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Diesel flow from Bangladesh worries oil firms in India
ONGC may win 10 blocks
Cash transaction tax takes effect
Captive power to help meet 10th Plan targets
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Year ends with lower fiscal deficit
ATF prices cut
Baijal opposes spectrum auction
Pharma sector
Dinar A. Kumar of the Human Biological Institute shows equine rabies immunolobulin (AnhayRIG) for the prevention of rabies during its launch in Hyderabad on Wednesday. — PTI
photo Auto scene
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Diesel flow from Bangladesh worries oil firms in India
Kolkata, June 1 “We are worried. This influx is causing our sales to dwindle in the border districts. Our outlets there are showing a negative growth,” General Manager of IndianOil Corporation (IOC) and state-level coordinator for public sector oil companies, Goutam Datta told PTI He said while the influx had so far been detected in most border districts, Malda, Nadia, Murshidabad and North 24-Parganas were particularly affected. “Diesel is being brought in using 5-litre or 10-litre containers and jerry cans. There may be other means also, but we have not been able to identify them yet.” The West Bengal Petroleum Dealers’ Association (WBPDA) estimates that about 40,000 litre of petroleum products, especially diesel, was being smuggled daily into the bordering districts from Bangladesh. Stating that the influx was continuing because of the price differential, which was about Rs 12 per litre, Mr Dutta said while severely affecting the public sector oil companies, the influx was also depriving the government of revenue. Pointing out that the contraband diesel contained impurities, Mr Datta said its wide-spread use was defeating the government’s purpose in implementing Euro-III norms in Kolkata and adjoining districts and Bharat-II for the other districts from April 1. Mr Datta said that he had taken up the matter with the state government and the BSF, seeking their intervention in stopping the influx. “After we complained, both the government and the BSF took some initial action, but nothing happened after that. There has to be a continuous vigil and action if the influx is to be checked.” When contacted, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta was not very forthcoming on the matter. “We have asked the police to look into it,” he said. BSF’s outgoing Additional Director-General S I S Ahmed also declined to discuss the matter at any length. “We are aware of the problem. We are trying to solve it,” was all he would say.
— PTI
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ONGC may win 10 blocks
New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is likely to win at least half of the 20 oil and gas blocks, bids for which closed yesterday.
ONGC is set to win half a dozen blocks it bid with Cairn Energy of UK and one block it bid with Cairn and ENI of Italy. The company is also likely to bag a block each in Cambay offshore and onshore block and one deepwater block in Andaman region, sources in the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, which is evaluating the 69 bids received for the 20 blocks, said. Reliance Industries, which bid for 12 blocks, is sure to get both the blocks in Kerala-Konkan deep sea, where it was the sole bidder, and possibly one more block. National Thermal Power Corp, the newest PSU on the exploration and production scene, is likely to open its account with a block in North-East. Videocon is also likely to get a block in the Assam-Arakan basin while Phoneix Overseas has bid aggressively for the Rajasthan block. All big names including British Gas, Petronas of Malaysia, Petrobras of Brazil and British Petroleum are likely to draw blank.
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Cash transaction tax takes effect
New Delhi, June 1 If withdrawals from the same account more than once on a single day add up to Rs 25,000, he will pay still have to pay the transaction
tax. There is no tax on withdrawals from a savings account. The Finance Minister had initially proposed to levy a transaction tax on withdrawals of Rs 10,000 and above but later scaled it up to Rs 25,000 after widespread criticism from industry and members from the ruling alliance The Banking Cash Transactions Tax Rules were notified by the Central Board of Direct taxes yesterday, lists four types of transactions on which scheduled banks will levy the tax cash withdrawals exceeding Rs 25,000 on a single day from any account (other than a savings account) by any individual or a HUF. Cash withdrawals exceeding Rs 1 lakh on a single day from any account (other than savings account) maintained by business firms, receipts of cash exceeding Rs 25,000 on a single day on encashment of one or more term deposits by any individual or a HUF, and receipt of cash exceeding Rs 1 lakh on a single day on encashment of one or more term deposits by a person other than an individual. A three- stage reporting system will be in place for the scheduled banks collecting the
tax. Each bank branch will have to maintain a transaction-wise record. This will include the account number, name and address of the person and the value of the banking cash transaction tax. Bank branches will not have to report these details to the Income Tax Department unless called for. In the second stage, scheduled banks will have to furnish a monthly return form listing the number of taxable banking transactions entered into by each branch and the amount collected in a month. The first report will be given by the banks on July 31. In the third stage, banks will furnish an annual return of all transactions.
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Captive power to help meet 10th Plan targets
New Delhi, June 1 The Centre would draw a whopping 5,000 MW from captive power plants in two years to reach the 10th Plan capacity addition target of 41,500 MW, Mr Sayeed said today. During the current financial year itself, 2,500 mw from captive power plants would be linked to the national grid, having power of over 18,000 MW. He said the decision to draw from the captive power plants was taken to exploit the underutilised potential of the sector and augment efforts to add new capacity during the 10th Plan period for which an outlay of Rs 1,43,399 crore had been made. He said it would considerably bring down peak- hour shortfalls. Ministry officials said 2500 MW would be made available to the grid this year while the rest would be diverted to the national grid in the next fiscal. In view of the additional 5000 MW to the grid, the target slippages, if any, would not be allowed to affect achieving the 10th Plan mark, the officials said.
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Year ends with lower fiscal deficit
New Delhi, June 1 The fiscal deficit at Rs 1,27,975 crore was nearly 8 per cent lower than the revised estimates (RE) of Rs 1,39,231 crore, according to figures furnished by the Comptroller-General of Accounts (CGA). Going by the Advanced Estimates of the GDP projected by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) at Rs 31,08,561 crore, the deficit works out to 4.1 per cent. The revenue deficit at Rs 79,558 crore is about 6 per cent lower than Rs 85,165 crore projected in the RE. The primary deficit was also lower at Rs 1,435 crore. The lower fiscal deficit was mainly on account of government curtailing its expenditure at Rs 4,98,448 crore against the RE of Rs 5,05,791 crore.
— UNI
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ATF prices cut New Delhi, June 1 Air Deccan and SpiceJet announced they would pass on the benefit of reduction in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price on to the customer. “The benefit in cost we will derive by the dropping of ATF prices, we will pass on the corresponding savings to our passengers. In fact, in April when the ATF prices were hiked by 10 per cent, whilst all other airlines hiked their fares, we were the only airline to absorb the increase,” Capt G.R. Gopinath said. However, the details of the decrease in fares in various sectors by Air Deccan were in the process of computation and would be released “shortly”, he said.
— PTI
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Baijal opposes spectrum auction
New Delhi, June 1 ‘’If you don’t give 3G spectrum free to the existing operators, you will choke their growth,’’ the TRAI chief said. Stating that consumers and growth were top of his agenda, Mr Baijal said that 3G services were auctioned in Europe, the governments made huge money, but the growth of 3G got stunted. In an interview to a business daily, Mr Baijal added that in India too there was a huge entry fee when auctions took place in 1994. At that time the telecom companies were unable to pay and so ‘’we shifted to revenue share which saved the telecom sector.’’ Mr Baijal said that he had recommended more spectrum for both GSM and CDMA players.
— UNI
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Maruti A3 segment sales buoyant
New Delhi, June 1 Maruti’s volume in the domestic A2 segment grew by 23 per cent. This includes 2,981 units of Maruti’s latest model, Swift, despatched during May, 2005. In the A3 segment, Maruti’s sales grew by 48 per cent during the month compared to the sales in May, 2004.
Hero Honda
The country’s biggest bike maker Hero Honda Motors reported a 6.5 per cent rise in its May sales at 2,26,072 units against 2,12,177 units in the same month last year. The company, in which the Munjals and Japan’s Honda Motor Corp hold 26 per cent stake each, said the sales in the domestic market were up by 4.5 per cent to 2,16,971 units (2,07,507). Exports in the month nearly doubled to 9,101 units from 4,670 units in May, 2004. The sales, including exports, in the two months of this fiscal (April-May ‘05) grew by 13 per cent to 4,61,494 units against 4,08,201 units in the corresponding period last year. This included 17,516 units of exports against 7,986 units in April-May ‘04, the company said.
Bajaj Auto
Bajaj Auto Ltd said its vehicle sales in May, 2005 increased by 52 per cent to 178,645 units from 117,200 units in May, 2004. The sale of motor cycles went up by 76 per cent to 1,53,975 vehicles from 87,663 units, while that of all two-wheelers rose 61 per cent to 1,62,753 units from 1,01,022 units. “Bajaj recorded its highest-ever motor cycle market share at 31.8 per cent in May, 2005,” a company statement said. For three-wheelers, however, the sales fell by 2 per cent to 15,892 units from 16,178 units a year ago, the country’s second-largest motor cycle maker said.
TVS Motors
TVS Motor Company said its two-wheeler sales in May, 2005, grew by 32 per cent to 1,06,914 units compared to 80,895 units in May, 2004. The major contributor to the overall increase was the 47 per cent growth recorded by motor cycles, which clocked sales of 63,585 units in May, 2005, compared to 43,180 units during the corresponding period last year. Scooterette sales grew by 18 per cent during the month with the sale of 20,454 units compared to 17,321 vehicles recorded last year. TVS Scooty continues to be the market leader in the scooterette sub 100 CC segment, TVS Motors said in a statement. Moped sales stood at 22,875 units in May, 2005, compared to 20,394 units in the same month last year, registering a growth of
12 per cent. On the export front, TVS exported the highest-ever 6,354 units in May, recording a growth of 59 per cent over the same period last year.
General Motors
General Motors India registered a nearly 64 per cent growth in May, 2005, as compared to last year as Chevrolet Tavera, sold 1610 units in May to take its tally to 16,659 mark within a year of its mid-2004 launch. It sold 2503 cars in May as against 1527 cars in the same month last year. Besides Tavera, these included 615 Chevrolet Optras, 274 Opel Corsas and four units of imported Forester SUV. It sold 13114 cars between January and May, 2005, as compared to 8319 in the first five months last year. These included 8242 units of Tavera, 3234 Optras, 1617 Corsas and 21 Foresters.
— Agencies
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