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Bull gallops on the bourses
5 million landline phones surrendered
70 oil companies want to explore India
India to gain from Kyoto Protocol, |
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Punjab minister seeks traders’ views on Budget
Chandigarh, March 3 The Punjab Finance Minister, Mr Surinder Singla, had only two things in mind when he entered the CII for a pre-Punjab Budget meeting with industrialists, here today. Firstly, he wanted industrialists to put their minds together to suggest ways to reduce cost and secondly to raise revenue.
Panel to examine lacunae
Vat-friendly Tally
Coop banks offer sops to farmers
UTI-I to get Rs 1,200 cr for scrapping plans
A-I Express to pay royalty to parent firm
EPFO Board to meet on March 20
Hyundai, Skoda slash prices
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Bull gallops on the bourses
Mumbai, March 3 Market shrugged off the high crude oil prices which ruled above the $ 53 a barrel and weak global advice, opened on a firm note and steadily marched ahead during the session with automobile, banking and oil and gas sector stocks taking the lead. The 30-stock Sensex which opened 14 points higher at 6,700.79 and briefly slipped to a low of 6,691.18 points, later spurted up by 103 points to a new life-time high of 6,794.22 points in afternoon, surpassing its previous record of 6,725.92 touched on Tuesday morning. Sensex ended at a historic closing high of 6,784.72 points, gaining a whopping 97.83 points or 1.46 per cent from Wednesday's close of 6,686.89. The CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also ended at a record closing high of 2,128.85 points after testing an all-time intra day high of 2,132.75. The previous record high was 2020.85 points touched on January 4, 2005. The undertone remained bullish with huge funds pouring into the market, brokers said. Big players, including domestic mutual funds, flush with funds and had stayed in the sidelines in early February due to Budget uncertainties, started taking huge positions in both frontline and mid-cap stocks following the pro-reform Budget which signalled promising economic growth and reduction in corporate tax, brokers said. FIIs pumped in a huge Rs 538.20 crore on Tuesday (March 1) after putting in a record Rs 8,719.10 crore in February 2005. Domestic institutions and mutual funds also bought heavily in both frontline and mid-cap shares, they added. Unfazed by the high crude oil prices which stayed about the $ 53 level, auto stocks rallied smartly and stole the show on higher sales figures. News about launching of a new bike by Hero Honda and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata's comments that Tata Motors was close to developing its ambitious Rs 1 lakh small car, also fuelled buying interest in auto counters. Shares of ONGC which fell 0.94 per cent to Rs 856.30 on Wednesday after the massive block deal of 86 lakh shares at Rs 865 per share, spurted up by 3.88 per cent to Rs 889.50 today following reports that the oil exploration giant has made a huge gas discovery in the Krishna-Godavari basin. The rally in the market was broadbased with most of the sectors registering handsome gains and barring two scrips, all the 28 shares in the Sensex were in positive territory. Market breadth remained strong with nearly three fourth of the total traded securities ending on a firm note. Meanwhile, oil prices held near a four-month high above $53 a barrel on Thursday as investment fund buying and US refinery outages extended a rally close to last year's all-time high. US light crude added 3 cents to $53.08 a barrel, posting gains of almost 17 per cent in just over three weeks. London Brent crude was up 16 cents at $51.38 a barrel, just short of October's record $51.94.
— Agencies
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5 million landline phones surrendered in two years
New Delhi, March 3 On the other hand, about 185 lakh telephones have been added in the current fiscal year ( upto January 31, 2005). About 87 per cent of the additional phones during the current year are accounted for by the mobile phones. The number of mobile phones (including WLL ) as on January 31, 2005 is about 498 lakhs. Minister of State for Information Technology Dr Shakeel Ahmed said although the number of surrendered and disconnected landline connections of BSNL and MTNL may have shown an upward trend, “the number of overall working connections are increasing”.
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70 oil companies want to explore India
New Delhi, March 3 Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar is holding road shows in the major cities of the world and oil market to attract large oil players to the Indian oilfields, besides sending Ministry officials to the world oil markets and to make presentations before major oil companies. Among others, Petrobras, Transworld Expln and Prodn, Sunwing Energy, Santos, PremierOil, Reliance Energy, Tata Petrodyne, BG, Cairn Energy, Essar Oil Ltd, Exxon Mobil and public sector companies like NTPC, ONGC, BPCL and Oil India Ltd have shown interest in the projects. Petroleum Minister, in a written reply informed the Parliament that as on February 24, the 69 companies have seen data at data centres or seen data online or have booked data rooms for data viewing for NELP-V blocks. Petroleum Ministry has claimed that Indian oil fields have attracted over $ 20 billion investments and the government is hopeful that unlike previous bidding, major world oil players would participate in the biding this time. In January the government offered 20 blocks, including six deepwater, two shallow water and 12 on-land blocks. These blocks fall in the offshore of Kerala Konkan, Mahanadi, Krishna-Godavari, Gulf of Cambay, Saurashtra, Andaman & Nicobar and on land in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and UP. Meanwhile Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has struck large gas reserves in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the Andhra Pradesh coast. Drillship Discoverer Seven struck gas reserves at well G1-12 in a block that was given to ONGC on nomination basis prior to the New Exploration Licensing Policy. “We have struck gas reserves at one of the pre-NELP blocks in the Krishna-Godavari basin. The well is under testing and we expect results in a week’s time,” a senior company official said. Though the company has not put an estimate of the reserves, preliminary estimates put the ultimate reserves at 4 trillion cubic feet. The G1-12 was drilled in 552 metres depth and reached its targeted depth of 2400 metres last month. “We were targeting the Godavari clays within the Pliocene era sediments,” the official said. The G1-12 lies 15-km south of the discovered G1 field and has “excellent” channel bodies. It is pertinent to note that ONGC’s own Sagar Vijay drillship had in December last year found gas reserves a block in the vicinity of G1-12 well. Sagar Vijay’s third well struck seven to eight zones in its third well (G-4-3). “G-4-3 was our first gas discovery after a spat of 14 dry wells drilled by drillships Belford Dolphin and Discoverer Seven Seas,” the official said. Over the past few years, Indian public sector oil companies, Reliance and Cairn Energy have found substantial oil and gas reserves in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam. The Government is hopeful that exploration in new blocks will also lead to findings of the oil and gas reserves, much required to meet the growing demand for energy. Petroleum Ministry officials said as part of the hydro vision, the government is encouraging Indian oil companies to invest in other countries besides stepping up domestic exploration activities. Indian companies including ONGC, IOC are also planning to invest over $ 20 billion in oil exploration abroad, they added.
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Gail’s Kerala plan spiked
The government has spiked Gail (India) Ltd's plan to construct a 5 million tonne LNG import terminal at Kayamkulam saying Petronet LNG Ltd's
(PLL) Kochi terminal will be the only facility for importing LNG by public sector firms in Kerala.
Gail, an equal promoter of Petronet LNG Ltd, that has begun work on building the 2.5 million tonne LNG import terminal at Kochi, wanted to team up with National Thermal Power Corporation for setting up a LNG plant for supply of feedstock to the power company's Kayamkulam plant. "We have told Gail that it would not set up any LNG terminal other than Kochi in Kerala," Petroleum Secretary S C Tripathi told
reporters here. — PTI
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India to gain from Kyoto Protocol,
says expert
Chandigarh, March 3 This was stated by Dr J.S. Samra, Deputy Director General (DDG), Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), during his visit to Chandigarh recently. Talking to The Tribune, he said that cultivation of rice in standing water after puddling itself generates methane gas known for promoting global warming while underlining the importance of crop diversification in the context of Kyoto Protocol. “In the burning of nearly 14 million tonnes of paddy straw, tonnes of phosphorus, potash and nitrogen are lost into the atmosphere,” he emphasised. While disclosing that already four carbon point trading have taken place in India’s Andhra Pradesh, he stated that India holds a lot of potential with 107 million hectare acres of wastelands to become one of the biggest sellers of greenhouse gas credits. “Two of these trading have been done by World Bank while the other two have been done by private companies,” he stated. He said that Japan has already taken a lead over other countries by taking up plantation on a leased area in Australia. “Time has come for Punjab region to harness its wastelands in Kandi and south-west areas. Similarly, degraded wastelands of Haryana can also be cultivated. The state governments should create carbon credits at such places by putting wastelands under bio-diesel plantation after thoughtful research,” he opined.
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Punjab minister seeks traders’ views on Budget
Chandigarh, March 3 He did some plain speaking when the industrialists tried to present a slide show on the state of Punjab's economy. To begin with, he dismissed the idea of going through the recommendations of the CII. "I have your memorandum with me for keeps. I will welcome concrete suggestions on how I can cut down costs. I want to ensure the fact that whatever expenditure we make becomes more productive," he stated, making industrialists fumbling for words and unable to come up with specific ideas. Then, Chairman of CII, Punjab, Mr Manish Bagrodia, suggested that the privatisation on the build- operate-transfer (BOT) model be increased and the ball of ideas got rolling. Industrialists said cutting down the time frame in project execution and thoroughly studying components which constitute cost can help. Mr J.K. Gupta, an industrialist, suggested that instead of leaving the task of preparing estimates to engineers, an external agency could be hired to bring down cost by 25 to 30 per cent. Mr Bagrodia also suggested reverse auction for the cost reduction model, while another industrialist suggested adopting newer technologies in execution as well as introducing quality checks for carpeting of roads to ensure that they last longer. On the front of raising revenue, the industrialists were of the opinion that a small cess be introduced on the condition that no additional toll tax would be announced. On the lines of Gurgaon, which had a turnover to the tune of Rs 700 crore from revenue, the industrialists recommended raising the external development charges.
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Vat ordinance expected any day
Ludhiana: The Punjab Government is all set to implement Vat (value added tax) from April 1 in the state. The government is likely to issue an ordinance in this regard any day. The draft of the ordinance has been prepared and sent to the Law Department for vetting, according to highly placed sources.
The government has also apprised the officers of the state excise and taxation department about the intricacies of Vat at a meeting held recently.
— OC
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Panel to examine lacunae in IT Act
New Delhi, March 3 Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Dr Shakeel Ahmed, said that the committee has been set up to re-examine the IT Act, 2000, so as to ensure that the Act remains enabler to development of information and has adequate measures for promoting growth of electronic commerce and e-governance. Mr Ahmed told the Parliament in a written reply that the committee will also consider the recommendations made by the Inter-Ministerial Working Group on Cyber Law and Forensics and finalise the amendments to the IT Act, 2000. The committee will also consider and recommend suitable legislation for data protection .
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Vat-friendly Tally
Bangalore: The Value Added Tax (Vat) compliant version of Tally, a financial accounting software package was launched here today, aimed at the estimated eight million establishments in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) segment spread across the country. Unveiling Tally 7.2 Managing Director of the Bangalore-based Tally Solutions Bharat Goenka said the version offered the feature of printing state specific statutory Vat reports. Tally 7.2 is priced at Rs 4,950 for a single-user license and Rs 13,500 for a multi-user license.
— TNS
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Coop banks offer sops to farmers
Chandigarh, March 3 The cooperative banks have reduced their crop interest rate from 14 per cent to 11 per cent. Besides this, the Kisan Credit Card scheme has also been simplified. As a result, the farmers are giving preference to raise loans from the cooperative banks instead of the private money lenders. While disclosing this, Mr Jasjit Singh Randhawa, Cooperative Minister, Punjab, said the Punjab State Cooperative Bank through its 19 central cooperative banks and 789 branches had provided agriculture credit of Rs 4,382.33 crore till December last. The minister further said this loan amount after a record increase of 30 per cent in the current year would be doubled in the coming three years. He also informed that during the year 2003-04, the cooperative banks registered a profit of Rs 136.39 crore. He disclosed that 7.71 lakh farmers had been issued ‘Kisan Credit Card’ till December last year. The farmers could raise on-the- spot loans through these cards without being harassed. The Cooperation Minister further said that 20 students of Yadwindra College of Engineering, Talwandi Sabo, have been adopted by the central cooperative banks. The fee expenses of six years, which comes to around Rs 2 lakh per student, would be borne by the banks themselves. Referring to the Punjab State Cooperative Agriculture Bank, Mr Randhawa said besides this, 87 branches of primary cooperative agricultural development banks were also providing long-term loans and non-farm sector loans to the farmers. An amount of Rs 563.65 crore had been advanced till December end and net profit of Rs 39.31 crore had been earned during the year 2003-04.
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UTI-I to get Rs 1,200 cr for scrapping plans
New Delhi, March 3 “The budget allocation is for meeting some shortfall UTI-I faces in fulfilling its obligation in the three remaining assured return schemes,” S.B. Mathur, administrator of UTI-I, told PTI from Mumbai. He said the assistance would go to Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) or UTI-I during 2005-06. UTI-I is being provided the funds under the head of non-plan expenditure. UTI-I still has assets worth over Rs 10,000 crore mostly in equities, Mr Mathur said, adding the fund will offload the shares in the market to recover some of the losses. So far, the government has provided Rs 12,771 crore for US-64 and other assured return schemes by way of cash and issuance of bonds.
— PTI
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A-I Express to pay royalty to parent firm
New Delhi, March 3 According to reports here the royalty, which would be paid every year, would be as a result of the use of the bilateral rights which the low cost airline would be taking advantage of. While initially Air-India Express may only operate on the Gulf routes but later it may launch its services domestically also. This, however, may depend on the revenue that it may generate and also accordingly help in improving the revenue of the parent company. Officials at the ministry here said that Air-India Express is expected to start its operations by April end. It is expected to operate a total of 37 flights a week primarily to Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. The airline will operate three flights each from Mumbai and Delhi and another 31 from Kerala. However, the start of Air-India Express could directly effect the operations of India Airlines and the ministry is now working towards also synergising their operations.
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EPFO Board to meet on March 20
New Delhi, March 3 Sources said these issues are likely to come up at the meeting being held after Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced the hike in EPF rate to 9.5 per cent from an “interim” 8.5 per cent, as suggested by the trustees, which manage about Rs 1,28,000 crore corpus of workers’ savings. The CBT had met on February 21 but could not take up the issue owing to elections in certain states. It, however, appointed global consulting firm Mercer for advising on more lucrative investment strategies, including parking funds in equities and postal deposits, much to the displeasure of the Left Trade unions. The consultant is expected to submit the report within four months. After a recent meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue, Labour Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had said the EPFO will strive to meet the deficit from its coffers and if it cannot bridge the gap, the Finance Ministry will have to chip in to provide necessary support. The trustees, meeting for the eighth time after the UPA Government came into power, may also consider restricting the withdrawals before retirement and measures to contain the widening valuation deficit in its pension
scheme. EPFO’s total corpus of about Rs 1,28,000 crore include Rs 71,000 crore of the EPF, Rs 52,000 crore of Employees Pension Scheme and Rs 4,000 crore Employees Deposit-linked insurance.
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New Delhi, March 3 Hyundai Motor India said the prices of Elantra have been reduced by Rs 12,000 to 14,000, while Sonata will be cheaper by Rs 14,000-15,700. “The benefits on Santro and Accent are minimal due to the high local content in these cars,” sources close to Hyundai said. SkodaAuto India, a fully-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, also reduced the prices up to Rs 50,000 on the various models. “After having analysed the fine print of the Budget, the company decided to pass on a benefit to the customer of up to Rs 50,000,” SkodaAuto India Managing Director Imran Hassen said today. Meanwhile, Ford and Fiat India officials said the exact impact of the customs duty cut is still being worked out. Earlier, premium and luxury carmaker Honda Siel Cars India has already effected a reduction of Rs 2,500 and Rs 8,000 in the prices of its City and Accord models. Later, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) reduced the prices of Corolla and the recently-launched Innova by Rs 32,000 and Rs 14,000, respectively. — UNI
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