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Friday,
March 30, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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PSIDC caught lying about losses
‘Allow sugar joint ventures in Punjab’ SBI gets licence for life insurance
TRIBUNE
SPECIAL |
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Pepsi to expand Channo plant Rs15 cr for
Food Park at Fatehgarh Sahib Indian exports grow 20 pc Honda to launch
600 cc scooter Ericsson to set up developers zone
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PSIDC caught lying about losses Chandigarh, March 29 This indictment has come following the observation that the PSIDC showed a loss of Rs 28.74 crore for 1999-2000, whereas the actual net loss was Rs 181.04 crore. In fact the corporation continues to be recalcitrant. It had incurred a loss of Rs 20.35 crore in1998-99, though, the “true and correct” loss was Rs 48.16 crore, as per the audited balance sheet, despite its efforts to reduce it. The auditors, while pointing out the causes of the difference of Rs 27.81 crore for 1998-99, had concluded that the losses were due to “inefficiency” with the corporation trying to reduce the same by making adjustments against the accounting principles in profit and loss account, thereby, reducing losses from Rs 48.16 crore to Rs 20.35 crore. It is a replay of such machination and manouvering in 1999-2000.The main observation of the auditors was that the PSIDC showed “fictitious sale” of shares of Punjab Tractors Ltd for Rs 56.25 crore, the cost of which was only Rs 6.51 crore. Thus the corporation booked profit of Rs 498.73 crore by showing sale of these shares to Punjab State Electronic Development and Production Corporation to show less loss during the year. Interestingly, the PSIDC gave “unsecured loans” amounting to Rs 11.33 crore to Punjab Wireless, Rs 16.02 crore to Punjab Wireless Mobile Communication and Rs 34 lakh to Punjab Wireless Systems. These accounts were doubtful of recovery and provision of Rs 24.92 crore was less made for these doubtful loans. Thus the loss was understated to the extent of Rs 24.92 crore on this account as well. Insiders in the PSIDC told TNS that the auditors have “disclaimed” to form any opinion on the working of the corporation as they were not in a position to properly vouch for the transactions by the corporation. The corporation gave Rs 7.08 crore as loans in lieu of equity and these were not recoverable from various companies, the audit report observed. The provision of this loss, Rs 7.08 crore, was not made and accordingly the loss to that extent was understated. The PSIDC also did not write off investment in various companies under liquidation. Such amount was Rs 55.92 crore. Thus, the loss during the year under audit report remained understated. The investment of Rs 14.63 crore made in share applications of various companies under liquidation was not written off and thus the loss during 1999-2000 was understated to that extent. There were many other irregularities as well in the accounts and functioning of the PSIDC reported by the statutory auditors in their report of March 7, 2001 for the year ending March 31, 2000. Last year also, 1999-2000, the corporation had shown less loss through manipulation of the accounts. Of government’s own admission, as stated by the Finance Minister, Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, in his March 19 Budget speech, the role of the public sector undertakings needed to be redefined and huge investments made, therein, unlocked to channel the same for productive works. The returns to the state from the PSUs were poor. Accordingly, at least 10 have been referred to the state disinvestment commission for review and folding up.
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‘Allow sugar joint ventures in Punjab’ Chandigarh, March 29 At a meeting of the National Federation of Co-operative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) the Federation emphasised that the government should release funds to convert sugar mills into sugarcane processing units which can thus focus on production of electricity, setting up of distilleries to produce rectified spirit and other by-products rather than producing only sugar. The Federation also demanded creation of one million tonne buffer stock, exemption of excise duty on total production and molasses and also to treat sugar industry as an agro-processing industry. It is learnt that representatives of sugar industry in Punjab have asked the government to grant permission for joint ventures at some places, including Morinda, Nakodar, Nawanshahr. Given these JVs permitted each factory would be able to produce seven to eight mega watts of electricity. “This would mean 30-35 mega watts of additional electricity. However, the present act does not permit joint ventures for co-operatives”, said a member. The members have also asked the government to permit licence in some units for manufacture of country liquor, which they said would turn many loss making units into profitable ones. While talking to the newspersons here, Mr J.B. Patel, Chairman, Sahkari Khand Udyog Mandal said that the emphasis was to impress upon the farmers of Punjab to grow quality sugarcane in consultation with the sugar industry. The Federation also said that the government should identify sick units in the region and revive only those which have the potential for the same. The producers need to upgrade and produce refined sugar which can add to the exports of the country, said Mr Patel. “Even if 10 per cent of the sugar produced is refined, we will be able to export atleast 1.8 million tonnes and capture demand from east Europe too”, stated a member. Other demands put forward by the Federation included creation of buffer stock of one million tonnes owing to excess production and an incentive scheme for the factories. In order to facilitate easy procurement of funds from banks and financial institutions, the sugar industry should be placed as agro-processing industry, it was demanded.
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SBI gets licence for life insurance New Delhi, March 29 “The licence has come,” SBI Deputy Managing Director R. Krishna Murthy told reporters while emerging from the office of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), whose approval is necessary for venturing into the insurance sector. The proprosed SBI Life Insurance Company Limited will have an initial paid up capital of Rs 175 crore, with SBI holding 74 per cent equity and joint venture partner, Cardiff SA of France, the remaining 26 per cent, he said. The venture, to be known as SBI Life in short, will be launching a “wide range of products (policies)” for which it will be filing its application with IRDA in the next few days, Mr Krishna Murthy said. Parke Davis sale Parke Davis (India) today
announced that it has completed the sale of its site at Saki Naka near Andheri in North West Mumbai for a total consideration of Rs 49.3 crore. The site, admeasuring about 52,000 sq metres, was sold to A-Class Builders and Developers Limited owned by Mr Shobhit Rajan and Mr Alnoor Jamal. The developers have a joint development agreement with Tata Housing Development Corporation Limited and the transaction has been financially assisted by ICICI. Essel
Packaging Subhash Chandra promoted Essel Packaging plans to commence tubing operations in Mexico with the acquisition of tubing lines and printing machinery from Masterpak. The company has also decided to appoint Berhard Schwyn as a Director on its board, it informed Bombay Stock Exchange in a notice here today. The company had also intimated that it proposes to change its name to Essel Propack Ltd., consequent to merger with Propack. Tata Telecom Tata Industries today paid Rs 18.5 crore to Tata Telecom towards the cost of carrying Tatafone as its division over the past few years. The Tatafone division became a part of Tata Telecom effective April 1, 1995, pursuant to the amalgamation of Tata Keltron Limited (a joint sector company promoted by Tata Industries and Kerala State Electronic Development Corporation) with Tata Telecom under a rehabilitation-cum-amalgamation/merger scheme sanctioned by BIFR. DSP Merrill Lynch DSP Merrill Lynch posted 12 per cent higher net profit for the nine month period ended December 31,2000 at Rs 493 million. According to the audited results for the nine months period announced today, the total revenue also moved up by 22 per cent to Rs 1,799 million. The Board of Directors recommend a dividend of Rs 5 per equity share and also an additional
special silver jubilee year dividend of Rs 5 per equity share on the enhance equity share capital, following the issue of
bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1 approved in January 2001. Modis’ open offer The Modis are making an open offer to acquire 35 per cent of the outstanding equity share capital of their flagship — Modi Rubber Ltd, (MRL). This acquisition constituting 35 per cent of the outstanding equity share capital and voting rights of the company was proposed to be made at a price of Rs 80 per share payable in cash. HDFC Mutual Fund HDFC Mutual Fund has declared a dividend of 7.25 per cent for its ‘Liquid Fund’ under its weekly
dividend option for the week ended March, 2001. The record date for the dividend was on March 27. IPCL IPCL is targetting a net profit of Rs 400 crore from production of 13.50 lakh tonnes in 2001-02. The company has been put up for disinvestment by the government is also targetting a sales of 13.35 lakh tonnes.
PTI,
UNI |
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TRIBUNE
SPECIAL Chandigarh, March 29 According to sources, in case of arc and induction furnaces and general large supply load users, using more than one megawatt department has divided all the industries into two parts. Those located at Jalandhar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Amritsar city and suburban, Patiala , Sangrur, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Khanna and Ropar will be supplied power on March 29 and 30, April 2,3,6,7,10 and 11. For industries in Ludhiana east, Ludhiana west, Ludhiana suburban, Nawanshahr, Mohali, Kapurthala, Ferozepur, Muktsar and Faridkot, power will be supplied on March 31, April 1, 4, 5, 8 and 9. In case of industrial units using less than one megawatt there will be two week off days . The officials in the PSEB say that the situation will continue at least till the second week of April. Earlier, the PSEB had decided to stop power supply to the steel units for 10 days. The latest decision will provide some relief to the steel industry which had closed for two days following power cuts and the mini steel plants and induction furnaces ( which had stopped operations for last two days due to power cut) , located largely in Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh will re-open. However, the prices of steel which have already risen due to the existing shortage are likely to continue the upward march, say the industrialists . “It is at least better than the earlier decision of not supplying power to our units for so many days at stretch, which would have virtually killed this industry”, said Mr R P Bhatia, Senior Vice-President , All India Induction Furnace Association and Zonal Chairman of Steel and Re-rolling Mills Association of India. The ongoing power crisis in the state has hit this industry badly which consists of five mini steel plants(four in Ludhiana and one at Mandi Gobindgarh) and more than 200 induction furnaces. Due to the closure of the plants, traders have increased the raw materials’ prices. Since many units including automobile and fastener depend on the steel industry for the supply of raw material, the entire chain of industries has been disturbed. “Prices have risen by as high as Rs 1,000 per metric tonne. The impact is not going to subside even after several weeks when the normal supply will resume” , said Mr A. L. Aggarwal , President, Chandigarh Industrial Fasteners Association. Though the department has decided to provide relief to this industry, the manufacturers are suffering due to the shortage. “We will not be able to supply the material well in time , which would have an extremely adverse impact on our credibility apart from the losses which we are forced to bear”, said Mr Amarjit Goyal of Modern Steels who is also the Chairman, Punjab Committee , PHDCCI. Reportedly, the units in the state manufacture and process more than 10,000 metric tonnes per day of different forms of steel of which nearly 50 per cent is supplied to units in Punjab only. “We will have to spend more than Rs 2 lakh a day on overheads even when the unit remains closed”, said Mr D .K. Sindhwani of Vardhman Special Steels at Ludhiana. He said that these units are supplying material to companies like Telco, Maruti etc which will procure material from suppliers in other states which may result in permanent loss of client for these entrepreneurs. Regarding the recent decision of the PSEB, the industrialists said that they were slightly relieved though they will still have to bear losses in terms of reduced sales, expenses on salaries, overheads, fixed expenses and loss of goodwill.”However, the nature of our units is such that a closer after every two days would also amount to heavy losses”, Mr Sindhwani stated. |
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Cola war goes beyond gimmicks New Delhi, March 29 Promo and sales campaigns have turned bitter and battle has already reached court rooms. Pepsi fired the first salvo by roping in Shah Rukh Khan as its brand ambassador in an apparent response to Coke’s own promo star — the latest Bollywood hearthrob Hrithik Roshan. Pepsi’s ad features Shah Rukh being spurned by an adolescent girl for a Hrithik lookalike, only to later find out that he had ugly teeth. Pepsi freak Shah Rukh eventually turned out to be the right choice for the girl. The television commercial, which set the tone for a one-on-one negative promotional campaign among the cola majors, was later withdrawn when it was termed to be in bad taste by Hrithik’s father Rakesh Roshan. Meanwhile, Thums Up, a popular cola brand under Coca Cola, kicked off a campaign anchored by another Bollywood star — Salman Khan. The punch of this commerical was on ‘growing up to the taste of Thums Up’, with Salman asking teenagers to taste and select a drink of their choice (between Thums Up and another drink with an initial P) and spell out reasons thereof. The campaign goes on to show that the other drink was ‘sweet’ and therefore conformed to the blend of taste preferred by children. In a strong reaction to this commercial, Pepsi hired popular television VJ, Cyrus Broacha, who gimmicks a physically grown up but psychologically immatured ‘child’ seeking to grow up by gulping down a drink called ‘Grown Up’. Eventually, the ‘child’ grows up by gulping down a bottle of Pepsi. As Pepsi and Coke continued to throw mud at each other, Sprite came out with a peppy campaign with the punch line: ‘Dikhawa hai waste; Go by the taste’. As the subtle attacks continued, Pepsi today came out with a no-holds-barred full page ad which says that more people preferred Pepsi than Thums Up or Coke according to a market research survey. Pepsi has reportedly sent legal notices to rival Coke. “We have sent another legal notice to Coke objecting to distortion of our trademark globe in the Sprite advertisement”, Executive Director (Marketing ) of Pepsi Food, Vibha Rishi has been quoted as saying. Coca Cola, on the other hand, has warned Pepsi to stop harassment or face strict legal action. “They know they (Pepsi) cannot fight us in the consumer market, so they are harassing us by making misleading media claims,” officials in the Coca Cola said. The rivalry has grown so much that a newspaper has chosen to conduct an Internet poll asking visitors to their site to select their favourite among the three drinks. While ad honchos delve deeper into their creative cells to produce racy, punchy, jazzy and flashy campaigns, the king consumer, however, will have the last word about the ‘right’ choice. |
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Pepsi to expand Channo plant Chandigarh, March 29 Mr P.M. Sinha, President, Pepsi Foods Ltd, said today ‘Pepsi and its partner have invested over Rs 150 crore in the state. Over 8,000 people have been directly and indirectly employed through PepsiCo’s three business in Punjab. Thousands of farmers are involved in contract farming for various crops grown by them for Pepsi. The soft drinks concentrate plant, which has been built with an additional investment of Rs 22 crore supplies concentrate to 46 bottling plants of PepsiCo in South Asia. PepsiCo has set up two agri Research and Development (R&D) farms in Punjab — one at Jallowal near Jalandhar and another at Channo, which not only do field trials for various fruits, vegetables and other crops but also prepare nursery for tomato, chilli, potato, basmati rice and seeds for groundnut. Pepsi’s nursery operations in Jallowal produces over 60 million transplants, mainly of tomato and chilli every year. Over 30 per cent of the requirement of potatoes for the snack food plant are met from the potato nursery at Channo. Pepsi has commenced setting up contract farming operations for groundnut, with a view to reintroducing this crop in Punjab. Pepsi plans to set up a groundnut processing facility. |
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Rs15 cr for
Food Park at Fatehgarh Sahib Chandigarh, March 29 Mr Ghungrana informed that for this Food Park, the Punjab Government will contribute Rs 5 crore while the Union Government has sanctioned a grant-in-aid of Rs 4 crore and a loan to Rs 6.10 crore is being raised from NABARD. In addition to this Food Park, two more such Parks are being set up in Punjab, which will facilitate in bringing about diversification in the crops. Good quality seed and sapling of vegetables like sweet peas, cauliflower, sweet corn, baby corn, cabbage, capsicum etc. shall be developed at these Parks and supplied to the farmers.
Indian exports grow 20 pc New Delhi, March 29 The annual report of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry shows that the exports have more than doubled from 17.9 billion in 1991-92.
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Honda to launch 600 cc scooter Tokyo, March 29 The move reflects rising demand for super-powerful scooters at home and abroad, with industry data showing a jump in consumer appetite for motorcycle-strength vehicles. In Japan, sales of large scooters rose to 22,900 units in calendar 2000, compared with 17,000 in 1999, 15,000 in 1995 and 8,000-9,000 in 1994. Honda, Japan’s second-biggest automaker, aims to sell 3,000 Silver Wing scooters priced at 749,000 yen ($6,125) in the home market during the first year of production. In Europe, it hopes to sell 10,000.
Reuters
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Ericsson to set up developers zone Mumbai, March 29 “We expect to start this facility within three months and are talking to four to five developers for partnering Ericsson for such a zone”, Rohit Chandra, Vice-President, marketing and technical solutions, Ericsson Communications Ltd, told newspersons here today at the 3G (third generation) Tour Transcontinental on air show.
PTI
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Indian on Coke’s advisory body Boy collapses after games Korean police, workers clash India not to be hurt by slowdown Bankruptcies in Silicon Valley |
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Pinnacle card Baisakhi cards IRDA norms PHF Leasing Harish Kapoor |
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