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Jaitley to meet
FM on steel price Punjab starts
cotton export after a decade
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Direct taxes up
24.7 per cent
Reliance may
expand capacity Dredging Corpn
IPO available in Rs 350-400 band ‘India
committed to rule-based trading’
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Jaitley to meet FM on steel price issue today New Delhi, February 24 The SSI representatives claim that the steel prices, which have increased by over 70 per cent within an year, has resulted in closure of hundreds of steel re-rolling mills in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and other states, besides rendering jobless thousands of labourers. The sources in the Commerce Ministry said that BJP leaders in Punjab had expressed concern over the rising unrest among the manufacturers in the small-scale sector in the state, a major user of steel raw material. They had met Mr Jaitely yesterday at Phagwara, and reportedly told him that price hike may have political
repercussions for the party in the region as well. The bicycle and bicycle parts’ manufacturers in the state claimed that the inputs costs had gone up by over Rs 200 per bicycle during the past one year. A delegation of Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) led by Mr P.D. Sharma had also met Mr Jaitley. The sources in the ministry said Mr Jaitley had agreed to apprise the Finance Minister and Prime Minister of the situation. The SSI experts claimed that steel makers were manipulating facts to create an impression that the prices of inputs had increased tremendously. But the fact was that steel sector had posted an 817 per cent jump in net profit on a sales increase of 27 per cent in the third quarter of current fiscal year. Mr P.D. Sharma,” said the Sail, Tata Steel, Ispat Industry, Vijay Nagar Steel Ltd and Essar Steel showed that their combined net profit during this quarter was Rs 1417 crore compared to Rs 154.5 crore during corresponding period last year.” He alleged that the government was supporting the steel plants and whole sale distributors of steel and pig iron to exploit the SSI sector by artificially creating a scarcity in the market. The sources in the Commerce Ministry admitted that government might announce some relief for the small scale units in the next few days keeping in view the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Chandigarh: The Chamber of Chandigarh Industries while expressing concern at the alarming rise in the prices of iron and steel has requested the Union Ministry of Steel for immediate remedial measures such as checking export of finished iron and steel products to China and check on export of iron ore. The general secretary of the chamber, Mr A.L Aggarwal, said unabated hike in the prices of iron and steel by both the main producers and retailers, had crippled the industrial units using these as raw materials, particularly the small scale industrial units.
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Punjab starts cotton export after a decade Bathinda, February 24 Earlier, history of sorts was created in the cotton business in the third week of January 2004 in Punjab when its prices while breaking all the previous records crossed Rs 2,850 per quintal. The cotton prices went up unprecedently high despite the fact that production of crop was good in the current season. Punjab, which is likely to produce about 10.30 lakh of bales of cotton this year, has exported more than 50,000 bales of cotton to European countries and United States so far. A number of Mumbai-based private companies, which have been purchasing raw and processed cotton from Punjab, have been exporting the same to European countries and United States. “The ultimate destination of cotton being exported from Punjab and other parts of North India including Haryana and Rajasthan is China as Mumbai-based companies are exporting the cotton first to European countries and United States and from there the cotton consignments have been landing in China, which is known as world’s largest cotton producing country”, pointed out Mr Ashok Kapur, President, Northern India Cotton Association (NICA), today. He added that Punjab had been exporting cotton almost after about a decade. He said that so far from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, about one lakh bales of cotton had been exported and it had fetched foreign currency worth crores of rupees to the country. In the past seven to eight years, the cotton production in Punjab and its neighbouring states Haryana and Rajasthan declined significantly due to attack of American bollworm on the crop and cotton growers came under hue debt every year. After the attack of American bollworm, the cotton growers also faced attack by the American cotton that was imported in large quantity to India every year and downed the prices of domestic cotton that ultimately adversely affected the economy of cotton growers. Mr Kapur pointed out that as per the revised estimates of the NICA, the production of cotton in Punjab in the current season would be around 10.30 lakh bales as compared to the 6.85 lakh bales, which were produced during last cotton season. He added that production of cotton in Haryana and Sriganganagar circle of Rajasthan would be around 10 lakh bales and 5.60 lakh bales, respectively. He added that it was expected that during the current season, about 9 lakh bales would be produced more as compared to production of cotton last year in the North zone. He said that with the increase in production, the cotton ginning and pressing industry, which had been facing closure for the past many years, could revive. Apart from it, the increase in production could also boost cotton trading business in this city that used to house offices of about 50 national and international cotton companies once and which were closed in the past few years due to decline in cotton production and hence could generate enough employment.
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Direct taxes up 24.7 per cent
New Delhi, February 24 Of this, the corporate tax collection was Rs 40,034 crore and Income Tax collection Rs 30,559 crore. This represents an increase of 24.7 per cent in the collection of these taxes in comparision to the previous year. The increase in direct taxes is Rs 13,978 crore. The Budget target for the entire year 2003-04 is Rs 1,03,255 crore. The corporate tax target has been fixed at Rs 40,034 crore and Income Tax target set at Rs 40,269 crore. Giving these figures, Minister of State for Finance Shripad Yesso Naik said: “The budget target of direct and indirect taxes will be met.” Thus 68.4 per cent of the direct tax target set for the year 2003-04 has been achieved so far. In the case of Corporate tax it is 68.6 per cent while in the case of income tax it is 75.9 per cent. The achievement is net of refunds. The increase in corporate tax upto February 2004 is Rs 10,414 crore (35.25 per cent) while income tax has recorded an increase of Rs 3564 crore (13.2 per cent) over the previous year. As regards indirect tax, the central excise collection was of the order of Rs 71,505 crore and customs revenue reached the figure of Rs 40,240 crore by January end. The target for excise for the year 2003-04 has been fixed at Rs 91,850 crore and in the case of customs at Rs 49,350 crore. Flash figures of net collection of corporation tax and income tax for the year 2003-04 upto January 2003-04 were Rs 68,121 crore. The indirect taxes were up by 9.31 per cent up to January end. Excise were up by 9.78 per cent and Customs by 8.49 per cent. A regards Service Tax, Mr Naik said about 50,000 assessees had so far been identified, and surveys were continuing. By the end of this fiscal, 15,000-20,000 assessees would come under the ambit of Service Tax.
— UNI
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Reliance may expand capacity New Delhi, February 24 The market experts here are claiming that the Reliance may dilute its stakes in the IPCL at an appropriate time or can buy back shares from the market at the ‘right’ price at a later stage if it wanted to attain managerial control in the company. The Reliance has, at present, 46 per cent shares in the IPCL. Apart from the government’s 33.95 per cent shares, LIC and UTI are the main stake holders with 2.11 per cent and 2.07 per cent shares, respectively, in the company, as reported on January 30, 2004. A senior official of the IPCL today said that though the Reliance still had the option to buy 5 per cent shares from the market at a later stage to gain managerial control, may be at a lower price but at the same time, he said, “The company might prefer to expand the production capacity of its own plant at Hazira where unlike the IPCL, it is enjoying sales tax exemptions.” The issue of IPCL, which opened on February 20, has already been oversubscribed. The public issue will close on February 27. Mr J.B. Kamat, Senior Executive Vice President, IPCL, claimed that the IPCL, a leading Indian integrated manufacturer of petrochemical products, was the second largest petrochemical company in India. The company’s primary products were polymers, fibre and fibre intermediaries. The company’s business strategy would be to consolidate its position in the domestic market, and to pursue growth
opportunities in the international market. The Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has a plant at Hazira with 2 lakh tonne polypropylene production capacity per day. Mr A. Paul, Vice President (Finance), IPCL, admitted that IPCL would not gain any funds from the disinvestment of the company, as the entire amount of disinvestment would go to the government kitty. The investors could expect to gain from the shares of the company as it enjoyed little competition in the petrochemicals market. There was no major challenge to the strong position of the IPCL in the market, as one would have to make heavy investment to enter in this business. CRIS INFAC estimated that one would have to invest over Rs 5 billion to set up a polypropylene plant of 3.5 lakh tonne capacity per day.
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Dredging Corpn IPO available in Rs 350-400 band
New Delhi, February 24 Undaunted by the lukewarm response to some of the IPOs launched earlier this week, the initial public offering of DCIL is opening on February 26, 2004. The final offer price would depend on the bids received from investors. In its bid to raise Rs 15,000 crore through disinvestment in the fiscal 2003-04, the government has already thrown three major IPOs - Indian Petrochemicals Ltd, CMC Ltd and IBP Ltd - in the market. The mega issues of the Gas Authority of India Ltd and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation are slated in the next few days. The company’s share opened at Rs 524.20 at the Bombay Stock Exchange today before closing up 0.34 per cent at Rs 526.
— UNI
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‘India committed to rule-based trading’ New Delhi, February 24 The Special Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Mr S.N. Menon, said that India was willing to work together and engage in a process of mutually-beneficial trading system. “Movement forward demands understanding and accommodation. We are willing to engage in this”, he said while speaking at a session on the ‘WTO and Cancun Meetings’, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the East-West Center. “Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are under negotiation with many countries. These will provide increased access to our exports to these countries while providing reciprocal access to our own markets,” he said. “We see the bilateral and regional process as complementing multilateral trade liberalisation... these FTAs signal India’s willingness to open up trade — but on India’s terms and addressing the concerns,” he said. “We engage in multi-lateral trade negotiations to seek benefits for our country in the form of improved market access and fewer trade barriers. In return, we offer concessions in the form of domestic market access to importers,” he said.
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