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Wednesday,
July 10, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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EPF rate to remain at 9.5 pc
Direct tax collection rises 35.43 pc
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ONGC bid to get gas from Bangladesh UK firm
to set up call centres
Work hard, die young: study
Indo Gulf net surges 35 pc
Intel Itanium 2 processors
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EPF rate to remain at 9.5 pc New Delhi, July 9 “With the breakdown of the traditional social structure of the joint family, policy formulations for an alternative arrangement must be put in place as early as possible as only 3.5 crore of the estimated 40 crore workers in the country were covered under the formal scheme of old age income provisioning,” Mr Verma said. In his opening remarks at the meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the EPF, Mr Verma said: “Growing contractualisation and casualisation” of the labour force was causing alarm as jobs that were traditionally in the formal sector were now being outsourced, relocated and contracted out.” “This has led to a negative growth in the formal sector and a positive growth in the unorganised sector,” Mr Verma said, adding that it was in this context that the decades-old laws needed to be reformed and updated to adequately address the developments in the labour market. Neither the present legislation nor the present delivery systems were adequate to meet the challenges which the country faces, he said, adding that both needed to be improved to meet the national imperative of closing the gap of social security provisioning which today stood at an alarming 90 per cent. Earlier, the Board rejected Finance Ministry’s proposal for a 0.5 per cent rate cut on EPF and the Board decided to retain the interest rate at 9.5 per cent. “We have decided to stick to the present rate of 9.5 per cent. We will not allow curtailment of benefit to employees and if necessary, we will take it to the Cabinet for approval,” Mr Verma said. “I am conscious of my responsibilities for the welfare of the working class. I consider it my duty to ensure the benefits available to the working class including the returns on their deposits is protected and is not reduced,” he said. Mr Verma said CBT had earlier also rejected the Finance Ministry’s proposal to reduce the interest rate and had decided to retain it at 9.5 per cent for an interim period. “If Finance Ministry does not agree to our proposal again, in that case we will have to take it to the Cabinet,” he said, adding that he would be meeting Finance Minister Jaswant Singh in this regard. Mr Verma said the EPF Act would be amended to enable the employer contribute 1.25 per cent and employee 0.5 per cent of the wage to the new scheme, thus ensuring that such employees would continue to get 50 per cent of the wages for one year. |
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Direct tax collection rises 35.43 pc New Delhi, July 9 However, total direct tax collection was 27.48 per cent short of Rs 14,378 crore targeted for the first quarter, Finance Ministry officials told PTI here today. The ambitious target for the first quarter cannot be achieved mainly on account of the lacklustre performance of income tax. Despite efforts to streamline procedures, income tax mop up grew by only 6.28 per cent to Rs 6,384.76 crore in April-June this fiscal as compared to Rs 6,007.60 crore during the same period a year ago, sources said. The actual collection from income tax fell short by 9.88 per cent from the Budget estimate of Rs 7,085 crore for April-June 2002-03. The government targets to mop up Rs 42,525 crore in income tax during this fiscal as against Rs 31,741 crore collected in the last fiscal. The centre could mop up Rs 4,042.14 crore from corporation tax, which is still 44.58 per cent lower than the Budget estimate of Rs 7,293 crore for April-June.
PTI |
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BSNL mobile to tap rural market Chandigarh, July 9 The preparations for the grand launching of mobile operations in Punjab are in full swing and BSNL is fine-tuning its strategy to tap the vast rural market. Officials are though tightlipped to disclose the tariff structure, but they admit they would have to provide service at a lower rate due to late entry in the price sensitive market. Mr T.S. Ghambhir, DDG (CMTS), BSNL, who is looking after the whole preparations for the timely launch of mobile service in Punjab, says,‘‘ We plan to beat other service providers by offering better service at lower rate, with wider coverage of the areas and stressing on marketing in lower segments. Our focus will be to tap the unexplored rural market and lower income groups, besides other segments.’’ He asserts, ‘‘we are in the process of installing more than 200 roof-top towers in Punjab to cover the maximum area, besides upgrading the our own infrastructure. In the first phase, the service will be available in 51 towns of the state with an installed capacity of 1,10,000 lines. In the next phase, to be completed in the current fiscal year, the service will be extended to other 11 towns of the state. The contract has been given to Ericcson to complete the work before September end.’’ The BSNL officials admit that operators have not implemented the guidelines of TRAI regarding incoming calls, under which all incoming calls should have been free to tap the vast potential of the market. Since the share of revenue from incoming calls to the total revenue is about 60 per cent, it is not economically viable for the operators to make the calls free. However, BSNL is seriously contemplating to slash the rates to possible extent. |
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ONGC bid to get gas from Bangladesh Dhaka, July 9 A joint delegation of ONGC and GAIL officials will arrive here on July 15 to hold talks with the public sector corporation Petrobangla on gas trade, joint exploration and export of gas to West Bengal for a thermal plant to be set up there. The ONGC will also negotiate ways to buy the interest of Cairns. The British company discovered gas in Shanghu, in the Chittagong hill tracts in the southern Bangladesh in 1996. But finding no scope for export of gas and Bangladesh authority’s delay in payment for supply of gas to various installations, the company sold its interest to Dutch concern Shell operating in this part. The delegation, during their three-day stay in Bangladesh, will also explore the possibilities of the export of gas directly to the West Bengal thermal plant. |
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UK firm to set
up call centres
New Delhi, July 9 Portal Net Services India, a part of the Britain-based Portal Group, said the three centres would have a total capacity of 1,000-1,500 seats, which refers to the number of professionals handling customer queries. The call centre activities, part of India’s booming IT-enabled services (ITES) segment, include back-office accounting, payroll management and credit card processing, all of which can be delivered via the Internet. The ITES industry in India grew at a whopping rate of 71 per cent this year and is expected to grow 60-65 per cent next year, according to the Nasscom. In the first phase of its Indian operations, Portal Net Services has decided to lease 750 seats from the existing call centres located in New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
IANS |
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Work hard, die young: study London, July 9 "Working 60 or more hours a week, and regularly not getting much sleep, may double the risk of having a heart attack," said the study, published on Wednesday in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "An average night's sleep of five or fewer hours, for two nights of the working week, was associated with a doubling and even tripling of the risk," it added. The study, conducted between 1996 and 1998, looked at 260 men aged between 40 and 79 who had survived a first heart attack and matched them against 445 comparable men with no history of cardiac arrest. All were questioned closely about their work, relaxation and sleep patterns as well as other key areas such as lifestyle, weight, diet, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. The study found that while all participants had similar lifestyles and medical conditions, the heart attack group worked far longer hours, hardly relaxed and slept less than five hours a night significantly more often than the other group. The authors, Suminori Kono of Kyushu University in Japan and David Snashall of Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Trust in London, said sleep deprivation led to raised blood pressure while chronic stress caused heart function abnormalities. Both of these were potential triggers for a heart attack. The authors concluded that the optimal working week was a maximum 40 hours, and advised those working longer to get more sleep and take longer breaks.
Reuters |
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