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Friday,
February 7, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Additional
cess on petrol, diesel proposed FIPB gives
in-principle nod for FII participation in MUL IPO ‘Conferences,
sales’ income may be taxed Maruti to
boost ‘Alto’ export in Europe |
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Be
independent, J&K PSUs told Deals signed for two coal blocks Graphic: India's GDP by Economic Activity during 2001-2002
PNB
slashes housing rates to 8.5 pc
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Additional cess on petrol, diesel proposed
New Delhi, February 6 “While the Cabinet has approved the Phase-I (of the NHDP) cost of Rs 30,300 crore, for the Phase-II cost we have proposed an additional cess,” Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways B.C. Khanduri said on the sidelines of a conference on highway development here today. Currently, Re 1 per litre cess is being levied on petrol and diesel to part fund the ambitious Rs 58,000 crore NHDP that involves four/six laning of 14,162-km of national highways by December, 2007. Funds for the Phase-I, called Golden Quadrilateral connecting four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, have been tied-up, he said, adding that “we want the 30 paise per litre cess exclusively for the corridors.” “We have given our assessment (to the Finance Ministry) of the likely shortfall in funds for the Phase-II comprising four/six lane corridors joining Srinagar with Kanyakumari and linking Porbadar to Silchar. One of the ways to bridge it would be levying additional cess. The Finance Ministry can also give me the shortfall money in any other form,” he said. Mr Khanduri said funding for the entire project had been budgeted through cess (Rs 20,000 crore), external assistance (Rs 20,000 crore), market borrowings (Rs 10,000 crore) and private sector participation. He did not hazard a guess when asked if the proposal to levy additional cess could come in the Budget. The government at present collects Rs 4,954 crore from Re 1 cess on diesel and Rs 790 crore from cess on petrol. Of the cess on diesel, 50 per cent goes for development of rural roads. Of the remaining cess on diesel and the entire cess on petrol, 57.5 per cent is allocated for development and maintenance of national highways, 12.5 per cent for construction of roads under/overbridges at railway crossings and the balance 30 per cent for development and maintenance of state roads, Khanduri said. For the current fiscal, about Rs 2,000 crore has been allocated for national highways while 2,500 crore has been earmarked for rural roads. State roads will get Rs 1,080 crore and the remaining Rs 300 crore will go to railways, he said.
PTI
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FIPB gives in-principle nod for FII participation in MUL IPO
New Delhi, February 6 The nod is in response to a generic permission that had been sought by Disinvestment Ministry for FIIs registered with SEBI, NRIs and OCBs to enable them pick equity in MUL. The government is confident of mopping up at least Rs 800 crore from the issue for 25 per cent equity in the JV with Japanese Suzuki Motor Corporation. The Disinvestment Ministry expects to file the prospectus before SEBI this month for completing the IPO by middle of March. A monitoring mechanism has been put in place to ensure that IPO does not spill over to the next financial year, and SMC and the government representatives are meeting every week at the Disinvestment Ministry along with advisors, merchant bankers and legal advisors. The public issue is the second stage of disinvestment in MUL where the joint venture partner SMC has agreed to give an underwriting of Rs 2300 a share as part of the agreement and government has decided to offer 25 per cent equity by March, 2003 through an IPO and the remaining is to be sold in the next financial year. The domestic IPO of MUL would have an international footing as roadshows are being planned in US, England, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore. The roadshows for the ensuing IPO are likely to be
segregated in two rounds including a pre-marketing roadshow slated in February.
PTI
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‘Conferences, sales’ income may be taxed Jalandhar, February 6 Sensing the possibility of earning big sums of profit without paying any taxes, a number of organisations and individuals have been minting money by organising such conferences and sales, which have become a vogue in big cities like Jalandhar, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Bathinda, particularly, in absence of any concrete steps taken by the Income Tax and Sales Tax Departments, resulting in huge loss to the state and Central governments. There were, however, few such individuals and registered organisations who were duly paying taxes to the state and Central governments. The modus operandi of most of organisers of such conferences was that first of all they would openly say that they were organising some international or national conferences to lure more and more people, then they would charge heavy entry or registration fee from delegates and would mint money by enticing different companies and individuals to cough up heavy fees for setting up their stalls in huge exhibitions at the venue or for getting their advertisements published in the souvenirs. In most of cases, such conferences would be organised in the name of education, health, charity and culture, so as to give an impression that some social or community welfare work was going on with a purpose to keep the tax authorities at a bay and at the same time to pocket huge amount of money earned from such events. In case of ‘sales’ selling household appliances, garments, clothes and electronic goods, the evasion was made by organisers either by not issuing any bills or by issuing “kutcha bills” or sale memos. Interestingly, Jalandhar had become a centre of such activities for past about two years. What was more interesting was that though the Central Board for Direct Taxes had asked the Income Tax authorities last year to identify such organisations and activities to broaden the tax base, nothing much was done in this direction. So much so, in a number of cities most of IT officials had little knowledge whether such organisations or individuals could be brought under the tax net or even as the Jalandhar Income tax authorities have initiated an exercise to identify such activities. “We are in the process of identification of such organisations,” said S.C. Gupta, the Commissioner, Income Tax Jalandhar. He said such events could be a big source of revenue generation for the department.
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Maruti to boost ‘Alto’ export in Europe Jalandhar, February 6 According to the Managing Director of MUL, Mr Jagdish Khattar, who was in the city to formally inaugurate new sales outlet of Swami Motors Limited, said that Alto was being exported to major European countries including Holland, Germany, Belgium and Italy. “In fact, Alto is being rated as most viable vehicle in Europe and we are planning to boost its export to other major international markets in Europe and America,” Mr Khattar added. Mr Khattar said that MUL would shortly launch its new model “Vitarra” having 2600 CC capacity. “ The final tests are being conducted on Vitarra, which will be rolled out within a period of two months,” he said. Mr Gundeep Swami, Director of Swami Motors Limited, said that they were recently awarded “Excellence in Service Award” by the company during All India Dealers Conference held at Bangkok in Thailand.
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Be independent, J&K PSUs told Srinagar, February 6 Addressing the Distributors’ Meet-2003 organised by J&K Cements here yesterday, the CM disapproved the tendency among the PSUs to market products to government departments for their survival and said the PSUs should create their own clientele without depending on the government. In this connection he referred to the performance of J&K Cements Ltd and asked if it could create market why could not the other PSUs. The Chief Minister said PSUs should adopt new strategies to compete in the market as the government could no longer afford to work as a life-saving agent for the loss-incurring PSUs. The government would promote pollution-free industry like IT and electronics as the heavy industry was not feasible here. Referring to his recent meeting with a delegation of IT professionals, he said the government would utilise the trained manpower in the state in IT and use it on the pattern of Andhra Pradesh for improving government efficiency and delivery system. A Rs 65 crore project has been sent to the Centre for approval.
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Deals signed for two coal blocks New Delhi, February 6 |
rc
* In the recent past, Zee Telefilms has been shunned by fund managers, citing lack of adequate transparency on the part of the management. But some appear to be willing to give the management a second chance. *
A research analyst has a positive outlook on the oil and gas sector as a whole and feels that ONGC is one of the most attractively valued stock in the sector at current prices. *
Infotech Enterprises may attract buying after a Kolkata-based operator has commenced accumulation. *
Hughes Telecom may move up on reports that the Tatas group wants to further increase its stake in the company. *
Reliance Industries may continue to fly high even as players are beginning to wonder if the retail story indeed holds so much potential, says a fund manager. *
The Andhra Bank counter might see some profit booking but should consolidate its gains, says a prominent broker. *
ITC may gain ground on hopes that the FIIs continue to remain bullish about its prospects. *
Even though the stock price of Satyam Computers has fallen steeply, players are yet to make up their mind if the tech major is a good bargain at these levels. *
With a healthy order book position, Telco looks set to maintain its growth in profit in the years to come. *
Shift from HLL to Nestle asserts a fund manager. — Ashok Kumar |
bb
BoB dividend Oman Fert chief Baan the best PSB Microsoft PSB insurance Amartex outlet Benchmark |
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