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Wednesday,
May 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Govt hands over Maruti to Suzuki Petrol,
diesel prices likely to go up
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India to
export 40,000 tonnes wheat Canara
Bank net spurts 160 pc HDFC net
up 22.5 pc Banks
should provide cheap funds to IFCI
Shimla, May 14 Bayer, a German agroproducts company, was set to emerge as the leader in the Indian market with the recent takeover of Avanties, another German company. Delegation
to meet CMs
Set up
regulatory body for real estate
Ranbaxy files for
pneumonia drug
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Govt hands over Maruti to Suzuki
New Delhi, May 14 The Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD), presided over by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, finalised the deal giving 54.20 per cent stake to Suzuki through a rights issue. Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie told reporters that in the first stage the government's share would go down to 45.54 per cent after the Rs 400 crore rights issue which would be entirely subscribed by the Japanese partner. Subsequently, the government will reduce its equity to 25 per cent by April 2003 and to zero per cent by April 2004. The next stage of divesting the government share would be through an initial public offering (IPO), for which Suzuki would campaign aggressively, Mr Shourie said. Suzuki has also underwritten the proposed IPO at a price of Rs 2300 per share against the book value of Rs 2000 apiece. Mr Shourie said that a revised joint venture would be signed within the next 30 days along with the appointment of advisers for the IPO. The book building process would start soon. In effect, Suzuki would shell out Rs 1400 crore in the first stage of MUL disinvestment. Of this, Rs 1000 crore would go to the government kitty through control premium and Rs 400 crore would be pumped into the company's capital for meeting its expansion programme. Describing the deal as far better than the one in 1992, Mr Shourie said even if the IPO is sold at the price underwritten by Suzuki, the government would net Rs 2400 crore for reducing its equity to 25 per cent. However, he expressed the hope that the IPO would be sold at a higher premium in the capital market. Suzuki already had 50 per cent share in the company, which controls 59 per cent share of the small car market. The government's equity was reduced from 60 per cent to 49.7 per cent in 1992 at a price-to-earning ratio of six. "The price-to-earning ratio of this deal is 89," Mr Shourie said. The government will retain two members on the board of MUL as long as it has its equity in the company. Mr Shourie said Suzuki had agreed to make MUL the sourcing point for its global models and will access the new export market. It will also give a discount to MUL on components. MUL was promoted by the government in collaboration with Suzuki Motor Corporation and the joint venture had rolled out its first "people's" car in 1983. It has revolutionised the Indian car market, attracting competition from the world's automobile majors. UNI
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Petrol, diesel prices likely to go up
New Delhi, May 14 State-run oil retailing companies are selling petrol at Rs 4 per litre loss and diesel at Rs 3.43 per litre loss as crude oil price has increased to over $ 25 per barrel as against the $ 20 a barrel budgeted at the time of last petroleum product price review. Simultaneously, as a buffer for state-run oil companies the excise duty on petrol is likely to be brought down to 24 per cent from 32 per cent and on diesel to 12 per cent from 16 per cent to give relief to them as they are incurring huge losses on selling product below the price of crude, government sources said. Lower excise duty after a hike in ex-storage price of the two products would be revenue-neutral — it would fetch the same amount of revenue as at present, sources said. Sources said Petroleum Minister Ram Naik had already had one round of discussions with Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha on excise duty cuts and would have an another round after Sinha returns from China. “Everyone knows that oil companies are incurring losses to the tune of Rs 75-80 crore per day on selling products below the price of crude. Its now more of a political decision as oil companies cannot any further bear the losses,” they said, adding a “political decision” on the quantum of price increase may come towards the end of this month. Though oil companies are free to fix prices of petroleum products after dismantling of price controls from April 1 this year, they have maintained the price line in accordance with the “wishes” of the government to allow a smooth changeover from a controlled to a free market regime. State-run Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had last month urged the government to either cut excise duty on petrol and diesel or allow them to hike prices as they were together suffering Rs 75-80 crore loss per day on account of selling products below the cost, sources said. “We are suffering Rs 68 crore loss per day on High Speed Diesel (HSD) and Rs 16 crore loss per day on Motor Spirit (Petrol). We cannot endlessly go on like this,” an oil company official, who did not want to be identified, said. The government had factored in crude oil prices at $ 20 a barrel to fix retail selling price of petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG at the time of general Budget. The average price of Indian basket of crude, which comprises of Oman/Dubai crude oils of sour grade and Brent of sweet grade in the ratio of 58:42, was $ 25.12 per barrel from April 1, 2002 to this day, sources said. According to industry estimates, every one dollar increase translated into 55 paise per litre increase in prices of petrol and 45 paise per litre hike in diesel prices.
PTI
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India to export 40,000 tonnes wheat
New Delhi, May 14 “Our wheat export policy is showing good results and a multinational company (MNC) has just got an order to export 40,000 tonnes Indian wheat to West Asia at $ 101 Cost and Freight (C&F) for June delivery,” official sources told PTI. With increasing number of exporters, competition within the country for getting orders is getting tough. While the MNC’s bid at $ 101 including a $ 9 freight is the lowest, it outbid an Indian firm which quoted $ 104 C&F for the same tender. On an average, 3-4 lakh tonne wheat is being shipped every month but the price Indian wheat is quoting at has come down a good $ 10 a tonne over the past one year. An MNC trader said there is a greater scope to export from India but Black Sea countries like Ukraine and Romania are bagging many orders for feed wheat at lower prices of $ 97 C&F. Furthermore, corn, used as cattle feed, is also cheap at $ 94-97 FoB. Demand is likely to pick up with Indonesia’s largest miller Bhogasari back in the market and the country likely to pick up one lakh tonnes every month. Sources said while Indonesia is purchasing for milling purposes, Philippinnes is a regular buyer of Indian wheat for both milling and feed. They said buyers have their own specifications for mixing various varieties for milling or blending wheat with corn for cattle and accordingly source their requirements from India. In Philippines, the Australian wheat ‘SWW’ is much in demand and Indian wheat is used in a fixed ratio for mixing with it, they added. Indian wheat is selling at variable prices with the lustre loss crop of last year selling at $ 93-94 FoB, the ‘normal’ wheat at $ 97-98 and cleaned wheat at upto $ 102 a tonne. Millers have set up cleaning facilities at ports like Kandla after rejection of Indian wheat shipments by Iraq last year. However, there are not many takers for the ‘cleaner wheat’ as the buying millers abroad have their own computerised cleaning facilities through which the cargo has to pass in any case. The foreign buyers are reluctant to pay an extra price for the any cleaning before shipment.
PTI
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Canara Bank net spurts 160 pc Chandigarh, May 14 He said the bank has registered operating profits of Rs 1,656 crore, a growth of 46.4 per cent for the year ended March 2002 compared to last year . The bank’s net profits have also registered an all time high growth rate of 160 per cent at Rs 741 crore. “Year of efficiency and profitability was our corporate mission for 2001-02 which we have attained successfully”, said Mr Shastri. He said the bank will continue its thrust on retail banking and has plans to attain a growth of 15 per cent so as to achieve an overall business of Rs 1,12,000 crore next year. Canara bank will also add another 150 ATMs next year. Mr Shastri said that while the interest income of the bank rose by 13 per cent compared to the last year and reached at Rs 6,371 crore, the profit from treasury operations registered an increase of 230 per cent . He said thrust on quality assets through prudent credit management paid rich dividends during the year. The bank’s NPAs declined from Rs 2,242 crore to Rs 2,155 crore and the gross NPA ratio came down to 6.22 per cent compared to 7.80 per cent. The bank computerised 528 additional branches during the year.
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HDFC net up 22.5 pc Mumbai, May 14 The board which met today approved a dividend of Rs 25 per share, including a one time special silver jubilee dividend of Rs 10 per share, as against Rs 12.5 per share last year, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh told newsmen here. HDFC loan approvals and disbursements were up by 31 per cent. Approvals during the period under review were Rs 9,041.25 crore as compared to Rs 6,879.77 crore in the previous year while disbursements stood at Rs 7,616.56 crore as against Rs 5,803.01 crore. Parekh said despite intense competition from banks and other institutions, individual loan approvals and disbursals registered a growth of 45 per cent and 47 per cent respectively over the corresponding period last year. For this fiscal also, HDFC has
targeted a 30 per cent growth following further lowering of interest rates.
PTI
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Banks should provide cheap funds to IFCI
New Delhi, May 14 In a letter to Minister of State for Finance Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, the union said the Centre should stand guarantee on the bond issues of the Delhi-based term lending institution, enabling it to raise borrowings easily. The union also said the directors belonging to the private sector on the IFCI board should be replaced by government nominees. Citing higher non-performing assets (NPAs), credit rating agency ICRA recently put IFCI under ‘rating watch with negative implications’. Last year the government had announced a Rs 1,000 crore bailout package for IFCI. “The Rs 4,202 crore NPAs was mainly due to the failure of industries to repay the loans,” the union said, adding “even the Central and state government guaranteed loans of Rs 740 crore remained unrecovered and unhonoured.”
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Bayer launches Antracol Shimla, May 14 Stating this while launching the company’s new product “Antracol”, Mr Kraemer, Product Manager, said Bayer was marketing 25 products in the country and its annual turnover was over Rs 400 crore. After the takeover of Avanties, the turnover would be doubled and the company would have a 25 per cent share in the agroproducts market. Antracol, the fungicide launched today in the state had under trial for the past six years. Dr Y.S. Parmar University’s forestry and horticulture departments had approved it. The fungicide could be used for 23 crops, including potato and apple, in which it protects the plants from blast disease and also prevents premature leaf fall. Antracol was not an insecticide but it suppressed mite, a major problem in orchards. The biggest advantage of the new product was that, unlike most other fungicides, which suppressed the plant, it had no harmful effect. As such it was particularly useful in crops where frequent applications of fungicides was required.
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Delegation to meet CMs Chandigarh, May 14 Highlighting the major issues that will be discussed, Mr Arun Kapur said emphasis on human resource development, measures like setting up of economic zones in the state, focus on e-governance to provide excellent quality public services in an efficient and economical manner and aggressive marketing of the state as an investment destination are the need of the hour .
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Set up regulatory body for real estate Middle-class families have most of their wealth invested in a house/apartment of its own. Any disputed deal in real estate/will snatch lifetime peace of mind of the investor apart from his/her Bard-saved money being put on stake. Moreover, exchequer is also the sufferer because of large-scale use of unaccounted money involved in such deals.
Though there are several regulatory authorities for investments in other sectors, there is none for real estate! A central regulatory authority followed-up by state-level and further lower-level committees may be set up to have vigil on deals of real estate. All property dealers must be registered with such a system, and it may be made compulsory to register all bookings and final deals of real estate with such authorities. Modifications in such a suggested system may include computerisation of plot numbers in the cities to check dubious deals to the extent possible. Registrars in courts may be instructed to register only such property-deals which are registered in suggested such regulatory bodies. To check use of black money in property deals, currency circulation may be transformed into banking transactions in a manner that people may find excess currency as “paper” of no practical use! All sale-purchases (from household items to real estate)
exceeding say Rs 10,000 by cash may attract “currency-tax” of 30 per cent. All business expenses and government bills above Rs 1,000 may be paid by cheques only. Drafts may bear name and address/account-number of purchasers with validity period restricted to just 45 days. MADHU AGRAWAL Delhi
Withdraw ceiling for women I am a widow with only income as interest derived from money invested in RBI tax-free relief bonds. The Finance Minister in this Budget has imposed a ceiling of Rs 2 lakh for investment in these relief bonds which was later relieved for retired persons only. The Finance Minister should withdraw such ceiling on investments made by women with no other income. Since investments in stocks and with private firms are neither safe nor reliable the women like me have a reason to worry for their future investments when these bonds are matured! PRABHA GOEL Delhi
Enbee Plantation I was allotted 38 No. debentures Folio No. 0175487 in the name of my son Barshit Arora by Enbee Plantation Ltd. BHOPAL. I sent part (A&B) of debentures vide Regd letter No. 1084 dt. 8/2/2001 and reminder No. 5667 dt 5/11/2001 for redemption of payment alongwith interest payment is still awaited. C.L. ARORA Ambala Cantt
Prudential Cap I and my wife Harpal Kaur
Chadha invested Rs 15,000 each with prudential Capital Market Ltd., Kolkata vide FDR No. NCG 0011001908 and NCG 00110097 respectively both dated 15.11.96 for 12 months. On maturity company asked to surrender FDR along with warrants to them, which were done. The company has failed in making payment till date despite reminders. J.S. CHADHA Chandigarh
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