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| Sunday, February
4, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Transporters major loan defaulters Fund managers get choosy after
quake
British Airways gesture towards quake victims
Japan eases visa rules
Saw Pipes sees higher profits |
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| Gas linkage
for Faridabad power plant NEW DELHI, Feb 3 — The Petroleum Ministry has agreed to provide gas linkage to the second unit of the gas-based Faridabad power plant and two new power plants to be set up at Yamunanagar and Hisar, respectively.
Nail, thumb in
sandwich Sotheby's fined for price-fixing Suit filed on being
called ‘Monica’
Need to build quake-resistant
houses
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Transporters major loan defaulters KASAULI, Feb 3 — The transport sector is a major defaulter in Himachal where Liberal infrastructural support by the government sponsored schemes, like no collateral securities in most of the cases has increased the percentage of defaulters. The cut throat competition enables only those transporters to prosper who have a solid financial backing. Others who enter the market with limited resources to fall back end up losing money. They are most of the time burdened with heavy debts. In the absence of adequate backing from NGOs unlike in neighbouring states, the problem is compounded. An officer of UCO bank pointed out that 50 per cent of hardcore non performing assets (NPAs) comprise wilful defaulters who try to explore the loopholes in the system to gain undue advantage. The government sponsored schemes hinder recovery of loan. It is a common opinion government loans are synonymous with subsidies and repayment is least imagined. Individuals availing loans under the Prime Minister’s Rojgaar Yojna, transport sector and small scale industries comprise major loan defaulters. Bank officials point out that liberal conditions of the government like extending loans without guarantee, is a major reason leading to increase in defaulters. Individuals setting up small scale industries face stiff competition. At times they lack proper information about the ventures they purpose to invest in and hence end up as losers. For old NPAs the government has decided to waive stringent conditions and allow the defaulters to repay back the amount in lumpsum on referral dates fixed by the banks. Talking about the success of this scheme the officials claimed that 20 to 25 defaulters who had been declared NPAs deposited their dues amounting to about Rs 75,000-1,00,000 in one single day. The special settlement scheme has met with a success rate of about 35 per cent and it did not bring about an overwhelming response as was anticipated. The scheme applicable till March 31 this year is aimed to provide all necessary relaxation to the defaulters to repay back the loans. Out of the total NPAs only about 20 per cent have been recovered. Until defaulters were criminally prosecuted there was no hope of increasing this loan recovery percentage, said an official. The bankers pointed out that the situation in agriculture sector was marginally better and scheme like Kisan Credit Card had benefited the farmers who sought loans only when there was crop failure. Only those farmers who are below the poverty line avail crop loans which take time to recover. Interaction with a few loan defaulters supported these facts. Those who managed to avail this opportunity felt relieved and thankful for this loan recovery scheme. It was also observed that people took government banks for granted and rarely considered repaying loans as pertinent. Increasing awareness about special settlement scheme can go a long way in benefiting the banks and defaulters, Mr Sood added.
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Fund managers get choosy after
quake NEW DELHI, Feb3 — Indian stock markets may seem to have taken last week's killer earthquake in their stride, but the aftershocks could prompt a change in stock picking strategy, fund managers and research heads said on Friday. Stocks purchased would largely be limited to big companies with high-quality assets. Money will also be invested in undervalued state-run companies after the government announced on Thursday it will sell off big stakes in key state firms to fund quake reconstruction. The Cabinet on Thursday decided to impose a 2 percent surcharge on income and corporate income taxes, which is expected to net Rs 13 billion for quake reconstruction. "The government seems to be cornered. It will now have to go in for privatisation to raise (additional) money," said Nilesh Shah, fund manager with Templeton India. "All state-run companies are available at very cheap valuations." "Public sector stocks will continue to be the flavour of the month till the Budget," said Arun
Kejriwal, Director at KRIS, a Bombay-based independent research firm. Among those companies, Kejriwal's top picks were Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd and Gas Authority of India Ltd. "Although the quake is a big human tragedy, it is no reason for us to change our stance on India," added Singapore-based Samir Arora, head of Asian Emerging Markets at Alliance Capital, which has $750 million invested in Indian markets — 40 percent in technology stocks. "Our top pick in the domestic markets remains Infosys Technologies Ltd," Arora added. "We are playing only large names and buying good companies."
Arora's other picks include software services firms Wipro, HCL Technologies, Digital India, petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries and cigarette major ITC Ltd. While there might be individual flashes of brilliance, the market overall is expected to basically tread water, with the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensitive index remaining below 4,500, analysts said.
Jigar Shah, head of research at Bombay-based K.R. Choksey Securities, agrees. "Going forward, the overall market will not be in a very positive mood till the Budget. Concerns of rising deficit and higher taxation on corporates will cap gains." Shah's top picks included Hindalco Industries.
"Hindalco is trading at a price earnings multiple of 5.5 on expected March 2002 earnings. I see the stock at Rs 1,200 in less than an year's time," Shah said. Reuters |
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British Airways gesture towards quake victims CHANDIGARH, Feb 3 — A British pilot of Indian origin, whose family members missing in the Gujarat disaster zone, will command a special flight of British Airways from London to Mumbai carrying 36 tonnes of vital supplies and several aid workers from various temples in Great Britain to work in quake-ravaged areas. British Airways, according to Mr Alan Briggs, General Manager, South Asia, has also pledged to donate Rs 100 for every ticket sold in India in February and March 2001 towards the CRY-supported children's project in Gujarat. The special flight will be manned by volunteer flight and cabin crew with Captain Minesh Patel in command.. Certain family members of Captain Minesh Patel are missing in the disaster zone in Gujarat. Among the aid members accompanying the flight are members of the Bolton temple who will be travelling direct to the region to assist in the relief work. Senior members of the Naesden Temple in England will also assist in ensuring the relief supplies reach their destination. The relief supplies being flown n the special flight to India include tents, clothing, blankets, plastic sheeting and medical supplies. The supplies have been coordinated by communities from temples in Bolton, Aston in Birmingham, Manchester and Willesden and Neasden in London. The British Airways staff supported the programme with donations. A Boeing 747 passenger jet was made available to the special relief team at a few hours' notice, sources in the British Airways said. Mr Alan Briggs, General Manager, South Asia, said : "The earthquake in Gujarat is a human tragedy which has touched the hearts of our staff and there was a tremendous will to do whatever we could to help. There has been a superb effort by all our staff from across the airline to offer assistance."
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Japan eases visa rules NEW DELHI, Feb 3 — In line with Prime Minister Yoshio Mori’s announcement in last August during his visit to India, Japan today decided to issue multiple visa for short-stay on business purposes for Indian IT professionals. “The government of Japan today decided to start issuing multiple entry visa for short-stay on business purposes for Indian IT professionals from February 5, to promote exchanges between IT experts from Japan and India”, a Japanese Embassy release said here. The visa will be valid for three years and stays of up to 90 days in Japan are permitted during the period, it said. The statement said business purposes would include business talks with Japanese companies, business-related communications, after-servicing, market research, advertising activities and job-hunting and added the visa didn’t allow the holders to engage in activities that entailed remuneration or business operations.
The new measure draws a list of eligibility parameters which included section manager and above, engineers with academic background of junior college level in the field of science and technology closely related to IT and those who have more than five-years’ working experience as an IT engineer.
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Saw Pipes sees higher profits NEW DELHI, Feb 3 — Steel pipe maker Saw Pipes Ltd said on Tuesday it expects its strong order book to boost profits this year and global investments in oil pipelines to lift demand in the years ahead. Saw Pipes, the largest Indian maker of ‘submerged arc welded pipes’ used to transport oil and gas, last week reported net profits of 201.11 million rupees in the six months to December, nearly 20 times the 12.12 million rupees it posted in the same year-ago period. Revenue nearly tripled to 2.04 billion rupees in the half year to December from 754.6 million rupees in the same year-ago period. “What we have executed is 2.04 billion rupees (of our order book). If you go up to June, it is 3.0 billion plus — the orders to be executed,” Saw Pipes Vice-President for Finance Abhay Bhargava told Reuters. “Of this, exports is about $40 million.” Earlier this year, the firm procured a $35.4 million order from Burullus Gas, a consortium of state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, British Gas and Edison Gas. Exports vary from 40 to 60 percent of sales each year. Bhargava predicted net profit for the current year to June will rise in proportion to the orders to be executed. “You can extrapolate on what has been done till now,” he said. In the year to June 2000, Saw Pipes earned a net profit of 118.36 million rupees, on revenue of 3.09 billion rupees. Reflected the improved profitability, Saw Pipes’ shares have surged over 300 percent since December 1. Bhargava said high world oil prices had pushed the petroleum industry into a virtuous investment cycle and demand for its products will rise in the years ahead. “In the last four years, the industry was really down so the (upward) cycle would last for a couple of years at least. I am very bullish about the international market especially in Central Asia, Africa and South East Asia,” he said. A number of pipeline projects had been planned in India as well, like the doubling of GAIL’s trunk HBJ pipeline and Indian Oil’s Salaya-Mathura pipeline, Bhargava said. India transports just 45 percent of its petroleum products using pipes, considered low by international standards, so the potential for laying new pipelines is considered good. Several more would come up on India’s west coast considering the number of LNG terminals that had been planned there. The cost of transporting petroleum products by pipe is a sixth of that of transporting by road or rail.
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Gas linkage
for Faridabad power plant NEW DELHI, Feb 3
— The Petroleum Ministry has agreed to provide gas linkage to the second unit of the gas-based Faridabad power plant and two new power plants to be set up at Yamunanagar and Hisar, respectively. A letter to this effect was given by Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Mr Ram Naik, to the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala at a meeting here last evening. According to a Haryana Government press note, the Union Petroleum Minister has assured that his ministry would provide additional two lakh mmscmd of natural gas for the expansion of the gas-based power plant at Faridabad and 5 lakh mmscmd of natural gas for the two gas-based power plants to be set up at Hisar and Yamunanagar. Arrangements would be made for the supply of regassified liquefied natural gas through Gas Authority of India Ltd. Mr Chautala also had a meeting with the Union Urban Development Minister, Mr Jagmohan, regarding the development of infrastructure in the national capital region. Mr Jagmohan agreed to provide financial assistance to the Haryana Government for the development of infrastructure in the NCR area falling in the state. |
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Nail, thumb in sandwich HYANNIS, (Mass): Barnstable High School students are examining their cafeteria food a little more closely after one student found a slice of thumb and a bit of nail in her turkey-and-tomato sandwich. Sodexho Marriott Services, which serves more than one million meals a day at schools, colleges and corporations throughout the United States, said one of its cafeteria workers at the high school had severed the top of her thumb in a slicer on Tuesday. "The student found a foreign object in her sandwich (on Wednesday). The health department said it was human tissue. It is our understanding it was not swallowed. There have been no signs of physical illness," Sodexho spokeswoman Leslie Aun said. "We're very sorry this has happened. It is completely unacceptable." The worker was sent home from the school in Hyannis on Cape Cod and is not expected to return to work for another week, Aun said. State health department spokeswoman Roseanne Pawelec characterized the incident as "an unusual accident, but there is really no public health threat here." She said the local health department was investigating the matter. Barnstable County health officials did not return calls seeking comment on Friday. Neither the school's principal or the school district's superintendent returned calls seeking comment. Calling the incident "gross," some students told the Cape Cod Times newspaper they expected to spend their lunch at a local fast food eatery. Others said they would boycott the cafeteria.
— Reuters
NEW YORK:
A federal judge on Friday accepted a guilty plea and imposed a $45 million fine on Sotheby's in a criminal price-fixing case, but deferred final approval of a $512 million class-action settlement for the auction house and its chief rival, Christie's. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed to the $45 million fine proposed by both New York-based Sotheby's Holdings Inc. and prosecutors, even though it fell below minimum federal sentencing guidelines, partly because Sotheby's alone faced criminal charges in the case. "There is no question that a fine of $45 million ... is more than adequate to serve the public interest in punishment and deterrence," Kaplan said. Rival Christie's International Plc cooperated with a government investigation into a price-fixing scheme over commissions that clients were charged, which reached the top echelons of the two art giants, and so did not face criminal charges. Kaplan noted that the public interest was best served by the survival of both auction powerhouses, with either's failure handing the other a near monopoly in the rarefied auction world. Sotheby's said in a statement, "Today's acceptance by the court ... is welcomed by all of Sotheby's employees ... (and) is a very important step in putting this painful matter behind us."
— Reuters
NEW YORK: A US Federal Judge has ruled that calling a woman “Monica Lewinsky” can be considered sexual harassment, in a case the former White House intern reportedly said left her “dismayed”. Judge David Hurd made the landmark Lewinsky ruling in a suit brought against Professor Alex Young by his former student Inbal Hayut, who claimed the teacher created a “sexually hostile environment” by repeatedly calling her “Monica.” The alleged harassment consisted of Young continuously referring to Hayut as “Monica Lewinsky” throughout the fall semester and making comments “associating her with some of Lewinsky’s more notorious conduct,” the Judge wrote in an 18-page decision allowing the suit to proceed. Hayut said young ignored her pleas to stop the name-calling and that the school refused to take any action against the professor. Hayut said she was “overcome with shame and humiliation” and “unable to concentrate.” She later left the school.
— PTI |
co
Need to build quake-resistant
houses AS reports of death and devastation in the wake of the earthquake in Gujarat come in, one thought keeps coming back again and again in my mind: If only the houses had been built to withstand earthquakes, the calamity would not have been of this magnitude. The fact that the parts of Gujarat came under “very high” to “moderate” tremor risk in the seismic zoning map of India was known. There was technology available to render new as well as existing dwelling units, earthquake-resistant. Yet, no efforts were made to contain the damage in case of an earthquake. No lessons obviously were learnt even from the earthquakes that ravaged Uttarkashi and Latur. In fact going by the way some of the recently-constructed high rise buildings in Ahmedabad crumbled, forget earthquake resistant designs, even minimum quality standards have obviously not been always followed. In 1992, the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, had conducted, on behalf of the consumer education and Research Centre, a comprehensive survey of 18 housing complexes built by government, semi-government and private agencies in Ahmedabad. It’s finding was that the criterion for durability was not considered at all during the design and construction stages. The material used and the workmanship adopted were poor in in a majority of the cases. I wonder how these buildings have fared following the earthquake. Now besides contributing to relief and rehabilitation measures in Gujarat, we, as consumers need to pressure governments to enforce mandatory earthquake resistant designs in all new buildings The government should also make it mandatory for all existing structures, including public buildings like educational institutions and hospitals, to be examined by competent structural engineers, so that wherever necessary they can be modified and strengthened to help them withstand tremors. Independent experts, members of residents associations and consumer representatives should be involved in this work to ensure transparency. Beginning with regions that are most prone to earthquake, we need to set a time-frame within which this work is to be completed. Detailed standards drawn up by the Bureau of Indian Standards are available for these purposes. There are detailed standards, guidelines, code of practice, on (a) earthquake-resistant design and construction of building, (b) improving earthquake resistance of low strength masonry buildings, (c) improving earthquake resistance of earthern buildings (d) repair and seismic strengthening of buildings damaged during an earthquake (e) ductile detailing of reinforced concrete structure subject to seismic forces and (f) criteria for earthquake resistant design of structures. However, it would not be easy to get the government to enforce these standards. Already, CPWD officials in Delhi have reportedly raised doubts over the feasibility of enforcement of building codes for earthquake resistance and pointed to an acute shortage of structural engineers. And this is where consumers need to take an active role. There is need to educate consumers on the need for quake-resistant houses so that they can insist on designs that incorporate the BIS standards while constructing houses as well as while buying or renting flats. It is only such pressure that will force builders to pay more attention to safety. The government in turn should make available finance at very low interest rates for individuals to strengthen or re-build housing units. And for those living below the poverty line, a separate fund should be created to build quake-resistant houses. All this will certainly involve considerable expenditure, but it is a small sum compared to the devastation that an earthquake could cause in the absence of such measures. The zoning map, drawn up by a special committee of experts constituted by the BIS has divided the country into four seismic zones based on the seismic intensity; 5, 4, 3 and 2. |
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by A.K. Sachdeva Q. We are engaged in the business of readymade garments in Haryana being a dealer registered under the provisions of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973, and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. A consignment of goods last week was coming from Delhi as a result of a purchase in the course of inter-state trade which has been detained for what is described in the notice transit challan ST-38 is incomplete. As a matter of fact, first part of the inward transit challan which is supposed to be filled in by the consignee is complete but it was a mistake on the part of the consignor of the goods that he did not complete all the particulars of second part of the aforesaid form. The officer detaining the goods proposes to levy penalty under sub-section (6) of Section 37 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 in view of the amendments carried in these provisions. Kindly advise. Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Ambala Ans. IT is true that sub-section (5) & (6) of Section 37 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 has been amended from September 19, 2000 vide the Haryana Act No. 12 of 2000. It is equally correct to say that sub-section (2) of Section 37 obliges a person carrying goods meant for trade to have a challan, as may be prescribed, in addition to cash memorandum or bill of sale or delivery note, as the case may be in support of the consignment. A proviso has been added to sub-section (5) that non-production of challan, duly filled in, as referred to in sub-section (2) of the Section 37, before the checking officer will have a sufficient reason to believe that the person transporting the goods is attempting to evade the tax due under the Act and that the consignment could be detained. Identical proviso has been added to sub-section (6) of Section 37. But levy of penalty under this provision still is not mandatory simply because some of the particulars supposed to be filled in by the consignor have not been attempted. The amendments made in law have only the effect of shifting the burden of proof from revenue to the assessee or any other person carrying the goods. If in your case other documents such as bill of sale or cash memorandum or delivery note, as the case may be, and goods receipt are complete in all respect there is no reason to levy the penalty under sub-section (6) of Section 37 merely on the ground raised by the checking officer. Moreover a consignee cannot be penalised for the fault of a consignor who has nothing to do with the evasion of Haryana Sales Tax. 
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Silicon Valley to raise $ 25 m for quake-hit Web users lose billions from junk e-mail Delta Airlines may merge with Continental |
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Udyog Ratan Award Escotel Mobile TV donated Forex reserves |
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