B U S I N E S S

LIC relaunches pension plans
New Delhi, February 2
LIC of India announced the launch of a new life insurance plan, Jeevan Anand, and the relaunch of its individual pension plans, New Jeevan Akshay, New Jeevan Dhara and Jeevan Suraksha, on February 1.

LML scooter sales slip
New Delhi, February 2
LML said today its scooter sales have dropped by 27.4 per cent in January to 8,361 units from 11,530 units in the year-ago month. Sale of motor cycles also declined by 49 per cent to 4,844 units from 9,499 units, a company spokesperson told PTI.

• Honda Siel Cars sales up

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu with Chairman of New York stock exchange Richard Grasso at the New York trading floor in New York on Friday. — PTI photo

AVIATION NOTES
How Scindia’s plane crashed
THE much delayed report, which is yet to be officially released, blames pilot for the King Air C-90 aircraft crash in which Medhavrao Scindia and other seven others perished at Manipur (Kanpur) in September last year.

Sahara India to spread wings
Lucknow, February 2
Sahara India yesterday announced expansion plans on its 25th foundation day. These include diversifying into areas like tourism, mass communication, health and education.

ICSI lecture held
Chandigarh, February 2
The amendments in SEBI Takeover Regulations have increased the limit of creeping acquisition from 5 to 10 per cent to give a boost to the sagging capital market.

LABOUR LAWS

Workman or supervisor
Praful R. Desai
Q. Whether Labour Court has applied proper test to decide the issue whether the claimant was a workman or supervisor?

SALES TAX ISSUES

A.K. Sachdeva

Q: We are registered as a dealer under the provisions of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 as also under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. Our business activities involve manufacture and sale of machinery of all kinds, their parts and accessories.

LIC relaunches pension plans
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 2
LIC of India announced the launch of a new life insurance plan, Jeevan Anand, and the relaunch of its individual pension plans, New Jeevan Akshay, New Jeevan Dhara and Jeevan Suraksha, on February 1.

Announcing this in New Delhi, Mr C M Bhargav, Zonal Manager, Northern zone, said Jeevan Anand is a combination of the endowment assurance and whole life plans. It provides for the payment of the sum assured and the bonus amount on the survival of the policyholder at the end of the selected term. The risk cover for the full sum assured will, however, continue as long as the policyholder is alive.

His survivors (nominees/legal heirs) will get an amount equal to the sum assured. In case the death takes place during the selected term, the sum assured and the bonus amount accrued till that time will be paid to the nominees/legal heirs and the policy will come to an end.

Mr Bhargav said LIC has also decided to relaunch LIC’s three highly popular pension plans with slight modifications. It may be recalled that the pension plans -New Jeevan Dhara, New Jeevan Akshay and Jeevan Suraksha -were withdrawn in December, 2001. The new pension plans now being launched are New Jeevan Akshay I, New Jeevan Dhara I and New Jeevan Suraksha I.

LML scooter sales slip

New Delhi, February 2
LML said today its scooter sales have dropped by 27.4 per cent in January to 8,361 units from 11,530 units in the year-ago month.

Sale of motor cycles also declined by 49 per cent to 4,844 units from 9,499 units, a company spokesperson told PTI.

LML also sold 146 Trendy scooterettes during the month.

While the scooter sales were flat as compared to 8,319 units sold in December, motor cycles were down by 5.6 per cent over 5,135 units sold in the previous month.

The Kanpur-based company sold 1.05 lakh scooters during April-January 2001-02, a 24.6 per cent dip over 1.39 lakh scooters sold in the same period last fiscal.

Motor cycle sales stood at 38,409 units which are not comparable to 22,525 units sold during September-January 2000-01.

Honda Siel Cars sales up

Honda Siel Cars India has posted a 14.5 per cent rise in sales in January at 974 cars against 850 cars sold in the same month last year.

The sales were also up by 16 per cent as compared to 839 cars sold in December, a company statement said here today.

Sales during April to January this fiscal went up by 4.2 per cent to 8,433 units from 8,087 cars sold in the year- ago period. PTI

AVIATION NOTES
How Scindia’s plane crashed
K.R. Wadhwaney

THE much delayed report, which is yet to be officially released, blames pilot for the King Air C-90 aircraft crash in which Medhavrao Scindia and other seven others perished at Manipur (Kanpur) in September last year.

Apart from pilot’s over-exuberance and over-anxiety, over-loading and bad weather were some other causes that led to the plane disintegrating in mid-air before crashing.

The four-member committee, headed by Capt D.V. Singh, Director, flight safety of Indian Airlines, says that the pilot resorted to manoeuvres in thick cloud formation. The impact of the clouds on the small aircraft was so intense that its tail broke. This caused additional problem to the pilot, who could not control the plane.

As the King Air did not have Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR), it caused investigators some problems to complete their inquiry. According to the committee, it will be beneficial if small aircraft, with merely two engines, are fitted with these mandatory gadgets.

Minister warns

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Shahnawaz Hussain, has warned airline officials that they will be taken to task if they harm the image of the airline. The Civil Aviation Secretary, Mr A.H. Jung, who is also part-time chairman of Air India, has been asked to look into the matter la affaire needless conflict between two senior airline officials.

The minister, upset over the on-going tussle between the two senior officials, has warned officials that internal matters should not be politicised and dragged into public. “It does no good to anyone” the minister has said.

New ILS inadequate

The Rs 50 crore Instruments Landing System (ILS) category III-A has proved inadequate at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). Several national and international flights have been delayed or diverted causing immense loss to the airlines and inconvenience to passengers. This is bad. What is worse is that the system may not be beneficial next winter because majority of pilots are not trained to use category III-A system.

Sahara India to spread wings
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, February 2
Sahara India yesterday announced expansion plans on its 25th foundation day. These include diversifying into areas like tourism, mass communication, health and education.

Addressing newspersons at the Sahara India corporate headquarters, group’s Managing Worker Subrata Roy said: “Sahara Net, our upcoming venture in the field of information technology and e-commerce, is going to be the biggest and the best service network of its kind.”

Announcing a salary rise of 25 to 50 per cent for the employees, Mr Roy said the secret of success of his 16,000-crore company was the “emotional bonding” evolved between the staff members over the past 24 years.

ICSI lecture held
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 2
The amendments in SEBI Takeover Regulations have increased the limit of creeping acquisition from 5 to 10 per cent to give a boost to the sagging capital market.

This was stated by Mr Anil K. Aggarwal, while delivering a lecture on the latest amendments in corporate laws relating to the Investor Education and Protection Fund, public deposits and SEBI Takeover Regulations. The lecture was organised by the Chandigarh chapter of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).

Under the Investor Education and Protection Fund Rules , 2001, the companies are required to transfer all amounts of unclaimed and unpaid dividends , deposits , debentures and securities application money to this fund.

The rules provide for registration of associations and institutions which can organise the programmes the programmes for investor education and can get reimbursement of expenses from this fund.

Mr Mukesh Sharma, chairman of the chapter, and Mr Parveen Gupta, a member of the managing committee of the chapter, were also present on the occasion.

LABOUR LAWS

Workman or supervisor
Praful R. Desai

Q. Whether Labour Court has applied proper test to decide the issue whether the claimant was a workman or supervisor?

Ans: Management of Fenner India Ltd. v Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Madras H.C. held thus.

Having heard the parties and pursued the award, as also the evidence of the witnesses, the H.C. observed, it is clear that the Labour Court has not considered all the evidence that had been placed before it before reaching the conclusion that the claimant before it was a workman and was not a supervisor.

The test, pointed out the H.C. whether the claimant had the power to grant leave to and take disciplinary action against the other workers are wrong tests applied by the Labour Court for deciding as to whether the claimant was a supervisor or a workman.

S.2 (5) of the I.D. Act defines ‘workman’ as including persons performing supervisory work in the category of workman. However, they are excluded from that category, if their monthly salary exceeds the limit prescribed in the definition.

The work performed by a supervisor, clearly is different from the work performed by a Manager. Managers are excluded from the category of workman in the definition itself.

Though the work performed by supervisors and workman, said the H.C., may have some degree of similarity, it is not necessary that a person doing supervisory work should be found not to have been vested with management powers.

The employer had placed before the court the evidence of one of its officials and the claimant himself had admitted that he had been designated as supervisor, that he had received salary in excess of Rs 1600 p m and that there were times when he was placed in full charges.

The impugned order held the H.C., is set aside and the matter is remanded to the Labour Court for fresh disposal in accordance with law. As the matter is an old one the Labour Court was directed to dispose of the same within a period of six months from the date of the receipt of this order.

SALES TAX ISSUES

A.K. Sachdeva

Q: We are registered as a dealer under the provisions of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 as also under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. Our business activities involve manufacture and sale of machinery of all kinds, their parts and accessories. One of our customers based in Uttar Pradesh has recently placed an order with us for the manufacture, erection, supply, installation and commissioning of a plant at their factory site in that State and total consideration agreed to be charged against this transaction amounts to Rs 10,00,000. The question that arises in this context is what will be the true nature of this transaction?

Whether this will be an inter-State sale from Punjab leviable to tax under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 in our State or that it will be considered a local sale within the State of Uttar Pradesh where the plant and machinery is agreed to be supplied, erected and installed? The buyer says they will be deducting TDS (tax deduction at source) under the provisions of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 on total payment of the contract as according to them this transaction constitutes a works contract. Kindly advise.

— R.R. Engineering Co., Ludhiana

Ans: The fact that the transaction involves manufacture, supply, erection, movement of goods from Punjab to Uttar Pradesh and commissioning of plant and machinery can hardly be disputed having regard to the nature of contract. Section 3 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 says where a sale or purchase of goods occasions the movement of goods from one State to another, the transaction so effected would be treated to be a sale in the course of inter-State trade or commerce. Therefore, the transaction sought to be clarified will be an inter-State sale from Punjab. However it has not been clarified as to whether the value agreed to be charged against this contract represents composite price for the execution of this works contract or that price has been determined with reference to the goods agreed to be supplied and labour involved therein separately.

If the terms of the agreement entered into between the parties envisages a works contract composite in nature, this transaction will not be leviable to tax under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 as the definition of the term “sale” under this Act does not include a works contract considering it to be a sale of goods. However if the agreement is to the contrary, then only supply portion will be liable to be taxed under the provisions of Section9(1) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.

As far as the provisions of U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 are concerned, the same have no application to this transaction and that the buyer of Uttar Pradesh is not obliged to deduct any TDS (tax deduction at source) against this transaction for the simple reason that this does not involve any works contract within the State of U.P. alone.

BIZ BRIEFS

BoB rates
New Delhi, February 2
Bank of Baroda today announced higher interest rates on short-term domestic deposits by 25 to 50 basis points from February 4. For deposits of up to Rs 15 lakh, BoB will offer 5.5 per cent interest for 15 to 45 days, 6.25 per cent for 46 to 90 days, 6.5 per cent for 91 to 180 days, 6.75 per cent for 181 to 270 days, 7 per cent for 271 days to less than one year, 7.75 per cent for one year to less than two years, 7.75 per cent for two years to less than three years and 8 per cent for three years. UNI

Forex reserves
Mumbai, February 2
India’s foreign exchange reserves have increased by $ 27 million at $ 49,252 million, a record high, during the week ended January 25, 2002. In the previous week, the foreign exchange reserves had swelled by $ 298 million to cross the $ 49 billion mark. PTI

UGS 10,000
Mumbai, February 2
UGS 10,000, the first interval and MNC fund of UTI will reopen for sale and repurchase from February 4 to 11, 2002. The NAV of the fund as on January 30, 2002 was Rs 10.22. UNI