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Ind-Swift, others in Cenvat fraud
India, Singapore to review CECA
Survey sees job growth in transport, utility sector
Incidents of counterfeit notes not alarming: FM
Automation of fuel stations on cards
TRAI-COAI row over quality of service
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Hutch plan for rural Haryana
Reliance makes one-nation plans better
75 pc dividend on Sahara Growth Fund
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Ind-Swift, others in Cenvat fraud
New Delhi, March 14 They have been found claiming credit on central excise duty payments by submitting fraudulent invoice bills of fictitious or non-existent or non-registered manufacturers and dealers. According to Directorate-General of Central Excise Intelligence(DGCEI) officials, the DGCEI raided and seized incriminating documents from the office and factory premises of “ Chandigarh-based Ind Swift and a large number of manufacturers and dealers in Ghaziabad and Noida” on March 8. These companies have already deposited Rs 5 crore voluntarily. “ This is only the tip of the iceberg and a large number of dealers and manufacturers are involved in Cenvat misuse in several parts of the country like Faridabad, Naraina (Delhi), Mandi Gobindgarh, Vashi (New Mumbai), Hyderabad and Ahmedabad,” they said. Official sources said M/s Ind Swift Limited, Parwanoo, in Chandigarh I Commissionerate of Central Excise, was also earlier found manufacturing ‘chloroquin phosphate tablets’ (sub-heading 3003.20) by using inputs that were common for dutiable and exempted category of final products. The assessee cleared chloroquin phosphate tablets after availing exemption but without payment of Rs 56.62 lakh being 8 per cent of the price of exempted final goods leviable under rule 57CC from January, 1998, to February, 2000. The internal audit had also pointed this out in August, 1998. When this was pointed out (November, 1999), they said, the department gave it a show-cause notice for Rs 56.62 lakh for the period June,1997, to December, 1997. “Further investigations are expected to unearth fraudulently availed Cenvat running into several hundred crores of rupees,” the DGCEI said. According to the rules, manufacturers of excisable goods are entitled to take credit of the central excise duty paid on inputs while paying excise duty on finished products. Dealers trading in excisable goods issue invoices showing duty payment in respect of goods traded by them and actual manufacturers are entitled to use these invoices to take credit on the duty paid on inputs purchased from traders.
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India, Singapore to review CECA
New Delhi, March 14 India will identify reasons for a lower-than-expected growth rate in investment from Singapore into India and clear any procedural bottlenecks, if required, to aid higher flow of investment, said Mr Gopal Pillai, Special Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry at a road show on "India-Singapore: Emerging Opportunities" organised by the CII here today. The first review will focus on the implementation of CECA and will be a feedback on how to facilitate and diversify trade in various areas that have been identified in the agreement. In the keynote address, Mr Loh Wai Keong, Deputy Secretary (Trade), Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore, said, "Both countries are committed to reviewing and updating the CECA so that the edge it provides can be further sharpened and it remains relevant to the business communities from both countries." He further added that one area of work where Indo-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Co operation Agreement (CECA) can be used is the reduction in transaction costs and removal and simplification of procedure. The CECA, which came into effect on August 1, 2005, is considered a path-breaking effort by both sides and is India's first broad- based agreement.
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Survey sees job growth in transport, utility sector
New Delhi, March 14 “Employers in all industry sectors reveal a huge quarter-over-quarter resurgence in their net employment outlook. The greatest increase is anticipated in the construction and mining, transport and utility sectors with a 19 percentage points quarter-over-quarter increase each to a net employment outlook of 40 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively,” said Mr Soumen Basu, Executive Chairman, Manpower India, while releasing the survey report here today. He said;“ the steady quarter-over-quarter improvement in hiring intentions of the transport and utility sector can perhaps be attributed to growth in the manufacturing and service sector. With an increase in the number of airlines that dot the Indian skies, this sector is likely to continue on this growth path.” Of the 4515 employers surveyed in India, 42 per cent expected staffing levels to increase while 44 per cent expected no changes. With only 2 per cent employers expecting a decrease in the staffing levels and 12 per cent not knowing, employers in India are the second-most optimistic from those surveyed in the world, next to those in Japan. The manufacturing sector with a net employment outlook of 40 per cent plus shows an increase of 15 per cent over the previous quarter, while employers in service and wholesale trade and retail trade show an increase of 12 per cent and 8 per cent with their net employment outlook being 42 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively. Employers in the finance, insurance and real estate and public administration and education sectors showed the smallest increase ( both of 7 per cent) over the previous quarter. The survey revealed that the second quarter hiring was expected to be positive in 23 of the 24 countries surveyed, with Japanese and German companies reporting their most optimistic hiring plans. Mr Basu said employers in the northern region in India anticipated strong hiring intentions for the upcoming quarter. Of the 1,172 employers surveyed in north India, 39 per cent felt that there would be an increase in the hiring tendencies as against 46 per cent who saw ‘no change.’ The survey was conducted in January, he said, and the report forecast hiring intentions for the April-June, 2006, quarter.
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Incidents of counterfeit notes not alarming: FM
New Delhi, March 14 It assured the House that 2200 additional sorting machines would be installed to detect counterfeit notes and prevent their circulation. Replying to supplementaries during question hour, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the currency printing press in India would now be using a special paper—cylinderical notified watermark paper—to make the currency foolproof. He appealed to members not to exaggerate the cases of counterfeit notes as this could create a scare. He said the cases of counterfeit notes in Rs 500 denomination stood at 4.7 per million notes while that in Rs 1000 denomination, it stood at 1.8 per million currency notes. He said as against 1200 sorting machines installed in various banks, the State Bank of India alone would install 2200 sorting machines to prevent the circulation of fake currency notes. The minister said the incidents of detection of counterfeit currency in India were less than those in other countries. In reply to the main question, Mr Chidambaram said during
2005-06, the RBI had received complaints of fake currency notes dispensed through ATMs of ICICI bank, Karunagapally
branch, and of HDFC Bank,
Kolkata. — PTI
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Automation of fuel stations on cards
Bathinda, March 14 Mr Chaudhry said the work on retail automation of 425 fuel stations was under way, while order for another 500 had been placed. He said Rs 112 crore had been approved for the latter in 2006-07 Budget. He said the automation would link these modern petrol pumps through a satellite network to ensure online real time reconciliation of stocks at any particular fuel station. HPCL has roped in three multinational companies — NCR, India, Orpac, Israel, and Artos, Germany, for carrying out the job. The project was launched with the automation of 40 retail outlets in Mumbai and Washi. He said they were also working on GPRS- enabled global positioning system and modern locking systems to ensure that no adulteration of fuel took place. Mr Chaudhry said the company was making a steady growth and retail automation of about 50 outlets would be done in Punjab by August this year.
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TRAI-COAI row over quality of service
New Delhi, March 14 “It is a matter of grave concern to us that having been unsuccessful in its attempts for timely augmentation of points of interconnection (PoIs), the TRAI is now seeking to shift the blame on cellular operators,” Mr T.V. Ramachandran, Director- General of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said in a letter to the TRAI. The TRAI is also aware that in a market where historically there has been a dominant player and virtually 90 per cent of the bottleneck facilities are with one player (BSNL), it is unrealistic to expect that the new entrants will be able to address this problem overnight through negotiations. The TRAI has also been fully aware of these aspects relating to interconnection and that it has tried to address the same through its Reference Interconnection Order. However, all these efforts of the TRAI have been unsuccessful due to one reason or another. In such a situation “we would like to point out that under the Act, the authority (TRAI) is duty- bound to protect the interests of service providers,” Mr Ramachandran said in a strongly worded letter in reply to TRAI’s show- cause notice to operators, experiencing high levels of congestion in their networks.
Mobile phone cos to
share infrastructure
To address the problem of mobile phone coverage in big cities, telecom companies in the private and public sectors using GSM and CDMA technology have decided to share infrastructure. “A working group will be formed in the next two weeks to work out the modalities on infrastructure sharing. The group will be headed by a Joint Secretary in the Department of Telecom and would have officials of the service providers as members,” Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said after a meeting with CEOs of telecom companies yesterday. He said that within six to eight weeks the impact of the sharing would be seen. The infrastructure sharing would start with cities like Delhi and Mumbai and later it would be extended to other metros, Mr Maran added. “There were large parts in a city like Delhi, which were not available for private mobile phone companies to put up towers. By agreeing to share infrastructure they will able to access the towers of state-owned companies,” he said. “By coming together they can also get approval to set up limited base stations in sensitive areas, which they can share. This will improve coverage, address the problem of call drop and will benefit customers,” Mr Maran added. While private players using GSM technology are already sharing infrastructure among themselves, it is for the first time that both GSM and CDMA players will use the same infrastructure in a big way. Both state-owned telecom behemoths — BSNL and MTNL — are also part of the
agreement. — PTI
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Hutch plan for rural Haryana
Chandigarh, March 14 All Hutch-to-Hutch and Hutch-to-other mobile calls will be charged at 50 paise and local Hutch-to-landline calls will be charged at Re 1. Mr Sanjay Mukerji, Operations Director, Delhi, Haryana, said, "With such a tariff offer Hutch has reiterated its commitment of making mobile telephony more affordable for its rural customers." He said new pre-paid subscribers can avail this offer without any rental till May 31,2006. Existing pre-paid Hutch subscribers can also opt for this plan, but they will have to pay the weekly rental. This tariff will not be applicable in the cities of Panipat, Sonepat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Hisar, Fatehabad, Sirsa, Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jind and Kaithal. Outgoing calls made from these towns will be charged at the normal pre-paid tariff of Rs 1.99/min and 99p/min for calls made to local Landlines and mobiles, respectively.
— PTI
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Reliance makes one-nation plans better
Mumbai, March 14 For the post-paid scheme Reliance `India One 399’ and the pre-paid recharge voucher (RCV) 1100, the tariff for calls between two Reliance phones anywhere in India has been reduced to 40 paisa while calls to all other phones anywhere in India will be Re 1 per minute. For post- paid `India One 299’ and all one-nation pre-paid plans, except RCV Rs 100, all Reliance to Reliance intra-circle calls would be at 40 paisa per minute while calls to any other phone anywhere in India would cost Re 1 per minute. Reliance further reduced the one-nation tariff for the NJ-499 post-paid scheme to 75 paise per minute for all calls to any phone in India, it said, adding that the rates for NJ-399 has been reduced to 85 paise per minute. Intra-circle call to Reliance phones will continue to be at 40 paisa per minute. The new rates for NJ 499 and NJ 399 are applicable to all existing customers as well as new
subscribers. — PTI
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75 pc dividend on Sahara Growth Fund
New Delhi, March 14 The proposed record dates for the dividend declaration of the Growth Fund and Tax Gain Fund are March 13 and March 24, respectively. The dividend is declared on a face value of Rs 10 per unit.
— UNI
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