The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	2-month high: Sensex surges 539 pts Mumbai, December 23 The Bombay Stock Exchange bellwether index Sensex skyrocketed by a hefty 539 points to close at a more-than two- month high of 17,231.11 on frenzied short-covering across the board and fresh buying in metals and energy stocks, ahead of the long weekend coupled with the expiry of the derivatives contracts on December 31. The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange barometer opened marginally higher but soon gathered steam and kept rising across the day and finally to shut the shop at 17,231.11 points, a level not seen since October 17, netting a massive gain of 539.11 points or 3.23 per cent. Firm overseas trend, higher advance tax payments by Indian Inc and positive comments by the Finance Minister on economic growth too fuelled the strong rally, especially on the metal counters which remained the hottest pick for the third successive day. The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange too soared by 158.75 points or 3.18 per cent - the highest single day gain since May 27, 2009 - to close at 5,144.60 from the last close. The humongous rally took both the marketmen and analysts by surprise. Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services research head Alex Mathew said: “Today’s market movement was quite surprising. Good US economic data dropped hints of a recovery in the global market, which lifted market sentiment.” “Another reason for the surprise rally was the Finance Minister’s statement that the stimulus would continue till the next fiscal and that the economy would grow around eight per cent this fiscal, which helped to hold up the sentiment throughout the day.” Today’s rise was the highest since May 18, 2009 when the market shot up by a record 2,110.79 points as the Congress-led UPA government came to power with a clear majority. The counters that led the rally following heavy buying support were the metals, refinery, power, capital goods and IT The rally was so strong that all the 30-share Sensex counters ended with sharp to moderate gains while all sectoral indices too finished higher by about 4.05 per cent and 0.79 per cent. None of the 30-share Sensex stocks closed in the red. — PTI
	Pranab’s statement lifts the mood Tribune News Service Mumbai, December 23 The stock markets saw a spectacular rally in the last hour of the session following remarks by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee about India’s Gross Domestic Product growing by nine to 10 per cent in the next few years. Reports of the Union Cabinet accelerating the disinvestments programme also added to the cheerful mood. A buying frenzy close on the heels of the minister’s remarks saw the Sensex surging 539 points to close at 17,231.11, a level not seen since October 17. In the broader markets, the Nifty gained 158 points to close at 5,145 points. Among the top gainers included Hindalco, NTPC, Tata Steel, SAIL and Reliance Industries. The scrips gained between 4.5 per cent and 7.7 per cent. Of the sectoral indices the metal index was the biggest gainer closing 4.05 per cent higher. Oil/gas and power were close behind at 3.43 and 3.37 per cent, respectively. Among bank stocks, ICICI Bank surged ahead by 4.30 per cent while technology stocks also remained major gainers. With buying seen across all sectors, analysts said today’s gains were the highest this month. During the market hours, the media quoted the Finance Minister as saying that India's GDP could grow as much as nine to 10 per cent in the next two to three years. He added that the current financial year would end with a 7.75 per cent growth in GDP, thus making India among the fastest growing economies of the world.
	Less take-home pay for employees now Fringe Benefit Tax Reversal Girja Shankar Kaura Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 23 Going back from the Fringe Benefit Tax regime would burn a big hole in the pockets of the employees, while filling up the coffers of the government. It could mean less take-home pay for employees. The rules would largely be the same as what were prevalent before the introduction of FBT by finance minister P Chidambaram in 2005. It was charged on the value of certain benefits offered by employers to their employees. However, it turned out that the amount of tax collected by the government was not enough and the pain caused to corporates by way of compliance and paperwork was enormous. Before the switch to FBT, the government was earning as much as Rs 6,000 crore annually, the amount which went down drastically from 2005 onwards. The revision was announced by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech earlier this year. While going back from the regime, the government has made some changes in valuation for cars. Employees provided with cars will now have to pay tax on a monthly valuation of Rs 1,800 for the vehicle and Rs 500 for chauffeur if the car capacity is less than 1.6 litre. For cars above that category, valuation will be Rs 2,400 for a car and Rs 900 for chauffeur. The valuation prior to introduction of FBT was Rs 1,200 a month. Experts pointed out that earlier FBT was being charged on notional value but now it is specific. They felt that overall it was a good move and primarily the difference would be that while the taxes were earlier being picked by employers, now employees would be picking up the tab. With respect to taxing of other benefits like accommodation and employees stock options, the rules remain the same as earlier. The valuation on ESOPs is based on the distinction between shares of listed and unlisted companies. In the case of FBT, employers were paying the tax to the government for giving ESOPs and were recovering it from employees. Now, the employees will directly pay the tax. While government employees will be taxed after the deduction of licence fee from the valuation arrived according to the city of accommodation, in the case of government employees on deputation to public sector companies and private sector employees, the tax will be on entire valuation.
	Bio-waste power plant at Fatehabad mooted Sushil Manav Tribune News Service Fatehabad, December 23 Option Energy Private Limited, a company into bio-waste- based power production, is planning to set up an organic waste-based plant to produce power and Bio-Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), based on US technology, at Fatehabad soon. Abhey Sinha, Managing Director, and Mrinal Bharti and Rajiv Kumar, directors of the company, who were in the town today, surveyed various sites, and met managements of various “gaushalas” for the project. The plant would use cow dung and food waste for the production of power and Bio-CNG. “The company plans to set up such plants in several other towns and one at Hansi in Hisar is at an advanced stage,” said Sinha. They also met the Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan to seek his cooperation in the official clearances for the projects. “The plant requires 180 to 200 tons of cow dung for production of 1 MW of power. But in this area we plan to set up a smaller plant that will produce 125 KW of electricity using 20 to 24 tons of cow dung,” said Sinha. Two “gaushalas” of the district would easily meet this requirement, he added. “The US technology, being already used there by a firm, Andigens, produces methane in a very short span of time as compared to the technologies being used in Germany and some other countries,” Sinha claimed. He maintained that the lower the retention time of methane the better the technology and in their case the retention time is five days as compared to 20 days in the other technology. For marketing of electricity, the company plans to approach the power utilities of Haryana, who normally purchase power only if the production is 1MW or more. In case the company is not able to convince the power utilities to purchase lesser quantities of power, they would go for production of Bio-CNG. Sinha said the unit would produce no waste and the only byproduct was bio-fertilizer, which was again an asset.
	AUSPI seeks 11-digit mobile regime Girja Shankar Kaura Tribune News Service New Delhi, December 23 CDMA operators’ organisation Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) has again impressed upon the government to consider introduction of 11-digit numbering scheme for mobile operators, which would take care of the crunch of numbers due to the burgeoning market. In a letter to Telecom Secretary PJ Thomas, the association has said: “Eleven digit numbering scheme is imminent to meet longterm requirement of mobile services and new services like PSTN connected internet telephony.” It further said the 11-digit numbering scheme would cause minimum disturbance for subscribers through pre-fixing “9” on all existing mobile numbers. “The shift would provide innumerable new numbers which would be sufficient to meet the numbering resources requirement for all times to come. Besides, it has low cost implication and short time line for implementation,” it said. National Numbering Plan, 2003, which was formulated with a projected forecast of about 50 per cent teledensity by the year 2030, has not met the numbering requirement. To address the immediate problem of mobile numbers, the government as national numbering administrator had taken certain decisions like use of level “8” and “95” for mobile number, it said. AUSPI said if the Government starts looking for alternative levels like “7” to meet the mobile number demand for the next three to four years, it should drop that proposal as level “7” is disruptive and likely to cause more inconvenience to consumers.
	Growth to exceed 7% in current fiscal: Montek New Delhi, December 23 The Planning Commission today expressed optimism that economic growth during the current year will exceed 7 per cent, up from 6.7 per cent recorded during 2008-09. “We will do better than 7 per cent in 2009-10 and in 2010-11 economic growth will be around 8 per cent,” Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said while speaking at the 104th annual session of the industry chamber PHDCCI. Commenting on the statement of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that 9-10 per cent was “within reach”, Ahluwalia said: “I agree with him...we will get back to 9 per cent during 2011-12.” However, about the Commission's assessment of the economic growth, Ahluwalia said: “We would be able to tell you once we complete our mid-term appraisal of the XIth Five-Year Plan, which is likely to be completed by January. “India was growing by 9 per cent before the global financial crisis hit the world economy and pulled down the country’s growth rate to 6.7 per cent during 2008-09,” he said. The Planning Commission had earlier projected a growth rate of 6.5 per cent for the current fiscal. However, after the economy in the second quarter (July-September 2009) expanded by 7.9 per cent, several think-tanks including the Commission talked about raising the projections. — PTI
	Nano to be displayed at US museum New York, December 23 Nano, billed as “the people’s car”, will be the main attraction of a three-month-long exhibition in a famous museum here next year. A bright, sunshine yellow Nano will be on display in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Great Hall, along with diagrams and a short film describing the car’s concept, development and production from February 18 through April 25, 2010. “Cooper-Hewitt's mission is to present the very latest developments in design and technology and the Tata Nano introduces more families in India to the new world of affordable and safer mobility,” says Cara McCarty, curatorial director of the museum that is devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. “We’re eager to display the Tata Nano at the museum, where many visitors will see it for the first time,” Cara says. The Nano is currently being manufactured at Tata Motors’ Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand in limited numbers. The new dedicated plant, at Sanand in Gujarat, will be ready in 2010 with an annualised capacity of 350,000 cars. The company’s innovative use of media to advertise the launch of the car fetched it the world’s most coveted advertising award, the Bronze Lion, at this year’s edition of the Cannes advertising awards festival. — PTI
	Gold drops on global cues, dollar gains New Delhi, December 23 Gold prices fell by Rs 125 and stood at Rs 16,700 per ten gram in the bullion today on sustained selling by stockists after the metal hit a seven-week low in overseas markets amid a firming dollar. The precious metal dropped in the international market on speculation that an improving US economy will help extend this month’s rally in the dollar and reduce demand for gold as an alternative investment. Gold in New York fell below USD 1,100 levels to trade at 1,075 dollar an ounce. Traders said shifting of funds from bullion to rising equity markets for quick gains and retail customers deferring purchases on expectations of further fall in prices further added to the metal’s distress. Standard gold and ornaments remained under selling pressure and lost another Rs 125 each at Rs 16,700 and Rs 16,550 per ten gram, respectively, while sovereign shed Rs 50 at Rs 13,900 per piece of eight gram. — PTI
	Fastrack plans 50 stores in India Hyderabad, December 23 Fastrack, a fashion accessories brand from Titan Industries Ltd, is mulling to take the number of its exclusive stores to 50 across the country by April 2010, from the 13 at present. According to Fastrack vice- president and head Ronnie Talati, most of the outlets would be operated on franchisee model with an investment of Rs 40-50 lakh and a floor space of 400-500 sft. The brand, whose mainstay is watches and sunglasses, forayed into accessories like belts, hats and bags this year and expects to reach a sales figure of Rs 360 crore with a growth rate of 25 per cent over last year. — PTI