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New steel policy to promote FDI to increase production
Fortis plans more hospitals in Punjab
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Sutlej expands Kathua facility
ITC centre gets Platinum rating
Sail to downsize staff
Market scan
Tax advice
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New steel policy to promote FDI to increase production
New Delhi, October 31 The draft of the policy that has been released by the Ministry of Steel aims at enabling the domestic steel industry to emerge as a large producer of best quality steel at lowest cost with the least damage to the environment. It has fixed a target of increasing steel consumption to 100 million tonnes annually by 2020 from the current level of around 32 million tonnes. The ministry has identified high capital cost, exorbitant power tariffs, low productivity of labour and lack of investment in supporting facilities like coal mining as the major bottlenecks in the development of steel industry. The Draft Steel Policy has proposed that efforts would be made to ensure adequate flow of funds at the macro level for modernisation, technological upgradation and consolidation of the existing capacity, mergers and acquisitions. It also claimed that government would make efforts to remove institutional rigidities for the capital investment in this sector. Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, “To increase steel consumption, a core group shall be constituted to look into the possibilities of enlarging the use of steel in large construction projects like the Golden Quadrilateral, north-south and east-west corridors. The core group will also coordinate and interact with various agencies involved in investment and implementation of infrastructure projects.” Appreciating the concerns of the steel industry regarding steel imports, the Draft Steel Policy states that “efforts will be made to provide a level playing field to the Indian steel exporters vis-a vis their competitors by removing systematic constraints.” It further adds, “though the government will continue to reduce tariff rates to meet India’s commitment towards globalisation, these will be suitably phased to allow sufficient time for the domestic industry to restructure itself to become globally become competitive.” The National Steel Policy that will incorporate the suggestions of stakeholders will promote steel consumption in rural areas as well by “ devising payment schemes suited to rural purchasers.” To bring down the cost of production, it has asked the government to ensure power supply at a “lower rate”, besides support for the exports. The ministry has also suggested the setting up of a task force to assess the requirement of infrastructure — inland transportation, storage facilities to meet the needs of the steel industry. It has asked for additional 5000 wagons by 2011 to meet the expanding demands of the industry.
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Fortis plans more hospitals in Punjab
Chandigarh, October 31 Talking to The Tribune at its multi-speciality hospital in Mohali this morning, Mr Shivinder Singh, said, “Fortis would continue to assemble the finest medical talents — physicians, surgeons, nursing professional and technicians by expanding its present bed strength of 570 to 4200 in another three to five years.” “We have a Rs 857-crore project where healthcare, education and research would all be under one umbrella. Facilities provided at this centre for taking care of critical cardio, cancer, ortho, neuro, urology cases would be comparable to the world’s best. Besides, we will have a medical college with an initial intake of 100 MBBS students. The curriculum of the new college is so designed that it will integrate education and healthcare delivery. The third and most important component, which has been very dear to our entire group, is the research centre. “We are looking at a 100-acre complex which would infatuate any top doctor in the world to come and work here. Interestingly, most of the world’s top super specialists are of Indian origin. When we provide them the best infrastructure and systems, specially trained faculty, including nurses and technicians and cordial environment for research and development, these doctors would be happy to come back and work in the country,” says Mr Shivinder Singh. The Gurgaon project would try to meet all the requirements of any modern healthcare system to function effectively. Fortis would also be embarking upon an ambitious expansion programme upgradation of Jessa Ram Hospital in New Delhi with modern operation theatres, new Intensive Care Unit and facilities for treatment of cancer patients. “We are planning a mixture 20 big and small hospital in the next three to five years with a capacity of 100 to 150 beds which be networked and linked to major super speciality hub centres, like Fortis in Mohali. Other hospitals would take care of complicated and basic health cases. “At each of our hospitals, we will have one centre of excellence for one speciality or super speciality or the other. We also plan to focus on transplant surgery, especially liver transplant besides critical gynecological cases,” says Mr Shivinder Singh. Since North India in general and Punjab in particular has a high incidence of heart or cardiac disorders, all major players in private healthcare delivery systems have been focussing on cardio-vascular centres. Fortis plans hospitals in Punjab, especially in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala also. “We have been in touch with the government on sharing our expertise and healthcare delivery system on revenue sharing basis. At places they have the infrastructure. We have the systems and the expert hands. If things work out well, we may partner the State Health Systems Corporation or Health Department for reaching out people at their doorstep,” he adds. Agreeing that healthcare has become expensive, Mr Shivinder Singh advocates the need for health insurance. For those below poverty line, the government must come out with some programme where even private players can also be involved for providing secondary or tertiary services.
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Sutlej expands Kathua facility
New Delhi, October 31 Commercial production of the additional capacity will start by March 2005. Of the total outlay of Rs 110 crore for expansion, 25 per cent will come from company’s internal resources while the remaining will be funded by term loan from State Bank of India. For expanding the Kathua facility, Sutlej will get 3 per cent subsidy on working capital from the Jammu and Kashmir Government, apart from sales tax exemption for 10 years and refund of premium on insurance. —
PTI
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ITC centre gets Platinum rating
New Delhi, October 31 The 16,000 sq ft three-storey structure constructed on a sprawling 24,000 sq ft plot is only the seventh building across the globe to get the rating after notching up 53 ‘credit points’ from a maximum of 58 points for various environment-friendly and energy efficient aspects, ITC Centre Project sources told UNI. It becomes the second building outside the US after CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Hyderabad, to get the prestigious rating. The building will be energy efficient. — UNI
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Sail to downsize staff
New Delhi, October 31 Steel Authority of India Ltd, which has downsized its staff by 45,000 since 1998 when it started restructuring exercise that turned around the company last fiscal, will shell out around Rs 160 crore in the VRS packages to improve productivity per employee. The public sector company had a workforce of around 1,76,000 in 1998. Sail Chairman V. S. Jain had said the company would continue to rationalise its manpower. Despite operation of successful voluntary retirement schemes since 1998-99, Sail’s workforce continued to be far above that in comparable iron and steel facilities internationally.
— UNI
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Quarterly results reveal mixed trend
by J.C. Anand
The second quarter performance of the corporate sector has been on the whole impressive, though some sectors of industry have posted weak results. The Economic Times analysis of 783 results shows a higher net profit of 24 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year. Another analysis reveals that as many as 25 industries have done well. These include auto-ancillaries, cement, hotels, cotton textiles, shipping, telecommunication, steel, engineering, agro-chemicals and petro-chemicals. But banks and pharma have been laggard.
In spite of these impressive results, the market indices have been rather static. On October 15 (Friday closing), the Sensex was at 5687 points and Nifty at 1795 points. A fortnight later, on October 29 (Friday closing), the Sensex was at 5672 points and Nifty at 1787 points resulting a loss of 15 points in the Sensex and eight in Nifty. This shows the dominance of traders who have been booking profit at every available opportunity. A number of companies have yet to announce their quarterly results. Many companies are relatively weak and unimportant. The final tally might be somewhat different from the analysis of 783 companies made by the Economic Times, or of the 618 companies made by the Business Standard. Some experts have indicated that the performance of the corporate sector during the next two quarters may not be encouraging due to the impact of high prices and higher inflation rate. In fact, the RBI Governor has raised the inflation forecast from 5 per cent to 6.5 per cent and has cut the growth rate of GDP for the current financial year from 6-6.5 per cent to 6.5-7 per cent. The Finance Minister has also stated that the higher prices and high “inflation rate” are bad for the economy. The latest inflation rate is 7.1 per cent. Though the oil price came down slightly last week, it is expected to move up again. A possible slowdown in the Chinese economy is also a worrying factor for it will cut down demand for Indian steel and other goods. The quarterly results announced by the corporate sector located in Punjab have been quite good. Mahavir Spinning’s half-yearly results stand at Rs 11.18 crore as against 6.93 crore in the corresponding period last year. Vardhman Spinning has also improved its half-yearly results to Rs 18.20 crore from Rs 13.72 crore. Punjab Tractors’ half-yearly results stand at Rs 20.80 crore (as against Rs 11.80 crore) and Swaraj Mazda’s net profit for half year has been 12.20 crore (as against Rs 8.70 crore). Abhishek Industries’ nine-month results show a net profit of Rs 422.54 million as against Rs 332.51 million for the corresponding period last year. But its basic EPS is Rs 1.83 and diluted EPS Rs 1.30 which are rather low. Vardhman Polytex’s net profit is lower both for the quarter and for the half-year period. Its basic and diluted EPS is Rs 3.07 (as against Rs 3.69). Impressive results have been announced by Tisco, Tata Motors, Sail and Glaxo Pharma. Tisco’s net profit is up by 130.6 per cent at Rs 929.5 crore and Glaxo’s net profit is up by 198.9 per cent for the 2nd quarter results. Tata Motors has reported a 49 per cent rise in its 2nd quarter results with its net profit at Rs 309 crore. Sail’s net profit for the half year registers a 200 per cent increase. The losers are Colour Chem, Novartis, Karur Vysya and Essel Propack which have lower net profit for the 2nd quarter. A number of companies have declared interim dividends: Larsen and Toubro Rs 10 per share as a special dividend, Sundram Clayton 50 per cent and DCM Sriram Consolidated 25 per cent.
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Tax advice Q. I have taken HBA from the Punjab Government in the year 1989 and have started taking tax rebate of interest accrued during the year 1999-2000 of HBA. Now the whole principal amount has been recovered and the recovery of interest begins. In this financial year 2004-05, total recovery of interest is Rs 20,000, but the department has denied granting tax rebate on the ground that I have already taken the benefit for this. Actually I have not taken the tax rebate on the interest for the period 1989 to 1998. Kindly clarify whether the amount of interest deducted during 2004-05 can be counted for tax rebate. — Narinderpal Singh, Chandigarh A. The contents of your query are not clear. I have, therefore, presumed that your query is with regard to the deduction of interest against income from house property. The reply given hereunder is based on the said presumption. Section 24 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 provides for the deductions from income chargeable under income from house property. One of the deductions allowable is the amount of interest payable in respect of capital borrowed for the purpose of acquiring and/ or constructing a house. In case of self occupied property, the deduction is limited to Rs 1,50,000 where the amount is borrowed after 1st April 1999 and construction or acquisition is completed within three years from the end of the financial year in which the sum was borrowed. In accordance with the above provisions, the deduction is allowable for interest payable and, therefore, you should have claimed the deduction for interest in the years 1989-1998 i.e. the period for which interest was payable. I may add that the deduction allowable for years 1989-1998 for self occupied house was Rs 30,000 only. Disability rebate Q. I want to clarify the following points about income tax.: I. In The Tribune dated September 6, 2004, a question by Dr Vijay Kumar Sharma is that if disability is over 40 per cent, the deduction allowed is Rs 50,000. Is it true and if it is right, is the employee himself, who is disabled over 40 per cent can get this benefit? II. Under income tax rules, 20 per cent rebate is allowed on savings to those whose income is less than Rs 1,50,000. Please clarify how much can be subtracted from the gross salary. — Satwinder Singh, H.M. G.M.S. Lalu Ghuman A. I. A person who himself is disabled is allowed a deduction of Rs 50,000 out of his total income. The person with a severe disability is allowed a deduction of Rs 75,000 out of his total income. A person can claim deduction, provided he furnishes a copy of certificate by the medical authority in the form and manner prescribed by the Act. Such certificate has to be enclosed with the return of income for the year for which deduction is claimed. The disability has the same meaning as assigned to it in the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. The disabilities prescribed under the said Act are: i) blindness ii) low vision iii) leprosy–cured iv) hearing impairment v) locomotor disability vi) mental retardation vii) mental illness II. From a gross salary standard deduction can be subtracted for the purpose of arriving income tax chargeable to tax under head salary. The standard deduction allowable is as under: - (i) 40 per cent of the salary or Rs 30,000 whichever is less in case the salary does not exceed Rs 5 lacs (ii) In case it exceeds Rs 5 lacs, the deduction is restricted to Rs 20,000.
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