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Friday,
July 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Rs 2,822-cr Plan outlay for Punjab
BSNL Net service in Haryana goes haywire
Ranbaxy net soars 42 pc
Punjab not keen on Bathinda refinery |
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LSE okays demutualisation
‘Quality control must for contract farming’ Panel okays conversion
of IDBI into a bank
Satyam posts 12 pc rise in profit More BoP offices in Punjab within 2 months
ACC net vaults 122 per cent
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Rs 2,822-cr Plan outlay for Punjab New Delhi, July 24 The plan size was decided at a meeting between Panning
Commission Deputy Chairman K.C. Pant and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. In 2002-03, the state had an approved plan outlay of Rs 1,793 crore. At today’s meeting, Mr Pant appreciated the state government’s efforts to improve the fiscal health by taking steps to increase tax and non-tax revenue generation. The Chief Minister said the state government had drawn up a medium-term fiscal reforms programme and a MoU with the Ministry of Finance for adhering to the targets of fiscal correction envisaged in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003. Of the Rs 50 crore one-time additional central assistance, Mr Amarinder Singh said it had been earmarked for housing of SCs and environment improvement, including sanitation, Khalsa Heritage Complex, 24-hour power supply to villages falling with 0-6 kms from International border, Institute of Mental Health of Amritsar, restoration of old works and construction of new water harvesting projects and the Institute for Development and Communication for Research and Development. The state recently witnessed a falling rate of growth and sub-optimal plan performance. The state should adopt more realistic plans so as to improve the realisation. During the Ninth Plan period, the Plan expenditure of Punjab was only 74.4 per cent of the outlay. The unsatisfactory performance was primarily because of the shortfall in the realisation of resources, Mr Pant said. The state should reorient its approach towards development of agriculture and allied activities in view of the WTO conditions. Crop diversification, higher production of commercial crops and horticulture products were recommended. Punjab was also advised to improve the forest cover, strengthen the water charges collection mechanism and properly maintain the extensive irrigation network. It was pointed out that the state electricity board was continuing to incur huge commercial losses and the state asked to avail itself of (accelerated power development and reform programme assistance by completing the requisite formalities and strengthening transmission and distribution network. The bus routes and fare structure should be rationalised to reduce the losses of the state transport undertaking. Punjab had a widening gap in the female-male ratio, particularly in the age group of zero to six years, which was at 793 to 1,000. The Planning Commission expressed serious concern over the deteriorating ratio and asked the state to address the problem on priority. The fiscal, 2003-04 had been declared as the year of development in line with the government’s commitment to poverty alleviation, social justice and upliftment of weaker sections, secularism and maintenance of communal harmony. |
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BSNL Net service in Haryana goes haywire Hisar, July 24 For the past about two months the only time Netizens can connect properly is from around midnight to early morning when traffic has abated considerably. Otherwise during the day, the chances of getting connected are one in 10. That means a subscriber has to dial at least 10 times to get connected which entails nine wasted calls for which the subscriber has to cough up a minimum of Rs 10.80. Every time a subscriber dials the access number the modems do “shake hands” but an on screen message keeps asking for the password even when the correct password is provided. At other times, the connection just terminates with the message: Internal authentication error or unknown error. Knowledgeable sources say these error messages are the result of overloading of the system when the overwhelmed servers fail to recognise the correct passwords. Subscribers also complain that even when connected the connection speed is extremely slow and websites take a long time to open. Such slow connections are disconnected within minutes leaving the subscriber no choice but to keep dialing again and again. Although officials are not prepared to admit on record that the problems exist or that more connections have been released than the system can handle, off the record they admit that the problem indeed is overloading. Officially, the local BSNL office just maintains that their job is to ensure that when a subscriber dials the access number 172233 the modems “shake hands”. If the “handshaking” does not result in a connection, the problem lies with the server which they do not maintain. Officials also privately admit that BSNL is not bothered about the problem because the denial of service is, in fact, boosting its revenue from Net services as the consumer has to pay several times more to get connected. This kind of revenue cannot flow in if the subscriber gets connected on first dial. The latest BSNL venture of offering cards for instant new connections and renewal of old connections has also added to the problem immensely. The cards are available in bigger cities like Delhi and Chandigarh and new subscribers keen to seek a connection buy these cards little realising that every new connection means less chances of getting connected and more strain on their pockets. The monopoly status of the ISP has also added to its complacence and indifference to the subscribers. Unlike many other towns like Sonipat and Karnal the remote districts of Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa do not have access to any of the private sector ISPs. |
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Ranbaxy net soars 42 pc New Delhi, July 24 Its net profit stood at Rs 197 crore for the quarter ended June 30 against Rs 138 crore a year earlier, RLL said here today. The company recorded sales of Rs 858 crore, registering a growth of 20 per cent. Domestic sales at Rs 305.2 crore recorded a surge of 15 per cent while export sales at Rs 552.8 crore posted 23 per cent growth. The firm said its global net profit, including earnings of its overseas subsidiaries, rose 20 per cent to Rs 206 crore while global sales rose 24 per cent to Rs 1,135 crore. “Ranbaxy has a number of growth engines in place especially, the USA and EU markets, which will enable us to maintain balanced grow. The company is committing more investments into innovative research to prepare for next phase,” said RLL CEO and Managing Director D.S. Brar. Earnings per share on fully diluted basis was Rs 10.57 in the second quarter against Rs 7.45 in the same period last year. The profit before tax and extraordinary items at Rs 565.9 crore recorded a growth of 140 per cent while profit after tax was at Rs 476.6 crore, an increase of 104 per cent. Buoyant sales of dosage forms in the various international markets constituted a growth of 37 per cent. —
UNI |
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Punjab not keen on Bathinda refinery New Delhi, July 24 The Punjab Government which had previously granted excise tax exemption to the Guru Gobind Singh Refineries Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of HPCL, to set up the refinery in the state wants fiscal concessions to be reworked. “We have to analyse the implications of setting up the refinery. The state stands to lose Rs 600-700 crore annually in excise and sales tax revenues,” Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh told PTI here. Construction of the Bathinda refinery was bone of contention when the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) had on January 26 decided to privatise HPCL. The refinery was viewed by many as unviable due to excess refining capacity in the country. Against the petroleum product demand of around 103 million tonnes, India is saddled with a refining capacity of 117 million tonnes. Suitors for acquiring the government 34.01 per cent stake in HPCL had viewed the construction of refinery as a liability and wanted the government not to make its commissioning a pre-condition for bidding. The CCD had then separated the commissioning of the refinery from the disinvestment process and made it flexible for suitors to bid for HPCL with and without the refinery. —
PTI |
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LSE okays demutualisation Ludhiana, July 24 According to the scheme, the ownership, management and trading rights of the members will be segregated into-shareholders, management and trading members. The board of directors constituted as: three representatives from shareholders, three representatives from trading members — but to be appointed by shareholders, three representatives from investing public, eminent men from general public, a chief executive officer and a wholetime director. Earlier the Board of LSE had constituted a committee of the Board as ‘demutualisation committee’ and two sub committees-one of the chartered accounts and the other of company secretaries. All these committees had extensive deliberations before finalising the scheme and submitted their recommendations. The sub committee of chartered accountants submitted its evaluations and recommendations of the ‘card value’ and ‘deposit value’ of membership card based on fixed, liquid and other assets of LSE. According to this committee, the value of assets is estimated at over Rs 21 crore (net of liabilities) which is proposed to be distributed among 301 members fetching a value of about Rs 7 lakh per member by way of approximately 45,000 equity share of Rs 10 each of the value of Rs 4.5 lakh (against fixed assets), approximately Rs 2,50,000 by way of ‘deposit receipt’ entitling them to trading rights (against liquid assets). The scheme has proposed that both shares as well as deposit receipts will be made transferable independent of each other which means that a share holder cancel shares and keep trading rights or vice-versa. However, as per SEBI directives, the trading members will have to sell at least 50 per cent of their shares during next three years. Further there will be a lock in period of three years trading rights meaning thereby that the members of the LSE who wish to surrender their trading rights will have to wait for three years to encash them. Further in order to avoid concentration of shares in one hand, it has proposed that there will be a ceiling of 5 per cent in respect of voting rights. The scheme also provides that the shares as may be allotted can be got listed on other stock exchanges and will be issued in dematerialised form. The sub committee of the company secretaries has recommended thorough overhaul of LSE’s memorandum and articles of Association to bring them in line with the companies act as applicable to for profit companies and the demutualisation scheme. While framing the scheme LSE has proposed and assumed that one time rebate from income tax will be available to it on conversion of states from ‘not for profit entity’ to ‘for profit entity’. Further exemption and rebates will also be given to the members from income tax and capital gains on account of appreciation of assets resulting from demutualisation scheme. The board decided to forward the scheme to the SEBI for approval. Todays’ meeting was attended by Mr Dinanath Sharma, Chairman, Mr Dewan Chand Kwatra, Mr A.S. Dua, Mr Rajinder Bhandari and Dr O.P. Sahni, Mr R.C. Singal, Mr Jaspal Singh, Mr Rajnish Garg and Mr B.K. Arora, According to Mr Singal, while finalising the scheme, the Board has taken into consideration the recommendations of Justice Kania committee and the conditions imposed by
SEBI. |
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‘Quality control must for contract farming’ Chandigarh, July 24 These views were expressed by various experts on at a conference on “Emerging opportunities in contract farming” here today. Mr Shreekant Sambrani, Chief Executive, Wimco Industries, said unless the companies and the state government ensured strict quality control for the production of crops, it would be difficult to sell the produce in the foreign markets. European and American importers had rejected export consignments due to presence of pesticides and chemical residuals in the crops. Mr Kripa Sankar Saroj, Additional Managing Director, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation, claimed that the state government’s initiatives to promote contract farming had attracted overwhelming response. He said: ‘‘We are hopeful that under the contract farming 4 lakh hectares will be covered during the current year under various crops, including maize, durum wheat, basmati and vegetables. The aim is to bring at least 25 lakh hectares under contract farming by 2007.’’ Through contract farming the state government was also aiming to relieve farmers from the clutches of money lenders as the farmers would be offered adequate credit through commercial banks. Money lenders were misleading farmers that companies would not purchase their produce at the fixed price. Reacting to the apprehensions of farmers, Mr Vikram Puri, Head- Business Development, Mahindra Shubhlabh said unlike the government sector the companies could not offer guaranteed returns but farmers would be beneficiary in the long term. Mr A. Ramanathan, Chief General Manager, Nabard, said to ensure the desired benefits to all stakeholders and also for planned growth of these programmes, the government intervention in terms of reforms and legal support system was necessary. About 200 delegates from different parts of the country attended the day-long CII conference. |
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Panel okays conversion of IDBI into a bank New Delhi, July 24 The Industrial Development Bank (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) bill of 2002, which was introduced in the winter session of Parliament last year, was referred to the standing committee. The report of the panel headed by Janardhana Reddy, which was tabled in Parliament today, strongly recommended government to retain its 51 per cent, grant tax exemptions for five years and offer a VRS package. The panel also asked government to make suitable provisions to ensure that the new entity continues to be a development bank providing term lending to industry. “There is no specific provision in the bill providing for the converted entity to act as a development bank. Rather the reference of development bank is being substituted by IDBI Banking Company. “Suitable provisions should be incorporated in the bill to ensure that the new banking company also continues to be a development bank,” it said. Referring to huge Rs 10,000 crore investment made by public in IDBI, the panel said “government should make provisions which will ensure that its shareholding in IDBI does not come below 51 per cent.” Taking into consideration the present financial health of IDBI and the challenges lying ahead, it said “management of the new entity should be in efficient hands, which could ensure greater operational transparency and accountability.” —
PTI |
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Satyam posts 12 pc rise in profit Hyderabad, July 24 The net profit of the company stood at Rs 121.49 crore during the quarter, up by 12 per cent compared to Rs 108.44 crore during the corresponding period last year, a company release said here. Income from software exports touched Rs 545.92 crore as against Rs 458.93 crore in the corresponding period last year. The IT firm has revised annual revenue guidance upwards from 15-17 per cent to 18-20 per cent in dollar terms while retaining the EPS at the same level of Rs 15.65 to Rs 16, the release added. A meeting of the company’s Board of Directors here today took on record the quarterly results. —
PTI |
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More BoP offices in Punjab within 2 months
Chandigarh, July 24 According to Mr Tejbir Singh, ED, Bank of Punjab, “Fee business will become one business area of the bank with the addition of new business and revenue streams. The focus will now be on the reduction of interest and operational cost and optimum yields. —
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