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Thursday,
July 31, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Don’t
hasten pace of reforms, India tells WTO Communications
market touches Rs 50,358 crore World Bank
team to visit Punjab in Sept Traders
oppose Exim forms Disinvested
PSUs performing better Government
awaits TRAI recommendations |
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Indian
Oil Chairman honoured
IOC net jumps
51.5 pc
Free land
to Balaji Telefilm for studio
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Don’t hasten pace of reforms, India tells WTO New Delhi, July 30 Articulating India’s point of view at the three-day informal meeting of the trade ministers of WTO in Montreal, Mr Arun Shourie, Minister for Disinvestment, said if the pace of economic reforms was such as to cause dislocation or to be perceived as an imposition from outside, then there could be a backlash which could set back the whole process of multilateral trade negotiations. He stressed the importance of agriculture as India’s key concern in the WTO negotiations, in particular food security and the livelihood security of the vast numbers of people dependent on agriculture in the country. Referring to the proposed special products of interest to developing countries, he said the selection of such products must be on the basis of self-declaration given that it was not possible to have multilaterally agreed criteria applicable across the board to all countries. He pointed out that there were about 35 crops in India on each of which around 5 million persons were dependent and more than 25 crops with area of over 1 million hectares each. The special products would need to be combined with special safeguard measures with suitable trigger mechanism in terms of both import volume and price in order to protect the interest of farmers. There should also be real reduction in agricultural subsidies without the camouflage of shifting of boxes and the key issue of non-tariff barriers which hindered exports from developing countries should be adequately addressed, he said. On Singapore issues such as investment, he said there should be explicit consensus on modalities, in accordance with the Doha mandate before any negotiations as “nobody would like to take the first step without knowing where it will all lead.” In the non-agricultural market access session, he said while India was in broad agreement with the Girard formula there were several sensitive sectors, which would need continued higher levels of protection. Attended by 24 member countries, Montreal is the third mini-ministerial meeting being held as a run-up to the Cancun conclave in September.
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Communications market touches Rs 50,358 crore New Delhi, July 30 BSNL remained the top service provider in the country with a turnover of Rs 27,500 crore; however growing competition has restricted its year-on-year growth to just 2 per cent, according to the V&D 100 — 2003 National Telecom survey. It was a bad year for MTNL (Rs 6,022 crore), VSNL (Rs 4,183 crore), the number two and three service providers. While MTNL registered a decline of 6 per cent in its turnover, VSNL’s revenue shrank by 32 per cent. Bharti Televentures emerged as the fourth largest contributor to the industry with a turnover of Rs 3,038 crore. Idea Cellular (Rs 1,080 crore), Hutchison Max (Rs 711 crore), Data Access (Rs 632 crore), Spice Communications (Rs 550 crore), BPL Mobile (Rs 522 crore), Hutchison Essar (Rs 483 crore) were the other operators in the top 10 list. Six of the 10 companies are in the cellular business. While basic services contributed 57 per cent to the total services industry size, the fast growing cellular was a distant second with a 16 per cent contribution to the industry’s topline while national long distance provided 12 per cent and ISD contributed 11 per cent. The long distance segment reported a negative growth of 21 per cent on account of a significant drop in tariffs.
— PTI
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World Bank team to visit Punjab in Sept Ludhiana, July 30 The World Bank team which was headed by Mr Sadiq Ahmed, Chief economist South East Asia Region concluded two-day deliberations with the senior officials and the ministers of the Punjab Yesterday. The team reviewed the on going fiscal reforms and also the projects submitted to the World Bank by the Punjab Government for grant of loan. According to Mr K.R. Lakhanpal, Principal Secretary (Finance), Punjab government, the state government would submit projects report pertaining to the structural loan adjustment projects. These include the power reforms which requires unbundling of the Punjab State Electricity Board and corporation of the same. Mr Lakhanpal explained that all fiscal reforms and financial projects would be undertaken according to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Punjab government and the Central Government. Mr Lakhanpal said that the World Bank team was very much satisfied with the fiscal measures being taken by the state government . The World Bank team during its two-day stay in Chandigarh discussed proposals worth about Rs 5,000 crore submitted by the state government. These include the rural drinking water and sewerage and sanitation project worth Rs 1,100 crore, urban areas drinking water and sewerage and solid management project worth Rs 1,800 crore and the strengthen of the highways worth Rs 1,000 crore respectively. According to Mr Lakhanpal, under the urban areas drinking water and sewerage and solid management project, thirteen towns would be covered. They would include five municipal corporations namely Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Amritsar and Bathinda. The fourth project pertains to the strengthening of the primary health services in the state and particularly in the rural areas worth more than Rs 1000 crore.
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Traders oppose Exim forms Ludhiana, July 30 A deputation of the trade and industry, led by Mr Tulsidas Jaitwani, president, Punjab Beopar Mandal, and Mr Ved Parkash Chopra, president, Federation of Associations of Punjab Small Industries, met the Punjab Pradesh Congress chief Mr H.S. Hanspal in Chandigarh yesterday and discussed with him the problems being faced by the industry and traders in Punjab. Mr Chopra told the PPCC chief that there was no need to introduce exim forms when the state government had set up sales tax barriers in the state and no vehicle was allowed to enter the state unless the documents were checked. The Exim form would create further difficulties for the traders. Mr Jaitwani said instead of giving any relief to the trade and industry, the state government was tightening its noose on the same. He demanded that octroi be
abolished as had been promised by the state government. Mr Hanspal assured that he would take up the issues with the Chief Minister. He pointed out that a large-scale evasion of sales tax was taking place in Punjab which should be checked. The trade and industry should cooperate with the government and pay taxes honestly, he said.
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Disinvested PSUs performing better New Delhi, July 30 In a written reply to a question, Minister of Law and Commerce Arun Jaitley said, “There has been an improvement in the performance of most PSUs post-disinvestment”. He said as per information provided by the companies, the pay-scales of the workers had been increased in some of the disinvested
PSUs. Mr Jaitely said Modern Foods and Paradeep Phosphates were loss-making companies prior to disinvestment; but post-disinvestment, their sales had increased and loss levels significantly reduced. Citing the case of IPCL, a profitable company in June 2002 when it was disinvested, he said during 2002-03 there had been a 6 per cent increase in gross turnover and a 90.65 per cent increase in net profit as compared to the same period previous year. He said 1,099 Balco workers had taken voluntary retirement but no employee had been retrenched. Mr Jaitely further said a small group comprising Hasubhai Dhave, president, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Sharad S. Patil, secretary-general, Employers Federation of India, Sanjeev S. Ahluwalia, joint secretary, Disinvestment Ministry, and K. Chandramouli, joint secretary, Ministry of Labour, had been constituted. The team had
visited Balco’s head office and factory in Korba on February 13-14 and one unit of Modern Foods in Mumbai on April 29, 2003.
— PTI
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Government awaits TRAI recommendations
New Delhi, July 30 “Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued a consultation paper on the subject to seek comments of all stakeholders and government would await the submission of recommendations of TRAI on it and take suitable further action”, Minister of State for Communications and IT Ashok Pradhan said in written reply in Lok Sabha today. No proposal has been sent to TRAI by the government, he said. New Telecom Policy (NTP-99) states that convergence of both market and technologies is a reality that is forcing realignment in the industry. This convergence now allows operators to use their facilities to deliver some services reserved for other operators, necessitating a relook into the existing policy framework and Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 needs to be replaced with a more forward looking Act, Pradhan said. Accordingly, Communication Convergence Bill, 2001, was introduced in Lok Sabha in August, 2001.
— PTI
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Indian Oil Chairman honoured
New Delhi, July 30 Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma presented the award to Mr Ramachandran in the presence of Heavy Industry and Public Sector Enterprises minister Subodh Mohite at a function here yesterday. The Foundation of Indian Industry and Economists (FIIE) is a division of the National Foundation of Indian Engineers and is engaged in strategic value creation for Indian corporates. The honour was in recognition of his outstanding performance and remarkable achievements in steering IndianOil, India’s only Fortune ‘Global 500’ company for nine years in a row now, an official release here said. Mr Ramachandran took over as Chairman of IndianOil on April 1, 2002, which coincided with the dismantling of the administered price mechanism (APM), bringing in new changes and deregulation in the Indian petroleum sector.
— UNI |
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AirTel IVR services for landline users Chandigarh, July 30 To access the service, the user will just have to dial 9815900800 from any telephone and follow the simple voice instructions. There is no extra charge from AirTel for this service and the telephone user will pay the usual telephone charges to his own service provider, as applicable. The services will be extended to Haryana and Himachal also shortly said Mr Vinod Sawhny, CEO, Bharti Mobile Ltd.
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BSE trading unaffected
Mumbai, July 30 The agitators sought to stop trading at the exchange in support of the bandh. However, they withdrew after BSE Executive Director Manoj Vaish met them, BSE officials told reporters here. Vaish said trading operations were normal and the agitation had not affected activity at the
exchange. Security has since been strengthened and the entry to BSE has now been restricted.
— PTI
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PNB installs ATM
Srinagar, July 30 |
bb
Postal insurance Spice Kisan gold cards Tata AIG Life |
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