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Sunday,
June 1, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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EPF rate
retained at 9.5 pc Petrol,
diesel prices cut by 10 paise Mahindra
net grows 75 pc, to pay 55 pc Honda to
export 20,000 scooters |
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Maruti
to raise production capacity Forex
reserves LIC
Housing Fin net rises 22 pc SBBJ to
pay 50 pc Graphics: Import
of sensitive items
New
aviation minister kindles hope
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EPF rate retained at 9.5 pc New Delhi, May 31 Putting at rest all speculations about a major reduction in the EPF rates, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma said today that as per the recommendations of the Finance and Investment Sub-committee of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), it had been decided to reduce the rate of return to 9 per cent. At the same time, however, the CBT had approved a Golden Jubilee bonus of an additional 0.5 per cent. The additional 0.5 per cent rate of return on PF subscriptions would be applicable only for the financial year 2003-04. Effectively, it meant that for 2003-04, PF
subscribers would be entitled to a 9.5 per cent rate of return. The decisions, which was taken at the CBT meeting chaired by Mr Verma here, was being seen as an attempt to nullify a politically sensitive matter which had threatened to snowball into a major issue. The investment returns of EPF would yield Rs 5,844.31 crore during the year ( 2003-04) and the estimated outgo to
subscribers at the rate of 9 per cent worked out to be Rs 5,819.23 crore, leaving a surplus of Rs 25.08 crore. For the “Golden Jubilee’’ bonus, the EPFO had taken recourse to its contingency fund which had approximately Rs 2,000 crore in the corpus. The 0.5 per cent bonus would entail an outgo of about Rs 500 crore in 2003-04. Mr Verma said the EPFO had a diversified investment portfolio with varying rates of return. “In some cases we earn a return of as high as 14 per cent”, he said. Sources said the average yield worked out to be 9.1 per cent with securities of PSUs yielded the maximum return. During 2003-04, returns of PSU securities were expected to yield about Rs 1,400 crore. The sources said assuming that the 0.5 per cent bonus was an one-off feature, the 9 per cent rate of return was just about sustainable under the existing investment portfolio. The Minister clarified that there were some accounting mismatches arising out of different accounting periodicities of the government’s Special Deposit Schemes (SDS). The Finance and Investment Sub-committee had earlier projected a deficit of around Rs 105 crore as it had accounted the data only for the
calendar year. “Only yesterday, the RBI has clarified that an additional Rs 120 crore had been accrued to the SDS account”, Mr Verma said. He said at his last meeting Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had observed that the EPFO could take any decision that could be sustained. “The 0.5 per cent bonus is a gift to mark the golden jubilee celebration of the trust. Officials of the EPFO are being given golden coins on the occasion”, he said. The total corpus of the EPF as on March 31 2003, stood at Rs1,38,967 crore and the withdrawal stood at Rs 8,000 crore. “Justice will be done and whatever returns on investment we get we will get it to the employees”, he said.
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Petrol, diesel prices cut by 10 paise New Delhi, May 31 The rates of petrol and diesel in Delhi will be 10 paise cheaper at Rs 30.30 per litre and Rs 18.09 per litre. In Kolkata, too, the prices of petrol and diesel will be down by 10 paise at Rs 31.81 per litre and Rs 20.47 per litre. In Chennai petrol and diesel will be 11 paise cheaper at Rs 33.14 per litre and Rs 21.27 per litre. In Mumbai, petrol will be 11 paise cheaper at Rs 35.14 per litre and diesel will be 12 paise cheaper at Rs 24.26 per litre, a release said here today. This was the first time since the dismantling of APM when prices were cut marginally because of appreciation in rupee and not because of decrease in the prices abroad. After over three months of surge in prices, state owned-oil firms had since April slashed prices of petrol and diesel by about Rs 3.50 per litre in three instalments, in step with global softening of crude prices. The Indian basket of crude, comprising Oman/Dubai crude oil and Brent in 58:42 ratio, has averaged $25.61 a barrel since the last price revision on May 15, which took into account the average price of $23.63 per barrel. International crude prices are on a decline since the war in Iraq started, ending the uncertainty.
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Mahindra net grows 75 pc, to pay 55 pc
Mumbai, May 31 The higher turnover of the automotive sector and benefits accruing from the restructuring and cost control contributed to growth in profits, it said. M&M’s net profit and sales income for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2003, stood at Rs 48.67 crore (Rs 94.38 crore in Q4 of 2001-02) and Rs 1,142.48 crore (Rs 922.40 crore), it said. On standalone basis, the company has posted a net profit of Rs 145.53 crore for 2002-03 (Rs 96.91 crore). The total income rose to Rs 3,811.78 crore (Rs 3,320.31 crore), it said. The automotive division sold 68,852 multi-utility vehicles in FY-03 (55,920 units 2001-02), similarly the market share also grew to 50.2 per cent in the reporting year (Rs 47.5 per cent), it said. Farm equipment sales were adversely affected by low agri incomes, unfavourable terms of trade and traunt monsoon. Under such difficult market conditions, tractor sales were down to 47,028 units in FY-03 as against 58,006 units in 2001-02.
PTI
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Honda to export 20,000 scooters Jalandhar, May 31 This was revealed by Motoo Suzuki, Director (Finance) of HMSI, who was in the city to formally inaugurate G.S.
Honda, a state of art showroom, equipped with ultramodern facilities, here today. Talking to reporters, Suzuki, accompanied by Gurinder Pal Singh, Director of G.S. Honda, said that the company has bagged orders for export of 20,000 scooters to Germany, France, Turkey, Maxico, South Africa and Nepal for the current financial year even as efforts were being made to boost export of scooters to other EU countries, which could be explored as a major importers of Indian made Honda scooters. Elaborating further about company’s expansion plans, he revealed that they planned to manufacture four lakh units during the year 2003-2004 which would be raised to 7 lakh units during the year 2004-2005. “We have also decided to launch a new generation motorcycle next year while tests are being conducted to enhance performance of its four stroke engine and to make it suitable according to Indian roads,” Suzuki said evading a direct reply about the capacity and price tag of the proposed motor cycle. He said that they had already sold 1.75 lakh scooters in India following its launch 19 months back. “Infact, the mid size segment has grown
steadily over the past few years, which is evident from the fact that sale of automatic scooters have gone up by 20 per cent during the year 2001-2002 despite the shrinking size of the overall scooter market. we have already eastablished 120 dealers spread over 159 cities of the country to cater the needs of the customers,” he said.
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Maruti to raise production capacity New Delhi, May 31 At a press conference held here to announce the divesting of the 25 per cent of the government stake in the largest car manufacturer of the country, MUL Managing Director Jagdish Khattar in the presence of Mr O. Suzuki, the Chairman and CEO of Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) said that the company was looking to increase its production capacity by almost 50 per cent from the present 1700 cars per day in the coming two to three years. The MUL had yesterday announced in Mumbai a floor price of Rs 115 for the initial public offering (IPO) to divest the 25 per cent of the government stake. As an act of boosting the public confidence the SMC would remain as a ‘standby’ underwriter to the issue. MULs IPO is slated to open on June 12 and will close on June 19. Pointing out that India would remain a small car market in the coming few years, Mr Khattar said that the MUL would be looking to target the almost five million per year two-wheeler market as part of its strategy to increase its share in the car sector. Presently the small car segment accounts for over 80 per cent share of the Indian market of which MUL has a staggering almost 60 per cent share. As part of its strategy to tap the presently unexplored regions of the country, MUL has also come together with the SBI to offer the lowest rate of interest on borrowings for the purchase of its vehicles. Besides as part of the joint venture the SBI would also be offering the longest repayment plan to the MUL car purchasers. Secretary in the Ministry of Heavy Industries Mr Naresh Narad said that the government would looking at divesting the rest of the 20 per cent of its share in the coming two years. The present 25 per cent government share is being divested as part of the Disinvestment Ministry’s recommendation. Mr Narad added that the almost Rs 40 crore which would be the cost of putting the 72,243,300 equity shares on sale would be borne by the government. When asked whether that would come as a charity for the investors, Mr Narad replied that it would be the cost which the government would undertaking to build the people’s goodwill. Giving details of the understanding between the SMC and the General Motors (GM), Mr Suzuki said that the latter was having an equity holding of 20 per cent in his company. But there were no plans for GM to make an investment in the MUL. He pointed that although the GM and the SMC were collaborators and were also manufacturing cars separately in India, the WTO would not be coming together in MUL. This as both the companies were manufacturing different models and despite the two working on having a common engine for their vehicles around the world there were no such plans in India. He added that SMC was committed to India and as part of its efforts to strengthen its positing here, the MUL would be further improving its dealer network, financing facilities and service network.
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Forex reserves
Mumbai, May 31 Foreign currency assets rose by $ 1,596 million to $ 77,426 million, it added. The rise is mainly due to fresh inflows and revaluation of non-US currencies, including the Euro, against the US dollar, analysts said.
PTI
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LIC Housing Fin net rises 22 pc
Mumbai, May 31 The board has proposed a 55 per cent dividend for the period under review, LIC Housing Finance Chief Executive S.C. Jain said. The total income in FY-03 increased by 15 per cent at Rs 1,013.64 crore (Rs 881.64 crore in the last year), he said. The sanctions rose by 70.32 per cent at Rs 3,593.45 crore (Rs 2,109.85 crore) while disbursements grew by 62.56 per cent at Rs 3,190.83 crore (Rs 1,962.82 crore). Jain said the outstanding mortgage portfolio as on March 31, 2003, was Rs 7,771.92 crore (Rs 6,169.85 crore), registering an increase of 25.97 per cent.
PTI
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SBBJ to pay 50 pc The State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) has declared an all time high net profit of Rs 203.28 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2003, registering a growth of 24 per cent over the previous year’s figure of Rs 164.50 crore. In a statement issued here today the Managing Director of the bank, Mr N.K. Puri, said the operating profit of the bank also increased to Rs 440.85 crore for the year compared to Rs 390.61 crore as on March 31, 2002. He said in view of the impressive record profit, the Board of Directors had proposed a dividend of 50 per cent.
TNS
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AirTel slashes SMS rates
Chandigarh, May 31 |
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bb
Gold tumbles Power Fin rates AirTel lakhpatis Tax returns |
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New Delhi, May 31
