 |
|
Huge unspent budget worries PM
Crorepati car from Bentley stable rolls out
Bull run on hope of pensioners’ adrenaline
Jet, Sahara get nod to fly to UK
New Delhi, January 31 Reliance Infocomm (RIC) has stated that there has not been any difference in either the share prices or the number of shares allotted to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) or corporates. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GDP growth revised to 8.5 pc
Graphic: Growth of Indian Economy
Bharti buys Max’s VSAT firm
Oil sector
Telecom giant SBC to buy AT&T
Bank account
|
|
Huge unspent budget worries PM
New Delhi, January 31 Estimates reveal that more than Rs 30,000 crore has remained unspent till December or the first nine months of the current fiscal. More than a score of ministries and departments have not been able to disperse the amount allocated to them. Another aspect which the Prime Minister finds highly worrisome is the shortfall in the current estimates of normal dividend which can be as high as Rs 5,000 crore. Dr Manmohan Singh is believed to have stressed that the guidelines on unspent balances of ministries and departments should be adhered to. Simply put, unspent balances should not exceed 15 per cent of the allocation. The government is also working overtime on how to reduce the revenue shortfall. Authoritative sources indicated that the revenue collected from April to December 2004 should have been at least 35 to 40 per cent higher compared to the corresponding period in 2003. This has not happened, thus putting constraints in finding funds for expenditure. The Prime Minister has begun Budget review meetings every Friday. Dr Manmohan Singh has also sent a clear message to the Finance Ministry that the financial advisors of various ministries and departments should ensure implementing the budgetary provisions. Consequently, the Finance Ministry has issued a five-point guideline to the financial advisors. These pertain to: (A) No ministry should spend every quarter more than 33 per cent of the budget allocation and that no exemption will be accorded in this regard; (B) Financial Advisors should indicate the position of unspent balances and interim dividends; (C) Whether financial advisors anticipate any demands after revised estimates on account of unforeseen expenditure; (D) The extent to which financial advisors are involved in decision-making in the ministries and departments and whether there has been any improvement in the situation after the Expenditure Secretary wrote to the Secretaries; and (F) Parking of funds in anticipation of the approval of the Cabinet or that of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs will not be permitted. Nearly 25 ministries had reached an expenditure level of 67 per cent of the budget allocation by the end of December last year. In some ministries the expenditure during December has been substantial and highly disproportionate to the level of expenditure in the previous months. A case in point is that of the Tourism Ministry. Out of a budget of Rs 500 crore, only Rs 125 crore had been spent till November last year. This spiralled to Rs 358 crore by the end of December. Most of these funds would, therefore, be lying unutilised. In such circumstances, the financial advisors should not make further releases unless he is satisfied that the money has actually been utilised.
|
|
Crorepati car from Bentley stable rolls out
New Delhi, January 31 The pricing of the new car is subject to customers’ specifications and can go up to Rs 3 crore. “Since the future Bentley range is extremely rare and limited in production worldwide, we will not supply more than four units a year on Indian roads. We may increase the number, depending on our production and supply availability, in the next few years,” Bentley Motors Regional Director (Middle-East, Africa and India) Ian Gorsuch said at the launch of the luxurious saloon here. Though India is a dynamic and discerning market which appreciates cars with performance and engineering excellence, he said, Bentley Motors, a Volkswagen Group company, will not make bookings in the country more than its delivery capacity in a year and the booking will be based on first-cum-first basis. Pointing out that once all luxury cars were coach built, but today it is an almost lost art, Mr Gorsuch said at Bentley, all old skills remain in practice everyday, creating cars of a quality and with a character found nowhere else in the automotive industry.
— UNI
|
|
Bull run on hope of pensioners’ adrenaline
Mumbai, January 31 The BSE benchmark index shot up nearly 137 points to 6,555.94 at close while the Nifty notched 48.75 points to 2,057.05 at close. The Sensex breached the psychological 6500 mark in the first 20 minutes of trading and continued surging as investors flocked with orders to buy. Stock brokers told reporters outside the BSE building that the Sensex would cross the 6700 mark by Budget time. Today’s rally was led by the tech and banking sector which reported good Q3 results. The biggest gainers in the last session was Infosys which shot up over 1.3 per cent while Wipro also ended the day with marginal gains. Satyam saw its scrip surging by over 4 per cent at close. Among oil scrips, IOC and BPCL were up over 2 per cent while Bongaigaon Refinery, Kochi Refineries Ltd and Mangalore Refinery were all up over a per cent each. Gail was up over 4.5 per cent while ONGC surged by nearly 3 per cent at close. There were 1,394 gainers as against 964 losers. In all, trading volume of Rs 2,529.61 crore was reported today as compared to Rs 2,515 crore on Friday.
|
|
Jet, Sahara get nod to fly to UK
New Delhi, January 31 Going ahead with its open air policy, the Civil Aviation Ministry at a high-level meeting here decided to allot seven flights to Jet Airways to London’s Heathrow airport per week while Air Sahara has been allotted two flights per week to the second London airport, the Gatwick. The two private airlines had filed their flight plans with the ministry officials some days ago. The ministry also decided to give country’s public sector international carrier Air-India three new flights to Birhimgham. Air-India already operates 18 flights to the UK. The ministry has also allotted three more flights to Air-India for London but those would be conditional to the fact that it manages to get these extra slots at Heathrow. If Air-India is unable to get these three extra slots at Heathrow by February 15, these three slots would come back to the general pool and could then be allocated to the two private carriers. Incidentally, the Indian Airlines had not applied with the ministry seeking slots to fly to the UK. Earlier this month, the government as an indication to allowing the private airlines to fly on routes other than those in the Asean region, had come out with stringent guidelines which would govern Indian carriers wanting to fly abroad. The guidelines were brought out to also ensure that non-serious airlines do not attempt to try their hands at flying on international routes without experience and in the process tarnish the image of the country. In the guidelines finalised by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), it was decided to ban the airlines from flying on a particular route for two years if they fail to fully utilise the rights granted for that route. The Union Cabinet while clearing the way for the private domestic airlines to fly abroad last month had put forward a condition that the airlines which would be allowed to fly abroad must not only have at least five years of experience of flying within the country but also must have a minimum mileage coverage. It had said that such airlines must at least have 20 aircrafts in its fleet. The ministry while seeking the private airlines’ flight plans for the UK had also sought details of the number and size of aircraft, details on the pilots who will operate on foreign routes, arrangements of these operations, and maintenance facilities at foreign destinations.
|
|
Reliance Info assures shareholders
New Delhi, January 31 It has also termed as "baseless” aspersions being levelled against independent directors. In a communication to the stock exchnages today, RIC said that “these baseless allegations need to be dismissed with contempt they deserve because
knowledgeable people, financial experts and corporate analysts can easily see through the falsehood of this tirade. However, the company has been issuing factual statements from time to time to ensure that laypersons are not misled by this campaign”. In a
statement issued earlier RIC said that “over the past few weeks, vested interests are continuing \an unabated tirade of disinformation and distortion about allotment of shares in Reliance Infocomm initiatives. In an attempt to intensify the campaign, for the last few days, misleading information is being spread through electronic and print media about these issues”. This systematic and deliberate propaganda is targeted at Reliance Infocomm and its Chairman, the statement said. The statement said the Reliance Communication Infrastructure Limited(RCIL) is the holding company of RIC. The total equity base of RCIL is 200 crore shares. Of these, 90 crore shares are allotted to Reliance Industries Limited and 90 crore shares are allotted to Corporates (MDA Investment Cos.). The other 20 crore shares is held in a trust for Business Associates and Employees. Initially, RCIL issued 81 crore shares each to Reliance Industries Limited and Corporates (MDA Investment Cos.) at par (i.e. Rs. 1 each). Subsequently, RCIL issued 9 crore shares each at Rs.250 to both Reliance Industries Limited and Corporates (MDA Investment Cos.). “It is clear that a total of 90 crore shares each at an aggregate price of Rs.2331 crore averaging to Rs.25.90 per share were issued to both Reliance Industries Limited and Corporates (MDA Investment Cos.) at the same terms, price and time”, the statement said. “The allegation that RIL has been issued shares at Rs.250 and the others at par is totally baseless. Both RIL and Corporates (MDA Investment Cos.) have been issued the same number of shares at the same price at the same time”, it said adding the question of any discrimination to Reliance Industries Limited or loss to its shareholders does not arise at all.
|
|
STD, ISD rates come down today
New Delhi, January 31 For STD calls made beyond 200 km, the reduction in tariff will be in the range of 50 paise per minute. For instance, a call from Delhi to Mumbai would now cost about Rs 1.90 per minute — down from the existing rate of Rs 2.40 per minute. This is because, for this segment (beyond 200 km) the ADC has been reduced from 80 paise to 30 paise. The STD tariffs for calls made between 50 km and 200 km, would come down 20 paise per minute. The ADC for STD calls in this segment has been reduced from 50 paise a minute to 30 paise a minute. For international long distance (ILD) calls, tariffs would come down by about Rs 2 per minute as the ADC has been reduced to Rs 2.50 per minute from the existing Rs 4.50 per minute. Thus a call to the USA, which now costs Rs 16.99 per minute — would now come down by about Rs 2 per minute. Significantly, Trai has also reduced the ADC on incoming international calls to Rs 3.25 per minute from the existing Rs 4.50 per minute. This move is aimed at reducing the number of calls made through the illegal route. The new ADC regime, however, has kept the total amount of ADC funding unchanged. At present, Rs 5,000 crore goes to the state-owned operators to meeting their rural telephony obligations. The regulator is of the view that the increase in usage will compensate for the reduction in the per minute user charges.
|
|
GDP growth revised to 8.5 pc
New Delhi, January 31 The upward revision of GDP growth rate to 8.5 per cent is based on high growth in agriculture (10.3 per cent), trade, hotels and restaurants (8.8 per cent), financing, insurance, real estate and business services (7.1 per cent). The quick estimates of national income, consumption expenditure, saving and capital formation released by the government today showed that the per capita income in real terms in 2003-04 registered an increase of 7.1 per cent. Per capita income in real terms for 2003-04 is estimated at Rs 11,799 for 2003-04 as against Rs 11,013 in 2002-03. In the public sector, gross fixed capital formation last fiscal was Rs 89,203 crore.
|
|
|
|
|
Bharti buys Max’s VSAT firm
Chandigarh, January 31 The two acquired companies recorded revenues of over Rs 50 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2004, according to press note issued here. The acquisition involves Bharti Tele-Ventures taking over all assets and liabilities of the acquired companies, including its VSAT Hubs in Mumbai and Delhi, along with 4300 installations spread across the length and breadth of the country. The company’s data centre located in Delhi along with 130 well-trained telecom professionals would also come into the Bharti fold. Bharti already has an all-India presence in providing total telecom and broadband solutions, including VSAT services, to a large number of enterprises. The acquisition would thus provide a strategic fit to Bharti’s existing VSAT infrastructure and also to its Enterprise Solutions Business.
|
|
IOC-OIL win oil block in Libya
Tribune News Service and agencies
New Delhi, January 31 IOC with largest crude refining capacity in the country, has however, registered a total turnover of Rs 37,274.05 crore, up 19.4 per cent over Rs 31196.29 crore in the third quarter of 2003-04. Meanwhile, Indian Oil Corp and its partner Oil India Ltd have won an oil block in Libya in the first ever joint foray in oil and gas exploration overseas. IOC-OIL won onshore Block-086 in the highly prospective Sirte basin, officials in IOC said. The two firms had last month forged an alliance for joint venture into oil and gas exploration and production in other countries. Officials said under the conditions of the licence, IOC-OIL will get 18.4 per cent share of any future production in the block, with the remaining 81.6 per cent going to Libya’s national oil company. If oil is proven in the licence areas, Libya, which is a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, will fund half of the exploration and development costs. Block-086 measures 7087 sq km and IOC-OIL consortium, which gave no signing bonus, had bid 18.4 per cent of production towards recovery of cost with the balance oil being committed to the government of Libya. OIL will be the operator of the block, which the IOC-OIL consortium won in the first offering of oil blocks by Libya after lifting of US sanctions. Three giant US oil companies won 11 of the 15 Libyan oil exploration and production sharing agreements contested by 56 international companies. Officials said IOC-OIL will bid for at least two out of the 40 licences Libya proposes to offer in the second round next month. ONGC
Public sector Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited has registered an increase in net profit by more than 103 per cent to Rs 4393 crore during the quarter ended on December 31,2004, in comparison to the net profit registered during the corresponding period last fiscal. The revenue of the company has increased by 65 per cent to Rs 12,134 crore during this period. The net profit in the Q3 in the previous year was Rs. 1719 crore. Despite increase in turnover, under-recoveries on sales of natural gas continued, on account of controlled price of the product. Crude Production was marginally higher at 6.68 Million Metric Tonnes in the third quarter and Natural Gas production of 5.873 Billion Cubic Meters.
Gail
Despite bearing a subsidy burden of Rs 363 crore, the government-owned Gail (India) Ltd has recorded a 64 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 635 crore in the third quarter of 2004-05 as against Rs 387 crore for the same period last year. The increase was mainly due to increase in volume of natural gas transmission and hike in petrochemical and LPG prices. The company's sales grew 20.16 per cent to Rs 3,475 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 2,892 crore in the corresponding period last year.
|
|
Marginal price hike likely after Vat
New Delhi, January 31 “Since a large part of these commodities are currently supplied by the unorganised sector, currently out of the sales tax ambit, most of them would be forced to come into the Vat net to avail themselves of input tax set-offs,” says Mr Bharat Goenka Head, Tally Solutions Private Limited, a company offering Vat software for traders. He adds the general prices will marginally go up due to two reasons -- a large number of commodities produced by the unorganised sector, currently out of tax net, come in the tax net. Secondly, the registered dealers will have to pay tax on their previous year’s stocks as well, on which they will not get the tax benefits. When asked about the impact of Vat on states’ revenue collection, Mr Goenka said, “Vat is likely to prove a boom to the high consumption states like Punjab, Bihar and North Eastern region, since the Vat would have to be paid on the final stage of the product chain. The dealers will continue to collect tax on behalf of the states.” Addressing a press conference here today, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Mahendra K. Sanghi recommended six-pronged strategy to integrate markets to achieve economy of scale, reduce cost of manufacturing, improve supply chain and make the Indian industry competitive in the international market. Mr Sanghi said in the long run, the introduction of Vat would significantly reduce the consumer prices thereby expanding the market, leading to higher economic growth rate.
|
|
Telecom giant SBC to buy AT&T
Washington, January 31 Under the terms of the merger, AT & T shareholders will receive 0.77942 shares of SBC common stock for each share of AT & T based on SBC's closing stock price on Friday, or $ 18.41 per share. In addition, AT & T will pay its shareholders a special dividend equalling $ 1.30 per share. But the deal effectively means the demise of AT & T as an independent company after 130 years as a leader in the telecommunications business.
— AFP
|
|
Bank account
New Delhi, January 31 The erstwhile GTB was amalgamated with OBC with effect from August 14, 2004. Total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2004 stood at Rs 1062.68 crore while it was Rs 988.45 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year. For the nine months ended December 31, 2004, net profit increased from Rs 457.39 crore in 2003 to Rs 523.56 crore during April-December 2004. Earnings per share work out to Rs 27.19 as against Rs 23.76 for the corresponding period last year while the book value was Rs 166.19 per share. OBC’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) as of December was 9.4 per cent as against 14.47 per cent as on March 31, 2004. The bank’s total business mix went up by Rs 14,623 crore from Rs 50,371 crore to Rs 64,994 crore as on December 31, 2004, growing by 29 per cent.
IDBI
Despite a 24.34 per cent drop in income, the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) has recorded a 33.5 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 62.13 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, compared to Rs 46.55 crore in the corresponding October-December 2003 period. Total income dipped for the quarter under review at Rs 1,259.08 crore as against Rs 1,664.32 crore in the year-ago period, the new banking entity, following the merger of IDBI bank with itself, said in a release after its board meeting. Aggregate assets of the bank increased by two per cent (year-on-year) to Rs 64,199 crore as on December 31, 2004 from Rs 62,998 crore on December 31, 2003, the press note added.
— Agencies
|
bb
CPI-IW Puri Group Mittal Steel Pulitzer-Lee deal Satyam Computers |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
After Rs 5-crore plus car Maybach from DaimlerChrysler, another crorepati car today made its entry into India from the Bentley stable, Arnage RL, priced at Rs 2.5 crore.
The pricing of the new car is subject to customers’ specifications and
can go up to Rs 3 crore.
