 |
Tuesday,
March 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Investors rush for safety as Iraq war nears
Civil aviation industry to face severe crisis RIL, Shell, Essar in race for
HPCL
Simplify norms for investors: chamber |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Net-controlled home appliances unveiled
Reliance, Rolta among top 25
Gautam Thapar joins Pratham India Board
Provide data, TDSAT to WLL operators
Gold zooms
Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy’s top patent filers
|
|
Investors rush for safety as Iraq war nears
London, March 17 Oil prices jumped, boosting worries about the effect of war in the Gulf on the world economy, and the dollar fell against major currencies. “The consideration is that war is now very near,’’ said one bond trader in Rome. U.S. President George W. Bush, meeting with the prime ministers of allies Britain and Spain, said on Sunday that the United Nations had only one more day to find a diplomatic end to the Iraq crisis before the United States moved to a war footing. The prospect undermined last week’s gains in world stock markets and threw into question the widespread belief that an end to uncertainty and the actual start of a war would lead to a ‘’relief rally”. Fund managers, who fuel many financial markets by steering trillions of dollars in global investments, say many of their colleagues are sitting back and waiting to see what war will bring. “Even when war starts, it is not clear what will happen as even if military action is short, there could be significant problems longer term,” said Rupert Thompson, global equity strategist. Earlier, Asian shares had set the tone. Japan’s Nikkei lost 1.64 per cent to finish slightly above a 20-year low. Seoul stocks plunged 4.17 per cent and all other Asian markets were lower as well. “What makes us worried the most is a possible negative impact on the U.S. economy from this Iraq issue,’’ said Hiroshi Nishida, general manager at Mitsubishi Trust Asset Management. Safe havens
The war fears and stock losses drove investors towards traditional safe havens. Spot gold was quoted at $342.45/343.45 an ounce, up from New York’s last quoted $336.10/336.90 and up from last week’s three-month traded low of $331.30. “People are afraid the war is really close,’’ said Leon Lee, dealing officer at the Bank of China in Hong Kong. Yields on euro zone government bonds shrank. The benchmark 10-year Bund yield was 5.6 basis points lower at 3.977 per cent, well below one-month highs set Friday at 4.05 per cent. Two-year debt yields were up 1.8 basis points at 2.427, but well off highs set at the end of last week at 2.52 per cent. The dollar fell almost one percent against the euro and the Swiss Franc. It fell to $1.0822 against the euro, down from three-week highs on the single currency hit last week when markets went into a broad bout of profit-taking on the dollar’s long downturn.
Reuters
|
|
Civil aviation industry to face severe crisis Chandigarh, March 17 Anticipating further increase in the price of ATF in wake of the mounting crisis in West Asia, the industry wants immediate withdrawal of central excise duty and rationalisation of sales tax by various sates and union territories to help it handle its worst ever crisis. The current price of the ATF is quoted at Rs 25,200 per kilolitre against Rs 15,200/KL on March 22, 2000. Never before in the history of civil aviation, the ATF was sold at such a high price. International flights of Air India and Indian Airlines get their ATF at Rs 21,550/KL. Intriguingly, the price of ATF in international market — Rs 13,100 — is almost half than that of India. Further, the rate at which other international airlines buy ATF from suppliers in India through the bonded price of Rs 17,000/KL. Aviation experts point out that a marginal 1 per cent increase in the price of ATF puts an additional burden of Rs 13 crore on the operations of country’s domestic flag carrier, Indian Airlines. Even the economic survey has painted a grim picture of the civil aviation industry saying that it failed to achieve its projected 5 per cent growth. The domestic industry has added to the capacity without being able to match it with the passenger growth. “The crisis is so severe that even 10 per cent hike in domestic air fares would hardly yield any financial relief as the fuel bill of Indian Airlines would touch a whopping Rs 1,420 crore during 2003-04 against Rs 866 cr in 1999-2000 and Rs 1000 crore in 2001-02,” says an inside holding that “there is no way of making up for this additional outgo of Rs 600 crore on fuel alone.” Indian Airlines has the highest fuel bill which is expected to touch Rs 1310 cr during the current financial year against Rs 800 crore (approximately) of Jet Airways and Rs 500 crore (appx) of Sahara. The unprecedented high price of ATF coupled with crippling duties put an additional burden of Rs 200 cr. For example, Indian Airlines reportedly pays Rs 105 crore per annum as Central Excise duty out of Rs 200 crore paid by the civil aviation industry in total. This duty, say sources in the industry, was miniscule keeping in view the size and turnover of Rs 100,000 crore oil industry in the country. Incase it is waived, the government would not lose much but the civil aviation industry would get a fresh lease of life and manage to overcame the current crisis effectively. The crisis created by hike in the prices of ATF is further aggravated by exorbitant rate of Sales Tax levied by various states. Against zero per cent sales tax on ATF in Port Blair, it is 39.10 per cent in Kerala. In Punjab, it is about 25 per cent. The average rate of sales Tax is about 25 per cent. In a State like Maharashtra, where total sales tax and excise collection is about Rs 10,000 crore, revenue generated from sales tax on ATF is just Rs 70 crore. The industry is now lobbying that like Andhra, the states should also cap the sales tax on ATF at 4 per cent. In April last year, Andhra lowered sales tax on ATF from 30.55 per cent to 4 per cent. loss was made up by high upliftment from the state as it has witnessed 50 per cent increase in sales. Under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules, there is no sales tax on ATF purchased by foreign carriers. The Union Government issued a formal notification to exempt Air-India and Indian Airlines from payment of any sales tax and fuel procured by them is to be treated as “deemed export under Section 5 of Central Sales Tax.” Of Rs 430 crore sales tax paid on ATF by civil aviation industry, Indian Airlines alone pays Rs 230 cr. The industry wants that ATF should be categorised “declared good in Central Sales Tax”. The captains of civil industry argue that its sustenance and growth would indirectly keep not only hotel and tourism industry growing but also help immensely in improving the GDP. |
|
RIL, Shell, Essar in race for HPCL
New Delhi, March 17 Today was the last date for submission of expression of interest (EoI) for HPCL, which the Disinvestment Ministry had sought a month ago soon after it decided to disinvest stake in two oil PSUs — HPCL and BPCL. Although the Disnvestment Ministry remained tight-lipped about the response, sources said a consortium of Essar group companies besides international oil gaint Saudi Aramco also filed in their EoIs. Others who have thrown their hat in the HPCL disinvestment ring include ChevronTexco of the USA and Petronas of Malayasia. Kuwait Petroleum is also believed to be in the race but there was no confirmation till this evening as to whether it has submitted an EoI. Likewise, it could not be ascertained if the Sun group of Russia had submitted its EoI. The Government is in the process of offloading about 34 per cent stake of its 51 per cent in HPCL and another 5 per cent stake will be offered to employees at concessional rates. Post disinvestment the government’s stake will be reduced to 12 per cent. It has mandated HSBC as global adviser for its stake sale in the country’s second largest refining and marketing company.
PTI
|
|
Simplify norms for investors: chamber Chandigarh, March 17 Submitting a seven-point strategy to the Chief Ministers of Northern States, PHDCCI President, Mr P. K. Jain has said that the state governments should initiate an action plan for simplification of laws, rules and regulations for attracting private investment, more particularly in housing and construction sector as this has a high employment creation impact as well as a multiplier effect on 126 other industries. Coupled with Income Tax relief up to an interest repayment of Rs.1,50,000 per annum and the reducing interest rates, it would provide a stimulus to the demand for housing, Mr. Jain said. The Public-Private Partnership model successfully demonstrated in the telecom sector and moderately in the road sector, needs to be extended to infrastructure in the States by imposing reasonable user charges for power, municipal services, water and higher technical education to begin with, Mr Jain said. A shift in policy on this basis would not only facilitate the States to provide efficient and quality services but enable scarce funds for being diverted to more demanding areas of social welfare. To boost investments and growth of the tourism industry and for reciprocating to the Centre’s initiative of abolishing hotel expenditure tax, Mr Jain has urged for reducing the Passenger Tax on tourist transport vehicles to not more than Rs.12,000 for a period of 3 months.
|
|
Net-controlled home appliances
unveiled New Delhi, March 17 Introduced in India for the first time the technology is based on Blue Tooth which is designed by Dreamwhiz of Korea. The Digital Home concept works on the system where the Internet refrigerator acts as the host PC connected to other Internet-enabled products through one communication protocol. The four products — refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine and television — carries a combined price of Rs 7 lakh. There was a team of 50 engineers who worked towards developing these products for a period of four years involving as many as 184 patents. The company plans to sell 100 such units this year. “We are targeting techno-geeks and top end segment of the consumers in India,” Mr K.R. Kim, Managing Director of LGEIL said. The protocol enables the user to switch the AC on or off in a bedroom through the refrigerator in the kitchen. The same operation could also conduct the same operation from anywhere outside by connecting a cellular phone to the home network. The network also facilitates the download of laundry programmes for the washing machines or recipes from the Internet on the microwave.
|
|
Reliance, Rolta among top 25
Mumbai, March 17 RIL was ranked 23rd and Rolta India 25th. Fifteen Indian firms found a place in the published list of 105 companies, according to a statement released by RIL here today. Sony of Japan leads the list, followed by Hong Kong’s CLP Holdings and Singapore’s United Overseas Bank on the second and their spot respectively, it said. This year 144 Asian companies participated in the survey. The annual report survey was conducted by ‘CFO Asia’ in partnership wit Belgium based reports evaluator Enterprise.
UNI
|
|
Gautam Thapar joins Pratham India Board Chandigarh, March 17 Pratham India Education Initiative is a “not for profit” organisation working towards the universalisation of primary education in the country. Its mandate is to ensure that every child is in school and learning well. The recently formed Board of Directors comprises Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries. Mr Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla group, Mr Vijay Goradia, Chairman, Vinmar International, Mr Rajat Gupta, Managing Director, McKinscy & Co Mr K.V. Kamath, Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Bank, Mr Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Nicholas Piramal group, Mr Gautam Thapar, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, BILT and Mr N. Vaghul, Chairman, ICICI, Bank.
TNS
|
|
Provide data, TDSAT to WLL operators New Delhi, March 17 The hearing will start from March 31, and will subsequently be held on April 1, April 2, April 7, April 8 and April 9. The tribunal has asked the basic operators who are offering WLL services to provide details of subscriber numbers, costs of setting up the network and quantum of licence fee paid by them. The tribunal has also allowed Reliance to be included as a party in the case.
|
|
Gold zooms
Mumbai, March 17 As chances of a war against Iraq appeared imminent following the ultimatum given by the US to the UN Security Council to end its impasse over backing military action within 24 hours, panic gripped the market and investors started buying the metal as a safe investment and this boosted the sentiment, dealers said.
PTI
|
bb
Nabard bonds Aaj Tak Loan to farmers Fiat India Safari Bikes |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
