The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Commerce Min probing infra sector data goof-up
Said 8 core industries posted 4.6% growth in May, but changed it to 3.8% within 3 hours
TNS & Agencies

New Delhi, June 30
The commerce & industry ministry clarified on Saturday that a “technical error” on data for cement was responsible for the growth data for eight infrastructure industries for May released on Friday.

The ministry said immediately after the press note was released, a technical error was detected where the index for cement corresponding to the production figures was not accurately reflected. The revision of the index was carried out and the revised press note was accordingly released the same day.

The revised growth rate of the infrastructure sector for May 2012 is now estimated to be 3.8% as against 4.6%indicated earlier and the estimated growth rate for cement is 11.3% as against 22.1%, the ministry said.

Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma has asked for an internal inquiry into the matter to establish the reasons behind the error in the data which was revised within hours of the release to the media yesterday.

"We’ve started an internal exercise to find out the reasons of problems in the data. My officers are on the job," a ministry official said when asked about the reasons for lowering of core sector data for May to 3.8% from 4.6%. "The ministry of statistics & programme implementation should tell the reason behind the data issues”, the official added.

However, an official in the statistics & programme implementation ministry said: "We take data from the department of industrial policy & promotion (DIPP) for Index of Industrial Production (IIP). I will find out when we start revising figures for the forthcoming IIP numbers".

While DIPP, which is under the commerce & industry ministry, is responsible for dissemination of Wholesale Price Index and core sector data, the statistics & programme implementation ministry collects data for national income and releases the IIP figures.

The eight infrastructure industries — coal, crude oil, natural gas, fertilizers, petroleum refinery products, electricity, cement and finished steel — have a weight of 37.9 per cent in the IIP.

India’s current a/c gap at 20-year high

New Delhi, June 30
India’s current account deficit touched a record 20-year high in the March quarter, as surging imports and only moderate export growth pushed up the trade deficit, keeping the balance of payments in deficit for the second quarter in a row.

Hefty oil and gold imports weighed on India’s external position during the quarter, although economists said they expect the gap to narrow in the June quarter as oil prices fell and gold imports eased.

The widening current account deficit has weighed on the rupee, pulling the unit to a record low of 57.32 to the dollar on 22 June.

Investors have become wary of Indian markets as economic growth slipped to a nine-year low, the current account deficit widened and Standard & Poor’s threatened to cut the country’s credit rating to junk, making the rupee the worst performing currency in Asia this year.

“What it (rupee) hasn’t factored in is a likely improvement in the current account in the first quarter (April-June),” said Abheek Barua, chief economist at HDFC Bank in New Delhi. “So there is scope for a reversal and stability in the rupee.”

India’s balance of payments deficit was $5.7 billion in the first three months of 2012, narrower than the $12.8 billion deficit in the December quarter, RBI data showed. But that compared with a surplus of $2 billion in the March quarter of 2011.

The country’s current account deficit hit an all-time high of $21.7 billion in the March 2012 quarter, or 4.5% of GDP. — Reuters

Chandigarh has highest credit-deposit ratio
Ruchika M. Khanna/TNS

Chandigarh, June 30
Punjab and Haryana may still be grappling to get its bank credit/deposit ratio in place. But their capital, Chandigarh, has managed to achieve the highest CD ratio in the country — 118.7 per cent.

Data on deposits and credit of state-owned commercial banks just released by the Reserve Bank of India shows Chandigarh, being the seat of three governments — Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh — has a huge cash flow because of all three administrations doing their business here. It is primarily for this reason that the CD ratio in the city is the highest in India. The data also shows Tamil Nadu comes a close second for having a high CD ratio of 116.3%, followed by Andhra (109.9%).

Bankers in the region say that another reason contributing towards the city having the highest CD ratio is the development of industrial belts at Baddi- Barotiwala and Dera Bassi-Lalru, around the city. Most of the private corporates having their manufacturing facilities in these industrial belts have been making maximum bank deposits in Chandigarh, though the limit for borrowing cash may be kept with the banks located in the vicinity of their manufacturing units.

The data shows nationally the CD ratio of all scheduled commercial banks stood at 75.5%. At the bank group level the CD ratio was above the national ratio in respect of foreign banks (88.6%) as well as SBI and its associates (77.5%), and old private sector banks (75.8%). The CD ratio of new private sector Banks (74.8%), state-run banks (74.3%), and regional rural banks (64.6%) was lower than the CD ratio of scheduled commercial banks.

The data also showed the number of banked centres of scheduled commercial banks stood at 35,582. Of these centres 27,964 were single-office and 70 centres had 100 or more bank offices. The top 100 centres, arranged according to the size of deposits, accounted for 69.4% of the total deposits and the top 100 centres, arranged according to the size of bank credit, accounted for 78.1% of total bank credit. But, the annual growth rate of gross bank credit of the top 100 centres (at 15.6% in Dec 2011) was significantly lower than the growth recorded in Dec 2010 (28.1%).

SBI raises deposit interest rate by 25 bps

Mumbai, June 30
State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, has raised its interest rate by 25 basis points to 9 per cent for three to five-year tenure deposits of less than Rs 150,000 (US $26,900), the bank said in a statement on Saturday. The increase is effective from July 1, the state-run lender said.

In an interview to a business channel on Friday, SBI MD Krishna Kumar, said one of the key reasons the bank's margins are on the higher side is the presence of a very substantial current account savings bank portfolio.

"As far as the savings bank portion goes, we have taken some steps recently, which we’re expecting will probably also increase the current account portfolio. So that’s certainly helping us maintain our lower cost of deposits, thereby enhance the overall net margins," he said.

Talking about NPAs, he said there would “obviously” be an increase in NPAs during the year. — Agencies

May consumer price index for industrial workers up 10.16%

New Delhi, June 30
India's consumer price index (CPI) for industrial workers rose 10.16% in May from a year earlier, slower than annual rise of 10.22% in April, government data showed on Friday. The CPI for industrial workers rose 1 point from the previous month to 206 in May, data released by the labour ministry showed.

The government uses CPI for industrial workers to fix wages for its employees.

India's statistics ministry separately releases annual inflation data based on the consumer price indexevery month. Annual consumer price inflation was 10.36% in May, slightly higher than 10.27% in April. — PTI

Investor Guidance
PAN registration problems
By A.N. Shanbhag

Q: This year e-filing of income tax returns has been made mandatory for individuals having income above Rs 10 lakh.

However, since June last year whenever I have attempted to log into the income tax department’s website with my income tax permanent account number, the response is my PAN number is already registered — although I had never registered the number on the IT website, and instead all my mails are forwarded to the address info@incometaxindia.gov.in.

It now appears somebody has hacked my online income tax account.

Now what do I do, not file my income tax returns? Where and with whom do I file a complaint that my returns are not being filed because the online income tax account, which was never registered, has been hacked and physical returns are not being accepted?

— Anshu Narula

A: Is it possible that your PAN (permanent account number) registration has already been done, through your chartered accountant or some other acquaintance? We know of similar cases where a person's registration had already been done by the chartered accountant and, in one case, where the income tax assessee's son had done it for him.

In this case the income tax account password has already been issued. So we would advise you to explore this possibility first. After ruling it out we would advise you click the "Forgot Password" link on the income tax department website and try and obtain a fresh password for your PAN.

If for any reason you're not able to get a new password you have no other option than contacting the income tax assessing officer and presenting your case to him.

If he does not react promptly you may file a physical return and indicate therein the reason why you haven't filed it electronically.