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Wednesday,
September 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India
  
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IOC
shelves Panipat expansion plan
Internet
show to begin today Sugar
stocks pile up MRTPC
exonerates Colgate Palmolive Bharti
Televentures IPO put on hold SEBI for
quarterly disclosure by MFs |
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Furniture
industry in the doldrums Doaba
Coop Sugar gets national award ‘Lipton
loot’
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IOC shelves Panipat expansion plan New Delhi, September 25 IOC Chairman M.A. Pathan, who presented the company’s annual results here today, said the investment plans for the expansion of the refinery had been shifted to the Tenth Plan (2002-2007) from the Ninth Plan. He said the 4 per cent Local Area Development Tax on crude oil brought into Haryana had resulted in an outgo of Rs 57 crore on the existing refinery. Once the capacity is doubled, the burden of the impost would be an additional Rs 253 crore or a total of around Rs 320 crore. At a time when the refinery margins are dwindling, at present it is at an all-time low of 30 cents per barrel, the additional tax would make the project financially unviable, company officials explained. Talks are on with the Haryana Government and there are indications that something is being done on that front. “Unless it happens, we cannot say anything about the expansion project”, an official said. It was pointed out the design for the refinery expansion project, estimated at Rs 3,365 crore, has been completed and even bids for construction had been received. IOC was
however, not going ahead with contracts as it wanted the Haryana Government to decide on the tax issue first. Mr Pathan also admitted that in the backdrop of sluggish economic growth in the country, the demand for petroleum products, especially diesel and naptha, was not growing as expected and there was excess of refining capacity in the country. However, the slowdown was not expected to continue for long and the expansion plans were based on the long-term growth and demand estimates. Mr Pathan said it takes time for a refinery project to be taken up and completed and going by the outlook India would need increasing supplies of petroleum products to sustain economic growth. The Chairman explained the IOC has a investments review committee which reviews the investment plans on a time to time basis. On the financial results of the company during 2000-2001, Mr Pathan said the country’s only Fortune 500 company achieved 20.4 per cent growth in its turnover and has become India’s first organisation to cross the Rs 100,000 crore sales turnover. The sales turnover of the IndianOil increased from Rs 94,141 crore during the previous year to Rs 113,327 crore for the year under review. The profit after tax registered a healthy growth of 11.3 per cent from Rs 2,443 crore to Rs 2,720 crore during 2000-01. The earnings per share increased from Rs 31.38 to Rs 34.94. The Corporation has declared dividend of 95 per cent as against 75 per cent of the previous year. IndianOil refineries achieved record crude throughput of 33.22 million tonnes during the year under review, surpassing the previous best of 32.42 million tonnes in 1999-2000. Mr Pathan said an expenditure of about Rs 13,600 crore was anticipated for projects in the Ninth Plan period and an outlay of Rs 33,700 crore had been proposed for the Tenth Plan period. On the corporation’s marketing tie-up with Reliance Petroleum, Mr Pathan said the arrangement was worked out in in the administered price mechanism regime. The equations would change once the APM is dismantled and the two sides are studying the arrangement.
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Internet show to begin today New Delhi, September 25 The three-day show is taking place for the fourth year in a row, said Pradeep Kar, Chairman and Managing Director of Microland group, which is organising the event. This year the focus would be on emerging opportunities in area of convergence, CRM, security and wireless. A key highlight of this year’s show will be the co-located events ISPCON/ASPCON focusing on the Internet infrastructure and business strategies for service providers. Mr Pradeep Kar said the conference agenda at the event would provide interaction platform where the local user community can benefit from a dialogue with their international peers. And, for the first time the USA is participating in the event as a partner country. Frank Foster, Deputy Commercial Counselor of the USA embassy here, said “we have committed to partner country status because we believe IIW provides a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate the technology leadership of US companies in the Internet industry.” “As companies worldwide seek to improve operating efficiencies and competitiveness, most often they turn to US-bred Internet technologies. Global competition is fierce. For this reason, we believe this is a perfect time to highlight the benefits of rational, thoughtfully focussed investment in technologies that support core business goals,” he added. The conference programme will consist of nine keynotes and over 80 session conducted by practitioners and specialists and will address a spectrum of technology, business and marketing issues.
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Sugar stocks pile up New Delhi, September 25 According to the President of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd, Dr M.R. Desai, the massive stock of sugar during this year and prospects of fairly large production during 2001-02 is scaring as India would be having more than three times of normal safety level of opening stocks. Addressing the annual general body meeting of the Federation, Dr Desai said the need of the hour was to create a buffer stock without any further delay as the next year’s opening stock was likely to be around 11.7 million tonnes which should be sufficient to meet the internal requirements for at least ten months. He said there were two options to tide over the crisis of plenty. The first option was to increase domestic consumption and the other was to increase sugar export. However, sugar exports were not feasible as the international price of sugar was low as compared to the internal price and this had discouraged sugar factories from exporting sugar. He said the government should either revise the Sugar Export Promotion Act 1958 or bring in a new Act. The government can also reimburse freight upto ports which was allowed under WTO provision. Dr Desai urged the government to give priority sector status to the sugar industry, on the lines of the food processing sector, as the contact between agriculture and industry was very close. The priority sector status to the sugar industry would partly solve the sugar industry’s problem as they would be able to make faster payments to the sugarcane farmers. He said the excise duty of Rs 500 per tonne on molasses was very high as many sugar factories were not even realising the amount from the sale of molasses. Dr Desai said the government order making it compulsory for the sugar industry to pack its production in gunny bags was putting an unnecessary burden. He said the use of alternate packing material should be allowed. He also urged the government to encourage sugar factories to generate power for grid as there is shortage of power in almost all the states.
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MRTPC exonerates Colgate Palmolive
New Delhi, September 25 Disposing the complaint filed by Director General (Investigation and Registration), Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) Chairman C.M. Nayar and member R.L. Sudhir said “The avertments made against Colgate Palmolive, as set out in the notice of enquiry and the subsequent evidence which have been led by the parties, do not indicate any restrictive trade practice or the alleged restriction of competition and alleged imposition of unjustified cost on consumers.” The bench further observed that the complaint was pending before the commission since 1986 and the notice of enquiry was issued back in 1988. “It will also not be necessary to adjudicate the matter in view of the change of scenario in sale and purchase of the goods,” the bench said while disposing of the notice of enquiry issued by the commission
earlier. The complainant also alleged that there were tie-up of various articles with the Colgate Dental Powder and Dental cream with a view to promote sale of slow moving items.
PTI
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Bharti Televentures IPO put on hold New Delhi, September 25 “We have to hold the IPO now, in view of the September 11 attacks in Washington and New York,” Rajan Bharti Mittal, Joint Managing Director of Bharti told reporters on the sidelines of a conference for “Global Telecom Summit” here. Stating that Bharti Televentures would closely observe the events in the coming few weeks to assess the market conditions, Mittal said the company itself was ready for the IPO. The company was earlier planning to file its offer document with SEBI this month, for its over $ 200 million IPO. The shareholding pattern of Bharti Televentures has 54 per cent stake with Bharti Telecom, 18 per cent equity with SingTel, 21 per cent with Warbug Pincus and the balance with other investors. The company has appointed Morgan Stanley and Merryll Lynch as the lead managers for the proposed issue. Mittal said: “The US event has overtaken a lot of things and one now has to look at the future course of events before taking a decision.” He, however, ruled out any private placement of equity to raise funds in view of the IPO plans being put on hold. The Bharti group recently received additional equity investment of $ 460 million from various global partners, including $ 200 million each from Singapore Telecom and Warbug Pincus. In the latest round, Bharti had also attracted funds from other key investors such as AIF Funds Management which invested $ 35 million, IFC which put in $ 20 million and New York Life with $ 5 million. Services in MP “We expect to start cellular services in Madhya Pradesh by December this year,” Rajan Bharti said. The company already has a strong network and infrastructure in place in the state and hence cellular services could be started within the next two months. Bharti currently offers basic services in Madhya Pradesh. Bharti emerged as the lead player winning eight circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, UP (West), Haryana and Gujarat for the fourth cellular slot in 17 circles, taking its total bid amount to Rs 609.69 crore. The company currently operates its cellular services in various circles, including Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Karanataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai and Kolkata.
PTI
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SEBI for quarterly disclosure by MFs New Delhi, September 25 The Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI) expects the move to increase the cost of operations of mutual funds but is not averse to adopting the SEBI directives, top officials said today. “We are going to discuss the issue of quarterly disclosure of mutual funds with SEBI. We are open to it,” AMFI Chairman A.P. Kurian said. Although AMFI was not in favour of increasing costs unnecessarily, he said, “we stand for greater disclosure.” In line with SEBI directive, AMFI has initiated steps to improvise the format in which mutual funds disclose their informations, including that of industry classifications, portfolio holding of company shares in descending order of total value of holding, non-performing assets by October-November 2001. “As part of efforts for further improvement over the SEBI format, we have asked all mutual funds to disclose their holding in the same manner,” Kurian said. For industry classification, AMFI has asked Standard and Poors to come up with a methodology based on global industrial classifications. The classification is expected to be ready by October-November, Kurian said. “Mutual funds in India are expected to upgrade disclosures to global standards and adopt the best practices,” he added. Mutual funds would also be asked to mandatorily disclose the extent of non-performing assets in their entire portfolio. AMFI had constituted a committee under Rajiv Vij, CEO of Templeton, to work out the format for a uniform disclosure and industrial classification. The initiatives are part of imparting transparency in the mutual funds segment especially after the market crash in March this year. SEBI had earlier made it mandatory for companies to disclose their financial results on a quarterly basis. Insurance companies are also required to file their results every three months as per the norms laid down by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.
PTI |
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Furniture industry in the doldrums Kartarpur, September 25 The furniture industry of
Kartarpur, also known as one of the biggest and finest such centres in Punjab and north India, is one such example. The town came to real life ever 80 years ago. As Daljeet Singh, a furniture manufacturer, explains, "Sometime between1915-20, the residents of this town — our forefathers — received an order from Lahore to make four chairs. When these chairs were sent to Lahore, the work was highly appreciated by everyone and gradually more and more orders began to come in. Within a matter of days, a huge furniture market was established here." Today, 60 per cent of Kartarpur's population is employed in various branches of wood furniture manufacture. A large number of the skilled artisans are Muslims, who migrated here from Pakistan and neighbouring states. There are some 400 units here — mostly small and medium scale in size. These units cut, shape, carve and polish the wood into furniture articles. Interestingly, the industry has burgeoned despite the fact that Punjab does not have many sources of wood. The state still depends on Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for high quality stuff. Even today, about 100 tonnes of teak, sheesham and rosewood are brought from these states. Until a few years ago, Kartarpur furniture industry had a good market abroad. Sales were high, with exports to the UK, the USA and Europe touching record levels. But today, because of falling sales and production, the new generation is looking elsewhere for employment. The youngsters are not interested in learning the work because of the decline in business as well as popularity of Kartarpur's furniture.
ANI
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Doaba Coop Sugar
gets national award New Delhi, September 25 The mills bagged three awards for technical efficiency, financial management and cane development for the season 2000-01, at a function here this evening. This is the first time that a sugar mill has bagged three awards in a single year. The awards were presented at a glittering function by V. Shreenivasa Prasad, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. The awards were received by S.S. Brar, secretary cooperation, Punjab, Sardar Pritam Singh Kaunta, chairman, Sugarfed, Jagjit Puri, managing director,
Sugarfed. |
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‘Lipton loot’ Chandigarh, September 25 Ms Anita Paul from Ludhiana has been declared as one of the lucky bumper prize winners. The company has decided to increase the number of bumper prize winners following the tremendous response from the consumers, said Mr Amit Dutta, Marketing Manager-Beverages, Hindustan Lever Limited. |
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Su-Kam inverter HSBC Premier STG bags orders Philips projector LG Electronics EIL pays 67 pc |
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