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Overseas notes dampen NEW DELHI, May 31: Weak overseas gold prices dampened the trading sentiment on the.....more
CHICAGO, May 31: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today hit out at critics who had alleged....more
Regional corporatisation NEW DELHI, May 31: Power Ministry has asked consultants SBI caps and ICICI to further examine....more |
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Visakhapatnam
VISAKHAPATNAM, May 31: Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) of .....more
NIIT invests in US net NEW DELHI, May 31: I.T major NIIT Ltd has made a strategic investment .....more Parke-Davis antacid ‘Gelusil MPS’ in OTC category NEW DELHI, May 31: In a bid to corner the booming antacid market, Parke-Davis (India) Ltd is introducing ‘Gelusil MPS’ in .......more Eicher Motors drops plans for overseas truck unit NEW DELHI, May 31: Truck major Eicher Motors Limited (EML) has buried plans to set up an Assembly plant in South Africa. .....more Regional corporatisation NEW DELHI, May 31: Power Ministry has asked consultants SBI caps and ICICI to further examine the restructuring of National Thermal Power .....more |
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CHICAGO, May 31: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today hit out at critics who had alleged that his daughter-in-law had secured huge reward because he had provided a tax haven route to Foreign Institutional Investors through Mauritius and pledged to expose their "sinister designs". Denying that his daughter-in-law Puneeta Sinha secured ‘reward’ of 5.3 million dollars in the face of capital gains tax exemption given to the FIIs, Sinha asserted "she is not recipient of this money". Dismissing CPI(M) charges, Sinha said in a statement, that such allegations were based on "wrong facts and mis-statements." Clarifying for the first time the exact position of his daughter-in-law, Sinha said she is executive director a Cibc Ppenheimer which through its subsidiary, advantage advisers, is the fund manager of India Fund Inc. "But what is not being clarified in this case is that the investment manager is a company named advantage advisers inc," he said adding when investment manager received a reward of 5.3 million dollars, it was the company and not his daughter-in-law. "An impression is sought to be created that my daughter-in-law received this money", he said adding "obviously, she is not the recipient of the money." There was no doubt that her fund had done exceedingly well between December 31,1998 to December 31,1999, Sinha said adding other well managed funds had also done equally well because the stock market generally did well during this period and market capitalisation increased substantially. Sinha said normally he would have ignored these allegations and treated them with the "contempt they deserve". Now he had chosen not to ingnore these allegations as he believed that a concerted campaign has been mounted by some "vested interests" who are out to ruin them, the minister said. "This sinister design has to be nipped in the bud... The blatant falsity of the allegations and the nefarious design of those who have prompted them must be exposed," he said. Sinha said this "personal vilification campaign" was an attempt to `derail’ the economic reforms which the Vajpayee Government was determined to go ahead. Stressing that the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between India and Mauritius was not his creation, Sinha said it has been in force since 1982-83. With the liberalisation of the economy, Non Resident Indians and FIIS were allowed to make investments in India from September, 1992, he said. Since Mauritius too had passed a law in 1992, making it possible for any investor to get itself registered there and obtain a certificate of residence, number of FIIS began to invest through Mauritius route, taking advantage of DTAA, Sinha said. Sinha said the total number of FIIs operating through the Mauritius route is about 136 as against a total number of 525 FIIs operating in India. In march 1994, he said, CBDT clarified that any resident of Mauritius deriving income from sale of shares of Indian companies will be liable to tax in Mauritius as per its tax law and would not have any capital gains liability in India. "Nobody talked about the tax laws to the country when the circular was issued in 1994," he pointed out referring to the statements that the country has been losing a potential revenue of Rs 3,000 crore annually. The Finance Minister said since 1993, FIIs have been investing in India through Mauritius and claiming the benefit of DTAA. "The claim of FIIs of residency in Mauritius has never been rejected by the Income Tax Department all these years ... A contrary view was taken for the first time by the notices of March 31, 2000," he said. There was a legitimate public concern because of contradictory stands of it department during the last seven years and hence CBDT has to intervene in the matter, he said. (PTI) |
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Regional corporatisation of NTPC being studied NEW DELHI, May 31: Power Ministry has asked consultants SBI caps and ICICI to further examine the restructuring of National Thermal Power Corporation and Powergrid Corporation including the advantage of creating regional corporations rather than going in for selling assets of these public sector monoliths. At a meeting chaired by Power Minister P R Kumaramangalam and other ministry officials with the financial institutions, SBI caps and ICICI, it was suggested that the consultants should work out modalities of financially leveraging strengths of these two companies rather than recommending sale of their assets. Stating that there was no decision taken on disinvestment of NTPC and PGCIL, Ministry sources said the Power Ministry was proposing to improve the efficiency of the company through better management of liabilities and improving their system of recovering dues from various State Electricity Boards (SEBs) which would have a bearing on the share value of these companies. With regard to National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), it was suggested that the hydro company could go in for joint ventures with private sector companies so that the risk of taking up hydro projects could be divided. The meeting also discussed the Government’s plan to achieve the target of power on demand by 2012 target for which capacity addition of 100,000 mw was needed, the sources said. They said that NTPC would have to make a capacity addition of 22,000 mw by the year 2012 while the hydro power companies like NHPC, NEEPCO, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) would together add about 15,000 mw. The state sector and the private sector would have to add about 15,000 mw and 20,000 mw respectively, the sources said adding the remaining 20,000 to 22,000 mw of power would be added through the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) taking up the Sibsagar and the Dehang power projects. The ministry said that NTPC would not have problems in raising funds for setting up such huge capacities but the company needed to improve its due recovery rate from 85 per cent to 90 per cent, the sources said. SBI caps and ICICI had suggested that the states should start the reforms process at the earliest so that it becomes more lucrative for the private sector to come up with more power projects in the states and the financial institutions also come forward to fund these projects. (PTI) |
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Visakhapatnam Steel plant certified ISO VISAKHAPATNAM, May 31: Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited(RINL) has become the first integrated steel plant in the country whose complete operations with entire marketing, purchase and training wings have now been covered under a single ISO 9002 certificate. With the receipt of a single certificate, the quality system of a total of 50 department, four regional, offices,MC 16 20 branch offices and 22 stock yards are covered under ISO 9002 standard, the certificate is given by the Bureau Veritab Quality International (BVQI), a VSP release here said today. The certificate scope includes" protection of comprehensive range of iron and steel products, coke and coal chemicals ,other saleble products, and generation of power along with supporting and service departments, and also marketing of all the saleble products including power in domestic or export markets".(UNI) |
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NIIT invests in US net solution firm NEW DELHI, May 31: I.T major NIIT Ltd has made a strategic investment in Atlanta based internet solutions company,Oneweb Systems Inc. The company did not disclose the specific stake,it is acquiring in US firm. However,it was stated to be a strategic investment. "through this strategic alliance with Oneweb Systems,NIIT will build a significant lead in solution delivery, helping customers get their new e-Business projects to market in record time",the statement said. Oneweb’s software is one of the first scalable web application development solutions completely managed through a web browser. NIIT’s focus on technology solutions comprising e-Business solutions,e-Transformation solutions and e-Knowledge solutions for its USA operations led to a five fold growth in e-Revenues for the quarter ended March,2000 over the corresponding period last year, the company said. NIIT share is trading quite strong in the market today at Rs 1927,up 157 from the previous close. While most of the technology stocks were up under the Nasdaq influence, analysts said that the announcement of investment in US firm also boosted the sentiment on the scrip.(UNI) |
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Parke-Davis antacid ‘Gelusil MPS’ in OTC category NEW DELHI, May 31: In a bid to corner the booming antacid market, Parke-Davis (India) Ltd is introducing ‘Gelusil MPS’ in Over-the-Counter (OTC) product category. "Gelusil MPS which has been a prescription drug for the last 25 years will now be available in OTC category, " Ajey Bhardwaj, Associate Director, Product Management, Parke Davis (India) Ltd said here today. According to an industry estimate, 20 per cent of the urban adult population suffers from acidity. "Our consumer research has revealed that patients are concerned with getting on with their life as soon as possible. Our effort will help them achieve this," he said in a statement. (PTI) |
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Eicher Motors drops plans for overseas truck unit NEW DELHI, May 31: Truck major Eicher Motors Limited (EML) has buried plans to set up an Assembly plant in South Africa for making light commercial vehicles, a top company official said. The company has, instead, decided to enter new African markets like Egypt through the export route, Eicher Group Chairman and Chief Executive S Sandilya told UNI here today. "We have dropped plans to set up a manufacturing unit in South Africa. We were exploring the feasiblity of setting up a unit there and since the report was not favourable, we have decided against going ahead with it," Mr Sandilya said. Eicher Motors was planning to set up an Assembly plant in South Africa to give fillip to sale of its LCVs in the country. Currently, around 70 per cent of the group’s export revenue comes from export of trucks of below 10 tonne gross vehicle weight. The company, he added, wants to concentrate on its foray into the Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV) segment in India with Eicher 20.16. The vehicle is scheduled to be in the market by the year-end. The company would commence pilot production of the vehicle in the next quarter. EML has already tied up loans worth Rs 90 crore from banks and financial institutions for part-funding the Rs 120 crore HCV project. "We have already invested around 30 per cent of the total amount and fresh investments would be made for expanding capacities and this investment will spill over to next fiscal," he added. The entire Rs 120 crore investment would include expenditure on product development. Once the total investment at its Pithampur unit is in place, the company would have an integrated capacity of around 20,000 vehicles per annum. Meanwhile, Eicher Group Company Royal Enfield Motors (REM) is working towards introducing a 624cc motorcycle, billed as India’s costliest bike, by the end of the 2000 calendar year. Though Mr Sandilya refused to divulge the price positioning of the bike, company sources told UNI that the motorcycle would be priced in the range of Rs 95,000. The bike is being developed with technical assistance from Fritzegli of Switzerland. Commercial production of the bikes for the Indian market would commence in the last quarter of the 2000 calender year. However, the vehicle would be introduced in the international market by August this year, the sources added. The bike would have disc brakes and self start as standard features for the Indian market while the export model would have a different styling. The company is eyeing limited sales with the model. "We intend to touch a sales figure of 2,000 to 5,000 units per annum. This is a niche market product and we are not looking at huge volumes for the model." This will be the latest introduction in the series of upmarket bikes that the company is introducing in the Indian market. It had recently introduced a 535cc model, also in collaboration with EGLI. This 624cc model will be the only bike to be launched in the country in the top-end segment after the major debacle of BMW’s 650cc motorcycle. REM, company sources said, is eyeing a 40 per cent growth in motorcycle sales during 1999-2000 over last year’s sales of about 25,000 vehicles. The volume growth would come from the company’s new plant in Jaipur. The Jaipur plant, which has a capacity of 24,000 vehicles per year, started trial production July one, 1999. In the first year of operations, the Jaipur plant would make about 8,000-10,000 units of 350cc and 500cc models. (UNI) |
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Regional corporatisation of NTPC being studied NEW DELHI, May 31: Power Ministry has asked consultants SBI caps and ICICI to further examine the restructuring of National Thermal Power Corporation and Powergrid Corporation including the advantage of creating regional corporations rather than going in for selling assets of these public sector monoliths. At a meeting chaired by Power Minister P R Kumaramangalam and other ministry officials with the financial institutions, SBI caps and ICICI, it was suggested that the consultants should work out modalities of financially leveraging strengths of these two companies rather than recommending sale of their assets. Stating that there was no decision taken on disinvestment of NTPC and PGCIL, Ministry sources said the Power Ministry was proposing to improve the efficiency of the company through better management of liabilities and improving their system of recovering dues from various State Electricity Boards (SEBs) which would have a bearing on the share value of these companies. With regard to National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), it was suggested that the hydro company could go in for joint ventures with private sector companies so that the risk of taking up hydro projects could be divided. The meeting also discussed the Government’s plan to achieve the target of power on demand by 2012 target for which capacity addition of 100,000 mw was needed, the sources said. They said that NTPC would have to make a capacity addition of 22,000 mw by the year 2012 while the hydro power companies like NHPC, NEEPCO, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) would together add about 15,000 mw. The state sector and the private sector would have to add about 15,000 mw and 20,000 mw respectively, the sources said adding the remaining 20,000 to 22,000 mw of power would be added through the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) taking up the Sibsagar and the Dehang power projects. The ministry said that NTPC would not have problems in raising funds for setting up such huge capacities but the company needed to improve its due recovery rate from 85 per cent to 90 per cent, the sources said. SBI caps and ICICI had suggested that the states should start the reforms process at the earliest so that it becomes more lucrative for the private sector to come up with more power projects in the states and the financial institutions also come forward to fund these projects. (PTI) |
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