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Wednesday,
July 30, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Govt to
prepay 7,500 cr bilateral aid Aviva
plans to enter general insurance Tractor
sales skid 20.7 pc Demutualisation
Bill in offing CORPORATE
NEWS
Honda
profit falls on weak dollar |
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Govt to prepay 7,500 cr bilateral aid New Delhi, July 29 He also told the Upper House that the Centre will present a quarterly report on the performance of the country’s financial health and a ‘full-quarterly report’ will be tabled in Parliament before the current Monsoon Session ends. Mr Singh said this while winding up two-day discussion on fiscal responsibility legislation which was later passed by the House giving Parliamentary approval. Stating that the government was pre-paying the bilateral aid because the country no longer needed it, the Minister informed that for the first time India has become a creditor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was no longer a borrower. Last year, he said, the government had pre-paid $3 billion worth of World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan without causing any ripple to exchange rate of rupees, stock market and foreign exchange reserves. Giving details on the debt swap scheme for states, the Finance Minister said as against debt swap of Rs 14,000 crore last year, this year an additional Rs 38,000 crore would be swapped. In 2004-05 it is likely to be over Rs 80,000 crore. He also said that the government had
targeted buyback of over Rs 100,000 crore government securities held by banks to bring down NPAs. But only Rs 15,000 crore worth of government securities were bought back. Pointing out that the essence of the Bill was to “spend only that much you have the
wherewithal to spend,” Mr Singh said the country could not meet revenue targets last year because of various reasons including the Gulf war, uncertainty in hydro-carbon prices, drought, global decline in economy and markets. “However, India overcame most of these hurdles,” he said. Earlier, participating in the debate Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said the negative contribution of the Centre is more than that of the states during the last three years and there is a need to take corrective steps. Mr Mukherjee accused the Centre of extensive borrowing from the RBI. He also pointed out that the tax GDP ratio had come down to 9.6 per cent from 11.6 per cent. |
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Aviva plans to enter general insurance Bentota (Sri Lanka) July 23 Within one year after the start of its operations, it has collected Rs 31 crore by selling over 12,000 policies, said Mr Charles Anderson, Managing Director, Financial Services-Asia, here today. Addressing a two-day media summit here near Colombo, he claimed that the company is focusing on India as a potential future market after China. The company has tied up with four banks, including Canara Bank, ABN Amro, American Express and Laxmi Vilas, to sell its products. The company is selling its products through banks. The life insurance market in India is growing at an annual rate of 20 per cent and it is expected to keep the pace for the next 5 or 7 years. Large population, a saving rate of over 23 per cent, tax incentives from the government were the key factors for the growth of the Indian market. He said the company has plans to soon enter general insurance. Mr Sturat Purdy, Managing
Director of Aviva Life Insurance India, said the company has already opened 17 branches, including in Ludhiana, Delhi and Gurgaon. Due to low-cost benefits and a wide customer base of the banks, the company has decided to sell the products through banks. China and India’s joint insurance market is likely to touch $ 50 billion by 2005. Though ICICI with 38 per cent market share was the leader, the company is hopeful to attain a position among the top three players in India. At present it is the sixth largest players in India. Within next five years, Aviva is expecting to sell at least 2.50 lakh policies annually. Till recently 95 per cent of insurance policies are being sold through direct agents, and 2 per cent through bancassurance. But in the next five years, the share of bancassurance will reach 13 per cent. The company is selling 10 products and will introduce three new products this year, he said. |
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Tractor sales skid 20.7 pc
New Delhi, July 29 Good monsoon this year is, however, expected to improve market sentiments and boost sales in the near term, President of Tractor Manufacturers Association (TMA) R.C. Jain told PTI. The sale of tractors slipped to 21,467 units from 27,104 units during April-May 2002, data collated by the TMA showed. All the companies including Mahindra and Mahindra, Punjab Tractors Ltd, Tractor and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE), Escorts, Sonalika, Eicher and HMT suffered a decline in sales. “There was heavy advancing by the manufacturers to dealers. But, there was credit squeeze in the case of the farmers, largely due to the effect of last year’s drought which brought down sales,” Jain said. Besides, second-time tractor buyers had postponed their purchases and instead took tractors on rentals, he added. “The way monsoons have behaved this year...we hope the rains get converted into positive sentiments in the short term. The outcome of the Kharif crop will definitely have a positive impact,” Jain said. Sales of Mahindra and Mahindra, country’s largest tractor maker, fell by 30.7 per cent to 6,461 while TAFE suffered a 19.5 per cent dip to 3,600 units during April-May 2003. Punjab Tractors recorded a 21.8 per cent drop to 3,561 units while that of Escorts went down by 57.5 per cent to 2,850 units. Sales of Eicher and Sonalika declined by 23.4 and 27.8 per cent to 1,663 and 2,088 units respectively. HMT and Bajaj Tempo too registered a 169 and 31.8 per cent drop to 700 and 356 units respectively. For Gujarat Tractor Company Ltd, there was a 27.7 per cent dip to 188 units. Sale of tractors in the highest-selling 31-40 horse power range dipped by 24.4 per cent to 11,260 units while in the entry-level 21-30 horse power range, it fell by 15 per cent to 4,940 units. During 2002-03 sales have dropped by 25.13 per cent to 1.61 lacs units in the world’s largest tractor market.
— PTI
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Demutualisation Bill in offing
New Delhi, July 29 “The government proposes to introduce a bill to amend the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956,” he said during Question Hour. Responding to supplementaries relating to measures for capital market reforms, he said the ‘Strategic Action Plan 2003-04’ focuses on structural, systemic and operational issues of the capital market reforms in the country. The basic thrust of the measures is to enhance the level of investor protection, transparency, integrity and further development of the market, he said. To another query regarding market manipulation by a pharmaceutical firm, Lupin, Singh said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was carrying out an investigation into the charges and assured the House that action would be taken on the basis of the findings. When an RJD member sought half-an-hour discussion on issues pertaining capital market reforms, Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhwawat asked him to give it in writing.
— PTI
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