 |
|
Monday, July 28, 2003, Chandigarh, India
|
CII predicts 6.8 pc GDP growth
Few takers for debit clearing facilities
Council to hold gold festivals in North
IT exports to USA rise 68 per cent |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dabur plans to globalise
anti-cancer generics business
OBC net up 38 pc
L&T co-founder Holek Larsen dead
Inflation touches fiscal’s lowest at 4.65 pc
Market may move within narrow range
by R.N. Lakhotia
|
|
CII predicts 6.8 pc GDP growth
New Delhi, July 27 Expressing this optimism, CII Chief Economist Omkar Goswami said though the overall fiscal deficit of the Centre and states was expected to rise to 12 per cent of GDP in 2003-04, it was unsustainable. “With the industrial growth expected at 6.5 per cent and services at 7.5 per cent, the CII has revised the growth forecast upwards. The upper limit has been fixed at 6.8 per cent,” Omkar Goswami said, pointing out that the agriculture growth should increase by 4-5.5 per cent. Though the performance of agriculture was disappointing, Goswami said, “this is all set to improve with the onset of encouraging monsoon in almost all parts of India.” The CII had earlier forecast that India’s economic growth could be 6-6.4 per cent. Highlighting that the growth in the industrial sector is 6 per cent so far in this year as compared to 3.3 per cent in the previous year period, he said, “the economy has begun to see an upswing.” Referring to the increase in inflation, which hovered at 5-5.5 per cent as compared to an average 3.4 per cent in 2002-03, Goswami said it was not a cause for worry as it was largely driven by a rise in primary product prices. “With good harvest, which is likely, expectations (on inflation) for 2003-04 are expected at 4.5-5.0 per cent,” he said. —
PTI
|
|
Few takers for debit clearing facilities Chandigarh, July 27 The two schemes were launched by the RBI almost four years ago. While the regional office of the RBI has eight institutions registered for Electronic Clearing Service (ECS), the scope of the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) system, too, has not posted any substantial increase. ECS was introduced for allowing paperless direct credit and debit transactions. This provides an alternative method of effecting payment transactions in respect of utility bill payments such as telephone bills, electricity bills, insurance premia, and loan repayments. The departments, the Electricity Department, BSNL, etc, after getting themselves registered with the RBI as user institutions and getting a mandate from their customers for ECS, send data on a floppy to their own bankers, who in turn forward the data to the centre. The centre, after testing the file for errors, processes the files and sends it to the service branches of banks, which have accounts of the customers . Bills are debited to the accounts of customers and passed on to the bank of the user institution. While ECS, debit clearing, is meant for effecting transactions only in Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar, the ECS, credit, deals with transactions from the country to the customers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Officials in the regional office say the EFT facility for money transactions has failed because of non cooperation of certain banks."The banks do not encourage this facility as they tend to lose out on daily user charges, " informed a senior official in the RBI here. Official sources in the RBI said 31,175 transactions worth Rs 5.55 crore were made under ECS- debit between April, 2002, to June,2003, and 46, 024 transactions were made under ECS- credit during the same period. Similarly, 584 transactions worth Rs.18.81crore have been made within the purview of the regional centre of National Centre from April, 2002, to June, 2003. |
|
Council to hold gold festivals in North Concerned over the falling trends in gold buying, the World Gold Council (WGC), an NGO funded by gold miners, has decided to step up an awareness campaign based on studies that have revealed gold to be the safest, most liquid and preferred investment around the world. The council aims at promoting a new consumer segment of young women to experiment with styles in gold, launch festival collections, facilitate jewellery exhibitions and encourage trade to retail hallmarked gold. The first-ever team of the WGC to visit Delhi, Chandigarh and Ludhiana to access various trade-related activity and hold interactions with jewellers from the North said India has emerged as the largest consumer of gold in the world followed by the United States and China. Over 20 per cent of the world’s gold is purchased or re-cycled in the Indian market, even though the country produced only three tonnes of the 3300 tonnes of gold produced in the world annually. Ms Hiroo Mirchandani, who heads the Mumbai office of the WGC, said various research across the country had thrown up results that suggested that gold was considered to be the most auspicious metal and was used on occasions ranging from birth, death, wedding, laying of foundations, etc. During the past three years the WGC had conducted three countrywide surveys that revealed that 65 per cent people bought gold because they considered the metal auspicious. In India 800 tonnes of gold is purchased or exchanged, each year. The WGC conducted an experiment on the occasion of Akshaya Thritheyya in the South when jewellers sold over 800 kilos of gold in a single day. In Punjab the WGC is all set to repeat this experiment on Rakhsha Bandhan scheduled for August 12, Gurpurabs, Baisakhi, etc. The council has tied up with the local jewellers in the North to hold gold festivals on the pattern of the Dubai festival. According to Mr K. Shivram, Manager, South of the WGC, the North Indian market comprises nearly one-fourth of the country’s gold market. Last year states upwards of Delhi, including Punjab and Haryana, bought or recycled around 160 tonnes of gold. Besides organising festivals on the pattern of Dubai, the WGC has also decided to ask participating jewellery stores to decorate their own stores on all auspicious occasions. The WGC is gearing up to launch a campaign in September where it will emphasise the slogan “buy from your trusted jeweller”. Out of the 800 tonnes of gold consumed annually, about 500 tonnes is recycled and the remaining purchased afresh. In 2002, 322 tonnes of gold was sold from the imports. India imported 797 tonnes of gold out of which it is estimated that around 410 tonnes came from official imports, the remaining got smuggled into the country. The WGC says while the stock markets stagnated and the interests rates on fixed deposits fell, gold shot up by 24 per cent during the year. More gold is being recycled in India today, as prices have soared to five-year peaks.
|
|
IT exports to USA rise 68 per cent
New Delhi, July 27 In 2002-03, software exports constituted 95.73 per cent of the total IT exports compared to 95.25 per cent in 2001-02 and 95.24 per cent in 2000-01. The computer software exports have gone up from Rs 16,687 crore ($ 3,628 million) in 2000-01 to an estimated Rs 28,216 crore ($ 5,830 million) in 2002-03, according to an analysis by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). Despite this significant jump of 68 per cent, the share of electronics and software exports’ in India’s total IT exports remained more or less static. In 2000-01, the share of electronics and computer software exports to the USA in the country’s total electronics and computer software exports was 54.27 per cent, which went up to 56.65 per cent in 2001-02 and is estimated to have come down marginally to 56.4 per cent, it said. “The share of IT exports to USA in the total exports remained stationary due to alternative markets like the EU and Japan that are being developed for IT exports,” ESC executive director D.K. Sareen said in a statement issued here. — UNI
|
|
Dabur plans to globalise anti-cancer New Delhi, July 27 “We are talking to three to four global Oncological pharma majors for strategic tie-ups and we expect to enter into the alliances by this year,’’ sources told UNI. Pointing out that there will be a $ 12 to 15 billion opportunity in the global generic Oncology (anti-cancer) market from 2005 to 2012, the sources claimed that Dabur is poised to be a recognised player in this space. Besides supplementing its own strength through alliances, Dabur has chalked out a multi-pronged strategy for the long-term growth of its burgeoning pharma business. DPL is developing New Chemical Entities (NCEs) and New Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) in the Oncology therapeutic segment, the souces added. The company has decided to increase the growth of the domestic branded generics business without committing huge investment into it. It would make DPL a completely-integrated Oncology player, enabling it to tap the large emerging opportunity in this area, Dabur Chairman V. C. Burman said. Dabur is the domestic market leader in the anti-cancer segment with a more than 20 per cent market share and a significant market presence in over 25 overseas markets. —
UNI
|
|
OBC net up 38 pc
New Delhi, July 27 The public sector bank’s total business rose to Rs 46,223 crore from Rs 43,123 in the first quarter of 2002-03, an OBC release said here. Bank’s non-performing assets came down by 2.5 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal as against 1.1 per cent in the corresponding period last year. —
PTI
|
|
L&T co-founder Holek Larsen dead
Mumbai, July 27 Once when he was asked to cite the single most important reaso for his success as an industrialist in India, Mr Holek Larsen replied, “If you want to belong to a country which becomes a nation, you have to keep the economy growing by creating jobs. And you can only do that by investing in tomorrow, and tomorrow is made by people.’’ He won many awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding in 1976 and Padma Bhushan in 2002, for his contribution to the Indian industry. —
UNI
|
|
Inflation touches fiscal’s lowest at 4.65 pc
New Delhi, July 27 The rate of inflation was 5.15 per cent during the previous week. However, it was only 2.79 per cent a year ago, showing the rise in cost of living for an average household. The inflation rate fell below the 5 per cent mark for the first time this fiscal during the week ended June 14 when it had touched 4.97 per cent. —
UNI
|
sti
by J.C. Anand Market may move within narrow range The last fortnight was rather queer, with sharp upswings and sudden down-swings. On July 14 (Monday) the Sensex opened at 3710 points and on July 25 (Friday) the market after its zany path closed at 3726 points. Unlike the normal behaviour of the market, there were wide fluctuations in the market indices. On almost every working day, the market fluctuated by about 200 to 300 points. Sometimes when the market opened, it appeared that the market was under “correction”, but when the market closed the same day, it appeared that the bull phase was on its onward march. On the whole the market maintained its buoyancy. Most of the top companies, which announced their quarter results exceeded market expectations. FIIs were also active buyers and according to one estimate, the foreign funds have invested $ 321 million in the Indian equities during the month of July so far. The first quarter results announced by the banks were excellent. As a result the SBI scrip went up by 5 per cent to Rs 425, Bank of Baroda’s scrip rose by 6.5 per cent, ICICI Bank was up by 2.3 per cent and HDFC Bank share went up by 2.4 per cent. Reliance Industries was another big gainer in the market moving from Rs 310 to Rs 320 after touching a high of Rs 330. The Union Bank increased its net profit to Rs 15,588 lakh from Rs 11,391 lakh for the corresponding period last year. ABB’s second quarter results were also excellent and its order booking improved by 15 per cent. The Vardhman group of companies also announced their first quarter results. Vardhman Spinning’s net profit was higher at Rs 5.02 crore (as against Rs 4.88 crore) but Mahavir Spinning Mill’s net profit was slightly lower at Rs 9.47 crore (as against Rs 9.61 crore). The market price of almost all the textile shares has slightly come down. There is little possibility of recovery in these shares unless Nahar Spinning springs some surprise by announcing a bonus issue. It appears that the market will move within a narrow range from this week and even during this fortnight. This view is based on the base that almost all the major companies have announced their first quarter results and there is hardly any major company (except Larsen & Toubro and Tata Tea) which is likely to announce its results. There is nothing in the market to trigger for the bullish target. Most of the companies, which have not announced their results are so small and unimportant that they would depress the market sentiment. So far, there has not been any major market correction to the long bulling upsurge that has been taking place in the market for the last one month and a half. The best that one can hope for is that the market may maintain its present position. It may even decline during this fortnight. The UTI
Mastershare, which had been recommended on this column around Rs 10.20 and even lower earlier, is now quoting around Rs 12.60 and is now being converted into an open-ended scheme
w.e.f. September 12, 2003. The present holders in the Mastershare will have the option to withdraw at the NAV based price. Every investor in the Mastershare has to takes his or her own decision in the matter. The present portfolio of the Mastershare scheme is quite impressive but considering that general elections are expected to be held in four states and one Union Territory in October or November this year and the elections to the Lok Sabha (next year in February or September), it would be advisable to withdraw from the proposed open-ended schemed of the UTI. |
|||||
ty
by R.N. Lakhotia Q: I am a Govt. servant and during the year 2002-03 I am expected to get some arrears (app. 1.5 lakh) of pay due to the revision since 1978. Part of it I want to donate/Gift my younger brother who is doing agriculture work at my village. Kindly tell me the procedure and the formalities to be completed so to get the tax benefits. How much amount can be gifted and to whom? And what is the rate of tax rebate if the taxable income exceeds 1.5 lakh. — Joginder Singh, Pathankot Ans:
You may gift as much money as you like to your brother. The amount gifted would not be reduced from your taxable income. The tax rebate would be admissible @ 15 per cent in case your gross total income exceeds Rs. 1.50,000. Q:
I have nearly 50 shares about which there is no communication by the companies. Letters written are never replied; even registered letters are received back undelivered. Please advise as to what is to be done. If the companies have disappeared how to make sure; so that I can satisfy the Income-tax Department about the long term capital loss. — Harcharan Singh, Amritsar Ans: Merely because some of the companies has disappeared, you cannot claim loss on account of capital gains loss. The loss can be claimed only when the shares, etc. are sold by you. Q: In the budget proposal for 2002-03, the then Union Finance Minister had proposed a cut in rebate from 20 to 10 per cent on Savings for income between Rs. 1 lakh and 5 lakh which was later restored to 15 per cent income between 1.5 lakh and 5 lakh and 20 per cent if less than 1.5 lakh. Please clarify whether income will be considered after deducting standard deduction only from Gross Salary or it could be after deducting standard deduction & other exemptions as well such as under Section 80DD etc. Kanwar R.S., Panchkula Ans:
The income would be considered after granting standard Deduction to the salaried employee. However, deductions like the deduction u/s 80DD would not be made from the Gross total income to be arrived at for the purposes of computing the tax rebate. Thus, if the gross total income is upto Rs. 1,50,000 before tax deductions the rebate would be @ 20 per cent and it will be 15 per cent if the Gross total income exceeds Rs. 1,50,000. Q: If some money is gifted to a minor child by his father and that gifted amount is deposited into the P.P.F. Account of the minor. Please clarify whether the interest earned income from the minor’s P.P.F. account will be clubbed with the income of the father as it is tax free. — Saroj Gupta Chandigarh Ans: The interest from PPF account in the name of the minor child even out of the gifted amount from father would be tax free and thus would not be clubbed with the income of the father. Q:
I want to enquire about following please: (1) My father is retired Govt. employee. He is a pensioner. Can I claim handicap tax benefits of mother because she is dependent on me not my father. Moreover we are three brothers. (2) My father is a Retd. Govt. pensioner. I have to uncle also. If my grand father is handicapped and is wholly dependent upon me. (3) Regarding dependence, one have to give only undertaking on simple paper or affidavit. — Ramesh Kumar, Malout Ans: You will be able to get tax deduction in respect of amount spent by you on handicapped dependent in terms of S. 80DD of the Income-tax Act, 1961 provided the handicapped dependent is suffering from the specified diseases as mentioned in Rule 11A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 which is certified by a physician/surgeon, etc. working in a Government Hospital. |
bb
Flls net buyers
in equity PNB branches |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
