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Vat panel tries to assuage traders
ECB norms may be relaxed
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CFC phase-out plan in fridge, AC sector launched
Staff shortage cripples HP Labour Department
India wins neem patent battle in Europe
Travel agents up in arms against airlines
Corporate conclave on AIDS next month
Auto scene
Rahul Bajaj steps down as MD, Rajiv takes over
BoP, Western Union start road show
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Vat panel tries to assuage traders New Delhi, March 9 The states will also have the option to exempt food grains and seeds from the new tax in first year of Vat introduction. “We have given states the option to raise the thresh hold limit for traders to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh,” Secretary of Empowered Committee of state finance ministers, Ramesh Chandra told PTI here today. He said states would also have the option to tax food grains and seeds at either nil or 4 per cent in the first year of Vat introduction. The Vat panel, which met earlier this week, also reaffirmed that the deadline of April 1, 2005, will not be deviated even if some states like Uttar Pradesh do not fall in line. Vat panel chairman Asim Dasgupta has not given up hopes of convincing Uttar Pradesh to switch over to Vat. Mr Dasgupta has already met UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav who had assured him that they would be sending a delegation to sort out difference. Barring Uttar Pradesh, he said, Jharkhand is the only state, which is not ready for Vat due to “political uncertainties.” Some other states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh demanded a “clear roadmap” on the phasing out of the 4 per cent Central Sales Tax. The Vat panel’s decision assumes importance in the wake of protests from traders, who threatened to go on a 4-day strike from March 29. — PTI
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ECB norms may be relaxed
New Delhi, March 9 Joint Secretary (FDI and ECB) in the Finance Ministry, Mr U.K. Sinha, said the
existing ECB norms were restricting Indian companies to raise foreign capital from overseas markets. He was speaking at an interactive session organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) here. Mr Sinha said the Ministry efforts were also being made to institutionalise robust risk management system in order to check speculative charges. On the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema), he said that under the present norms, the foreign investment inflows to India (including FDI, FIIs and Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), was not poor. “This does not mean that some of the provisions of Fema should not be modified. The government, the RBI and the Sebi are in constant touch to incorporate modifications in existing Fema so that the FDIs, FIIs and FPIs pour in higher capital in the Indian stock market,” he said. The Finance Ministry has already applied its mind on the issue, he said. Mr Sinha also said his ministry was in favour of a cap on restricted rate of interest for overseas borrowings for Indian companies so that they can access these borrowings at lower cost and high cost external borrowing is discouraged. “Cost of borrowing is a concern for the government. India will not like an unrestricted interest rate regime (in ECBs),” Mr Sinha said. He was replying to a question as to whether the current ceiling of 300-basis points above LIBOR on ECBs beyond 10 years is relevant to the changing needs of the economy. Reminding the participants that the East Asian crisis was caused by high cost and short tenure of external borrowings, Mr Sinha said: “ I don’t think the RBI would accept the suggestion that there should be no cap on
ECBs.” He said the country takes pride in conservatism in Forex policy as unless careful options are exercised, temporary abundance in Forex may be misleading.
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CFC phase-out plan in fridge, AC sector launched
New Delhi, March 9 It is part of efforts of the CFC phase-out in the consumption sector to help India meet its commitment under the Montreal Protocol. Under the five-year plan that started last year, efforts will be made to reach out to RAC service technicians using CFCs and generate awareness about their ozone-depleting effects and equip them to handle non-CFC refrigerant technologies by the end of 2009. Minister of Environment and Forests A. Raja, speaking at a conference on “Meeting challenges in phase-out of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) from India’s refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) service sector”, said India had received $ 240 m for over 350 projects to phase out about 12,000 Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) tonnes. The phase-out plan mostly addresses the refrigeration and air-conditioning servicing sectors to also ensure safe and environment-friendly servicing practices of new and old refrigerators, impart knowledge about alternate refrigerants and assist the Indian industry in choosing new technologies. In most developing countries like India, domestic refrigerators and air-conditioners are not easily discarded and continue to be used in households for several years. There are estimated to be as many as 20 million CFC-based refrigerators that need servicing and refrigeration-service technicians play a crucial role in increasing their usability and longevity. However, the chemical hydrocarbons used in different refrigeration appliances pose a grave danger to the ozone layer and the environment. According to Prof R.S. Aggarwal, who is collaborating with the Indian industry on the joint working of ozone depleting substances phase-out, a single molecule of the CFC has the potential to destroy 100,000 molecules of ozone, which can be released from the machine in the air due to variety of reasons, including leak-outs, failure of compressors etc. All the CFC being consumed in the service sector would be phased-out by the end of 2009 because by January 1, 2010, new CFC would not be available, said Dr Agarwal. India has a large RAC service sector comprising about 35,000 servicing enterprises that employ more than 77,000 technicians and a CFC consumption of 1600 tonnes. While there are about 300 industrial training institutes, generating employment for nearly 3,000 to 4,000 persons, a large number of technicians in this sector does not have access to formal training and pick up skills by working in servicing units. Most technicians, therefore, need to be trained for safe and best practices and reduce consumption of CFC and learn new technology using hydroflourocarbons and hydrocarbons, that are safe for the environment. Meanwhile, Mr Raja said more than 175 projects had already been completed resulting in phasing out of about 6000 ODP tonnes, including non-investment and investment projects in the refrigeration, foam blowing, aerosol, solvent, and fire-fighting equipment sectors. He said India had taken various policy and fiscal measures for smooth implementation of ODS phase-out projects and the National ODS Phase-out Plan, without burdening the industry, especially small and medium scale enterprises. However, RAC was a major challenge, mainly due to the long life of equipment used in this sector, extensive spread of equipment to various end users including domestic households, shops and degree of economic activity for informal sector, especially servicing, generated by this sector. “What is required is to reduce and eliminate dependence of this sector, especially the servicing agencies, on ODS-based technologies in a cost effective manner, considering that servicing technicians make a significant contribution to the national economy and have limited capacity to run their business in environmentally-friendly manner,” he added.
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Staff shortage cripples HP Labour Department
Kumarhatti, March 9 Inquires by this correspondent has revealed that lack of required staff and internal bottlenecks in the department have caused inordinate delay in the settlement of workers dispute cases. At present the state has Joint Labour Commissioner, besides a Deputy Labour Commissioner. Based upon the industrial activities in the state, both the posts should at least be double their present strength. There is no Additional Labour Commissioner in the state. To effectively implement labour laws and protect the welfare of workers there should at least be one Assistant Labour Commissioner. To add to the woes, the state has just five labour officers. One labour officer has to look after four districts simultaneously. And add to this the fact that the officers are not provided adequate staff and infrastructure. Rather to enforce the outcome of conciliation process of industry disputes, the labour officer has to act as a conciliation officer too whereas as per norms this work is supposed to be done at Assistant Labour Commissioner level. The staff strength of labour department is the same as it was 45 years ago, points out Mr Jagdish Bhardwaj, state president of Aituc. The Congress and the BJP while in power had committed to start a Labour Welfare Board on many occasions but till date no initiative has been taken in this regard. Referring to long delays in settling dispute cases between terminated workers and employers, Mr Bhardwaj blames red-tapism in the Labour Department. The dispute cases filed by the terminated workers under Section 2A of Industries Dispute Act have failed to see the final verdict. There are even such cases where files have not moved for notification of adjudication from Labour Commissioner office. In a case of two sacked workers of ACC, Barmana, in Bilaspur district, no notification has been made since the past five years, Mr Bhardwaj reveals. While admitting staff shortage in the department, Mr Bharat Khera, Labour Commissioner, has said the proposal for improvement has already been forwarded to state government. Opening up of Labour Welfare Board is already under active consideration, he asserts.
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India wins neem patent battle in Europe
New Delhi, March 9 The multinational however went in for an appeal against the patent revocation, which has been rejected after India led by environmentalist Vandana Shiva presented further evidence to support that use of neem in varied forms is part of traditional Indian knowledge and not a novel product. In addition, the documented evidences presented by India included research done by two scientists prior to 1995 on use of neem, known for its medicinal properties, for making several products like fungicide. “This is a major victory for us as the award of patents could have been damaging as the US company had tried to enlarge the scope to include all neem end products,” Shiva, who heads the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, told IANS from Munich. “Definitely after this decision to uphold the earlier revocation of the patent, the European Patent Office will be much more careful in granting patents on products based on traditional knowledge,” said Shiva. Stressing the need for protecting traditional knowledge, Shiva said the present Indian laws are not stringent enough. “Merely digitalising ayurvedic knowledge is not sufficient. There is a need to provide patent protection for all traditional knowledge to stop product piracy. Over 70 percent of our agriculture practices are based on traditional knowledge,” said Shiva. She was part of India’s successful bid to protect basmati, a traditional long-grained aromatic rice variety grown only in India and Pakistan, from being patented in the US.
— IANS
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Travel agents up in arms against airlines
New Delhi, March 9 Threatening to suspend the sales of those airlines which attempt to bring down their commission quotient, the Travel Agents Association of India, supported by the Travel Agents Federation of India today said all these steps were being made to thrown them out of business. They alleged that Air-India which was coming under pressure from European airlines, especially Lufthansa, to take such steps. Although they said that nothing was official about the commission quotient being cut by 2 per cent, they had been informed about it verbally. The airlines are apparently taking these steps in an effort to bring about the international norms into the country and take the commission quotient level to nil over the next few years. Lufthansa had earlier made attempts to bring down the commission quotient but had backed out after the travel agents threatened to suspend their ticket sales. However, now the agents point that with Air-India coming into the picture, it being the chairman of board by the status of being the national airline, the other airlines would also follow suit with a cut in their commissions. They said that they were ready to sort out the matter with the airlines. They pointed out it was a one-sided decision.
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Corporate conclave on AIDS next month
New Delhi, March 9 Naco Director-General S.Y. Quraishi told TNS here on Wednesday that they are keen to hold the conclave during former US President Bill Clinton’s proposed visit to India next month. “We are asking the Clinton Foundation to let us know the date of his visit,” Quraishi said. President Clinton has made the fight against HIV AIDS a focal point in the work of the New York based William J. Clinton Foundation. Dr Quraishi said that the foundation is funding care, support and treatment for HIV AIDS in various parts of India. They are lending support to run the 25 ART (anti-retroviral therapy) centres across the country. The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) has helped reduce the price of medicines for people with AIDS in the developing world by 50 to 70 per cent. Dr Quraishi said Health Minister Anbhumani Ramadoss wants Naco to set up 75 more ART centres in the country by the end of this year. He said the prime objective of the conclave is to persuade the multi-national companies and corporate houses to evolve a work policy on HIV AIDS. “Going beyond that, we want to get them on the National AIDS Control Programme. I’m not looking at funding. I’m looking at getting them involved. If each businessman and industrialist supports the AIDS control programme, the cumulative effect will be significant.” The Naco Director-General said he has already spoken to the heads of Ficci, CII and PHDCCI to help organise the conclave. He has also sought the cooperation of UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries. Dr Quraishi said that multi-national companies as Pepsi and Coke would be doing great social service if they include messages on HIV AIDS prevention in their advertisements. “In their half page and quarter page ads, they could include a message stressing the need for safe sex by promoting use of condoms or encouraging people to fight social stigma surrounding HIV AIDS. If we had the money to match Pepsi and Coke, we would have reached every home. Our IEC (Information Education Communication) budget is only about $2 million.”
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Merc trims Rs 1 lakh from flagship model
New Delhi, March 9 DaimlerChrylser India said its flagship model S-350 L petrol will now be cheaper by around Rs 1 lakh across India and the maximum ex-showroom price for the basic car has been reduced to Rs 62.24 lakh. The price tags of its E-Class cars — both E-240 petrol and E-270 diesel — have been reduced by around Rs 35,000 to Rs 38.40 lakh and Rs 37.41 lakh, respectively, the company added. Its entry-level car C-Class has also become cheaper by over Rs 30,000. The C-200 Kompressor petrol will now cost Rs 22.91 lakh while the C-220 CDI diesel has been re-priced at Rs 25.16 lakh. “Our price revisions are in line with this philosophy and further reinforces our long-term commitment to India. This makes buying Mercedes-Benz cars even more attractive to our prospective customers in India,” DaimlerChrysler India MD Hans-Michael Huber said in a statement. Ashok Leyland
India’s second-biggest bus and truck maker Ashok Leyland Ltd today said it sold 5,436 vehicles in February against 4,951 units in the year-ago month, indicating 9.76 per cent growth. However, in January 2005, the Hinduja Group flagship sold 5,461 vehicles. Leyland said exports grew by 18.13 per cent to 762 vehicles in the past from 645 units in February 2004. But, exports too were down 5.45 per cent as compared to January’s figure of 806 vehicles. Its cumulative sales for the period April-February 2004-05 were up 11 per cent to 47,308 vehicles from 42,454 vehicles in the same period of the last fiscal year.
Ford India
Ford India has announced a slew of offers on their entire portfolio of cars and SUVs for March 2005. March Masti, as the offer is called, has been rolled out across all dealerships in the country. The Vice-president, Sales, of the company, Mr Vinay Piparsania, said: “Under the scheme the consumers would be able to choose from a wide range of Ford models, especially in March. Customers would be able to gain Rs 40,000 on the purchase.” He added that Ford’s finance associates, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank would be offering attractive customised finance scheme during this month.
SkodaAuto
SkodaAuto India, a fully owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, today announced the introduction of an automatic gear to the SkodaOctavia Rider The vehicle comes with a four-speed automatic transmission and a mini-dot display on the instrument cluster, which informs the driver which gear he is driving in. The new model would be available at a price of Rs 11,66,332 in four colours.
— UNI, TNS
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Rahul Bajaj steps down as MD, Rajiv takes over
Pune, March 9 The board has reappointed Mr Madhur Bajaj as the Vice-Chairman till March 31, 2010. His present term was due to expire in November this year. An official letter has been given to the Bombay Stock Exchange about the change of guard. Mr Rahul Bajaj had made the announcement of succession at New Delhi on Friday last week. The succession planning, which has been going on for some time, has been hastened following the feud between Mr Rahul Bajaj and his younger brother Mr Shishir Bajaj, who controls Bajaj Hindustan.
— UNI
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BoP, Western Union start road show
Chandigarh, March 9 Covering mainly the villages of Punjab, the aim is to bring about awareness of the advantages of receiving Western Union money transfers in a safe and efficient environment that the Bank of Punjab provides. Mr Tejbir Singh, Executive Director of the bank said, “Western Union’s global reach combined with our local network has enabled our overseas customers to unite with their loved ones in India.” Mr Anil Kapur, Senior Vice-President, South Asia, Western Union, said, “We help people connect with loved ones from around the world. This road show will showcase how one can successfully receive money using our service within minutes.”
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