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Punjab to levy purchase tax on foodgrains even after Vat
EPFO considers equity investment
Bill on SEZ in Budget session
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LIC’s housing arm hits out at defaulters
LG launches 3G mobile phones
Jagran TV news channel next month
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ABB India posts 49 pc jump in profit
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Punjab to levy purchase tax on foodgrains
New Delhi, February 1 Interestingly, Congress government in Punjab has mustered support from unexpected corners — Chautala government in Haryana and Mulayam Singh government in Uttar Pradesh. Both states have supported Punjab’s contention that the states should be allowed to levy purchase tax on foodgrains. All three states are major contributors to the Central pool of wheat and paddy, and collect substantial revenue by imposing purchase tax on foodgrain, that is supplied to the Food Corporation of India for distribution to the poor families under the public distribution system. It is, ultimately the Centre that has to bear the burden. Talking to The Tribune here today, Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla, said: “ How can we can agree to abolish purchase tax on foodgrain, which contributes about Rs 800 crore annually to the state exchequer. We have told the Empowered Committee on Vat that it would not be feasible for the state.” He was in the Capital to participate in national conference on “State Vat for a Common Indian Market- Issues and Challenges,” jointly organised by Assocham and PHDCCI. Mr Singla said Punjab government would promulgate an Ordinance shortly to implement value added tax (VAT) with effect from April 1, along with other states. After getting clearance from the Cabinet yesterday, he said, the government was ready for the VAT implementation. Expressing concern over the traders’ opposition to Vat, Punjab Finance Minister said: “Their apprehensions seem quite genuine. Despite the state government’s unequivocal support to the Vat, the Centre should make efforts to take them into confidence.” He lamented that the traders in Punjab, along with other states were protesting against the implementation of Vat. “ We have so far failed to convince them that since Vat would not be applicable to the traders with annual turnover less than Rs 5 lakh, most of the traders would not come into its net. Further, the traders with annual turnover between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh would have to pay just 1 per cent turnover tax,” he said. Mr Singla claimed that being a high-consumption State, Punjab was likely to benefit from Vat, since the tax would be paid on the last stage of consumption. “We are in favour of totally phasing out central sales tax (CST) in one go as against Empowered Committee’s view to abolish it in a phased manner,” he observed.
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EPFO considers equity investment
New Delhi, February 1 “There is a finance and investment sub-committee under the EPFO, which will discuss it”, Union Labour Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said on the sidelines of a board meeting of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) here. Given the present bull run in the capital markets and fast dipping yields from conventional investment options, the EPFO is actively considering a restructuring of its investment portfolio which may include equities as well. The investment sub-committee will meet this month and the matter of investing in equities will also be taken up with EPFO’s banker — State Bank of India (SBI). While in 2001-02 and 2002-03, the net yields of the fund amounted to Rs 504 crore and Rs 204 crore respectively, it dipped to minus 271 crore in 2003-04, forcing it to dig deep into the pockets to offer high rates of return to EPF subscribers. There are about four crore EPF subscribers currently. At present, about 80 per cent of the EPF corpus is invested in the special deposit scheme (SDS) of the Finance Ministry, the balance is invested in public sector/financial institutions, central government loans, state government loans and government guaranteed loans. The total corpus of the Employment Provident Fund is around Rs 1.28 lakh crore which includes Rs 71,000 crore of the Employees’ Provident Fund, Rs 52,000 crore of the Employees’ Pension Fund and Rs 4,000 crore of the Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme. Private provident funds have already been allowed to invest five per cent of their assets in shares of blue-chip companies and 10 per cent in corporate debts and equity-oriented mutual funds from April 2005. As per the revised norms, private funds would be permitted to invest in Term Deposit Receipts of the public sector banks up to three years as against the present limit of less than a year. Further, the said funds can invest in the bonds of the public financial institutions and public sector companies if these are rated as investment grade by two credit rating agencies. It has also been decided to allow these private funds to invest in Collateral Borrowing and Lending Obligations (CBLO) issued by Clearing Corporation of India Limited and approved by the Reserve Bank of India. The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) had recommended a reduction in the interest rate on EPF from the existing 9.5 per cent to 8.5 as interim measure. This had evoked strong protests from labour unions and Left parties who have been bargaining hard for raising the interest rate on small savings schemes such as EPF, PPF and GPF. On the issue of higher interest rates, Mr Rao today said, “The Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and trade unions are seized of the matter and will decide accordingly”.
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Bill on SEZ in Budget session
New Delhi, February 1 “We are at a fairly advanced stage and we will introduce the SEZ Bill in the Budget Session,” said Commerce Secretary S. N. Menon at an interaction with the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) here today. Claiming that only some issues were pending for sorting out, Mr Menon said that proposed legislation would put a major responsibility on the states. It is perinent to note that after the SEZ Bill was referred to the Group of Ministers (GoM) to sort out certain contentious issues like setting up of branches of foreign banks in the special zones, there were apprehensions that the important legislation could be delayed. However, the Commerce Secretary removed all such apprehensions asserting that the SEZ area was receiving topmost priority of the Commerce Ministry. “Once this Bill comes through, a lot of other issues would automatically be settled,” Mr Menon told Assocham members. Regarding the Budget proposals of the Commerce Ministry, Mr Menon said a final round of discussions would soon be held with the Revenue Department. The officials of the two ministries have already held discussions with detailed proposals going from the Commerce Ministry to the Finance Ministry. Reacting to the complaints of the income tax being imposed on the DEPB (Duty Entitlement PassBook) credit, the Commerce Secretary said the issue would be sorted out soon with clarity. The Commerce Ministry, on its part, has opposed the reopening of the income tax cases on DEPB claims. Mr Menon said both the Commerce Department and the Revenue Department had taken upon themselves to ensure that the transaction cost for exporters was reduced and harassment would end. “We are clear in our target to remove harassment,” he said. He expressed confidence that the export growth rate would be in the range of 20 per cent at 75 billion dollar in the current financial year as against the growth target of 16 per cent.
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LIC’s housing arm hits out at defaulters
Ludhiana, February 1 “Inclusion of housing finance companies under the Securitisation Act has been a good measure. With the rise in housing finance business, cases of default also picked up and there was a strong need to curb these,” said Mr K.B. Kohli, area manager, Ludhiana, adding the company was the pioneer in initiating such action against defaulters. The measure assumes significance and other companies have begun following suit. For defaulters, it assumes significance as finance companies were not resorting to such measures earlier. Interestingly, the proportion of defaulters, according to companies, is the highest in Punjab when compared to other states like Himachal Pradesh and Haryana in the region. Mr A.K. Dutt, manager, operations, LIC Housing Finance, who is also the authorised officer to deal with cases under Securitisation Act, says: “Notices have been issued to defaulters in Punjab only. In other states the need did not arise as there is not much problem in recovery.” He said in the Punjab region, it was Chandigarh and Ludhiana where the company was more active taking these measures. We will take up cases in other cities but since default rate is comparatively higher in Ludhiana and Chandigarh it was important to deal with cases here on priority basis, he said. According to companies while earlier the focus was on generating awareness and reaching out to a large number of people, now more stress is being laid on proper investigation and controlling Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). Mr Kohli disclosed: “The NPA proportion was around four per cent of the total portfolio in 2002 which has now reduced to 1.8 per cent.”
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LG launches 3G mobile phones
New Delhi, February 1 The company hoped that all outstanding policy issues regarding the use of 3G services in the country would be sorted out soon, LG Head (Consumer Electronics and GSM) C. M .Singh told newspersons here today. The new range of 3G phones unveiled today include U8110, U8120, U8130 and U8318 and are priced in the range of Rs 16,000 to Rs 30,000. These phones have improved features including video conferencing, live video streaming, e-mail, multimedia player and will offer download speed of 384 kbps as against a normal GPRS speed of 48 kbps. The company will also increase its employee strength in the R&D division from the present 115 to 300 by 2006.
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Jagran TV news channel next month
New Delhi, February 1 Jagran TV Pvt Limited, that has been granted uplinking licence, will beam the 24-hour news channel from Noida. Announcing this here today, Mr Siddhartha Gupta, Director, Jagran TV, said,” Equipped with a strong technical and editorial team under Arup Ghosh as Director-News, the channel will cover national news with due attention to regional and international news.” “The channel aims to be among the top three slots,” said Mr Sanjay Gupta, Editor and CEO, Jagran Group.
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Qualis withdrawn, new model soon
Mumbai, February 1 The company said even as Qualis redefined the MPV segment registering sales of 36,700 units between January and December 2004, market research indicated the needs of the customers was changing in the rapidly growing Indian automobile market. “Hence”, it said in a press statement issued today, “Qualis will now be withdrawn from the market and will give way for a more modern an customer-driven vehicle.” The new vehicle will enable TKM to achieve volume and marketshare objectives in India in the future as it did with Qualis, the company said. The new model will be able to satisfy the requirements of the MPV and passenger car markets—providing the performance of a multi-purpose vehicle along with the comforts of a passenger car. Between 2000 and 2004, Qualis was the primary driver of growth in the MPV segment, increasing the market share of the segment in the Indian automobile industry from less than 9 per cent in 2000 to over 11 per cent in 2003, the release said. Even in the last month of production - December 2004 - saw the highest ever retail sales of the Qualis, crossing 4000 units in one month for the first time and winning the TNS Award for Customer Satisfaction in 2004. Maruti
Weighed down by a decline in exports as well as demand for Maruti 800 model, the country’s biggest carmaker Maruti Udyog Ltd today reported a 1.2 per cent drop in sales for January 2005 at 48,544 units against 49,141 units in the same month last year. The company’s exports dropped to 3,244 units against 4,832 units in January 2004, a decline of 32.9 per cent. Sales of M 800 slipped by 37.1 per cent to 9,625 units against 15,301 units in the same month last year. The company, however, said it achieved the highest-ever sales in the domestic market in January 2005 at 45,300 units.
Hero Honda
Hero Honda Motors today said sales jumped 17.5 per cent in January 2005 at 2,30,280 units against 1,95,982 units in the same month last year. This is the highest-ever monthly sales for the bike maker, in which the Munjals and Japan’s Honda hold 26 per cent stake each.
TVS Motor
India’s third-biggest motor cycle maker TVS Motor Co. Ltd today said it sold 55,639 bikes in January, down 7 per cent from 59,844 units in the same month a year ago. TVS said it also sold 14,724 scooters and 24,104 mopeds in the past month.
— Agencies
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