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Friday,
June 20, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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SBI net up
27.69 pc Investors
shift to bank IPOs, MFs
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India’s
external debt rises to $ 105 billion New Delhi, June 19 Despite a substantial 47 per cent improvement in Debt-GDP ratio in the last ten and a half years ending 2002, the country’s external debt rose to $105 billion as on December 2002 as against $ 98.8 billion in March, 31, 2002. Maruti
public issue oversubscribed Bhagwanpura
Sugar Mill challenges attachment order VAT
panel to meet FM PNB cuts
rate on FCNR (B) deposits MNCs to
help farmers Industry
status for horticulture in J&K HP for
setting up international airport Uttaranchal
new industrial policy
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SBI net up 27.69 pc
Kolkata, June 19 Announcing the financial results for 2002-03 after an extended board meeting, SBI Chairman A.K. Purwar told a press conference here that the operating profit increased by 28.63 per cent to Rs 7,775.40 crore as against Rs 6044.83 crore during 2001-02. Mr Purwar said during the same period the bank’s deposits and advances also recorded a growth of 12.1 per cent and 15.2 per cent respectively to Rs 26,412 crore and Rs 19,205 crore respectively. The net NPA reduced to 4.5 per cent from 5.63 per cent in the corresponding period of 2001-02. The gross NPA, however, stood at 9.34 per cent, compared to 11.95 per cent during the previous corresponding period. Overall business turnover of the bank during the last fiscal stood at Rs 49,237.11 crore as against Rs 45,190.42 crore in the same period the previous year, the SBI Chairman said, adding that the treasury income grew by 13.5 per cent to Rs 1715 crore. To a query the SBI Chairman said though the bank had many growth oriented programmes in the coming months, it did not have any plan to grow for any public issue during the current financial year with the bank’s capital adequacy ratio hovering around a comfortable 13.2 per cent. Expressing satisfaction at the present growth rate of the bank and promising to keep it up in the coming years too, the SBI Chairman said on the basis of last year’s performance the SBI Board of Directors had recommended a dividend of 85 per cent for last year compared to 60 per cent given during the previous year (2001-02). He said around 28 per cent growth in net profit margin last year was achieved primarily due to increase in both net interest and fee based income of the bank. The overall profit on sale of investments during 2002-03 was to the tune of Rs 1694.60 crore against only Rs 341.85 crore in 2001-02, Mr Purwar said. About the growth in deposits of the bank he said SBI’s domestic deposit alone grew by Rs 26,412 crore, while the personal segment deposit was up by 11.8 per cent last year to Rs 15,120 crore. The bank had also achieved success in terms of the retail business which grew by 37.5 per cent during last year, he said adding in housing loan segment alone the increase was by 48 per cent Rs 1,151 crore.
UNI
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Investors shift to bank IPOs, MFs Chandigarh, June 19 They pointed out that with the success of Maruti and bank IPOs, a large section of investors was exploring other avenues for investment, thus affecting savings in banks. A Manager of SBI branch here said, “A section of investors, who used to keep their savings in banks and national saving accounts, had shifted to mutual funds. Consequently, the banks were wooing investors with innovative schemes and additional services like free ATM cards.” According to experts in the banking industry, even if one had to keep his amount in banks, they should check the interest rates, which were varying between 4.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent. Enquires made with different banks revealed that the State Bank of India (SBI) was offering interest rate between 4.25 per cent and 6 per cent. For 7-14 days period, with minimum deposits of Rs 15 lakh, the bank offered 4 per cent interest rate. A senior official of the SBI, Regional Office, here claimed that as per the policy of the Central Government, the bank offered 6 per cent annual rate of interest to senior citizens for deposits between one and two years. However, for three years and above period, the bank offered 6.5 per cent rate of annual interest to senior citizens, he said. The bankers here admitted that private banks like ICICI, HDFC and the Bank of Punjab had made a dent in the savings of the SBI. The Bank of Punjab was offering 4.5 per cent annual rate of interest on fixed deposits kept for 15-29 days, 4.75 per cent interest rate for 30-45 days, and 6.25 per cent annual rate of interest for 2 years and above and less than 3 years period. Interestingly, interest rates offered by ICICI Bank were relatively low. It was offering just 3 per cent annual rate of interest for fixed deposits for 15-29 days and 3.5 per cent for 46-60 days. Officials of ICICI Bank claimed that they were providing better service than a number of public sector banks. Interestingly, the SBI officials admitted that the City Union Bank, which had limited branches, was offering the highest rate of interest on term deposits. It was offering as much as 5 per cent annual interest rate for fixed deposits kept for 15-29 days and 7 per cent on 180 to 364 days. For term deposits between 3 years and less than 5 years period, it was offering 8 per cent rate of interest. Global Trust Bank here was offering 5.25 per cent interest rate on fixed deposits kept for 15-29 days. Punjab National Bank was offering interest rates between 4.25 per cent and 6 per cent.
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India’s external debt rises to $ 105 billion
New Delhi, June 19 According to the Quick Estimates of India’s External Debt outstanding, the short-term debt component during the period stood at $ 3.36 billion as against the long term debt of $ 101.63 billion during the period. According to a status report on India’s External Debt, despite increase in India’s external debt stock in recent years, external debt indicators have progressively witnessed improvement both in Debt-GDP and debt-service ratios. While Debt-GDP ratio declined from 38.7 per cent as on end-March, 1992 to 20.6 per cent at end-December 2002, the debt service as a per cent of current receipts declined from 30.2 per cent to 13.7 per cent during the period.
PTI
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Maruti public issue oversubscribed
Mumbai, June 19 The company today received bids aggregating 16.03 crore shares, the highest in any single day of the public offer of 7.22 crore shares, which opened on June 12. According to information available with Stock Exchange, Mumbai, the maximum bids aggregating 29.90 crore shares poured in at Rs 125 per share as against Rs 120 per share, which was the trend till yesterday. MUL’s issue received bids for 14.52 crore shares at Rs 120 per share. The floor price for the issue, which is being made to divest about 25 per cent of government’s equity in the auto major through book building route, is Rs 115 per share.
PTI |
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Bhagwanpura Sugar Mill challenges attachment order Dhuri, June 19 This was stated by Mr S.S.
Majithia, managing director, and Dr S. Bhaskaran, vice-president-cum-director of the mill, addressing a press conference on the mill premises here. The Cane Commissioner, Punjab, Chandigarh, exercising the powers of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab, and acting as Arbitrator under Section 56 of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, vide his order dated August 27, 2002, passed an award of Rs 23,10,328 in favour of the Dhuri Sugarcane Growers Society here and against the Bhagwanpura Sugar Mill,
Dhuri. The Cane Commissioner vide his letter No 5287 dated December 11, 2002, directed the Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies,
Dhuri, to effect the recovery of the award amount of Rs 23,10, 328 by attachment of the properties of the sugar mill. Though the operation of the above orders of the Cane Commissioner, Punjab, had been stayed by the Joint Secretary Cooperation, Punjab, vide orders dated June 5, 2003, passed in an appeal filed by the sugar mill, the Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Society,
Dhuri, vide his orders dated June 11, 2003, had attached the land of the sugar mill measuring 49 bighas 3 biswas under Sections 65 and 66 of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961. The Assistant Registrar vide his above orders dated June 11, 2003, also directed the revenue authorities to stop the registration of sale deed in favour of any one qua this attached land of the mill. Mr Balbir Singh
Sohi, Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Dhuri, could not be contacted. Mr Majithia and Dr Bhaskaran claimed that no order in this regard had been received by the mill management. They further said in order to clear current arrears of sugarcane growers of the area pertaining to the year 2002-2003 amounting to Rs 210 lakh, the mill management had planned to dispose of about 40 bighas of mill land situated towards its front side which is being used as cane yard and claimed that the Cane Commissioner, Punjab, had no authority to restrain the mill owners from doing so. They further said the process of selling this part of land of the mill would be started immediately after obtaining permission from its banks in this regard. They further claimed that the entire backlog/past arrears of sugarcane growers of the area amounting to Rs 23 crore had been paid by the mill during March and April this year.
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VAT panel to meet FM
New Delhi, June 19 “The committee will be meeting in the middle of July. We will meet the Finance Minister also,” VAT panel Chairman Asim Dasgupta told PTI here today. After the meeting, he said the committee will meet major political parties for a nationwide consensus." Some of the members of the Empowered Committee will be there,” Dasgupta, also the West Bengal Finance Minister, said. He was non-committal on whether VAT could be implemented in this fiscal. The contentious VAT had missed the June one deadline with Centre deciding to come up with a “new roadmap” in consultation with political parties and Empowered Committee of state finance ministers. About 11 states, which were earlier prepared to implement VAT from June 1, could not do so as Finance Minister Jaswant Singh opposed a “patchwork” implementation without all states fully prepared for it. Centre intends to consult the main political parties and VAT panel for coming up with the new progressive tax system, whose introduction was deferred more than three times since 2001. In its last meeting in Delhi, Dasgupta had asserted that 11 states were ready to introduce the new tax regime provided they get the Presidential assent to their respective VAT bills in time.
PTI
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PNB cuts rate on FCNR (B) deposits New Delhi, June 19 The rate of interest on dollar deposits has been revised to 0.77 per cent, 0.98 per cent and 1.36 per cent for maturities of one year to less than two years (first maturity), two years to less than three years (second maturity) and three years (third maturity) only respectively, a release said. The rate of interest on pound deposits has been revised to 3.27 per cent for first maturity, 3.19 per cent for second maturity and 3.29 per cent for third maturity. The rate of interest on Euro deposits has been revised to 1.69 per first maturity, 1.89 per cent for second
maturity and 1.97 per cent for third maturity.
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MNCs to help farmers
Amritsar, June 19 Urging farmers in a seminar organised here to shift from the routine crop pattern, Saroj suggested, high yielding cash crops having rich market demand. He said PAFC would play a key role in a tie up between the farmers and the
MNCs. PTI
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Industry status for horticulture in J&K
Srinagar, June 19 State Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Abdul Aziz Zargar told the Assembly that a Rs 100-crore Technology Mission had been devised to promote the sector in a big way. He said an integrated strategy for consolidation of fragmented land holdings in the state had to be developed in order to give a boost to the horticulture and agriculture sectors. Replying to the discussion on a resolution moved by National Conference member Mubarik Gul, the Minister stressed on the need for modernisation in the two sectors saying, despite being mainstay of state’s economy, they had remained on the back burner of policy plans so far. He said macromanagement and Agro-Expo zone schemes would also be implemented apart from massive awareness campaigns to educate farming community about the benefits of joint farming and also to keep them abreast with the latest research findings. The minister said the government had also decided to set up soil and leaf testing laboratories at district levels. The traditional silk industry would also be revived and material will be provided to the rearers on subsidised rates, he added. He said a modern terminal fruit market would be set up near Kathua and field agencies reactivated to spread awareness of modern agriculture technologies among the farmers.
UNI
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HP for setting up international airport Shimla, June 19 Although the Centre has agreed to provide funds for the extension of airstrips at Kangra, Kulu and Shimla airports to facilitate the landing of bigger aircraft, the state government is of the view that this will not help the tourism industry much unless aeroplanes like
Boeing can land. At present, only small 18-seater aircraft can land at three airports. After extension of the existing airstrips from the present 3,500 ft to 5,500 ft bigger 50-seater planes will be able to land. However, this is not enough to attract high-end tourists, particularly foreigners on a large scale. The main reason for it is that air travel to the state will remain a costly affair until the volume of traffic is increased. The Congress government had proposed to have an international airport in the Balh valley of the Mandi district. In fact, the plan for an international airport was mooted in 1997. However, the same could not be given a concrete shape. The Tourism and Civil Aviation Department had even identified suitable land. The government plans to make a proposal soon, which will be sent to the Centre for approval and funding. An international airport is essential for chartered flights, which the foreign tourists prefer.
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Uttaranchal new industrial policy
Dehra Dun, June 19 Presenting the policy in the Assembly, Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari said the thrust of the new industrial policy that would remain in force for five years was to invite private investors in all the key sectors including infrastructure development. The policy envisages cent per cent Central Excise exemption for 10 years on items other than those mentioned in the negative list of the industrial package announced by the Centre on January 7.
PTI
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UTI MF launches first scheme Mumbai, June 19 |
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Maruti loan mela Air Sahara Jet Airways Ford Motor |
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