Ludhiana, March 3
With the Central Pollution Control Board lifting a moratorium on new industries in Ludhiana, the industry in the city is set to flourish while giving a boost to the already existing units.

The Punjab Pollution Control Board has started giving "No-Objection Certificates" from March and new industries are likely be set up from April. With the setting up of new units, nearly 15,000 new employment opportunities will be created.

On January 13, 2010, the Environment Ministry had imposed the moratorium on environmental clearances for new projects and expansions in 43 critically polluted industries where the comprehensive environmental pollution index score was 70. As a result, the PPCB had imposed a moratorium on 17 different categories of industries, including electroplating, furnace, bleaching, dying, lead smelting, alloy making, printing and few others in Punjab.

Rajat Aggarwal, chairman of Punjab Pollution Control Board, said since the ban on setting up of new industries has been lifted, the PPCB has started giving NOCs for setting up new units.

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to develop a monitoring mechanism in 30 days to monitor the implementation of action plans to mitigate pollution.

"We will be monitoring the implementation of the action plans as per the schedule submitted to us and ensure that there is no violation in any terms and conditions as submitted in the action plan. The report will be submitted to the CPCB," added Aggarwal.

"The decision has come as a fresh air for us as it has cleared the decks for fresh investment. It will not only result in fresh ventures but the overall industry will grow. It will give a boost to the Punjab's industrial hub," said Harbans Sharma, a small-scale dyeing owner.

Jalandhar, March 3
Post offices across the country will diversify into new areas to make up for the loss of business owing to the receding interest of people in routine postal services. To begin with, the Department of Posts has decided to set up Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) at the main post offices across the country.

The department has already started speed posts and other services such as railway ticket booking, e-posts, electronic money orders etc.

On the lines of banking services across the nation, the department is also mulling speedier money transactions for its account holders. ATMs will soon be set up at all the head offices of the department.

Senior Superintendent of Post Office, Jalandhar division, Avtar Singh Pahuja told The Tribune that ATMs would be set up at all the head offices of the Department of Posts, which will benefit the customers with savings accounts at post offices.

“A policy decision has been taken in this regard. It would be implemented in the coming fiscal year.”

He further said: “We have started a new pension scheme that will benefit the general public.” The postal department has also started selling admission forms for many universities.

Talking about Reliance gold service, he said the department was the only organisation which had signed an MoU with Reliance for the sale of gold coins.

GC Goyal, Senior Postmaster, Jalandhar city post office, said the Department of Posts had come a long way since computerisation happened.

Since the launch of “Project Arrow” about three years ago, things had changed for the better, he said. “Project Arrow has ensured that the cash balance reports and the list of transactions at every post office are available at the click of the mouse. We have more power now since we have the funds and the freedom to take decisions. Of the Rs 16 lakh that we received for the current fiscal year, about Rs 13 lakh have already been spent. This kind of freedom to work and execute plans was not given to employees earlier,” Goyal said.

Services like letters, postcards and telegrams have taken a back seat. If we receive 15,000 mail requests on a given day, only 100-200 of them are letters or postcards.

Ludhiana, March 3
Labour-intensive industry in the region is worried over the government’s plan to increase wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGA) scheme in the Budget.

The scheme has already taken a toll on labour-intensive industries not only in Punjab, but all over the country. Labour cost has increased substantially and some units are turning uncompetitive.

“The government plans to increase wages under the scheme substantially. This will hit the industry hard as industrial labour will be even more difficult to find. When the industry is ready to absorb labour, it just does not make sense to spend government revenue on such schemes,” said PD Sharma, president, Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Industrial production is already declining due to shortage of labour. The index of industrial production (IIP) for December fell to an alarming low of 1.6 per cent.

The Finance Minister is requested not to increase the wage rates under MNREGA and this scheme should be squeezed rather than expanded in the interest of industrial production. Exports are also suffering due to labour shortage as the scheme takes hold, added Sharma.

Hosiery industrialist Ashok Aggarwal said: “The industry is paying heavily due to this scheme of the government as labour has started shifting base to their hometowns,” said Aggarwal.

Automation is usually not an option as capital cost is exorbitant and banks shirk to lend to this sector and the interest rates are very exorbitant. High processing charges for such loans also deter industrialists.

Chandigarh, March 3
The Finance Minister may have taken adequate steps to control the food inflation in his budgetary proposals for the next fiscal, but the increase in excise duty on cement will further lead to price hike of this basic construction material.

Over the past one month, prices of cement have been on the boil. The price of a cement bag (weighing 50 kg) has shot up by Rs 40 in the past one month. The price of various brands of PPC cement is ruling at Rs 270-Rs 295 across various cities in North India. But the Finance Minister’s Budget proposal to replace the existing excise duty rates with composite rates having an ad valorem and specific component, are likely to further push up the prices. It is estimated that the prices will rise by another Rs 6-10 per bag.

It may be noted that the cement price was around Rs 200-220 five months ago (in September 2010). At that time, the cement industry was expecting that the prices would go up by Rs 15-20 per bag, mainly because of high input costs (fuel cost rise of about 30%, power tariff by 12 to 15% and freight cost by 10 to 12%).

“But over the past few months, the prices have gone up by Rs 40 per kg. With the government now imposing excise duty at the rate of Rs 160 per tonne, the cement companies have already announced that they will have to pass on this additional cost to the consumers,” said Ram Avtar Singhal, a leading cement dealer in Panchkula.

New Delhi, March 3
The government today said it is not in favour of freeing diesel prices right now as headline inflation is still in the uncomfortable zone.

"I am not of the view that diesel price deregulation is inevitable and that is the position taken by petroleum ministry right now. Given the inflationary situation right now, we don't want to do that...," chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event here.

However, Basu said if international crude oil prices continue to remain high for a longer time the government will have to make a tough choice between hiking diesel and cooking fuel prices and shelling out more on oil subsidies to companies.

"I can't give you an assurance that it will happen nor can I say it won't happen....It depends on how long the $115-116 a barrel lasts. There can come a point where we are forced to confront the question - Do we take it on fiscal or do we pass it on consumers," Basu said.

For 2011-12, the Finance Ministry has estimated Rs 23,640 crore in oil subsidy, lower than Rs 38,386 crore of current fiscal.

Global crude oil prices are at the highest level since 2008, touching $116 per barrel.

The government had in June last year decided to free petrol pricing from its control and the same on diesel was to be done eventually.

The spike in crude rates has meant that even retail rates of petrol have not moved in tandem with cost while the deregulation of diesel has been kept in abeyance. India's oil imports grew by 7.8 per cent to $7.85 billion in January, taking the import bill during April- January, 2010-11, to $79.95 billion. — PTI

New Delhi, March 3
Food inflation declined by more than one percentage point to 10.39 per cent for the week ended February 19, led by a decline in prices of onions, potatoes and pulses.However, prices of fruit, milk and vegetables as a group continued to remain high.

Food inflation stood at 11.49 per cent in the previous reporting week and 21.62 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago.

According to data released by the government, prices of potatoes declined by 12.66 per cent year-on-year, while pulses fell by 5.02 per cent, onions by 3.64 per cent and wheat by 2.06 per cent. The items that became dearer during the week ended February 19 vis-a-vis the corresponding year-ago period were fruits (up 16.34 per cent), egg, meat and fish (14.5 per cent), vegetables (14.29 per cent) and milk (11.07 per cent). — PTI

New Delhi, March 3
The government has pushed back the Rs 11,500 crore share sale of state-owned ONGC to next fiscal and the public offering is now slated to open on April 5, a senior official said today.

The follow-on public offer (FPO) was originally scheduled to open on March 15 but has now been rescheduled.

"The rescheduling is partly because of delay in appointment of independent directors on ONGC board to fulfil SEBI's listing requirement," he said.

As per the schedule now drawn, the FPO would open on April 5 and close on April 8.

The government is selling its 5 per cent stake or 427.77 million equity shares in the FPO that in today's closing price of Rs 269.85 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) will fetch over Rs 11,540 crore.

Post offer, the government stake in ONGC would come down to 69.14 per cent from the current 74.14 per cent.

Roadshows to promote the share offering in the nation's biggest explorer and highest profit earning company, which were to be held in India and aboard from March 2 to 9, have now been rescheduled to begin on March 21. — PTI

Mumbai, March 3
Maharashtra has become one of the first states in the country to aggressively roll out pre-paid electricity meters as part of efforts to check power theft and wrongful diversion of power, according to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL).

"In the first phase, we will install 25,000 pre-paid meters in Nagpur, Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Pen, Kalyan and other areas," a spokesperson of the company said. According to MSEDCL, the principle behind this venture is similar to pre-paid mobile phone services. "A consumer who opts for pre-paid electricity services will be able to control usage and buy recharges after exhausting his or her usage," says the official.

Just like a mobile phone user who buys talk-time, the units of electricity purchased by the consumer will be charged to a smart card which needs to be inserted in the meter. Consumers will also be able to recharge their meters online or from franchisees appointed by MSEDCL, according to the agency.

At present, MSEDCL is targeting owners of holiday homes and guest houses that function on a seasonal basis apart people owning second residences who do not consumer power round the clock.

Earlier this week, pre-paid meters were launched in the township of Lonavla, a hill-station between Mumbai and Pune. MSEDCL officials say a large number of houses here are owned by people from Mumbai and Pune who only visit on weekends. Power consumed by them is low and it is not feasible for the body to employ people full-time to read meters regularly.

MSEDCL says each pre-paid meter will cost it Rs 2,600 each which will be provided free to consumers. No security deposit will be charged from consumers. Moreover, a discount of five per cent will be given to those who opt for the pre-paid meter.

According to Ajey Mehta, Managing Director, MSEDCL, the company benefits from not having to deploy manpower to read bills in areas where the pre-paid meters are installed. 

Chandigarh, March 3
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has hailed the report on Job Plan for Jammu and Kashmir, presented by the Prime Minister’s expert group to the J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar today.

Waseem Trumboo, chairman, CII Kashmir, hailed it as a plan that “will usher in a new era of opportunities to the Kashmiri youth”. He said the new focus on young people of the Valley is refreshing. “Till now, all earlier reports and initiatives for the Valley have mainly focused on incentives and investments. The report outlines plans for training of youth in companies, for employment and self-employment. We feel that this focus on human resource planning, on upgrading the quality of manpower will bring in a changed era. We also welcome the Special Industry Initiative (SII) mentioned in the report, which will lead to training and placement of around 40,000 youth over the next five years, in reputed companies like TCS, Infosys, Avantha Group, Godrej &Boyce, Tata Beverages, Tata Motors, JCB India, Bajaj Auto and Apollo Hospitals,” he added.

The key focus of the report is to create a conducive environment for job availability by increasing employability of the youth in the state through skill development and training. Members of the PM’s Expert Group include NR Narayana Murthy, Tarun Das, T Nanda Kumar, Shakeel Qalandar and B B Vyas.

Harinder Mahajan, chairman, CII Jammu & Kashmir Council congratulated Dr Rangarajan for this new approach.