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Thursday,
May 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Verdict on phone rates this week: Shourie Airtel slashes outgoing tariff
No concessions given to Japan Life: FM
VAT panel meets Jaswant |
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Cut in customs duty on refined oil opposed
Ambanis to appear in court on May 26
Beware of Chinese honey
HDFC net up 19 pc at Rs 690.29 cr
Shimla-Chandigarh calls to cost more
30 contracts on priority list of Iraq
Imports cheaper than production
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Verdict on phone rates this week: Shourie New Delhi, May 7 “The government is as much concerned about its popular image as the Opposition is and there is no difference of opinion in this regard," the Minister assured the Lower House during Zero Hour. Responding to members' apprehensions that the government had planned to allow BSNL and MTNL to suffer losses in order to disinvest them, Mr Shourie said his Ministry had given a free hand to the two corporations so that they could compete with private players. In the past seven months alone, BSNL had added 2.5 million subscriber and this will make these corporations viable, Mr Shourie said. The Minister made it clear the pulse rate had been kept unchanged at three minutes for landline-to-landline calls, while there has been no change in rental charges. On the rental for rural telephones, he said the rentals have been kept at Rs 50 despite TRAI order for a five-fold hike in the monthly rental of these telephones. TRAI had suggested the hike in rural rentals as in the wake of falling rates, there were no profits from STD and ISD calls which were earlier utilised to subsidise rural telephony, Mr Shourie said. Raising the matter, Mr Govindan (CPI-M) said the hike was anti- people and against the interest of consumers. Among the Members who had raised concern over the increase were Mr Pravin Rashtrapal (Cong), Mr Chandra Kant Khaire (SS), Dr V. Saroja (AIADMK), Mr P.C. Thomas (Kerala Congress. Earlier during Question Hour, the government faced embarrassment when key allies of the NDA coalition — Shiv Sena, JD(U) and Samata Party — walked out of the House demanding rollback of telephone tariff hike amidst uproarious scenes during Question Hour. Even BJP leader V K Malhotra supported the contention of the allies and the Opposition, saying people were "agitated" over the increase in land-line tariff as slogan-shouting by CPI(M), RJD, Shiv Sena, Congress, Samajwadi Party and others continued unabated. The members' ire was aroused when Communications Minister Arun Shourie sought to defend the hike in the rates saying otherwise MTNL and BSNL would face losses. Dissatisfied with his reply, the Opposition members contended they would not be able to face the electorate in their constituencies as they were annoyed over the steep rise in telecom tariffs. Shiv Sena leader Chandrakant Khaire and his party colleague Shivaji Mane laid their cellphones on the table of the House as a mark of protest. Coming out strongly in support of the demand, TDP leader K Yerran Naidu also sought that status quo ante should prevail and the hike withdrawn. “We are talking of revolution and economic progress, but you are raising the tariff of land-lines which affects the poor people," he charged. |
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Airtel slashes outgoing tariff
New Delhi, May 7 For every STD under Freedom 349 scheme, the subscribers can save 50 per cent extra for every GSM mobile call, 55 per cent for a landline between 50-200 km, 47 per cent for a landline between 200-500 km and 41 per cent for more than 500 km, AirTel said in a statement. Under the Freedom 599 sceheme, the local subscribers will save 41/30 per cent to GSM mobile and landline/WLL call respectively. STD subscribers will get a rebate of 43 to GSM mobile, 31 per cent to landline between 50-200 km, 27 per cent 200-500 km, and 25 per cent for 500 km and above. The local users under Freedom 999 will get a benefit of 58 per cent to landline/WLL while 43 per cent to GSM mobile, 31 per cent to landline between 50-200 km, 27 per cent to landline 500 km and above. The company announced a bonanza of 20/65 per cent for local calls to GSM mobile and landline/WLL respectively under 'Freedom 1699' scheme, while 43 per cent reduction to GSM mobile users, 31 per cent to landline between 50-200 km, 27 per cent to landline 200-500 km, and 25 per cent to landline above 500 km under the scheme. UNI
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No concessions given to Japan Life: FM New Delhi, May 7 The matters relating to the activities of the company in Chandigarh and Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh are to be dealt with by the state governments under the provisions of the Act, the minister said while replying to a Calling Attention Motion moved by Mr Jaipal Reddy (Congress) on illegal schemes of the Japan Life in India. Denying that the government had given concessions in customs duty to the company supplying magnetic matresses claiming certain magnetic therapy to the users, he said the government is in no way a party to the so called ‘fraud’ which the company indulged and claimed by Mr Reddy. Mr Reddy said no steps has been taken during the last nine months against the company which is perpetrating a high tech fraud on people to the tune of Rs 7 to Rs 8 crore throughout the country. |
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VAT panel meets Jaswant
New Delhi, May 7 “Only nine states are ready with their VAT Bills”, Mr Dasgupta said after emerging out of the meeting even as refused to comment on the Finance Minister’s remarks that the Centre did not favour a “patchwork” approach to the matter. The Centre had prepared a model draft of the legislation on the lines of which the states had been suggested to formulate their own Bills. The Centre had also prepared a check list of 380 items which included the definition of commodity classification as well. The Finance Minister had already said the proposed reduction in the rate of Central sales tax from 4 to 2 per cent was contingent on the introduction of VAT by all states.
TNS |
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Cut in customs duty on refined oil opposed Chandigarh, May 7 In a memorandum to Mr Jaswant Singh, Mr A.R. Sharma, President of the association, said over the past three years the domestic refining industry had made considerable investment in setting up modern processing units and infrastructure. Now a large inflow of refined oil would discourage new investment in that sector and reduce the local value addition. He said the duty difference created by the government between crude and refined oil during the past three years had helped the domestic refining industry to expand substantially. For instance the government had increased customs duty in 2001 on crude palm oil from 25 per cent to 75 per cent, on refined palmolein from 71.6 per cent to 92.4 per cent and from 35 per cent to 75 per cent on other crude oils. It had helped to check the import of refined oil in the country and expansion of the domestic processing industry. Mr Sharma said the import of refined oil, which was about 76 per cent in 1997-98, reduced to 3 per cent by 2001-02, and the import during the first five months in 2002-03 was hardly 1 per cent, whereas the crude oil import had increased from about 5 lakh tonnes in 1997-98 to over 43 lakh tonnes by 2001-02. During the November-March period of 2002-03, it had reached 15.67 lakh tonnes. The association lamented that the sudden reduction in duty on refined oil would result in larger import of finished products over the raw material. It would be against the government’s own policy to encourage import of raw material over finished products. Further, it would render a huge investment made in this sector unproductive. The association urged the Centre to reconsider its decision and maintain at least 15 per cent difference in customs duty on refined and crude oil, so that the domestic industry could flourish by utilising the created capacity. |
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Ambanis to appear in court on May 26 New Delhi, May 7 The CMM, Ms Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal, directed the Ambani brothers to appear before her on May 26 for alleged violation of the Official Secrets Acts by their company officials. Four classified documents were allegedly recovered by the CBI on October 28 from the premises of Reliance Industries (RIL) at Le Meridien Commercial Tower when it was raided in connection with the investigation against self-styled politician Romesh Sharma, who had “connections” with under-world don Dawood Ibrahim. Sharma, facing trial in 16 cases, is at present lodged in the Tihar jail under judicial custody. The summons were issued following a direction by Additional Sessions Judge P K Bhasin yesterday in this regard, who said Mukesh and Anil, as top bosses of the company, could not escape from the
responsibility of being “statutorily guilty” of the offence allegedly committed by RIL officials. The documents were the photocopies of certain vital papers relating to different ministries of the Union Government. The CBI had named V. Balasubramaniam (President of Reliance), A.N. Sethuraman (Vice-President, Reliance Industries) and Shankar Adawal (General Manager, Reliance Telecom) as accused and charged them with entering into a criminal conspiracy for receiving, possessing and handling classified documents. |
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Beware of Chinese honey
New Delhi, May 7 According to consumer interest bodies, Chinese honey, banned in several countries, is making inroads in Indian market to the detriment of the health of common man. Chinese honey, establishing its presence in India and even being re-exported, is contaminated with Chloramphenciol which might render a person resistant to antibiotics used in the treatment of typhoid and paratyphoid, Director Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) Rajan R. Gandhi said here. He said chloramphenicol, an antibiotic, was extensively used to cure these diseases until it was banned worldwide in 1970s as it can cause life threatening aplastic anaemia in humans. Since Chinese honey contains chloramphenicol, it has been banned in several countries including the USA, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom and other EU countries, he added. NGOs feel having lost its market in the west, there has been a slide in the price of Chinese honey, a fact that some traders have used to their advantage. This has happened at a time when price of Indian honey has increased three-fold. Selvi Roy of CUTS said a few Indian companies are circumventing this price rise by successfully blending the contaminated honey imported from China and exporting it under their name with a “Produce of India” label. An official of the Centre for International Trade and Agriculture (CITA) said government should check import of such honey by using existing laws. Good image of Indian honey in particular and agro-based products in general is being tarnished, another consumer activist added. Consumer activists have now petitioned the government to “act fast” to curb such illegal and harmful practices. PTI
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HDFC net up 19 pc at Rs 690.29 cr
Mumbai, May 7 The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 11 per share, HDFC said in a release here today. Income from operations in FY-03 was higher at Rs 2,967.32 crore as against Rs 2,692.41 crore in the last year, it said. For the fourth quarter ended March, net profit increased to Rs 239.19 crore (Rs 206.45 crore in Q4 of FY-02) while income from operations stood at Rs 789.17 crore (Rs 722.63 crore), it added. On consolidated basis, the company posted a net profit of Rs 747.48 crore (Rs 626.73 crore) in FY-03. The income from operations also rose to Rs 3,088.77 crore (Rs 2,812.93 crore). Approvals in FY-03 aggregated Rs 11,731.57 crore (Rs 9,041.25 crore), an increase of 30 per cent. Disbursements recorded a 31 per cent growth at Rs 9,950.87 crore (Rs 7,616.56 crore), it said, adding approvals and disbursements in respect of individual loans were both higher by 36 per cent compared to the previous year. CMC net rises
Tata-owned CMC Ltd has registered a 5.41 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 13.81 crore during the last fiscal’s fourth quarter against Rs 13.10 crore during the previous Q4. For the entire 2002-03, the company’s net profit grew by 10.1 per cent at Rs 37.05 crore. CMC’s total revenue was up 12.4 per cent at Rs 240 crore during the fourth quarter against Rs 214 crore during the previous Q4.
Agencies |
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Shimla-Chandigarh calls to cost more Shimla, May 7 Addressing a press conference here he said a lot of confusion had been created about the new tariff after May 1. As Chandigarh fell outside Himachal Circle the pulse rate had been reduced to 90 seconds from the earlier 180 seconds. Moreover, the existing 923 code for the city would be discontinued over the next few days and subscribers would be required to dial 95172 to access the Chandigarh numbers. The pulse rate for group dialling within the state had also be reduced from 120 seconds to 60 seconds for distance ranging below 50 km and 100 km. It would be 30 seconds beyond a distance of 100 km. BSNL had
decided to extend the "95" facility for stations beyond 200 km for intra-circle calls. A special pulse rate of 600 seconds for calls made for accessing the Internet during off-peak hours (22.30-06.30) had been offered. He said the telephone directory for entire Himachal Circle would be made available on compact disc. Earlier directories were printed for the service area only. |
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30 contracts on priority list of Iraq
New Delhi, May 7 The government is also making use of the Permanent Mission of India in New York for facilitating the execution of contracts earlier entered into by OIP with the Indian exporters, an official statement said here. Contracts worth over Rs 3,000 crore have already been entered into for supply of items to Iraq.
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Ortem fans Western Union Fedders ACs Telco sales up BSNL TVS Motor
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