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| Thursday, December 21, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Prioritise expenditure, RBI tells states 6,000 employees of
PNB opt for VRS Badal to open CII
fair at Ludhiana Walkout from LS
over selloff issue Bihar waits for
money orders |
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Velvet units
on verge of closure Rs 25 cr institute
of excellence soon
Microsoft centre
for e-governance
Star to air KBC specials Mera magic
mera home
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Prioritise expenditure, RBI tells states MUMBAI, Dec 20 (PTI) — The Reserve Bank of India has told state governments that there was need to prioritise expenditure and its restructuring should focus on rationalisation. The state-wise data for the decade (1990-91 to 1999-2000) indicated that there was a persistent rise in non-development expenditure while there was a continuous drop in development expenditure. The RBI in a report, titled “state Finances — a study of Budgets (2000-01)”, said the expenditure overruns stem largely from a persistent rise in committed revenue expenses while at the same time there was a similar rise in consumption expenditure defrayed towards staff expenses, including salaries and pensions. The overall borrowing requirements of the states reflecting the resource gap grew by nearly five times from Rs 18,787 crore in 90-91 to as high as Rs 94,739 crore (revised estimates). The gross fiscal deficit rose from 3.3 per cent to 4.9 per cent as a per cent of the GDP during the same period, reflecting growing fiscal imbalances in state finances arising from the gap between revenue receipts and expenditure obligations. “The poor markmanship (degree of accuracy between estimates and actuals of budgetary data) brings to the fore issue of credibility in announcements of about fiscal corrections that the governments often make”, the report said. Stating that a consolidated view of state finances often masks individual states’ performances, the RBI said state specific programmes and strategies should be evolved to meet fiscal objectives. For special category, states in the North-East, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, there was limited room to raise resources internally and they had to depend largely on Central funds to meet their expenditure commitments. The RBI said it would be useful if the states evolve a medium-term plan to cut the ratio of GFD to NSDP (net state domestic product) to attain a zero or near zero level taking into account the transfers from the Centre and disinvestment proceeds. Seeking improvement in quality of disclosures about the states financial position and health of state public sector units, the RBI said “the issue of transparency has gained prominence in the context of need to mobilise resources at reasonable cost from the market”. Credit ratings for the financial instruments floated by state PSUs would become more credible with timely and detailed disclosure of asset liability and financial performance, the report said. |
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6,000 employees of
PNB opt for VRS MUMBAI, Dec 20 (UNI) — Over 6,000 officers and employees have opted for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) of the public sector Punjab National Bank (PNB), according to the bank Chairman and Managing Director, Mr S.S. Kohli. Addressing a press conference after the inauguration of the new corporate branch in South Mumbai, Mr Kohli said that about 2,000 employees including experienced officers had already been relieved from the bank under the VRS. On an average, each employee has received consideration of Rs 6 to 7 lakh (50 per cent in cash and 50 per cent in bonds) under the scheme. Asked about the target of reducing the staff strength under the VRS, Mr Kohli said that the numbers depend on the manpower planning as well as the amount of amortisation to be approved by the government towards VRS expenditures. As per the common norm, all the public sector banks are looking at reducing their manpower strength by 10 per cent of their total employees. PNB has a workforce of 65,000 of which all the 6,000 persons are likely to be obliged with the VRS. He said that the bank has accepted the recommendations of Boston Consultancy firm which suggested restructuring of the bank based on products, process and profitability. The bank has recovered Rs 40 crore of NPAs from one-time-settlement scheme out of the total recovery of Rs 285 crore upto September this year. The net NPAs of the bank is currently around 8.5 per cent which is likely to come down to 7 per cent by the end of March, 2001.
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Badal to open CII
fair at Ludhiana LUDHIANA, Dec 20 — Mr Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister, will inaugurate the CII fair to be held from December 22 to 25 at Punjab Agricultural University here. The fair will showcase a wide range of consumer durables, including home entertainment products, kitchen appliances, personal care products and domestic appliances. The organisers are busy giving final touches to the festival complex at PAU ground. The venue has been tastefully decorated and a number of stalls have been put up at the venue. The main objective behind the show is to provide and update knowledge of the consumers on the latest products available in the market. Mr Balvinder
Sawhney, marketing manager, CII, told The Tribune today that the IT carnival will be a special feature of the fair, which will include stalls of computer education centres, website designers, hardware dealers and internet service providers. Satyam, Mantra, Sharekhan.com have confirmed the participation in IT carnival. The Ludhiana Auto show will feature all major players like Maruti, Daewoo, and others. The Mega Brand will exhibit their products such as electronics. A lot of the new electronic products especially home gadgets and appliance would be at display in the festival. And for the health conscious consumers, some fitness equipment will be displayed. Alternative medicine (ayurvedic) will be exhibited at “good health majestic” stall. The fair has special attractions for housewives as various types of kitchenware will be available. Dominos, XTC, Sagar Ratna, Pepsi and others are there to take care of the food lovers. Food festival will include Japanese and Italian cuisines.
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Walkout from LS
over selloff issue NEW DELHI, Dec 20 (UNI) — Dissatisfied with the Disinvestment Minister’s reply, and angry at the rejection of the demand for a white paper on disinvestment, the entire Opposition staged a walk out in the Lok Sabha today. Congress members said there was no transparency in the transactions and the government should issue a white paper. However, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie defended the decision of selling shares of various public sector companies and said “full transparency had been observed” in all transactions. The government had also decided to refer all completed transactions to the CAG for its scrutiny. The CAG will send its report directly to the members, he added. Denying the charges that the government is selling shares of profit-making companies at “cheap rates”, the Minister said the Congress Government in June, 1992, sold Maruti shares to Suzuki at Rs 269 (face value Rs 100) while the BJP Government sold the Modern Foods shares at more than Rs 11,400 (face value Rs 1,000). The valuation of MFIL was done by various methods. “Even the independent valuer had fixed the rate of MFIL land at Rs 109 crore, if the use of land is free of restrictions”, the Minister said and added that but in this case the land use was restrictive as they have to run the plant with the same manpower. Mr Arun Shourie said the members had been demanding that the proceeds of the shares should be used for development work but they were divided on the issue, while some favoured the funds may be used for retiring debt, others wanted it used for the revival of sick units, tourism or infrastructure sector. But the government has decided to put the entire proceeds in the
consolidated fund for effective uses. |
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Bihar waits for
money orders PATNA: Bitwa paisa to bheje raha par dak babu nahi dihin, a 60-year-old woman in Gaddopur village of extremist-infested Jehanabad district says with tears in her eyes, narrating how the postal strike caused her sufferings. Her son, who she forcibly sent to Punjab to earn a living after her husband was killed years back in extremist killings, had phoned her that he had sent her the usual money order money. But the postman did not turn up and she had to go begging for some money. The postal strike has left lakhs of people with the same problem. Even after the end of strike, it will take at least 10 days for the moneyorders (MOs) and letters to reach their destinations. In Bihar’s ‘moneyorder economy’ postmen are like angels and are awaited more than the gods. Thanks to the large-scale migration of labour force from the state, Bihar got money orders worth Rs 780 crore in the last financial year. It is more than the output of any single state concern. In the last seven financial years, Bihar received moneyorders worth Rs 3,278 crore. This is the money order economy of the state. And the northern part of Bihar, where there is no industry and agriculture is almost dead, thanks to recurrent and
simultaneous onslaught of floods and drought, money orders sent from Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra are the mainstay of the economy. The postal anarchy in the state is revealed by the fact that 90 per cent of the post offices in the state do not have their own houses. The postman-coverage area ratio in the state too has to account for the delay in MO delivery system. Moreover, most villages do not have roads. Less than 40 per cent villages are approachable even by a village road. In the extremist infested areas, the postmen fear to move with cash.
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Velvet units
on verge of closure PANIPAT, Dec 20 — As many as 61 units in Panipat have been closed since December 18, in protest against the indifferent attitude of the Central Government, for not restoring the small scale industries (SSI) benefits of excise duty for pile (Velvet) fabrics. The Panipat Handloom Powerloom Association has written a letter to the Central Excise Office in this regard. While giving this information to media persons here last evening, the President of the association, Radheysham Gogia stressed that the SSI exemption benefits were withdrawn in 1997 to these units and Central Excise Duty was imposed which has increased up to 16 per cent. “It is very difficult to compete with large scale industry without SSI exemption from excise duty benefits,” he added. A delegation of the association will meet the Union Finance Minister in Delhi on Dec 21. |
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Rs 25 cr institute
of excellence soon NEW DELHI, Dec 20 (PTI) — The government will set up an Institute of Excellence in Corporate Governance with an initial corpus of Rs 25 crore, Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs Arun Jaitley said here. “We have requested Finance Ministry for grant of Rs 25 crore corpus out of the Rs 136 crore that the government had collected under the Company Law Settlement Scheme 2000, for setting up the proposed institute,” Jaitley told reporters. Releasing the report of the study group on Corporate Excellence set up by the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) under the chairmanship of Secretary P.L. Sanjeev Reddy earlier in May this year, the minister exuded confidence that the response of the Finance Ministry would be positive and constructive. The study group, which subsequently constituted a Task Force under the chairmanship of S. Rajagoplan, former Chairman of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), has recommended setting up of an independent, autonomous Centre for Corporate Governance to accord accreditation and promote policy research and studies, training and education in corporate excellence. Mr Jaitley said the report of study group contains several far reaching recommendations that would take standards of corporate governance in the country to commanding heights and compares very favourably with international practices. He, however, went on to add that the government had not taken a final view on the recommendations of the group and a decision would only be taken after considering opinions of all concerned and the issue is debated in public. The other recommendations of the study group include introduction of formal recognition of corporate social responsibility with the first steps towards triple-bottomline accounting and reporting. Triple-bottomline accounting and reporting includes impact of business activity on social, economy and environment the country. It also suggested introducing measures for greater shareholder participation through multiple-location meetings, electronic-media-assisted display of corporate information and views on proposed resolutions. Clearer distinction between direction and management that would ensure that the executive direction are held responsible for legal and other compliance with the strategic and oversight responsibilities for the company’s business, the report suggested. It also recommended highlighting directorial commitment and accountability through fewer and more focused board and committee memberships, tighter delineation of independence criteria and minimisation of interest-conflict potential. The study group also suggested application of corporate governance principles to public sector undertakings particularly in case of listed companies, in terms of freeing them from multiple surveillance agencies and upgrading their boards with independent directors. |
Microsoft centre
for e-governance NEW DELHI, Dec 20 (UNI) — Microsoft India and Shonk Technologies today announced their strategic tie-up to set up Microsoft Centre of Excellence (COE) for e-governance in India. The COE will enable Microsoft to showcase its wide repertoire of products and technologies towards e-Government solutions and assist Shonk in developing state of the art e-government solutions for the government customers, said Mr A Saravanam, Director, Enterprise Services, Microsoft. The Centre would help create an Indian powerhouse in e-governance, he said. The Centre would develop and work on the latest technologies for e-Governance like Biztalk and Server, Digital Dash Board, Exchange Server, Unicode-based Multilingual Technologies, Smartcard Operating System Interfaces and Standards. Mr R.K. Verma, Chief Technology Officer, Shonk, said the COE would provide direct revenues to Shonk in the form of e-government projects implemented for different states and the Central Government. Its indirect revenue would be in the form of technology skills developed and later deployed in other Shonk projects in the areas of e-Commerce, banking, defence, finance and industry, he said. Mr Shailendra Kumar, Head, Northern region, Microsoft, said in the long run there would be a research and development facility at the COE.
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Star to air KBC specials NEW DELHI: Star TV today announced that its hugely-popular gameshow “Kaun Banega Crorepati” will host special episodes in 2001, one each month, to add to its targeted reach and variety. “KBC plans to do a set of episodes every month, open only to special categories, such as state specials, specials for the police force, teachers, industrial workers, the physically challenged and senior citizens,” a Star TV statement said here. Each special episode will open only to a particular category and the selection procedure will be through the contest phone lines alone, where only calls by those belonging to a particular category will be accepted at the specified time. The armed forces episode was intended to be a tribute to the defence services and will be open only to serving members of the armed forces. The Jammu & Kashmir state special is open only to current residents of the state. Star TV also announced that it will begin another women-centric, family drama “Shagun” daily from Monday in the afternoons. Shagun follows in the footsteps of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki, two other family dramas which some nights have even overtaken KBC in television rating points. — PTI Mera magic
mera home NEW DELHI: Whirlpool has tied up with Zee TV for launching a gameshow centred around woman as a “homemaker” which carries a small amount and company appliances as prizes. “We have been working on this concept much before Kaun Banega Crorepati began on Star Plus, and the basic idea is to further strengthen the homemaker platform Whirlpool has taken for advertising its products in India,” Vice-President Marketing of Whirlpool of India Ashok Bhasin told PTI. While he declined to divulge the total investment Whirlpool has put into the show, called “Whirlpool Mera Magic Mera Home”, company sources put this figure at about Rs 5 crore. The show, which is anchored by Ruby Bhatia of MTV fame, is on air every Sunday at 11 am |
cr
FIIs sell as US interest rates left intact ONCE again it was software bellwether. Infosys Tech, which led the fall on profit-selling largely because of cautious approach by FIIs who were almost withdrawn from the market in the light of continuous downslide in Nasdaq stocks. FIIs who had been hoping for a cut in US interest rates, pressed large-scale selling, particularly in technology stocks after the US Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged. Traditional blue-chips such as cement and steel company stocks which had been in the limelight in the past few trading sessions too came under selling pressure at prevailing higher levels, they added. Meanwhile, the Indian rupee continued to remain strong at the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market and traded higher at Rs 46.675 0/46.6850 (intra-session) to the US greenback against the overnight close of Rs 46.6850/46.6950. Information Technologies India Ltd has recorded a 50 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 24.6 crore during the second quarter ended November, 2000, compared to Rs 16.5 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. During the period the company’s sales touched Rs 79.28 crore up 45 per cent from Rs 54.41 crore in the previous year. The annualised earning per share (on par value or Rs 5) for the quarter was Rs 7.10 per share, it added. The O.P. Jindal group on Wednesday announced the launch of an infotech company Infovergix Technologies Limited to provide IT-related services and e-solutions with an initial investment of Rs 10 crore. The new company will focus on the core sector of IT infrastructure services and IT enabled services, Chairman of the company, Naveen Jindal said. The IT company is promoted by Jindal Steel and Power Limited, a subsidiary of Rs 1.5 billion Jindal group. J.B. Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals is in the process of restructuring its operations, and in order to face the fierce global competition and to achieve a three-fold turnover of Rs 500 crore by 2005. Mr J.B. Modi, CMD of J.B. Chemicals, in his letter to the shareholders, on the occasion of the company’s silver jubilee year, said the company achieved satisfactory results. Cadilla Pharmaceuticals has been conferred with the All-India Biotech Association (AIBA) award in the industrial segment for development of biotech vaccine and medicines for the year 1999-2000. IDBI
has fixed the share price of its subsidiary anti SIDBI at Rs 30 a share and is expected to make a capital gain of Rs 460 crore this fiscal. The IDBI board approved the proposal of offloading 51 per cent stake in
SIDBI, top IDBI officials said. |
bb
SBI trophies Maruti output BSE terminal Bank strike |
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