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Saturday,
March 16, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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OPEC
agrees to cap oil output Reduce
sales tax on cell phones: panel Commercial
telephone rentals hiked |
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China
drags USA to WTO on steel tariffs REACTION
Merrill
Lynch shuts 19 branches
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OPEC agrees to cap oil output
Vienna, March 15 The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is seeking to cement the price of its export basket in a $22-$28 a barrel range and wait for a global economic revival to lift crude demand. "The price has only just entered the lower end of our band and we hope it moves higher as the economy recovers," said Venezuelan Oil Minister Alvaro Silva. Oil prices have risen sharply in recent weeks after a fourth quarter slump, spurred higher by signs of an economic upturn and fears that the USA might target OPEC member Iraq for military action. Ministers, planning to meet again in mid-June, are sending mixed signals about their policy intentions for the second half of the year. "OPEC has to strike a delicate balance between providing a growing world economy with sufficient oil without force feeding it and risking weaker prices," said Gary Ross of New York consultancy PIRA Energy. "But history shows that it tends to fall behind the curve, undersupplying the market during periods of rising economic activity and growing demand. And that forces prices up." Cartel price hawks see no reason to raise output until prices reach $28 for their basket, equivalent to at least $30 for benchmark U.S. light crude. That is $5 above the $18-$25 comfort zone for U.S. oil signalled last week to OPEC power Saudi Arabia by U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. U.S. light crude eased 15 cents in early electronic trade on Friday to $24.41 a barrel. "My hunch is that we will not see enough economic growth such that we will need to increase production in June," said Algeria's Oil Minister Chakib Khelil "We have a range of $22-$28, so why should we raise if it is not above $28?" added OPEC President Rilwanu Lukman. Saudi stocks key
But OPEC's biggest and most influential producers appear prepared to prevent prices spiralling out of control and hurting an economic rebound. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said OPEC could lift output if inventories started to drain while his Iranian counterpart Bijan Zanganeh said he hoped economic growth would prove sufficient to allow extra output in the third quarter. "We are looking at satisfactory international stock levels. When we see that they start to decline we might take a decision to increase production," Naimi told Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat. "My impression is that both the Iranians and the Saudis are inclined towards raising output some time during the second half of the year," said a senior delegate from another Gulf country. "If they don't want a repeat of 2000 when the prices ran out of control they will have to increase in the third quarter by at least another million barrels a day," said Roger Diwan of Washington consultancy Petroleum Finance Corp. OPEC restrictions limit 10 member nations to 21.7 million barrels daily, leaving more than five million barrels a day of idle capacity on the 75 million bpd world market.
Reuters
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Reduce sales tax on cell phones: panel Chandigarh, March 15 “Mobile handsets have been categorised as a convergent product and are enlisted in the Union List of IT products, which has applicable sales tax at a uniform rate of 4 per cent. However, in these states, the handsets attract a sales tax of 12 per cent”, said Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, President, Indian Cellular Association. “The duty rationalisation will help in creating a conducive market environment in the states, which is currently dominated by illegal market operators. It will lead to better customer experience and increase the state government’s revenue collection”. While Punjab and Chandigarh together lose over Rs 10 crore annually with a market of over 2.15 lakh handsets, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh lose over Rs 2.84 crore and Rs 1.09 crore respectively. With the rationalisation of sales tax from 12 per cent to 4 per cent the price differential between the illegal market and genuine handsets will decrease reducing the share of illegal mobile handset markets. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have already implemented the uniform sales tax of 4 per cent.
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Commercial telephone rentals hiked New Delhi, March 15 TRAI has, however, not effected any change in phone rentals for non-commercial subscribers. The new tariffs will be effective from April 1, 2002. Urban subscribers in a telephone exchange with a capacity of up to 29,999 lines would have to pay a monthly rental of Rs 160 per month as against the present Rs 120 per month. Similarly, for exchange capacity of 30,000 to 99,999 lines, the commercial subscribers would have to pay Rs 220 per month as against Rs 180 at persent. For telephone exchanges with capacity of over one lakh, subscribers would have to pay Rs 310 per month as against Rs 250 currently. In case of rural commercial subscribers, monthly rental in telephone exchanges with capacity up to 999 has been increased from Rs 70 per month currently to Rs 120 per month. Commercial subscribers in rural areas with exchange capacity between 1000 and 29999 would pay a monthly rental of Rs 160 per month; those in exchanges with capacity between 30,000-99,999 would pay Rs 220 per month, and those in exchanges with capacity of over one lakh would pay Rs 310 per month. While the non-commercial urban subscribers would continue to get 60 free calls per month, the free calls for commercial subscribers have now been revised to 30.
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China drags USA to WTO on steel tariffs
Beijing, March 15 The Chinese government has proposed to the WTO that consultations should be held with the USA on the recent decision to impose quotas or raise tariffs on steel imports, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) said in a statement here. The Chinese government made the appeal in accordance with the WTO rules and requested the US side to decide the time and site for consultations as soon as possible, it said. China was “deeply shocked” by the Bush Administration’s three-year package plan that imposes tariff quota limits and slaps hefty tariffs of up to 30 per cent on a range of steel imports, which was issued on March 5. “This decision not only goes against the WTO rules, but also will have a serious impact on China’s normal steel exports to the USA, hence causing huge losses to the steel makers of China,” the statement said. MOFTEC Minister Shi Guangsheng had said on Tuesday: “we are closely following the development of the situation, and the Chinese side will retain its rights to further reaction, including appeal to the WTO trade dispute mechanism.” Relevant businesses and trade unions in China have strongly reacted to the US decision, asking the government to take responsive measures, Xinhua news agency said. The Chinese Government made the appeal in accordance with WTO rules, and requested the US side to decide the time and site for consultations as soon as possible, the MOFTEC statement said.
PTI
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REACTION The Budget proposals of the Finance Minister have disappointed almost all categories of the society to more or less extent, but the salaried class has been disappointed more than anyone else. The proposals of income tax for the salaried class give the messages as follows: 1) It gives very loud and clear message that Yashwant Sinha is anti-middle class and for the rich people only. 2) He is totally against the salaried class. 3) Perhaps he considers government employees only to be the culprit for deficit budgeting and he wants the salaried class to compensate for the same by tightening their belts. 4) He also wants the salaried people to be corrupt and grab the opportunity to convert the black income into white. Perhaps it suits the government. But what about those poor people who do not have the chance to earn from bribes and especially those who are bound by their conscience to be honest? 5) He also wants that those people who pay the Income Tax (& who unfortunately constitute less than 3 per cent of the total) should own the responsibility to contribute for those people too who earn a lot of profits and are eligible to pay Income Tax but since their income can be hidden so they do not pay tax. 6) He wants that people should either become corrupt or suffer. Moreover the salaried people get jobs only after attaining good and costly educational qualifications besides technical skills and thus the minister taxes them for the same too. 7) Besides, the salaries of all government officers (employees) are fixed by the respective governments after considering the qualifications/experience, etc., following central pattern to much extent, and in turn, the government taxes them at its own will, whereas people earning huge profits and having big possessions, evade the taxes. Salary is not income of any profit; rather it is merely the cost of salt. There is no justification in taxing the government employees in the manner they are being taxed. Even the DA paid as compensation for increase in rates of the commodities is taxed. It is all injustice to the employees. 8) The government seems to be more concerned about the working women whether single or married. They are exempted net income tax of Rs 5000 irrespective of the fact whether single or married, whereas the men have to pay tax for the unearning spouse too. Double earning people are doubly benefited. Single earning men are not given any relief for their wives; it implies that the Finance Minister is not at all concerned about non-earning women. Is it not injustice towards non-earning women? I feel that the step of Finance Minister to tax the salaried class to this extent is like imposing ‘Jazia’, imposed by the Muslim rulers on the Hindus. It gives a strong feeling that intelligent people should never opt for government jobs. It also shows inability of the Finance Minister to take out black money from the business community. It is matter of great shame on the part of the Finance Minister. Well, we as employees have to be the scapegoat of mismanagement of finances by the Finance Minister, as we have no escape. But the Minister should have a just a heart too to understand the implications of what he is doing. The BJP had been advocating for more relief to the salaried class but once they have been made to sit on the chair they have forgotten all. I give my suggestions here, although I well understand that the Finance Minister, who is following western model of taxing people without realising the Indian income, will not budge even a little. My suggestions are:-
These steps, I am sure, will eliminate the menace of income by corrupt means, to much extent and earn more revenue to exchequer. Dilbagh Rai Chandigarh
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OPEC agreed on Friday to keep a cap
on oil output for three months, leaving consumer nations to fret that
crude prices might race out of control before the cartel eases open the
taps.
