Moscow, February 11
India today said it would not accept a WTO settlement that adversely affects its rural sector, even as it made a forceful plea for successful conclusion of the Doha round of the world trade talks.

Speaking at the G8+4 Finance Ministers’ breakfast meeting here, India’s Finance Minister P. Chidambaram made it clear that New Delhi would not accept any settlement that goes against its rural sector and said it would look for effective safeguards for its farmers.

Finance ministers of India, China, Brazil and South Africa were invited by the Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to attend the breakfast meeting with G8 colleagues to discuss WTO and global trade issues.

Mr Chidambaram underscored the sensitivity in India to the issue of agriculture, which employed 65 per cent of the country’s working population while contributing about 22 per cent to the country’s GDP.

He also informed his G8 counterparts that while the Hong Kong Ministerial declaration signalled a marginal forward movement in the ongoing WTO negotiations, the main area of negotiation — agriculture — continued to pose a serious problem.

With respect to Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA), Mr Chidambaram felt substantial progress still had to be made, an official statement here said.

He said India has been autonomously pursuing the policy of tariff reduction and had sharply brought down import duties over the last few years.

Mr Chidambaram flew into the Russian capital this morning to attend the breakfast meeting with G8 Finance Ministers just two weeks before the budget.

Talking on Indo-Russia trade talks, he said the two governments have concluded talks on converting rupee debt into Russian investments in India and an agreement is ready for signing at any time shortly.

Finance ministers of the world’s wealthiest nations complained about high oil prices at talks in Russia on Saturday but said they still believed economic growth would be good again this year.

Ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries said in a communiqué that global growth remained strong but that high and volatile energy prices posed a threat. They also called for more progress in trade liberalisation negotiations.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo Rato, present at the talks, said high-energy prices seemed to be the result of supply problems as well as high demand.

The meeting in icy Moscow marked Russia’s first turn as G8 president and focused primarily on concern over the cost and reliability of supplies of oil and gas.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas suppliers but a recent row with Ukraine, in which it closed the gas taps, has triggered ill-ease among others in the G8 club —which comprises the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy, Britain, France as well as Russia.

The diplomatically phrased communiqué made no reference to that issue but officials said they are keen for Russia itself to allow more foreign investment in its energy sector and to loosen the grip of the monopoly supplier Gazprom. — PTI, Reuters

New Delhi, February 11
Power major NTPC is caught in a piquant situation over appointment of Ashok Mishra as an Independent Director on its Board, as he is also on the Board of its rival Reliance Industries, against which the PSU has moved court for effecting a gas supply agreement.

After getting Mr Mishra’s consent to join its Board, along with three other Directors earlier this week, NTPC has asked him to give a declaration to assess whether his presence on both Boards could lead to a clash of interests.

“We have sought a declaration from him and we will forward the same to the government for a decision,” highly placed sources in the corporation said.

Mr Mishra, the Director of IIT, Mumbai, could not be contacted for comments despite several attempts.

When contacted, Power Secretary R.V. Shahi said the issue had not yet come to him. But once the response from Mr Mishra, who was appointed to the RIL Board in April last year in the midst of a succession battle between the Ambani brothers, is received, then a decision could be taken.

On whether, Mr Mishra would have to choose between one of the two Boards, Mr Shahi said: “Either he has to opt for one or he would have to declare his presence on other and recluse himself from any discussions when it relates to business with the other entity.

“In any good corporate governance practice, a member in such a situation is always given the option of reclusing himself and the Board papers on related issues are not sent to that director,” he said.

Mr Mishra was appointed as NTPC Director last week along with Director General of TERI R.K. Pachauri, former Chairman of Central Electricity Authority M.I. Beg and former IDBI Chairman G.P. Gupta. — PTI

New Delhi, February 11
A committee set up by the Central Government on service tax has recommended simplification of service tax rules, regulations and expediting rebate to provide relief to the tax assesses.

The committee has submitted its recommendations to the government seeking further simplifications of service tax norms, said Gautam Bhattacharya, Commissioner Service Tax, CBEC while inaugurating interactive session on Export and import of services: problems faced by service sector organised by Assocham.

The recommendations of the committee headed by Mr V.K. Garg, Commissioner, Central Excise, Ludhiana, are now being examined by the government so that issues of imposition of service tax on various services exported and imported are further simplified and relaxed.

Mr Garg, who was also present on the occasion, said there were 81 services, currently under the purview of service tax and a good number of them have confusion in terms of service tax procedures and rules. “I have recommended that the genuine grievance of exporters on account of service tax should be simplified and procedures made hassle-free so that their arises no confusion in service tax deposition and rebate wherever possible is expedited to party concern without any delay and harassment”, said Garg.

Mr Rajiv Kumar, Commissioner Service Tax, Delhi, said his department had also recommended simplification in the procedural problems to the Central Government and hoped that in its forthcoming Budget, the recommendations of Delhi government would be adequately addressed to.

New Delhi, February 11
The pharmaceutical companies will start displaying MRP, inclusive of all taxes and value-added tax (VAT), besides carrying bilingual labels informing name, price, date of manufacture and date of expiry on packs of drugs from April 1, 2006 for the information of consumers.

“Drug manufacturers have sought six-month period to introduce the new MRP and bilingual labels on drug packs and both would be mandatory by August 15 and October 2, respectively,” said Union Minister of Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel, Mr Ramvilas Paswan here today after the first meeting of the newly set-up Pharmaceutical Advisory Forum.

He said certain measures were being considered for providing free medical help to the families below poverty line adding a follow-up action of National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), the UPA government had decided to raise the public spending on health from 0.9 per cent currently to at least 3 per cent of the GDP over the next five years.

A national scheme for health insurance for poor families, ensuring availability of life-saving drugs at reasonable prices and the feasibility of reviving public sector units is also under consideration.

Regarding taxation policy, the representatives of big drug manufacturers demanded that excise duty should be reduced to 8 per cent and turnover limit of small scale industries be raised from Rs 1 crore to Rs 5 crore.

QATAR Airways, relatively new ‘bird’ in Indian skies, has evolved wide ranging expansion plans ex-India, which is considered a rising flying hub.

The airline authorities undertook detailed survey before deciding to connect Nagpur with Qatar. “Nagpur, an upcoming industrial hub, is under-served both internationally and nationally and therefore, it is a fit centre to initiate flights”, said airline’s chief Akbar Al Baker, on a short visit to Delhi.

According to authorities, the operations would be further increased from the 2006 winter as Qatar’s capital Doha is the venue for the Asian Games. Doha is currently undergoing complete renovation.

As the government has finally realised the great Indian tourism challenge, both aviation and tourism sectors are being provided the much-needed thrust and impetus.

Irish Prime Minister An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, on an official visit here, provided detailed information about the beauty, culture and rich heritage of the island of Ireland. When asked, his team of officials said that direct flights between India and Ireland would be initiated as soon as it was possible.

As a promotional measure, Ireland Tourism has initiated in Mumbai.

The airline industry continues to be unstable but price war in the skies continue to be furious. Frequent alterations in fare structure and wide-ranging changes in personnels is taking place. Before the deal between Jet and Sahara became a reality, Sahara’s ‘brain’ behind airline, Mr Uttam Kumar Bose, chose to join low-cost Jagson Airlines. The nationwide services are expected to start from April 2006. As many as 19 Airbus aircraft, in phased manner, will be flying the Indian skies. The initial flight on the Delhi-Bangalore-Delhi sector will operate in April or in May.

Jagson got its registration in 1992 when the skies were thrown open. But it delayed its operations for certain ‘technical’ reasons. Apart from Jagson, another Chennai-based carrier Air-Dravida will also start operations.

Deccan Aviation is already flying high with new ventures and schemes. As a move to secure a licence for a scheduled operations in Sri Lanka, it has divested 4 per cent stake in its Sri Lankan joint venture — Deccan Aviation Lanka (Pvt Ltd). As soon as the licence comes about, the airline will operate flights on this lucrative route.