New Delhi, May 25
The Central Board of Trustees of Employees Provident Fund will meet on Saturday to recommend the final rate of interest on EPF accumulation for 2004-05.

The board in its last meeting had recommended 8.5 per cent as an interim interest rate on EPF accumulations for the last fiscal.

It had then decided that the final rate of interest would be recommended after taking into account the actual interest income at the end of the financial year.

The board is likely to consider actual interest income received up to March 31, 2005 from provident fund investments for the year 2004-05 for recommending the final rate of interest.

The Centre has released the interest on Special Depository Scheme at 8 per cent on January 1, 2005 and about 8 per cent of EPF investment is in the Central Government’s SDS.

The board had appointed global consultancy firm, Mercer, in February to suggest lucrative investment strategies, to pay the 9.5 per cent interest rate to the fund members following the Union Finance Ministry’s decision not to hike the interest rate of Special Deposit Scheme.

The Finance Minister had last month ratified the 9.5 per cent rate of interest on the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) accumulations for 2002-03 and 2003-04.

However, the rate of interest for 2004-05 has not yet been ratified as the government is awaiting the recommendations of the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO in that regard.

A 1 per cent increase in the interest rate would lead to a gap of Rs 927 crores between what the EPF gives to its beneficiaries and what it earns on investments, according to calculations made by the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO.

While about 80 per cent of the EPF corpus is invested in Special Deposit Scheme (SDS), the balance is invested in public sector/financial institutions, central government loans, state government loans and government guaranteed loans.

New Delhi, May 25
Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) today launched its first world car, Swift, the European-style compact hatchback car with an introductory price tag of Rs 3.87 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the base model to great enthusiasm within and outside the company.

While MUL Managing Director Jagdish Khattar called the launch of Swift as an example of growing recognition of Indian intellect and engineering capability, the response from the market was reflected in the fact that the company has already received about 9,000 bookings for the vehicle even before its launch.

The company officials here said that the MUL was looking at further capturing the Indian market with the lunch of Swift, which hit the roads in Hungary earlier this year after its launch in Japan in November 2004. MUL would also be looking at exporting the vehicle in the South Asian region from its plants here.

The small car aimed at repositioning Maruti Suzuki as a stylish brand for the new global Indian, sports a 1.3 litre gasoline engine and will compete with Hyundai Getz, Tata Indica and Fiat Palio.

Swift will be available in three models—the base Lxi version, the mid-range Vxi and the top-end Zxi.

Priced at Rs 3.87 lakh, the base model has front and rear fog lamps, wide tread 165/80 R14 steel wheel tyres and flared arches for better stability combined with side impact beams. The LXi will have power steering and air-conditioning, but manual controls for doors and locking. The VXi has front and rear electric windows, central locking for four doors, front and rear fog lamps and key-not-removed warning buzzer. Sporting ABS with electronic brake distribution (EBD) as an option, it sports a tag of Rs 4.05 lakh.

The top-of-the-line ZXi has dual front airbags, ABS with EBD and 14-inch alloys and more-than-normal bells and whistles, rear window wiper and demister besides keyless entry. The ZXi is available for Rs 4.85 lakh.

Mr Khattar while saying that the company was looking at selling as many as 6 lakh units of the model in India in its first year of launch pointed out that the over 85 per cent of indigenisation in Swift had helped the company keep the pricing lower.

He said that although the car has been launched but the deliveries of the vehicle would only begin from June 6, after its models have adequately reached all dealers across the country and the car has been unveiled in most of the cities.

When asked specifically about the duration of the introductory offer, Mr Khattar said that it would continue for a ‘reasonable period’. Incidentally, Suzuki Motor Corp, owns 54.2 per cent stake in Maruti Udyog Ltd, which has cornered more than half of India’s auto market.

Islamabad, May 25
FICCI today called for dismantling trade and tariff barriers, enhancing rail and road links, besides liberalising visa regulations, to increase India-Pakistan bilateral trade from the current level of $ 400 million to $ 5 billion.

“Augmenting business-to-business cooperation between the two countries is uppermost on the FICCI agenda, a priority that we feel will pave the way for the policy-makers in India and Pakistan to remove infrastructural bottlenecks and improve the business and economic environment,” FICCI President Onkar S. Kanwar, who is heading a 100-member business delegation visiting Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, told mediapersons here.

Spelling out a seven-point agenda to boost trade and investment between the two neighbours, Mr Kanwar said for the two South Asian giants to reap the benefits of faster economic growth and expedite the process of regional integration, it was essential to de-freeze the list of items (now limited to 768 items) importable from India.

Signalling Pakistan’s willingness to open up trade with India, President Pervez Musharraf said today the two countries could “simultaneously” improve economicties while moving forward on the political front to resolve bilateral issues, he told the FICCI delegation.

General Musharraf described the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), reached by the SAARC countries during their summit in January, 2004, here, as an important development for enhancing regional trade cooperation. But, he said, amity between India and Pakistan was essential for translating it into substantive cooperation. — Agencies

New Delhi, May 25
India and Germany today wrapped up two days of talks with a travel pact that allows airlines of both countries to operate 50 flights per week in each direction by the summer 2006.

German carriers will also be allowed to operate on routes to Hyderabad, Goa and Kochi.

Similarly, Indian carriers have been granted access to three additional points of call in Germany.

However, intermediate fifth freedom traffic rights have not been permitted to carriers of both countries. India will have to specify the three cities.

At present, Indian and German airlines can operate 32 flights a week. The number will go up to 42 by October of 05-06 and eventually 50 by March next year.

Government officials said German carriers can now fly up to seven times a week to any city. For New Delhi, they can operate a maximum of 14 frequencies by winter 05-06, 17 by the summer of 2006 and 20 by winter 06-07. — UNI

New Delhi, May 25
The Jindal Group today announced to set up a manufacturing plant at Manesar in Gurgaon district in Haryana at an estimated cost of over Rs 20 crore to meet the growing demand in the domestic market. The company has plans to set up such plants at Mumbai, Bangalore later.

“ The plant will be spread over an areas of 1.50 lakh square feet and will commence operations by March ,2006. The company hopes to achieve a sale target of over Rs 125 crore in the next five years,” said Mr Ratan Jindal, Vice- Chairman and Managing Director, Jindal Stainless, here today.

The Hisar- based group has taken the lead in promoting the “ non-corrosive and maintenance -free” high -quality stainless steel as a new-age building material and is the only company in India with the technology and expertise to offer turn-key solutions right from design, fabrication and construction of stainless steel architectural projects, said Mr Jindal.

The company hopes to increase its production capacity to 600,000 tones of stainless steel in 2005-06 as against 5,55000 tonnes in 2004-05, he said.

He said the company had already got contracts from Delhi Metro, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, ONGC, Sahara India, Ansal Housing & Construction and multiplexes.

New Delhi, May 25
Eicher Motors Ltd today decided to sell off its tractors, engines and gears divisions for Rs 310 crore to Tafe Motors and Tractors Ltd.

“The Board of Directors of Eicher Motors Ltd (EML) today granted approval for the sale on a going concern basis of the tractors, engines and gears divisions of the company at Manideep, Alwar and Parwanoo to Tafe Motors and Tractors Ltd for a total consideration of Rs 310 crore,” Eicher Group chairman and Chief Executive S. Sandilya told reporters.

Eicher had informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that the Board of Director of EML has approved the agreed drafts of the agreement for the transaction and the definitive agreement would be signed shortly by the two parties.

“This acquisition will provide strong synergies of growth in the future to help achieve market dominance. It will give us an additional revenue of Rs 500 crore and we are targeting at Rs 2,000 crore revenue in 2005-06,” Director, Tafe, Mallika Srinivasan said. “Tafe’s combined market share, after the acquisition, is 22 per cent and a combined volume of 53,000 tractors. We hope to increase volumes to 60,000 in the next fiscal,” she added. — PTI

New Delhi, May 25
Taking a sharp U-turn from its loss-making profile till two years ago, Steel Authority of Indian Limited (SAIL) has registered a 171 per cent net profit at Rs 6,817 crore in 2004-05, making the public-sector company virtually debt-free and prompting it to fix a 33 per cent dividend. With a record fourth-quarter net profit of Rs 2,920 crore, the company’s turnover rose by 32 per cent to an all-time high of Rs 31,800 crore, SAIL Chairman V.S. Jain said today.

“Dubbed as one of the largest loss-makers just a couple of years ago, our achievement was crowned by the best-ever Q4 performance when all seven SAIL steel plants, including the three special ones, showed net profit,” he told reporters here.

Chandigarh, May 25
Punjab has now started making inroads in the international market. While readymade garments, handicraft and yarn textile exports are among the most acceptable items abroad, the region lags behind in exports of sewing machines and leather goods.

While exports of sports goods and handtools is doing fine, the exports of sewing machines from Ludhiana and Jalandhar have shown a decline with exports during the first half of 2004-05 at Rs 11.62 crore as against Rs 21.77 crore in the previous year. Exports of leather goods are also on the decline as exports in the first half of the current fiscal stood at Rs 52.69 crore as against Rs 66.42 crore in 2003-04.

As per the data available, exports from Punjab, which were only Rs 4,408 crore in 2001-02 increased by over 100 per cent to Rs 8,933 crore in 2003-04. The exports from the state are expected to further increase by Rs 11,000 crore during 2004-2005.

Handicraft exports are all set to register an impressive growth over last year. The figures highlight that handicraft exports have already touched Rs 168.38 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal as against the total handicraft exports of Rs 196.87 crore in 2003-04.

According to the data compiled by the Punjab State Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC), exports from Punjab during the first half of 2004-05 has already touched Rs 5,526.29 crore.

Of the total exports of Rs 5,526.29 crore, during the first half of 2004-05, exports of readymade garments and hosiery were Rs 762.17 crore as against 1,311.59 crore in 2003-04.

That of cycle and cycle parts is Rs 638.29 crore as against Rs 854.43 crore in 2003-2004. Yarns and textiles stood at Rs 1,356.21 crore as against Rs 1,732.95 crore in 2003-04. 

Chandigarh, May 25
Mr Pankaj Rajpal, Business Head, Wireless Group, Reliance Infocomm, announced today that the company would provide wireless Internet connectivity in towns and villages of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh by September.

He said Reliance operates CDMA technology, which supports voice and Internet services. CDMA has been accepted the world over to be the most efficient technology with high capacities, capable of delivering steady Internet on wireless products.

The CEO of Reliance Infocomm for Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, Mr Himanshu Kapania, said that 428 towns and 20,000 villages would be covered in the three states and Chandigarh by September this year.

This will help in increasing the Internet penetration in the region. The rich agricultural belts of Doaba, Malwa, Majitha, Pepsu and rural areas of Haryana, the tourist towns in the apple-growing belts of Himachal will now get high-speed wireless Internet connectivity. So, at the click of a button connected through your mobile phones, you can book your hotel rooms. Nearly 90 per cent of HP Tourist Development Corporation bookings are done through internet.

Mr Kapania said that when the Internet is accessed through a landline phone, it is only capable of offering a maximum speed of 56 kbps.

But Reliance internet service offers three time the speed at any hour.

The monthly charges range between Rs 650 to Rs 1,500 with some free data downloads. For customers, who do not want to commit any rental, the company also offers zero rental plan in which usage charges of 50 paise per minute during the day and 25 paise during night would be applicable.

The same rates would also be applicable to the pre-paid customers, said Mr Rajpal.