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Exporters, industry happy
New pension-cum-savings scheme by year-end
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Rs 3,500 cr reserve price for 3G spectrum
Bharti-MTN deal likely by mid-Sept
HDFC staff protest layoffs
IOC to open 1,362 outlets
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Govt targets exports worth $200 bn
Foreign Trade Policy Highlights
New Delhi, August 27 Unveiling the five-year policy, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma set a target of $200 billion worth exports for next fiscal, a feat that India failed to achieve in 2008-09 due to a slump in global demand in the face of financial crisis. "India has not been affected to the same extent as other economies of the world, yet our exports have suffered a decline in the last 10 months due to a contraction in demand in the traditional markets. The protectionist measures being adopted by some of these countries have aggravated the problem," he said, presenting his first trade policy. While exports for the April-June quarter contracted by 31 per cent, Sharma set a growth target of 15 per cent for FY'10. "I would be hesitant to hazard a guess on the nature and extent of this recovery and the time the major economies will take to return to there pre-recession growth levels," he said, encouraging exporters to look beyond traditional markets like the US and western Europe. Extension of income tax holiday for export units for one more year and continuance of duty refund scheme till Decemer 2010 and enhanced assistance for the scheme for development of markets are among the measures in the FTP. The aim of the policy, which would be reviewed after two years, would be to "arrest and reverse declining trend of exports," Sharma said. Exports have been on a decline for the past 10 months. Exports in FY'09 amounted to $168 billion and the country hopes to maintain the same level this fiscal. Expressing confidence that the country would be able to achieve a 25 per cent growth rate after two years, Sharma said, "By 2014, we expect to double India's exports of goods and services." The long-term policy objective, he added, will be to double India's share in global trade by 2020. India's share in global merchandise trade went up from 0.83 per cent in 2003 to 1.45 per cent in 2008. "Announcing the FTP in this economic climate is indeed a daunting task. We cannot remain oblivious to declining demand in the developed world and we need to set in motion the strategies and policy measures which catalyse the growth of exports," he said. The government, he added, would encourage exports through a "mix of measures including fiscal incentives, institutional changes, procedural rationalisation and efforts for enhance market access across the world and diversification of export markets. The policy, Sharma said, would provide a special thrust to the employment-oriented sectors which have witnessed job losses in the wake of recession, especially in the fields of textiles, leather and handicrafts.
— PTI |
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Exporters, industry happy
New Delhi, August 27 "...(the FTP) will help our exporters retain market share, and will hopefully reverse the declining trend in our exports," Ficci president Harshpati Singhania said. He added that the enhanced benefits for market development and promotion schemes would enable the exporting community to explore new export destinations. Exports are on decline since October 2008 due to demand slump in the US and the EU, the traditional markets for Indian products. CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee said the focus in the FTP on 26 new markets would greatly benefit the exporters who have been hit due to demand slowdown in the country's traditional markets. "It is a very realistic trade policy. I think new products (and) new countries have been best thought out... in a very innovative Foreign Trade Policy," Banerjee said. He said the FTP may not have specifically mentioned the small and medium enterprises sector but it talks about the labour intensive sector which largely consists of SMEs. Terming the policy as "user friendly", Assocham said "...it rightly focuses on creation of demand for Indian products in new markets to help exporters distribute and diversify their risks". Assocham president Sajjan Jindal said the $200-billion export target for 2010-11 is realistic. The Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), the apex body of exporters while welcoming the policy said the government has provided impetus to the labour-intensive sectors like textiles, handicrafts by giving them additional benefit under various schemes like focus market and focus product. "The doubling of benefits under the Served From India Scheme will help the services sectors particularly the hotel and tourism which have been impacted due to the global slowdown and 26/11 (Mumbai attacks in November 2008)," FIEO president A Sakthivel said. Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) has expressed disappointment over the policy saying it does not offer any contra-cyclical steps for reversing the current trend in declining exports. "Overall the FTP proposed today is characterised by incremental improvements here and there, but completely misses addressing the issue of falling trade and offering vision for India's trade post global financial crisis," FISME
said. — PTI |
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New pension-cum-savings scheme by year-end
Chandigarh, August 27 Now, a new kind of pension-cum-savings scheme is on the cards that would provide a safety cover as well as liquidity to the subscriber. The scheme, called Tier II account, may be introduced by the end of this year, a top official of the PFRDA said. "We are working on a pension saving account under NPS which is likely to be announced by the end of this year," the official said. The essential feature of this scheme would be liquidity. Under this scheme, the subscribers would be able to withdraw amount from their account. Customers can withdraw almost the entire amount, though a small part might be retained with the fund manager, as directed by the regulator, the official said. The pension amount withdrawn would be subjected to tax as it is under exempt-exempt mode like the Tier I account. Under exempt-exempt, the amount is exempted from tax when deposited and also when it accrues interest, but tax is levied at the time of withdrawal. However, the customers who want to open the Tier II account should essentially have a Tier I account. Besides this, the PFRDA is also working on a separate fund management guideline for
corporates, a move that will allow them to enter into agreements with fund managers for managing the pension fund of their employees. Meanwhile, public sector banks
(PSBs) have lagged behind their private ones in opening NPS accounts. According to reports, out of the 1,371 subscriptions made so far, private banks and financial institutions have accounted for 1,288 (or 94 per cent) of these collections.
ICICI Bank leads the race for NPS subscription as it managed to bring in 264 subscriptions of the total 1,371. |
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Rs 3,500 cr reserve price for 3G spectrum
New Delhi, August 27 The eGoM also decided a base price of Rs 1,750 crore for pan-India WiMax (wireless internet) spectrum and the auction of both will be completed within 90 days, Telecom Minister A Raja told reporters. "I do feel that the Government of India, putting together 3G and Wimax, will easily get Rs 25,000 crore," he said after over a hour-long meeting of the eGoM. The eGoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, decided that five slots in 3G spectrum would be auctioned and amongst the five, one lot has already been allotted to BSNL or MTNL, the minister said, adding that four more slots would be auctioned. He, however, said with only four more slots to be sold, the players are likely to bid higher for the frequency.
— PTI |
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Airtel to expand rural base
Chandigarh, August 27 “We propose to open one lakh such centres across the country by March 2010,” he said. Kohli said this initiative was based on extensive consumer research that point out that rural people are hesitant to speak with the machines as well as contact centre executives. These centres will be located in the main market of the village. “We are now focusing on a dominant rural strategy to strengthen mobile communication - availability, affordability, awareness and acceptability. A one-stop shop for customers’ immediate communication requirements, ASCs will revolutionise the lives of our rural customers with localised mobile communication and service at closer locations,” he added. He said this year the company would add six more undersea cables, which would ensure that in case of any snag in one part of the world, the traffic could be diverted through the other side of the undersea cable. Asked about their readiness for launching 3G services, Kohli said they would launch the service six months after the spectrum allocation. “We will also be able to launch wireless broadband in rural areas, after the 3G spectrum allocation,” he added. |
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Bharti-MTN deal likely by mid-Sept
New Delhi, August 27 Bharti group chairman Sunil Mittal and MTN CEO Phuthuma Nhleko had met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid on Monday. Bharti has shortlisted eight banks for a five-year offshore loan of up to $4 billion. These include Standard Chartered, ANZ, Barclays Capital, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, DBS, and State Bank of India. Under the deal, MTN and its shareholders would take 36 per cent economic interest in Bharti by paying cash and stock, and the latter would pay cash and issue global depositary receipts to end up with 49 per cent of MTN. However, major MTN stakeholders eye at least 5-10 per cent hike in the price per share being offered by Bharti. Reports say there is not much room to alter the current terms, as the South African currency (Rand) has been rising and this in turn would anyway increase the cash component that Bharti pays to MTN shareholders. In May-end, Bharti had said it would make cash payment of 86 Rand for every MTN share. The total dollar outgo at that time came to $6.94 billion. However, with the Rand appreciating against the dollar, this amount has now shot by $413 million to $7.38 billion. Meanwhile, Bharti will get an additional $72 million from MTN because of the rupee depreciation against the dollar. Now, both companies are likely to peg the transaction on dollar rather than on multiple currencies, subject MTN shareholders accepting it. |
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HDFC staff protest layoffs
Chandigarh, August 27 Addressing mediapersons here today, a number of these employees from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Delhi, said the HDFC management was responsible for their sacking. “As many as 110 employees have been forced to resign in the recent past and more than 500 are being pressurised to resign,” said Baljit Singh, former vice-president of the bank, who was allegedly forced to resign. Jaswant Mann, one of the co-founders of the bank, said this was grave injustice to the bank’s employees. Reacting to these allegations, Neeraj Jha, head of corporate communications, said only 85 employees, on the basis of their performance, were asked to leave after being paid three months of additional salary. |
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IOC to open 1,362 outlets
Chandigarh, August 27 Officials of IOC informed TNS that since there was more potential for growth in the rural areas, they were focusing on opening outlets at places where the monthly sale of diesel was over 25,000 litres and of petrol was over 6,000 litres. “We will be opening 336 new retail outlets in Haryana and 469 in Punjab. As many as 557 new outlets would be opened in Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir,” the official said. He also informed that they were planning to reach out to farmers in the region by opening kisan sewa kendras at 626 new outlets. Besides fuel, these will offer services of convenience store, and sell pesticides, vegetables, banking products and stationery items. |
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