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Tuesday,
August 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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IDBI may
get tax concessions after conversion into bank for 5 years
Gurgaon
third best centre for IT
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Tax on
aseptic machinery affecting processed foods LIC
rules out picking up stake in banks International
style shopping comes to India PNB to
extend loans to small-scale units PNB
revises rates on FCNR
Uco
plans strategic alliance with LIC
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IDBI may get tax concessions after conversion into bank for 5 years
New Delhi, August 11 Official sources said a VRS package would also be launched in line with the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. “The Cabinet today approved amendments to incorporate provisions in the Bill to ensure that the new banking company also continues to be a development bank, which will provide term lending to industry — large, medium and small,” the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters. The amendment follows the suggestion of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, which submitted its report July end, she said, adding the Finance Minister Jaswant Singh wanted the Bill to be brought in the current session of Parliament. “As the operations of DFI had come under strain, the Reserve Bank came out with a policy in April 2001 to transform the DFI by evolving a cautious transition path to become a bank,” she said. Accordingly, the Industrial Development Bank of India (Transfer of Undertakings and Repeal) Bill was introduced in the winter session of Parliament in 2002, to repeal the IDBI Act of 1964, she added. The Bill was referred to the Standing Committee, which suggested that IDBI should retain its DFI role even after the conversion. “The Bill along with the amendments would facilitate transformation of the IDBI,” Swaraj said. Mamata opposes Bill
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has expressed reservation regarding the government’s move to convert Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) into a company and sought Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh’s intervention in this regard. Banerjee in a letter to the Union Finance Minister also requested him to look into the appeal made by IDBI Employees Association not to repeal Industrial Development Bank of India Act, 1964 and convert it into a company. The corporate entity, it said, would be guided by profit motive and the government would have no influence over the management to carry out the development activities. It urged the government to ensure that the IDBI continued to have its development financial institution role in its present form and not allow the government equity holding to go below 51 per cent at any point of time to safeguard the interests of small investors.
— PTI
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Gurgaon third best centre for IT Chandigarh, August 11 A press note issued by the state government regarding the meeting added that Mr Chautala invited the prospective investors of Mumbai and adjoining areas to set up their industries in Haryana. It said the visit by the Chief Minister was part of the government’s strategy to speed up industrialisation in the state by apprising the entrepreneurs of the facilities in Haryana. The Haryana Urban Development Minister, Mr Subhash Goyal, and Managing Director of the HSIDC, Mr Harbaksh Singh, were also present in the meeting.
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Tax on aseptic machinery affecting processed foods Chandigarh, August 11 Food experts maintain that high taxes on aseptic food processing equipments to the tune of 50.80 per cent has discouraged milk plants and other food processing units to adopt high-quality packaging in the region. Experts say that in the absence of a developed cold chain, aseptic technology is the solution for delivering food and beverages safely and cost-effectively to the consumers. The Aseptic Food Processing & Packaging Industry Association of India claims that in comparison to 50.8 per cent of import duty on aseptic food processing and packaging equipments in India, the duty is only 15 per cent in China and 10 per cent in Pakistan. The association has claimed that due to high taxes, world-class technology is not available to local manufacturers. It has resulted in lower life span of packaged milk, fruit juices and other packed material. In 2001, while Pakistan imported six aseptic filling machines and China imported 120, India did not import even one. The cut in duty will help the food processing industry and milk plants like Verka and Milktime to increase penetration in the domestic and international market as they will be able to use aseptic packaging that increases the life of the products besides keeping these free from bacteria. The association further claimed that it was time to promote aseptic packing for raw milk, fruit juices, fruits and vegetables. Though the Centre has brought down custom duty on aseptic material namely paper board, polymers and spare parts from 30 to 25 per cent, yet it is still on the higher side when compared with the neighbouring countries. In addition to this, the government has imposed 20.80 per cent countervailing duty on these equipments in the name of protecting local manufacturers. Mr D.P. Tripathi, former Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, maintained that Indian aseptic food processing industry was suffering from very high duty on aseptic packaging material, thereby increasing the gap between the competitiveness of the Indian industry and other countries. He said: “Since the final packaged food products manufactured by the food processing industry do not attract excise duty, the duty paid on aseptic packaging material is not available for CENVAT benefits. This has made the packaged food products costlier and penalised the safety and hygiene.”
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LIC rules out picking up stake in banks
Kolkata, August 11 The Corporation was, however, planning to provide for a balance of Rs 1800 crore of the total Rs 10,300 crore solvency margin as per IRDA guidelines during the current fiscal. “We have about 5-6 per cent stake in almost every bank and decision for further increase in stake would be taken by our investment department. However, getting strategic stake in any of the banks is not on our mind,” Mathur told reporters after signing an MoU with Uco Bank for bancassurance. Asked whether it planned to acquire strategic stake in UTI Bank, he said it was for the government to decide as to whom it was going to offer strategic stake of the bank. “We are one of the promoters of UTI Bank and have already about 14 per cent holding in it. The government has to decide regarding who would have strategic stake in the bank,” he said, adding, government will decide whether the control would rest with strategic holder or non-strategic holder.
— PTI
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International style shopping comes to India New Delhi, August 11 Long used to shopping in crummy shops manned by perfunctory and often grumpy salespersons, millions of Indians are now discovering a new way to hunt for bargains, and spend time with family — shopping malls. And to cash in on the boom, giant malls are coming up thick and fast in and around New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and other major cities that is set to completely transform the $200 billion Indian retail sector. Little surprise then that 200 large malls are in planning or construction stage across the country. And cashing in on the sudden resurgence of interest in shopping, big corporate houses and realtors such as the Tatas, Piramals, Rahejas, Sahara, DLF and RPG Enterprises are racing to revolutionise the Indian retail industry and fuel a construction boom. Multi-storied air-conditioned buildings housing restaurants, multiplexes, clothing and electronic shops, coffee kiosks, and fast food joints are giving popular family entertainment addresses a run for their money. On the weekends, these malls are choc-a-bloc with zippy cars and chirpy teenagers in western outfits as well as families. No family outing or dating itinerary is now complete without a visit to one of these malls that are of international standards. Three upmarket malls, situated within a distance of a kilometre in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi, house everything under one roof — department stores, food and beverage outlets, electronics showroom, lifestyle goods and multiplexes. Though roads leading to the malls are in an appalling condition, these halogen and neon-lit huge steel, chrome and glass structures house some of the best names in retail chains such as Shopper’s Stop, Lifestyle, Subway, Pizza Hut, and Marks and Spencer. The shopping malls — DLF City Centre, The Metropolitan and Big Bazaar, around Delhi, Crossroads and R-Mall in Mumbai, and Spencer's in Chennai — are changing the way middle-class Indians shop. “When I enter into one of these malls it feels like I have landed in a foreign country,” says banker Amit Kumar, a regular at the DLF City Centre, a 250,000 square feet mall. “With fully air-conditioned stores, escalators and quality service, it’s almost like any international mall.” Shoppers like Kumar are among the droves of middle-class Indians who have broken off their love with the traditional dingy stand-alone Indian stores that have no air conditioning, organised parking, and other public amenities. “Thanks to a boom in the shopping mall business, shopping for average Indian has now become an international experience,” said Pushpendra Sharma of C.B. Richard Ellis, a global real estate consultancy major. “Today a customer pays greater attention to product availability, display, in-store service and of course, the ease of shopping,” Sharma said. “Indian families are also looking at entertainment as an escape. Entertainment is equated with shopping, food, and options like cinemas and bowling alleys. And since malls combine all these factors, they are witnessing a boom.” “It’s a fun place to spend our weekends,” says collegian Sharma, who doesn’t mind travelling 35 km by train from her home in suburban Borivli to her favourite shopping mall, the Piramal-owned Crossroads at Tardeo in central Mumbai. Similarly, a rush of department stores like Westside and Shoppers’ Stop, which are seeing a boom in business, are forming the nucleus of new malls that are coming up in the metros and spawning a wholly new middle class sub-culture. Divya Goswami, a housewife, says: “The best thing about these malls is the convenience of shopping they offer. There is no parking chaos that normally puts you off in a regular shopping arcade and no jostling and shoving for space.”
— IANS
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PNB to extend loans to small-scale units
New Delhi, August 11 An agreement would be signed shortly, SIDBI Managing Director V.K. Chopra said at a seminar on Finance and Credit Needs of SSI organised by All India Manufacturers’ Organisation (AIMO). SIDBI which had been giving credits mainly through state financing entities and commercial banks would start covering certain sectors and depending on the success, it would be extended to other segments and parts across the country, Mr Chopra said. He said the SIDBI board had also decided to cover credit upto Rs 5 lakh by the commercial banks to SSI sector under its Credit Guarantee Fund, if banks did not insist on collateral. This “new scheme will be effective from September 1,” he said. Mr Chopra said there was a need to fix the upper limit on interest rate to SSIs rather than linking it to Prime Lending Rates, which varied across the banks. Punjab National Bank chairman S.S. Kohli asked AIMO to come up with a Risk Management model if the banks wanted to review the interest rates to the SSI sector. He said the risks involved in extending credit to the SSI sector were high considering the post WTO era. The SSI sector, Mr Kohli said played a pivotal role, constituting 95 per cent of the production units and comprised 34 per cent of the exports of the country. He added that the government must set up a fund for SSI segment worth Rs 400 to Rs 500 crore.
— UNI
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PNB revises rates on FCNR New Delhi, August 11 The rate of interest on USD deposits has been revised to 1.15 per cent, 1.69 per cent and 2.30 per cent for maturities of one year to less than two years (Ist maturity), two years to less than three years (second maturity) and three years only (3rd maturity), respectively, PNB said in a statement here. The rate of interest on GBP deposits has been revised to 3.55 per cent for first maturity, 3.83 per cent for second maturity and 4.01 per cent for third maturity. The interest rates on Euro deposits have been revised to 2 per cent for maturity of first year to less than two years, 2.42 per cent for maturity of two years to less than three years and 2.77 per cent for maturity of three years only, the statement said.
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Connect
launches pre-paid WLL mobile service Chandigarh, August 11 The activation pack for Dildaar Pre-paid Connect Mobile is available for just Rs 149. A recharge coupon worth Rs 200 will get the subscriber a calling value of Rs 125, valid for 30 days from the date of recharge. Validity period is followed by a grace period of 60 days during which the subscriber can continue to enjoy free incoming calls. All local calls made within the city to any phone will be charged at Re 1 per minute. STD calls within Punjab will be charged at Rs 2 per minute while STD calls anywhere in the country will cost Rs 4 per minute. All incoming calls are free. |
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Silverline Tech Pawan Hans BHEL bags deal |
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