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Reliance, OIL to GUWAHATI, Oct 18: The Oil India Limited (OIL) and the Reliance India Limited (RIL) will sign the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) for the Rs 4000...more EU urged to dismantle BERLIN, Oct 18: In a significant move that may benefit India and other developing nations, two key European nations have urged the powerful...more Income Tax offices in HAMIRPUR, Oct 18: All offices of the Income Tax Department in Himachal Pradesh would be computerised ....more Market remains in negative territory on sustained selling NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Shares led by the recently favourites, Information Technology (IT) segment, continued their downslide on the . ......more |
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Gold recovers on local NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Gold prices recovered on the bullion market today on local buying and closed with gains while silver lost fresh ground on reduced offtake........more
Govt for auctioning NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Government today favoured open bidding for privatisation of Air India, where 40 per cent equity would be given to a strategic partner, instead of inviting price bids in a sealed envelope........more SSI in Karntaka BANGALORE, Oct 18: The small scale industries in Karnataka with an annual turnover of Rs.30,000....more |
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Reliance, OIL to sign MoU today GUWAHATI, Oct 18: The Oil India Limited (OIL) and the Reliance India Limited (RIL) will sign the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) for the Rs 4000 crore gas cracker project here tomorrow in presence of Petroleum Minister Ram Naik . According to top oil sources the decks have been cleared to sign the long expected MoU clearing the final hurdle of the mega gas cracker project which is expected to usher a new industrial revolution in the North East. The last hitch of the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) was cleared when the RIL Board approved the agreement at its sitting last month. OIL CMD B B Sharma is expected along with Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik tomorow while Reliance would be represented by their Corporate Affairs President R L Saini. OIL and the RIL would sign the GSA tomorrow to meet the deadline of October 30 set by the Union Petroleum Ministry at a tripartite meeting held on September 4 last. The meeting chaired by Petroleum Secretary Arvind Verma had directed both the OIL and the RIL to complete all formalities within the stipulated period and sign the deal within the deadline. More than a dozen meetings have been held for the last six months between reliance, the State Government, oil and other officials, including representatives of the Petroleum Ministry, but there had been no progress on the vital gas supply deal, specially the vital clause of liquidated damage the reliance is asking oil to sign. That problem has been sorted out and the OIL was ready to sign the agreement since October 8. According to the prepared draft of the agreement, the OIL has assured supply of five million cubic meters of gas supply daily to the Reliance Assam Petro Chemicals Limited (RAPL) project for the next 15 years. The OIL has also assured a minimum quality assurance of the gas to be supplied. Similarly the RIL has been asked to complete the project within 44 months from the zero date, which has been fixed on January 1, 2001. The Assam Government too had been given a deadline of december 31 this year, to hand over the land for the project. According to the agreement the Assam Government has to hand over 1000 acre of land for the project at lepetkata in Dibrugarh district. The Government of India has already earmarked Rs 377 crore for the promoters of the project as one time subsidy to counter the locational disadvantage and they have also been promised the feedstock gas at a consessional rate of Rs 600 per cubic meter of gas for 15 years from the date of commencement of production. According to the OIL estimate out of the daily supply, the RAPL would use about 6 million cubic metere of gas for production of 2 lakh tonne per annum of ethylene after which 4.4. Million cubic metere would be returned to it. The returned gas called lean gas would be supplied by the OIL for generation of power and to the fertilizer plants in the state. Similar agreement is also expected with the ONGC who is to supply one fourth of the total gas requirement. The long stand off between the RIL and OIL even hit the Parliament also as the assam Government besides several organisations had given petitions to the Union Government on several occasions. Finally after being pressurised by the parliamentary standing committee on petroleum and natural gas, the ministry intervened pevailing upon OIL and RIL to sign the deal. It might be mentioned that the actual MoU for the gas cracker project was signed way back in 1994 but due to the stand off nothing materialised so far. (UNI) |
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EU urged to dismantle its trade barriers BERLIN, Oct 18: In a significant move that may benefit India and other developing nations, two key European nations have urged the powerful 15-nation European Union (EU) to further dismantle its trade barriers in the next phase of textile trade liberalisation from January one, 2002. The European Commission — the EU’s executive body - is to soon decide which clothing and textile items will get free access to the European market on January one, 2002. The Dutch and the Swedish Ministers for Trade and Development Cooperation have suggested inclusion of children’s clothes, blouses, jerseys, pullovers and trousers in the list of products for which quota restrictions would be abolished in about 15 months time from now. The items identified by the ministers are among the "strong lines" of Indian exporters who are yet to be benefited in a big way from the abolition of quota restrictions so far by the EU for its textile and clothing imports. "These are the items which are important for both to developing countries and European consumers," they said. About 24 per cent of Indian exports go to the EU; In which textiles and clothing items are among the major products, with some of them still facing quota restrictions. "It is the time for EU barriers to fall," the ministers said in a joint statement, adding that "we urge our EU colleagues to come up with a more meaningful list (in further dismantling textile trade barriers)". They were the Swedish and Dutch Trade Ministers-messrs Leif Pagrotsky and Gerrit Ybema and the Swedish and Dutch Development Cooperation Ministers-messrs Maj-Inger Klingvall and Eveline Herfkens. The proposal now being discussed covers 37 different quota for abolition of restraints, and, of those, 36 were not not fully utilised in any case last year items such as garden umbrellas, knitted gloves and some types of scarves. "They (the proposed items) might be important for certain interests but are not of prime interest to consumers and consequently they do not really constitute any obstacle to trade," the ministers said virtually endorsing positions taken by India and others calling for liberalisations of imports for those items by the eu in which the developing countries are in a strong position. The Dutch and Swedish Ministers also alleaged that the process of the implementation of the Uruguay round by the EU to gradually abolish all import restrictions on textiles and clothing by 2005 had been "slow and shortsighted". They further said that the EU had fulfilled the letter of the agreement, but in such a way that the average citizen of European countries and developing got "almost nothing" to the average price level. "Barries have been removed mainly on marginal products like barbie’s wardrobe but kept on children’s jeans and T-shirts," the ministers said. (PTI) |
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Income Tax offices in HP to be computerised HAMIRPUR, Oct 18: All offices of the Income Tax Department in Himachal Pradesh would be computerised shortly and linked with Shimla and Delhi and tax collection and assessment would be simplified, Joint Income Tax Commissioner, Himachal circle, Buta Singh said today. He said that work to distribute Permanent Account Number (PAN) was in progress and the Income Tax payees who had so far not received the PAN could directly approach the local office of the Department. He said that under the simplified Income Tax system, the small shopkeepers were not required to keep any account books if they paid 5 per cent of their total sales as tax. He said that the Income Tax Department has started honouring the three top income tax payers in business, service and professional categories and would organise camps for collection of Income Tax returns. (PTI) |
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Market remains in negative territory on sustained selling NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Shares led by the recently favourites, Information Technology (IT) segment, continued their downslide on the stock market today following sustained selling by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and other players in reaction to overnight decline on Nasdaq Stock Exchange and reports of similar trends on regional markets. Along with the downward journey, the Delhi Stock Exchange sensitive index dipped to the recent lows to touch 773.17 points (intra-session) before recovering marginally to close 8.35 points, or nearly 1.1 per cent down at 775.99 points. Stock brokers said reports that the prime movers of the Indian bourses, FIIs have been major sellers for the past several sessions triggered-off all-round panic selling. They said massive selling by domestic infotech mutual funds to meet redemption pressure was another dampening factor. Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) decision to defer introduction of rolling settelement in actively traded a-group stocks for about three months also failed to brought confidence back among major players including FIIs, they added. FIIs sold heavily in stocks such as Infosys Technologies, Wipro Ltd, Satyam Computer and a few others front-line it stocks, they added. "Market was flooded with sellers, it was difficult to find buyer even at prevailing lower levels," said a DSE broker. Prominent losers among IT stocks, Infosys Technologies remained under selling pressure through out the session in reaction to sharp fall in the company’s ADRs value last evening at Nasdaq and share prices after dipping to Rs 6125 finished Rs 108.10 down at Rs 6170. Similarly, Satyam Computer plunged to hit recent low of Rs 290 on major sell-off by operators amidst absence of buying support and concluded at Rs 302.25, showing a fall of Rs 34.75. NIIT Ltd after remaining distinctly bullish even in weak market on the back of excellent working results, came under selling pressure, mostly of a profit-taking nature, and ended Rs 38.90 down at Rs 1407.10. Wipro Ltd, ahead of company’s ads listing on the New York Stock Exchange, tumbled Rs 117 to close at Rs 1900 after touching recent low of Rs 1880 while SSI Ltd finished Rs 195 down at Rs 1995. Silverline Technologies lost Rs 16.25 at Rs 273.50, DSQ software fell Rs 58.25 at Rs 303.75, Digital Equipment dropped by Rs 6.90 at Rs 382 and HCL Infosys shed Rs 12 at Rs 238 on persistent selling. Global Telesystems in volatile movements traded in the range of Rs 1042 and Rs 1115 and concluded Rs 20.65 at Rs 1073.85 but Himachal Futuristic staged a late recovery to close Rs 9.20 higher at Rs 1017 after declining to Rs 937 at one stage but late buying at lower levels recovered earlier losses. Among old-economy stocks reliance industries dipped below Rs 300 mark to close Rs 4.60 down at Rs 298.40, State Bank of India down rs R.40 at Rs 159 while ITC Ltd down Rs 11.25 at Rs 741.75. (PTI) |
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Gold recovers on local buying, silver down NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Gold prices recovered on the bullion market today on local buying and closed with gains while silver lost fresh ground on reduced offtake. Marketmen said local customers, purchasing jewellery for the coming Diwali festival, mainly pushed up gold prices to some extent. They said a mild recovery in gold prices in international markets also influenced the trading sentiment. In Hong Kong, gold was up by 60 cents at 271.50 US dollar an ounce. Traders said the market continued to be driven by the currency movements as gold is a U.S.dollar denominated metal. Standard gold and ornaments recovered by Rs.15 each at Rs.4525 and Rs.4375 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign, however, continued to be asked at previous level of Rs.3825 per piece of eight gram. Silver .999 (ready) lost Rs.30 at Rs.7900 per kilo on reduced offtake. Silver weekly delivery lost Rs.25 at Rs.7910 per kilo. Silver coins remained unchanged at Rs.11,400/11,500 per 10 pieces in scattered deals. Following were today’s quotations: Silver .999 (ready) 7900 and delivery 7910. Silver coins buyer 11,400 and seller 11,500. Standard gold 4525, ornaments 4375 and sovereign 3825. (PTI) |
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Govt for auctioning of equity for AI privatisation NEW DELHI, Oct 18: Government today favoured open bidding for privatisation of Air India, where 40 per cent equity would be given to a strategic partner, instead of inviting price bids in a sealed envelope. "We will go for open bidding or auctioning... We have got approval of the Central Vigilance Commission," Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie told economic editors’ conference here. He, however, said that no formal decision for this was taken yet while adding that there might be some good reasons to do this. Shourie said that there were no differences between him and Aviation Ministry on disinvestment in Air India, where Government would bring down equity to 40 per cent by divesting another 10 per cent each to employees and financial institutions. The Minister said that open bidding would not necessarily be adopted in case of other PSUs like Indian Petrochemcial Corporation Ltd (IPCL) adding that Indian Oil Corporation chief M A Pathan had met him and expressed reservation about open bidding in IPCL case. (PTI) |
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SSI in Karntaka languishing due to industrial recession BANGALORE, Oct 18: The small scale industries in Karnataka with an annual turnover of Rs.30,000 crores is languishing due to industrial recession and widespread sickness that had affected more than 40 per cent of the industries in the sector. Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) president A N Burji told newsmen here today that there were 250,000 registered SSI units in the state and a similar number of unregistered units were also functioning. Most of the units which started as ancillaries to some of the major public sector units were devoid of orders and were left to to fend for themselves. He said the association would attach top priority to arrest the growing sickness in the industry. Though the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) was willing to extend financial assistance to modernise the sick units so that they could stand on their own legs, there was no no takers as the industries who had already burnt their fingers did not want to take risk again. Mr Burji said the Association would conduct a survey of sick units and diagnose the cause of sickness and initiate conselling centres in different districts to help the entrepreneurs with appropriate strategies for rehabilitation. The Association was also planning to start its own marketing centre in the city to enable various small scale industries exhibit their wares and secure orders. He said the ssis also need to tap export market in this era of globalisation. The Association would organise an exhibition every month at its centre for market development. (UNI) |
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