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Thursday,
March 6, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Decision on SMS on WLL soon
Service quality poor
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Meagre collection
from service tax
Samsung to invest $ 35m in India
Sahara options for making payments
Music industry gets down to the act
River projects to create employment
Power generation at 2 Nathpa units soon Graphic: WAR
CLOUDS PUSH UP OIL PRICES
Cathay Pacific net soars
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Decision on SMS on WLL soon New Delhi, March 5 “We will take a decision in the next two days whether SMS can be offered by WLL operators”, TRAI Chairman Mr J.S. Verma told newspersons here today after releasing a survey on the quality of basic and cellular services. The issue of SMS and roaming services by WLL operators has been a major bone of contention between WLL and GSM mobile operators. The issue gained prominence after GSM operators alleged that Reliance Infocomm and Tata Indicom were violating the norms of the license agreement by offering these services. However, Reliance Infocomm has pointed out that it was only offering multiple registration facility to its subscribers as distinct from roaming services offered by GSM operators. It has maintained that it was not violating any norms of the earlier license agreement and calls in its network drop once SDCA is crossed and the subscriber is connected only on another number. The case is pending in the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal. A group of cellular and basic operators, set up by Telecom Minister Arun Shourie, is also looking into the issue. Regarding the increasing costs of dial-up charges of internet access following TRAI order on the inter-connect user charge, Mr Verma said the issue is under consideration of the authority has held discussions with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and basic telephone operators.
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Service quality poor
New Delhi, March 5 Hardening its stand against such operators, TRAI said if players continued to offer services below norms in the long run, it may even recommend that the licensor (Department of Telecom) look at the issue of continuation of licence. “This continued shortfall in quality of services cannot go on. Till now we were making the shortcomings public and trying to persuade operators to improve services quality, but now there will have to be other action, as this tantamounts to violation of TRAI’s regulation on Quality of Service (QoS),” TRAI Chairman, M.S. Verma, told reporters here. TRAI could also seek a fine (of upto Rs one lakh), for violation of its QoS regulations by the operators, he said.
PTI
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Meagre collection from service tax Chandigarh, March 5 If the total service tax collection from the region is any indication, there are no takers for this tax. According to information from the department here, the total tax collection from the Chandigarh zone comprising Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh has just reached Rs 130 crore this year from Rs 80 crore collected during the previous year. There is, however, no service tax in J&K. Mr Dinesh Kumar Garg, a CA, said the department was not serious about the tax collection. Though there was a provision of penalty under the Act, it had not been properly executed. Under Section 69, he said, “Every person liable to pay service tax should get himself registered within 30 days of the notification. However, most of the eligible persons, agencies and companies have not even bothered to get themselves registered.” The Centre has so far imposed service tax on 48
services including telecom, insurance, fashion designing, dry cleaning, beauty parlours, real estate, advertising agencies, architects, event management, cable operators and health clubs, have been included under the service tax, covered under the Finance Act, 1994. The Finance Minister has enhanced the service tax rate from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, besides extending the tax net to 10 new services, including commercial coaching institutes, Internet cafe, technical and inspection agencies, authorised automobile service stations, foreign exchange brokers and maintenance services. But he should have also announced a blue-print for the proper collection of service tax. A senior official of the department said 90 per cent of the service tax was collected from the telecom services alone. Insurance companies, which were also major contributor to the service tax were depositing tax at the headquarters. He agreed that due to inadequate manpower, the total tax collection was almost negligible from most of the services.
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Samsung to invest $ 35m in India
Mumbai, March 5 The company would invest $ 25 million in its expansion of refrigerator plant in Noida by August this year and would pump in $ 10 million in its existing colour TV (CTV) and home appliances production line by year end, Samsung Asia President and CEO, K.S. Kim told mediapersons here today. Samsung India would roll-out six new refrigerator models increasing the company’s product range to 18. The new models would be in Chlorofluorocarbons free and frost-free categories, he added. With these investments, Samsung expects to increase its market share in refrigerator segment to 17 per cent from the existing 12 per cent by the end of this year, Kim added. Samsung had sold 8.5 lakh CTVs in 2002 and expects to sell 1.2 million sets by the end of this year.
PTI
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Sahara options for making payments New Delhi, March 5 In the second scheme, applicants will have to make a lumpsum advance payment of Rs 10,000. While the Sahara Swarn Yojana offer accidental insurance compensation ranging between Rs 2,00,000 and Rs 5,00,000, the Sahara Rajat Yojana offers accidental insurance compensation from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2,00,000.
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Music industry gets down to the act
New Delhi, March 5 Last year alone over four lakh music cassettes and around six lakh Compact Discs (CDs) were seized in 1398 raids conducted over the year, representatives of the Indian Music Industry (IMI) say. “Of the 4.9 crore cassettes manufactured and sold every month, nearly 1.6 crore are illegally manufactured and sold by pirates”, says V.J. Lazarus, President, IMI. “With the advent of new technology pirating music cassettes and CDs has become very easy and profitable,” Lazarus says. As more efficient methods of piracy have come to the fore, it has become difficult for the police to concentrate on those operating out of shops, factories and even homes, according to Prakash Singh, former IPS officer. It is to help the police tackle this menace that the Music Industry has formed special anti-piracy cells in various states who carry out investigations, trace the culprits and then provide the requisite information to the police. “The police is not always very well informed about the difference between pirated and original cassettes, thus it is a real help if these IMI units help us identify people producing these audio cassettes and CDs,” says R.S. Gupta, Delhi Police Commissioner. “It is the producer or the dealer who would know the real difference between pirated and original products”, he says. “Police all over the country especially in the capital have to change their mindset a little. Just because we don’t have the artist in front of us we don’t take such complaints seriously”, says Qamar Ahmed, Additional Commissioner of Police (crime), Delhi. Emphasising on the need for expert opinion, however, he says, “The mushrooming of protection agencies has led to a situation where they have started extorting money from the culprits”. All protection agencies should be accredited by the music companies, they should in fact get Power of Attorneys from them, he says. Cautioning the police, actress, activist and Member of Parliament, Shabana Azmi cites the case of such a unit who after investigating about a piracy unit in Haryana informed the Delhi Police and a team was sent to conduct a raid on the premises. The Haryana police, however, refused to allow the raid to be conducted and the IMI informer was in turn put behind bars. “All we need is a little bit of sensitiveness from the police side. We understand that the police is pretty overworked as it is”, she says. Citing the raids on an optical company and an offset press in Delhi where huge amounts of pirated CDs and cassettes were found, Gupta says it is after being alerted by local IMI squads that the raids were conducted. According to IMI, the music industry incurred a loss of over Rs 600 crore in 2002 due to piracy. The government’s loss stood at Rs 75-100 crore in the form of sales tax and duties.
PTI
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River projects to create employment New Delhi, March 5 Addressing
the National Conference on Interlinking of Rivers organised by Ficci here today, Mr Prabhu said India had uneven precipitation for nearly four months during which there were rainfalls for nearly a fortnight only which necessitates water storage at ideal locations. Expressing concern towards the likelihood of ecological damage and displacement of people that might happen due to interlinking of rivers, he said adequate steps would be taken to create a sustainable model where there was a possibility of
co-existence with regard to interlinking of rivers and existence of bio-diversity.
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Power generation at 2 Nathpa units soon Shimla, March 5 The agreement was signed by Mr V.K. Sharma, General Manager (commercial), of SJVN and Mr K.L. Vyas, Director for the
RVPN. The company has already signed power purchase agreements with Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh for the sale of 188 MW power. Mr Y.N. Apparao, Chairman cum Managing Director of the SJVN, said the two units of 250 MW each out of the six units of the 1,500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Project would commence commercial generation shortly.
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Cathay Pacific net soars Hong Kong, March 5 Cathay’s net profit was HK$3.98 billion (US $ 510 million) for 2002, compared with a profit of HK$657 million in 2001, bolstered in part by ongoing cost cuts.
Reuters
Fiat prepares to bounce back TURIN: The ailing Fiat carmaker has some fireworks lined up for the Geneva Motor Show from March 6-16. The offensive, aimed at giving the Fiat, Alfa and Lancia marques some more positive headlines, ranges from the cheaper end of the compact market, to the up-market mini to the powerful sports model. The most important innovation is the Fiat Project 169 designed as the successor to the Panda and Seicento. This new compact with either three or five doors is just 3.54 metres long but is 1.53 metres high. With a long wheelbase it is reputed to have plenty of room inside.
DPA
Canara Bank to raise 400 cr MUMBAI: Canara Bank is planning to issue non-convertible sub-ordinated bonds to raise Rs 400 crore with an option for additional Rs 100 crore through private placement to shore up capital adequacy. The subscription to these redeemable unsecured bonds of Rs 5 lakh each opened today and would close on March 15.
PTI
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Usha Intl Station Wagon Nabard bonds Ashok Leyland Voltas Pizza Hut |
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