New Delhi, September 1
Exports in July grew by 13.2 per cent, the lowest expansion so far this fiscal, to $16.24 billion as major markets like the US and Europe are facing fragile economic recovery.

During the first three months of 2010-11, the shipments grew by about 30 per cent.

In July 2009, exports stood at $14.34 billion, according to the official data released today.

Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar had recently said that the slowdown in the growth rate may continue for the rest of the fiscal as the developed countries may go for fiscal consolidation by partially rolling back economic stimulus packages.

India's exports showed robust growth rates in April (36.2 per cent), May (35.1 per cent) and June (30.4 per cent).

Industry experts opined that as the government has announced some more incentives to the laggard sectors, exports would achieve the target of $200 billion in 2010-11.

"The sops provided by the government in the Foreign Trade Policy will help in getting close to the target of $200 billion in the current fiscal," Axis Bank chief economist Saugata Bhattacharya said.

"The sops would help in achieving $200 billion export target," International Trade expert with India's prestigious Indian Institute of Foreign Trade Rakesh Mohan Joshi said.

Imports in July grew by 34.3 per cent to $29.17 billion from $21.72 billion in the same period last year, indicating a rapid pace of domestic economic activity. As a result, trade deficit widened to $12.93 billion from $7.38 billion a year ago.

Oil imports increased by 4.4 per cent to $7.66 billion in July, while the non-oil imports rose by 49.6 per cent to $21.50 billion.

For the April-July period, exports grew by 30.1 per cent to $68.62 billion over the comparative months last year.

Imports during the four months to July grew by 33.3 per cent to $112.21 billion year-on-year. During April-July, trade deficit increased to $43.58 billion compared to $31.42 billion last year.

After witnessing contraction for 13 months to November 2009 due to the global demand slump, exports entered into the positive territory and have since posted a decent growth.

In the annual review of FTP, the government has announced various incentives including extension of two per cent interest subsidy to sector like leather, engineering, textiles and jute.

Besides, benefits under Market Linked Focus Product Scheme to garment exports to EU extended till March, 2011. — PTI

New Delhi, September 1
The final phase for the launch of the next generation of mobile telephony services in the country was completed today with the government allocating the spectrum to private operators after making certain amendments to the licence terms.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, RCom, Tatas, Idea Cellular, Aircel and S Tel were the operators who had bagged 3G spectrum in the auction in May that fetched the government over Rs 51,000 crore apart from about Rs 16,000 crore from the two telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL.

Some of the private operators are confident of launching the third generation 3G services by the year-end. It will allow telecom operators to offer better quality of voice calls, compared to 2G services.

While allocating the air waves, the government has said that the operators are authorised to use the spectrum for a period of 20 years from today.

The amended licence conditions allows companies to offer 3G services till the validity of the spectrum, even if their telecom licences expire prior to that.

The government has also imposed a rollout obligation, under which the service providers would have to cover at least 90 per cent of the service areas in the metros within the next five years.

The two PSU telecom operators BSNL and MTNL were awarded spectrum more than a year ago in view of their obligation to procure equipment through cumbersome process of inviting tenders.

The operators have been awarded 5 Mhz of spectrum in each circle they won in the auction that was conducted between April 9 and May 18 this year.

According to the amendment, if the operators fail to achieve the rollout obligations, they would be given extension for one more year after paying 2.5 per cent of the spectrum acquisition charge per quarter. Also, in case of two companies merging, only one slot of spectrum can be retained.

The operators will have to pay the upward revised spectrum usage charges ranging between 3-8 per cent depending upon the quantum of spectrum held by them.

Mumbai, September 1
Indicating an increase in competition among private sector banks to attract business, IDBI Bank today announced waiver of banking charges on current and savings accounts.

"Any account holder, who walks into our bank and asks for a demand draft, will get it without a charge, starting today. Any account holder can do an electronic fund transfer, without a charge, starting today. No account holder will have to worry about keeping a minimum balance in his or her account, starting today. There are many more," RM Malla, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank said.

A number of charges levied by both public and private banks have been waived by IDBI Bank. The charges that have been waived include average balance, account closure, ATM interchange fee, Mastercard and Visa card fees, cash service, cheque book charges, demand draft, ECS, EFT, new card issue, outstation cheque collection, PO charges, account statement, standing instructions, stop payment, outward charges, MICR cheque charges, DD cancellation, and DD issue charges.

New Delhi, September 1
Country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has reported its highest-ever sales as the overall sales continued to be on the rise for all automobile manufacturers.

Leading the stellar sales was MSIL with monthly sales at 1,04,791 units in August, registering 23.56 per cent jump over the year-ago period. This, in fact, was the highest ever sales the company has clocked, the previous best being in May last at 1,02,175 units.

That was also the first time ever that MSIL had crossed the one lakh unit sales mark. The up-turn in demand could extend into September and October and during the festival season even though there are reports of automobile makers facing a shortage of raw material, specially the spare parts.

The company also posted its best figure so far for the domestic market at 92,674 units in August, a 32.47 per cent increase from 69,961 units in August 2009.

The company employed an aggressive marketing policy to regain its benchmark 50 percent share of the domestic car market by launching six cars, including Alto-K10 and five CNG models across segments.

Hyundai Motor India reported a jump of 17.21 per cent at 28,601 units in its domestic sales for August.

Total passenger vehicle sales of Tata Motors in the domestic market stood at 25,196 units in August against 17,364 units in the same month last year, a jump of 45.10 per cent.

Riding high on Figo, Ford India reported a three-fold jump in August sales at 7,925 units. Figo has already received over 34,000 bookings in the past 25 weeks, Ford India said.

Similar was the case with Nissan. Riding on the sales of its latest offering Micra, the Japanese car maker registered total sales of 1,249 units in August 2010. Its newly-launched compact car Micra clocked a sales mark of 1,182 units. General Motors registered a growth of 34 per cent in sales in August compared to the corresponding period last year.

Honda Siel Cars India reported sales for August at 5,532 units, the highest ever for the month, registering 38.75 per cent jump over the same period last year.

The company had sold 3,987 units in the corresponding month last year, Honda Siel Cars said. Toyota Kirloskar Motor reported 26.09 per cent jump in its sales at 6,361 units during August, 2010.

The company had sold 5,045 units in the corresponding month last year, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said.

Chandigarh, September 1
Being forced to pay value-added tax (VAT) on stock variation in petroleum products (petrol that gets evaporated and diesel spillage), petroleum dealers in Punjab are up in arms against state Excise and Taxation officials.

Dealers say for the past one year, they are being forced to pay VAT on the petrol and diesel that is lost in handling. In many cases, where the dealers decided not to pay VAT on this fuel lost in handling, the Excise and Taxation department is forcing them to pay interest on this VAT from retrospective effect.

“This move is unfair as we are forced to pay VAT on fuel that we are not selling. We are already suffering loss as we are paying for this fuel to the oil marketing companies. On an average, 0.6 per cent per kilolitre of petrol is lost due to evaporation while being transferred from the oil tankers to storage tanks at retail outlets and because of evaporation from storage tanks. In case of diesel, 0.2 per cent slippage is there per kilolitre. This means that we are losing 72 litres of petrol and 24 litres of diesel on every oil tanker of 12,000 litres,” said Ashok Jain, a petroleum dealer in Ludhiana.

The petroleum dealers association says that though they have made numerous representations to the Excise and Taxation Commission, no decision has yet been taken by the government on the issue. “We have now approached the VAT Tribunal and hope for an early solution to the problem,” said Sukhminder Pal Singh Grewal, national joint secretary of the Federation of All India Petroleum Traders.

He said on an average 5,000 litres of diesel and 1,500 litres of petrol is sold by each outlet in Punjab daily by the 5,226 outlets. “As the number of retail outlets has increased sharply, profit margins of the petroleum dealers have gone down sharply. We are further strained by the imposition of VAT on this fuel lost in handling,” added Grewal.

Srinagar, September 1
The 80-day period of shutdowns and curfews in the valley has dented the economy of Jammu and Kashmir by a whopping Rs 21,000 crore as the separatist-sponsored agitation has affected every sector including tourism, handicrafts and the nascent industries.

Several established and upstarting manufacturing companies, hotels and restaurants have laid off staff due to prolonged agitation which is showing no signs of ending.

"We do not have the exact data but lay offs have taken place mostly in the hotel and restaurant sector and the travel trade," President of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Nazir Ahmad Dar told PTI.

Dar said although reducing the number of employees in the hotel industry was a common practice during the winters due to lean tourist arrivals, this year the lay offs have started at the peak of the tourism season in July.

Asked about the estimated losses suffered by the business community in Kashmir, the KCCI president said on an average the losses were to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

"Even on the limited days of normalcy we have had since June 11, there has been disturbance in some part or the other of the valley ... it will be safe to put the cumulated losses so far at Rs 8,000 crore," he added.

Dar said business in the state will flourish only after permanent peace is established, which was only possible when "Government of India takes concrete steps to break the impasse".

Mushtaq Ahmad Chaya, the leading hotelier of Kashmir, said he was incurring a recurring loss of Rs 30 lakh per month due to the ongoing agitation. "My salary bill per month is close to Rs 15 lakh while another Rs 15 lakh are incurred on overheads like maintaining the hotel properties, electricity bills, etc," he said. — PTI