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Reliance Q3 profit soars 52 pc
Corporate results
Rs 3,000-cr Punjab Plan passed
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DRDO to transfer technology
Service tax net may be widened
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Reliance Q3 profit soars 52 pc
Mumbai, January 21 Reliance Industries’ independent director Y.P. Trivedi told reporters after the meeting that the board discussions were held in a “very cordial atmosphere” and things were going in the right direction. He added that both brothers exchanged pleasantries and their participation was “cordial and smooth”. Trivedi was non-committal about a possible patch-up between the two brothers. “Everything is possible,” he told reporters. Reliance Industries went on to announce better-than-expected results at the board meeting, which lasted an hour. Up more than 52 per cent, its net profit in the quarter ending December 31, 2004, rose to Rs 20.91 billion as compared to Rs 13.74 billion during the same period last year. The total income also rose to Rs 180.99 billion during the period under review as against Rs 127.23 billion in the same period last year. RIL’s profit for the current financial year rose 41 per cent to Rs 52.80 billion, the company said. According to Reliance, it achieved a high degree of capacity utilisation at its Jamnagar Refinery in Gujarat, 96 per cent. The refinery processed 23.69 million tonnes of crude during the nine months’ period, the company said. Its future plans include the setting up of additional polyester capacity of 5,50,000 tonnes per annum by the last quarter of 2005-06. The company is also expanding the capacity of its paraxylene plant at Jamnagar by 310,000 tonnes per annum, which is likely to be completed by the first quarter of fiscal year 2006-07.
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Anil spurned my truce offer: Mukesh
New Delhi, January 21 “I’am always happy to meet you.... and have been trying to reach out to you, but was pained that you have spurned all my efforts,” NDTV quoted Mr Mukesh Ambani in a exclusive report aired tonight.
— UNI
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Wipro net up 56 pc, Raymond down 18 pc
Tribune News Service
Bangalore, January 21 Announcing the results here today, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said revenues grew by 39 per cent to Rs 2110 crore, and profit before interest and tax from global IT services and products, which accounted for about 75 per cent of its business, went up by 65 per cent to Rs 413.9 crore. During the fourth quarter, the revenue from the same sector is expected to be $ 370 million as against $ 352 million in this quarter. “All key verticals and service lines have shown health sequential growth during the quarter,” he stated. As many as 26 new clients were added during the quarter - 16 in Wipro’s research and development work, where it is very strong, and 10 in its enterprise services division. Vice-Chairman Vivek Paul said that there was a 1 per cent sequential increase in price realisation. The company hired 2274 people, taking its total employee strength to 39,337. Of the new workers, 1,327 went into its Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) wing Wipro Spectramind. Raymond
Increase in raw material prices and rise in personnel and worker settlement costs led to a 17.87 per cent drop in the net profit of Raymond Ltd for the quarter ending December 31, 2004 at Rs 25.08 crore as compared to Rs 30.54 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal. The sales, however, were up by 14.31 per cent during the third quarter at Rs 315.02 crore as against Rs 275.58 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2003, Raymond said in a release here today. Chairman and managing director Gautam Hari Singhania said the company’s profitability in the third quarter has been affected due to write-off of Rs 1.98 crore for Voluntary Retirement Scheme, additional wages/ benefits of Rs 7.24 crore, including arrears and higher raw material prices, especially in cotton and steel.
Nicholas Piramal
Pharma major Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL) has posted a quantum leap of over 118.2 per cent in consolidated net profit at Rs 77.69 crore in third quarter ended December 31, 2004, as against Rs 38.97 crore recorded in the same period of previous fiscal. The company’s total income rose to Rs 347.31 crore for the quarter under review, compared with Rs 321.01 crore recorded during the same period of the previous fiscal, NPIL said in a press note here today. The company’s net profit of Rs 78.92 crore (posted on a standalone basis) also includes part payment from Roche Diagnostics as consideration for return of its diagnostics business, it said.
ITC Ltd
ITC Ltd’s post-tax profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, registered a 17.9 per cent growth to Rs 448.94 crore. The pre-tax profit grew 12.7 per cent to Rs 638.70 crore. Earnings per share for the quarter stood at Rs 18.10.
Venus Remedies
Venus Remedies Ltd, Chandigarh, a mid-sized pharmaceutical company, posted a decent growth in it’s quarterly results. Sales grew by 32.81 per cent in the April to December 2004 period at Rs23.61 crore against Rs 17.78 crore clocked in the same period last year. The Q3 top line grew by 14.71 per cent and a remarkable jump in PAT by 47.29 per cent against the sales and N.P for second quarter of current year. — TNS, Agencies
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Rs 3,000-cr Punjab Plan passed
Chandigarh, January 21 Mrs Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Deputy Chief Minister, Presided over the meeting. Though all Members of the Parliament from Punjab were invited, Akali MPs did not attend the meeting. Mr Avinash Rai Khanna, BJP MP, was present. The actual proposal for the Plan was of Rs 5,400 crore. However, the Finance Department brought it down to Rs 3,000 crore, arguing that the state would only be able to arrange resources this size. Sources said the Finance Department told the Planning Department that there was no use to have a bloated plan size, if the state was not in a position to arrange funds for the same. However, Mr Surinder Singla, Finance Minister, told the meeting that the Plan size could be increased midway during the fiscal year because the revenue of the state government would definitely increase. He said with the enforcement of Value Added Tax (Vat) in the state, there was a possibility in the increase of sale tax collection to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore. Besides, the Union Government was expected to give big financial relief to the states by implementing the recommendations of the 12th Finance Commission. The Finance Commission has recommended a reduction in the interest on Central loans drastically, it is learnt. Apart from it, Rs 450 crore, which was earlier provided for old age pensions etc from Plan funds, would now be available for utilisation elsewhere as a separate dedicated fund of Rs 450 crore to pay pensions has been created. To mop up money for the dedicated fund, electricity duty has been increased from 5 per cent to 10 per cent. Top priority has been given to the power sector in the Plan. As many as Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for providing houses to poor sections of society. Mr R.R. Bhardwaj, Deputy Chairman of the board, said it was decided to implement the various recommendations of the Johl Committee by March 31. Mr Johl has recommended a hike in the state revenue by Rs 2,500 crore by taking some creative steps and without levying any fresh taxes. He has suggested measures to plug various loopholes to ensure better collection of sales tax.
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ICAI to assist government on Vat
New Delhi, January 21 Welcoming the government’s decision to implement Vat, Mr Sunil Goyal, President, ICAI, said: “ The institute has taken it as a new challenge and will support the government in the smooth implementation of the tax regime that is likely to benefit all stakeholders.” While appreciating the white paper on Vat by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, the institute noted that Central Sales Tax (CST) should be phased out at the earliest though states would be reluctant in its implementation in view of the annual collection of over Rs 15,000 crore by them. However, a viable alternative system of tax to deal with inter-state sales should be evolved quickly, said Mr Goyal. He pointed out that major tax reform, like Vat, would face teething problems including wide spread apprehensions among the consumers that introduction of Vat leading to fuel price increase. Hailing the government decision to implement Vat, Mr Goyal said: “The proposed scheme of self-assessment of traders under the Vat system would avoid traders from botheration of keeping detailed account records. The optional scheme will allow the traders, with less than Rs 50 lakh turnover, to pay one per cent on the gross turnover instead of Vat. It’s a major relief to a large section of traders.” The ICAI urged the government to ensure that before the implementation of the Vat, a proper system for accounting of tax credits and liability was put in place. “Suitable mechanism to ensure compliance is essential for success of Vat and in this regard like tax audit under Income Tax Act, audit under Vat by chartered accountants would be appropriate,” said Mr Goyal . The two basic rates of four per cent and 12.5 per cent are also a right step. The lower rates of four per cent for about 270 types of goods and 12.5 per cent for the remaining goods throughout was a very good proposal, as less number of rates would facilitate easy administration of the tax.
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DRDO to transfer technology Bangalore, January 21 The automobile industry was a specific target, he said. DRDO was keen on developing new Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), and private partnership would be welcome in this area too, he said. “The Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) has some designs, but none have reached maturity yet.”
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Service tax net may be widened
New Delhi, January 21 At present, service tax to GDP ratio is only about 0.28 per cent even though the services contribute to over 50 per cent of GDP. It is primarily in the area of service tax that there is scope for expanding the tax base. Sources said although the this year’s Budget (2005-06) is unlikely to announce any specific move towards a comprehensive Goods and Services Tax (GST) as recommended by the Kelkar Task Force, it may contain measures addressing key concerns of tax avoidance in several areas, including that of private colleges and coaching centres. While the Kelkar Task Force has pointed out that a plethora of exemptions in excise and customs was one major reason for tax avoidance, sources said the scope of widening of tax base in central excise is limited because the government grants duty exemptions to certain categories such as small-scale industry, handlooms etc on social considerations. Experts familiar with the budget-making exercise are of the opinion that with the services sector accounting for more that 51 per cent of the GDP, there was a considerable scope in widening the tax base in this area. Service tax is projected to generate revenue of a meagre Rs 1415 crore in 2004-05 out of the total indirect tax budget estimates of Rs 177,599 crore. “It is regrettable that in a population of more than 100 crore, we have only three crore taxpayers. Needless to say, a widening of the tax base would mean bringing more and more people under the tax net. Studies have shown that higher rates of taxes leads to lesser compliance”, an expert said. There is also anxiety in the government that India is at the lowest levels of tax-GDP ratio in the world (9.3 per cent in 2003-04) although the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) has projected that it should go up to 12.1 per cent in 2006-07. Sources said meeting the FRBM targets would critically depend on widening the tax base and a major reduction in the current exemptions. Besides low service tax revenue and tax avoidance due to exemptions, there are also several instances where taxes are not being paid despite very high income. This has been pointed by CAG in the cases of several private colleges and institutions who have evaded taxes by adopting various methods. In addition, the government is learnt to be considering sprucing up the tax information system aimed at creating a comprehensive database to check tax avoidance and evasion. The information database would enable the department to avoid assessment on a summary manner as is being presently done in a number of cases. Experts opine that issuing a PAN number is only the first step in building the information system. These numbers should be standardised for all tax purposes and proper exchange of information between banks and financial institutions and the tax department should be institutionalised, they said.
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Mumbai, January 21
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