre. The Standing Committee, he said, today also decided to make C form mandatory and exempt 4 per cent sales tax in d-oil cakes which are used in the production of cattle and poultry feed. On the issue of exemption of sales tax on fertilisers, he said, there was no unanimity and therefore Punjab recommended that the matter may be referred to the meeting of CMs/FMs to be held later this month. The meeting also decided that the Secretariat of the Standing Committee of Finance Ministers should be strengthened so that the body can continue for the next two years and prepare the country to switch over to VAT. It was also decided that States cannot bring in differential price policy on items identified on which floor rates would be applicable. He said for instance, Delhi has exempted rubber shoes whose value does not exceed Rs 200 from sales tax. |
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Centre allows sugar exports after 3
years NEW DELHI, June 7 — Anticipating surplus production of sugar this season the Centre has decided to allow its export after three years. Announcing this decision Mr Shanta Kumar, Minister of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution told correspondents here that the Centre will allow the sugar mills to export
up to 10 per cent of their produce which will be exempt from levy. The Centre impose 30 per cent levy on total produce which is procured for public distribution. Mr Kumar said the decision was arrived at after taking into account that there would be some 57 lakh tonnes surplus this year and also considering that there was a shortfall in production of sugar exporting countries like Brazil and Pakistan. He said the sugar production this year was estimated to be 175 lakh tonnes and with 67 lakh tonnes of sugar already in stock, the total rises to 242 lakh tonnes. “Of this the total domestic consumption is about 151 lakh tonnes” he said adding that carry over stock for next seven months would account for approximately 33 lakh tonnes leaving the rest 57 lakh tonnes as surplus. He said export could be directly by the mills or through traders but they will not be allowed to re-export meaning first importing sugar and then exporting it. The Minister said that decision to export was after nearly three years. In 1995-96 India exported nearly 4 lakh tonnes and some 7 lakh tonnes the next financial year. However, he said, the international prices of sugar was not attractive with the floor rate in May being $190.50 per tonne and maximum being $216.50 per tonne. These were FOB (free-on-board) prices. With income-tax payees being taken out of PDS sugar, the Centre also expects nearly 3.15 lakh tonnes will be available for distribution those in PDS. In another decision, the Centre has released Rs 200.67 crore to mills in order to
facilitate clearance of arrears to cane growers. |
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B-to-B market TOKYO, June 7 (Reuters) — A group of global technology titans, including IBM will join forces to create one of the world’s largest business-to-business online markets, company officials said on Wednesday. IBM and seven other companies around the world will set up a joint venture in July for business-to-business e-commerce in electronic components, which would help companies bring down costs and streamline the purchasing process. The joint venture, e2open.com, will provide an online market place for member companies and their customers. The seven partners are Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd, Hitachi Ltd and Toshiba Corp, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Canadian telecoms giant Nortel Network Corp, US electronics parts manufacturer Solectron Corp and Seagate Technology Inc. “We believe this venture to be the industry’s largest e-marketplace,” Masaharu Kimura, senior IBM official in charge of the joint venture, told a news conference in Tokyo. The venture, to be capitalised at $ 200 million, expects transactions worth of at least $ 1 billion on its virtual marketplace during the first year. “We’re saying that’s the minimum. We expect transactions to grow drastically,” Kimura said.
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Spice floats new card CHANDIGARH, June 7 — Spice Telecom has introduced a new validity-based pre-paid mobile card the Spice
Simple. Priced at Rs 2,260 the card has an activation charge of Rs 1,260 and an initial call charge of Rs 1,000. A subscriber will not have to pay any rent for the card which has an initial validity period of 40 days before which it has to be recharged. The tariff for the new card is Rs 9 per minute for both incoming as well as outgoing calls with a 30 seconds billing pulse. |
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ICE rally: time to book profits THE resurgence of the Nasdaq based on hopes of there being no further interest rate hikes on account of lower than expected unemployment figures in the USA fuelled yet another “ICE” rally at the bourses. But yet again, typically characteristic of an ICE stocks fuelled rally, the upswing has been too sharp and swift, suggesting that the downward correction that will inevitably follow too will be a sharp one. Perhaps then, the best course of action for investors who had prudently accumulated pivotal ICE stocks at declines can start booking partial profits and await the inevitable retracement to restart accumulation. Traders can take care of the volatile swings that have become the order of the day and those with a bearish temperament can consider short positions at the counters of Infosys Technologies at Rs 8449 (cover up at Rs 7911) and Zee Telefilms at Rs 659 (cover up at Rs 610). Bull operators could consider taking up long positions at the counters of DSQ Software at Rs 898 (square up at Rs 960) and Wipro at Rs 2216 (square up at Rs 2689). Discerning investors looking for good long term value can keep an eye on the counter of Cadila Healthcare which has outperformed its financial projections and offers promising prospects. Finally, the optimal strategy this week would be — cash in on profits when you see one.
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Power tariff to go up CHANDIGARH: Once again the Punjab Government is all set to increase the power tariff. It has convened a meeting of representatives of various organisations of industry in Chandigarh on Thursday to discuss the extent of the hike. “That there is going to a power tariff hike is certain. How much is it to be will be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting”, said a senior official of an organisation participating in the meeting. Industry may agree to a 10 per cent hike, while the government toys with a 30-40 per cent figure. “What is important is industry has by and large agreed to the tariff hike, though owners of small units are likely to lodge their protest,” he noted. The organisations whose representatives are expected to attend the meeting include the CII, the PHDCC and the Ludhiana-based Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry. One question that the government faces is: how will the money thus collected be spent? Will it be thrown into that sinking ship called the PSEB?
— TNS Govt can’t
sell atta NEW DELHI: The Consumer Affairs Ministry has approached the Ministries of Agriculture and Finance for the closure of Super Bazar and its nationwide network saying the government cannot pump in more money to keep the ailing giant floating. “We are consulting all departments concerned on the issue as it will not be possible to plough in about Rs 50 crore to Rs 60 crore in the Super Bazar... As such the government has no business to be retailing atta, rice and other consumer goods,” Consumer Affairs Minister Shanta Kumar told PTI. Stating that “no final decision” has been taken, Shanta Kumar said that it is difficult to sustain monthly losses of over Rs 2 crore on Super Bazar and its 156 branches all over the country. “In the light of liberalisation, the government selling rice and wheat through the Super Bazar is against the concept of free economy. Now the government should only guide and provide direction to the economy,” he said.
— PTI No free phones,
please : Sinha NEW
DELHI: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is against giving free telephones to all telecom employees as proposed by Communication Minister Ram Vilas Paswan saying “proper user charges should be paid by everyone’’ “I entirely agree that proper user charges should be paid by everyone. Not only
VIPs, when not in office, but by everyone when in office too. And it should apply not merely to telephones and bungalows, but also to other facilities like water and electricity,’’ Sinha told India Today group online chat on |
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Infosys, Munich firm to tie up ICICI to expand Net services IPCL to pay 20 pc Geojit MoU with UTI Bank
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IT exports Airticket Bank meet Ansal Plaza Boiler drums Spurious oil |
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