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Posco plans to set up base in India 1,700 UK railway jobs for Indians
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| Tibetans buy Rs 100 cr Ludhiana woollens
LIC Housing Fin
opens new office Direct taxes grow 18 pc, indirect 9 pc Afghan team to meet Khanna
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Posco plans to set up base in India
New Delhi, December 10 Chief Representative (South East/West Asia, Middle East Asia) of Posco Lee Min Su said the company was carrying out a feasibility study before making any big commitments in India. “We are monitoring the market conditions as well as other factors and will be making any substantial commitments only when this is completed.’’ “However, one thing is for sure that we have to be here for long-term growth,’’ Mr Lee told UNI on the sidelines of the India-Korea Economic Summit organised by the CII and the Federation of Korean Industries. He said the company’s long-term commitments in India could include setting up a manufacturing base in the country. ‘’This, when completed, will not only cater to the domestic market but also look at exports. Thus, in a way India can become a hub for exports to the region in the long-term,’’ Mr Lee said. Posco was looking favourably at the Indian market and was open to expanding its portfolio of services in the country. ‘’Apart from our current engagements here, there are three key areas by which we want to expand. These are in the steel and allied business, mining activity and technology or management know-how exchange,’’ Mr Lee said. The company, which had a turnover in excess of $ 10 billion last year, had been purchasing iron ore from India apart from selling steel here. Mr Lee said many Indian steel companies were in touch with Posco. ‘’These include Steel Authority of India Ltd, Tata Steel, among others. However, I cannot divulge the level of talks we have had or the nature of partnership we are looking at with them,’’ Mr Lee added. The company currently has two plants, one at Gwangyang and the other at Pohang, which have a cumulative raw steel base of around 2.29 million tonnes. The Korean steel maker had already announced earlier this year that it has designed a strategy to become one of the globe’s top automobile steel manufacturers by 2007 with annual sales volume of 4.5 million tonnes. Also, as part of its drive to enter China, which consumes a quarter of the world’s steel, the company will invest $ 1.4 billion through 2006, bringing the total to $ 2.2 billion.
— UNI
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1,700 UK railway jobs for Indians
London, December 10 As many as 1,200 to 1,700 call centre jobs will be moved to India next year, Daily Mail reported quoting a leaked memo from the Association of Train Operating Companies
(ATOC). In the memo ATOC Director General George Muir says: ‘’The National Rail Enquiries Service Board decided to appoint two suppliers, BT Client Logic and a new supplier, Ventura.’’ “They decided to appoint Ventura immediately but conduct further contract negotiations with BT before confirming their award. Ventura are ramping up in Yorkshire. When it is stable, they will move the operation to India over the summer, 2004.’’ Ventura, reportedly, will run half the National Rail Enquiries service from February, a contract worth an estimated £ 80 million over five years. Calls will be dealt with in Leeds until summer after which they will move to Mumbai. BT will run the other half of the business and will transfer 60 per cent of its calls to Bangalore, where it is already running a pilot scheme. The enquiry service, until now, has been run by three operators, namely, BT, Serco and FirstInfo, part of FirstGroup. Losing their contracts will also mean Serco will axe 850 jobs in Cardiff, and FirstInfo will lose 350 jobs in Plymouth.
— UNI
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Mumbai, December 10 Zee Telefilms Chairman Subhash Chandra, while making the announcement here last night, said following the exclusive tie-up between the two companies, “Zee Rajshri Film Distribution” will distribute the films, produced, co-produced and acquired by both companies through more than 20 distribution offices all over India. The current network of “Rajshri” will be modernised and linked for easy and transparent flow of box office information. Mr Chandra said the new development will harness the potential of the industry and address the paradigm shift that is taking place globally in the field of cinema. At the same time, Zee will continue to address issues of the film industry especially piracy and entertainment tax, he stressed. Kamal Kumar Barjatya of Rajshri Pictures said, “This platform will be available to the entire film industry as a single window service with access to the majority of the best movie theatres spread across the country. Zee Rajshri Film
Distribution is not only for theatrical exploitation but from all the windows like DVD, home video, TV, audio and satellite telecast.
— UNI
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Tibetans buy Rs 100 cr Ludhiana woollens Ludhiana, December 10 Mr Gian Chand Dhawan, former president of the Hosiery Exporters Association, said the industry had seen complete diversification now as the industry started manufacturing blended products. Earlier there used to be only pure woollen goods. Customers had also changed their taste for the hosiery goods from woollen to the fancy goods. This change had come about with the arrival of blended hosiery and readymade products. The market was flooded with new yarns which were blended with cotton and
cashmelon. These days there was a craze for the goods manufactured from “feather” yarn that was an imported yarn. The blended goods had the advantages over the woollen goods. Firstly these were cheaper compared with the pure wool and secondly these had longer life. The woollen goods were very costly as a sweater or pullover would cost around Rs 500. On the other hand, the blended yarn goods were available in different ranges starting from Rs 150 to 500 per piece. Mr Dhawan said the prices of yarns used in the manufacture of hosiery goods had witnessed a 15 per cent rise during the past one month due to the spurt in the demand. Mr Sunil Dutt, a small-scale manufacturer, explained the hosiery industry had witnessed another change this year. The youngsters were going for cotton T-shirts which were being worn as inner wear. These were available in hi-neck and semi-hi-neck. Hosiery industrialist complained that the sales tax and Central excise authorities caused them harassment and created bott- lenecks in the furtherance of the industry. On the other hand, the sales tax and Central excise authorities charged that the hosiery manufacturers had indulged in large scale evasion of sales tax and excise duty. Both departments had detected huge evasion of the state and the central duties recently. The domestic consumption of hosiery goods was estimated at Rs 500 crore and the hosiery manufacturers felt that this target would be achieved this year. Tibetans, who have settled in different parts of the country were also big customers of the hosiery goods from Ludhiana. They bought goods worth about Rs 100 crore and sold them in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Himachal Pradesh. The hosiery industry is the backbone of the Punjab economy as it employed more then 2 lakh persons. The wages of the unskilled workers ranged from Rs 2500 to 4000 whereas the skilled workers earned from Rs 4000 to Rs 8000 per month. The industry now dominated by the migrant labour and Muslims of UP, in particular were doing tailoring jobs. The readymade industry which was now a part of the hosiery industry had not made much headway as had been made by the Tirupur export complex developed in Tamil Nadu. The export of readymade garments from Ludhiana was not more than Rs 1200 crore whereas the export from that centre was more than Rs 5000 crore.
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LIC Housing Fin
opens new office Chandigarh, December 10 She said, the company had registered a growth rate of 50 per cent till November 30, as against about 35 per cent growth registered by the housing loan industry. It is also offering loans to purchase of consumer durables at 11.5 per cent rate through hypothecation of immovable property. She said,"we are offering housing loans at as low as the 7.75 per cent interest rate, besides insurance cover in collaboration with the LIC to the loanee by charging a small monthly premium along with the equally distributed monthly installments. The company is charging 2 per cent interest rate on the outstanding amount in case of pre-payment of loans and 1 per cent of loan amount as processing fee at the time of sanction of loans." Reacting to the lower interest rate offered by ABN Amro and other banks, she admitted that in comparison to some banks, their interest rates may look on the higher side, but they were calculating the loans in a transparent manner and without any hidden costs.
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| Direct taxes grow 18 pc, indirect 9 pc
New Delhi, December 10 The net direct taxes, comprising income and corporation tax, were up nearly 18 per cent to Rs 42,617 crore, while the net indirect taxes, consisting of customs and excise duties, rose about 9 per cent to Rs 87,330 cr during April-November this year, official sources said. Income tax collection rose over 7 per cent to Rs 20,586 crore, while corporation tax mop-up was up 31 per cent to Rs 21,952 crore during April-November this year. The sources said the refunds amounted to Rs 19,554 crore till November, 2003. Customs collections went up over 8 per cent to Rs 32,050 crore till November but was short of the target of Rs 32,235 crore set for the period. The customs mop-up had slowed in November with government collecting only Rs 4,073 crore as compared to Rs 4,947 crore collected in the previous month of this year. Through Excise duties, the Centre could earn Rs 55,280 crore till November this year, up 9 per cent from Rs 50,874 crore collected in the previous year period. In November alone, the collection from excise duties was Rs 7,601 crore as compared to Rs 7,476 crore in the previous month of this fiscal.
— PTI
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Afghan team to meet Khanna Jalandhar, December 10 This was revealed by President of the Kandhar Chamber of Commerce Abdul Raziq, who along with other members of delegation, was in the city to visit hand tool manufacturing units to assess the possibility of direct investment in Afghanistan. “We are hopeful to achieve a major breakthrough in this regard while keeping in view the ongoing confidence-building measures initiated by India and Pakistan recently to normalise the bilateral relations”, he said. The delegation interacted with various local industrialists dealing in hand tools and other engineering goods. Indian items in demand include spices, milk products, hand tools, medicines, auto parts and heavy machinery”, he said, adding that they would also raise the issue of transit facility with the Pakistan Government.
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NHPC ties up with 9 banks Chandigarh, December 10 According to a statement issued here, NHPC is availing external borrowing without any security or government guarantee for the first time on its own strength and ratings assigned to it by international credit rating agencies. The financing is for a Tenor of 10 years, with put and call options at the end of five years and is at competitive rates. This will help NHPC in reducing tariff, which will ultimately benefit consumers. |
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