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| Wednesday,
January 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India   
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BJP to submit report on Kelkar
Need to increase credit to woman entrepreneurs: RBI
Cut in ‘desi’ cotton price hits growers
Jalan calls for separate regulator for co-op banks |
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War can hit aviation industry
Maruti Finance gives 500 cr loans
Hughes Tele profit jumps 133 per cent
‘Nalco sale impossible
this year’ Raymond raises
Rs 25 cr Gold weak
Canara Bank, SBI branch for Moscow
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BJP to submit report on Kelkar on Jan 11 New Delhi, January 7 Talking to newspersons, Mr Singh said the recommendations were still being deliberated at various party forum and would be ready for submission within the next two-three days. “We will submit it to the Finance Minister by January 11,” he added. Mr Singh said some of the suggestions made by Mr Vijay Kelkar were praiseworthy. “The discussions on other aspects are still on,” he said. To a question about the meeting of BJP leaders with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today, Mr Singh said “Today’s meeting is on Uttar Pradesh. And there is nothing more to it,” he added. Mr Singh, on Sunday, had said the panel did not agree with the recommendation for levying a tax on agricultural income and hoped the government would reject this proposal outright. The panel would keep the interests of all sections of society in mind while giving its suggestions to the Finance Minister. The committee, first, would brief BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu about its report to the Finance Minister. The former UP Chief Minister has on record opposed some of the proposals of the Kelkar Committee like bringing agricultural income into the tax net and withdrawing exemptions on small savings benefits on housing loans. The party’s point of view is that lifting exemptions on savings will hit pensioners and widows, thus eroding a political base. Mr Rajnath Singh was of the view that the tax of farmers’ income would result in the collapse of the country’s economy and said under no circumstances would the government accept its suggestion.
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Need to increase credit to woman entrepreneurs: RBI Chandigarh, January 7 The RBI has reportedly asked the bank managements to pay due attention to increase credit to women entrepreneurs. According to the RBI guidelines, the banks should provide at least 4 per cent of their total credit to women entrepreneurs and beneficiaries, however, the bankers admitted that due to limited demand from women entrepreneurs, the total lending was not more than 1 per cent of total credit. In a recently held Haryana’s State Level Bankers’ Committee meeting, bank officials had agreed with the observation of Mr Madan Lal, Regional Director, RBI, that there was a need to increase credit to women entrepreneurs. Interestingly, in Haryana, out of total Rs 9,788 crore advanced by the banks, only Rs 25.08 crore was disbursed to women beneficiaries by September, 2002. Though women customers’ share in total deposits of Rs 23,484 crore was significantly higher during the corresponding period. The situation is not different in Chandigarh or Punjab as well. The self help group (SHG) movement, envisaged by the Central government to boost credit to rural women has badly failed in Punjab. PNB, which is the leading bank in both states, has maintained that lack of effective NGOs was the biggest hurdle in boosting credit to SHGs. In this regard, Mr Harwant Singh, General Manager, PNB Zonal Office, Chandigarh, says, “Due to lack of general awareness among women beneficiaries, the banks are unable to meet the targets. Though we do not receive any major complaints from women against any discrimination by bank officials.” He added that the banks had made efforts to increase women credit under government sponsored schemes. Mr V.J. Matto, Senior Regional Manager, PNB, Chandigarh Region, said, “Like other banks, PNB is making efforts to implement the guidelines of the RBI, but due to inadequate number of women entrepreneurs, the banks were facing difficulties in this regard.” He, however, added that in Chandigarh region, the PNB had advanced about Rs 15-16 crore to women beneficiaries if the women directors in joint partnerships were taken into account. The target of 4 per cent lending to women entrepreneurs, out of total credit of Rs 434 crore, had been achieved, and efforts were made to sensitise the field officials to increase advances to women entrepreneurs besides other weaker sections, he said.
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Cut in ‘desi’ cotton price hits growers Bathinda, January 7 The price of “desi” cotton, which touched Rs 2,000 per quintal in the current season, is ranging between Rs 1,600 and 1,700 and thus the growers are incurring losses. On the other hand, the price of Narma cotton, which witnessed an upward trend ever since the season began is ranging between Rs 2,150 and Rs 2,250 per quintal. The price of “desi” cotton came almost on a par with the price of Narma cotton in the past three years as its demand had increased in the domestic and international markets. Japan remained a bulk purchaser of “desi” cotton apart from domestic consumers, which included the Panipat-based yarn manufacturing units. Information gathered from the cotton markets revealed that this time the production of “desi” cotton had touched around 2.5 lakh bales while its demand fell as most yarn manufacturing units of Panipat had stopped its purchasing. The buyers shifted their operations to Maharashtra where the “desi” cotton was available to them at a much cheaper price than the rates prevailing in the North. Mr Ashok Kapur, President, Northern India Cotton Association, said the support of Central and state government agencies were needed to keep the price of “desi” cotton better in the markets.
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Jalan calls for separate regulator for co-op banks
Pune, January 7 Only a very few of the urban co-operative banks in the country are professionally managed. This necessitates a separate body to oversee their functioning, Mr Jalan said while delivering a talk on ‘Management Challenges in Banking’ at the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) here. Mr Jalan said the Indian banking structure was too diverse with the presence of private as well as public sector banks and the challenges before the segments were different in nature. Because of the diverse challenges, it is imperative for the banks to be continuously on alert and conduct intense management audits every five years, the RBI Governor said. He also urged them to take prompt corrective actions to remedy aberrations since the banks could become “prisoners of a compounding effect” if corrective actions were not taken. Among the public sector banks there are large banks and very small ones, some strong and some weak, he said. The private sector is characterised by a large number of slow-growing banks, new fast-growing banks and new badly managed banks, he said. The common challenges such as competition and non-performing assets might change over the years, Mr Jalan said. Speaking informally to reporters later, the RBI Governor said the inflation outlook is good at 3.5 per cent. The RBI Governor also ruled out plans to cut repo rates as of now and said interest rates will remain soft.
UNI
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War can hit aviation industry New Delhi, January 7 Reports here suggest both the Air-India and the Indian Airlines which operate flights to the Middle East and West Asia would be hit hard as a result of the war. With the Indian Airlines already in red with over Rs 250 crore loss in the last year, the war in Gulf, which would further raise the insurance premium, would be worst news for it. The war is also expected to raise the ATF rates by over 25 per cent. A war-risk insurance premium could be very high this time round, reports said referring to the 1991 Gulf War and recalled that a huge premium of Rs 6 lakh per flight used to be paid for Indian Airlines’ services to Kuwait at that time. The officials said both Indian Airlines and Air-India for a relatively short flight of three hours to the Gulf were already forced to have an extra flying time of 30 minutes because of the closure of Pakistani airspace to Indian planes. The stockpiling of ATF by the USA for periods of 24 to 30 months during the winter already leads to a shortage in the world. If Iraq which produces 18 billion barrels of oil per month stops production in the event of a war, OPEC countries will not be able to match the shortage. The domestic carriers are already reeling because of the high price they pay for ATF. From an average of Rs 18,000 per kilolitre in 2001-2002, ATF rates went up to Rs 21,900 in November, 2002, fell marginally to Rs 20,150 in December and this month was pegged at Rs 21,150.
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Maruti Finance gives 500 cr loans
New Delhi, January 7 The company introduced the finance scheme on January 7, 2002 which now spans over almost all parts of the country, a MUL release said here. Maruti has tied up with eight finance companies like Citicorp, ICICI, HDFC, Standard Chartered, ABN Amro, Kotak Mahindra and Sundaram Finance. Last year, Maruti forayed into non-manufacturing areas like car finance, insurance, used car business, and lease and fleet management. The car major claimed that ‘Maruti Insurance’, introduced in May 2002, has now about 60 per cent market share and over one lakh customers have availed of its insurance scheme. Over 4,000 customers have either sold their vehicle or bought a pre-owned car under the company’s used car venture ‘True Value’. Maruti’s fourth new business initiative ‘Maruti N2N’, which provides lease and fleet management solutions, has secured corporate customers like GAIL, Dupont and Reckitt & Benkiser among others, the release said.
PTI
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Hughes Tele profit jumps 133 per cent
Mumbai, January 7 Its telecom service revenue increased by 41 per cent to Rs 9.46 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2002, as compared to Rs 6.73 crore during the same quarter last year, the company reported in its unaudited financial results for the current year’s third quarter ended December 31, 2002, and also for the nine months ended December 31, 2002. Commenting on the company’s performance, Hughes Tele.com Managing Director S. Ramakrishnan said the company continues to rapidly grow its operations and has surpassed 2,00,000 customer lines at the end of Dec. The company has started synergising its operations with that of Tata Teleservices in other circles optimising cost of its operations.
UNI
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‘Nalco sale impossible this year’ The government will be unable to carry out the planned strategic sale of state-run National Aluminium, Co, the country’s second largest aluminium maker, in this fiscal year, a Ministry official said today. “The strategic sale happening in the current year (April-March 2002-2003) is not possible now,” the Divestment Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. He did not state a reason. The government owns 87.15 per cent of Nalco. It has said it plans first to sell a 29.15 per cent stake and hand over management control to a strategic buyer. It then wants to sell 10 per cent to domestic investors, 20 per cent through an American Depository Receipt issue and 2 per cent to the employees.
Reuters
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Raymond raises Rs 25 cr Mumbai, January 7 The five-year issue with a put/call option at the end of three years has an annualised coupon of 6.10 per cent for the plain vanilla bullet redemption debentures, DSP Merrill Lynch, adviser and book running lead arranger for the transaction, said in a release here today. The debenture issue was rated ‘AA+’ by Crisil.
PTI |
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Gold weak Mumbai, January 7 Standard gold opened weak at Rs 5675 and declined further to end at Rs 5660, showing a fresh fall of Rs 70 over the previous close of Rs 5730. Ten-tola gold bar (.999 purity) crashed by Rs 800 to Rs 66,400 from Rs 67,200.
PTI
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