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| Silver rises, gold surrenders NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Silver prices moved up further on the bullion market today on sustained buying by .....more Enron struggles to retain NEW YORK, Dec 1: Beleaguered energy giant Enron struggled to survive as former Suitor Dynegy Inc. .....more Global slowdown NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The aftermath of September 11 terrorist attacks on US coupled with the global....more |
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TN people wakes up to pay more CHENNAI, Dec 1: People of Tamil Nadu woke up to pay more for milk, liquor, power and travel among ....more SIAM wants auto policy, NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex body of ........more Investment would JAMSHEDPUR, Dec 1: Union Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha has said investment in the country .........more |
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Enron struggles to retain control over its future NEW YORK, Dec 1: Beleaguered energy giant Enron struggled to survive as former Suitor Dynegy Inc. warned bankruptcy court will not protect Enron’s lucrative assets from being acquired. Dynegy, which on Wednesday pulled out of its planned bailout, warned that a bankruptcy case likely to be filed by enron would not stop it from taking the northern national gas pipeline. Dynegy said any such action undertaken by the separate pipeline entity would have to be approved by it. The strongly-worded statement by Dynegy, which owns 1.5 billion dollar of preferred stock in northern natural gas acquired as collateral for its emergency cash infusion in Enron, is seen by most as a sign of the protracted legal proceedings ahead, Wall Street Journal reported today. Meanwhile, Enron axed workers at its European unit on Friday. Out of the 5,000 people employed in Europe, Enron Europe retaied about 250 staff members to help wind down the business, London-based Financial Times said. Another report said the company had closed its positions on all mainland European power grids and stopped delivering electricity on Friday. Enron shares, the most visible sign of the company’s spectacular collapse, took another tumble, falling 10 cents, or almost 28 per cent, to 26 cents on Friday. Enron’s fall left its trading base bare. The company said there was no metals products listed on enrononline, the internet-based trading system that recently provided about 90 per cent of the company’s earnings. Financial Times said the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had banned Enron’s Australian subsidiary from trading new wholesale electricity derivative products because it was "not satisfied that the company had adequate financial resources to continue to trade." Companies approved to trade power in Australia must have a minimum of a$10 million (5.2 million dollar) in financial support behind them and Enron Australia’s last financial report showed it depended on the credit facilities provided or guaranteed by its us parent, the paper said. In Scandinavia, the nord pool power bourse said it had closed all of Enron’s financial market contract positions cleared by nord pool. Analysts fear that many power companies will not be so lucky and will be left exposed to millions of dollars of losses. Financial Times quoted European groups as saying that their exposure was limited and that they should be able to make up the liquidity. But US groups reliant resources, Dynegy, Mirant and American electric power said on Thursday their combined exposure was 265 million dollar. Leading lending banks, including JP Morgan chase, citigroup, Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are expected to be worse off, with exposure expected to run into billions of dollars, the paper added. According to the Wall Street Journal the financial collapse of Enron could cost insurance industry 2 billion dollars, causing the companies to take additional reserves as they report fourth-quarter earnings. (PTI) |
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Global slowdown pulls down exports NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The aftermath of September 11 terrorist attacks on US coupled with the global economic slowdown had a cascading effect on exports which plunged 7.39 per cent to 3.444 billion dollars in October this year. Impact of depressed international market conditions was equally reflected in the provisional export data for the period April-October which showed a dip of 2.88 per cent at 24.382 billion dollars, against a level of 25.104 billion dollars during the same period last year. As per the official data released today, imports, however, went up during the first seven months of the fiscal. Imports were valued at 30.542 billion dollars, representing a growth of 3.12 per cent over the level of 29.617 billion dollars last year causing an increase in the trade deficit to 6.159 billion dollars, compared to 4.513 billion during April-October 2000-01. (PTI) |
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TN people wakes up to pay more CHENNAI, Dec 1: People of Tamil Nadu woke up to pay more for milk, liquor, power and travel among other things as the series of austerity measures, revision of rates and prices, announced by the State Government to put its cash strapped economy back on track came into effect from today. Besides the steep hikes in bus fares, power tariff, milk and liquor, the introduction of differential pricing in Public Distribution System (PDS), ban on recruitments, uniform floor rates and taxation measures, reforms in Government hospitals and several resource mobilisation measures also came into effect from today. While milk prices have gone up by Rs two per litre, the minimum fare in the metropolitan bus service was fixed at Rs two while the power tariff for domestic consumers have gone up by 25 per cent to 60 per cent. The Government claimed that the measures were taken in such a way that people living below the poverty line were not affected but the fact was that all sections of the people bore the brunt of the measures. With left and other opposition parties planning to launch a major agitation protesting against the hikes, former Chief Minister and ruling AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa appealed to them not to politicise the hikes. The bitter medicine was inevitable in the grave financial situation, she said. It was like Government presenting a "mini budget" when it came out with the announcements on November 28. Soon after the two-week long bus strike, it appeared that the Government would go for a marginal increase in bus fare and power tariff. But the broad sweep, covering an across the board increase and changes in various spheres came as a rude shock to many. The Government claimed that these measures were necessary to stem the badly affected economy, but it became clear that the measures, apart from augmenting the revenue, were also to fall in line with the World Bank and Centre’s reforms and restructuring. The levies and revenue raising steps and austerity measures were expected to yield substantial revenue and savings to the Government. The revisions in bus fare and power tariff alone were expected to bring an additional revenue of more than Rs 2500 crore to the Government. By limiting the subsidised rice only to the BPL families, the Government was expected to save upto Rs 900 crore in food subsidy and Rs 700 crore through various austerity measures. The introduction of on-line lottery was exepected to fetch an additional revenue of Rs 150 crore and enhanced tax on Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) Rs 150 crore. The additional revenue from uniform floor rates was expected to be more than Rs 200 crore. (UNI) |
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SIAM wants auto policy, reforms, proper VAT NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex body of manufacturers of vehicles and vehicular engines, has urged the Government to pay attention to domestic reforms also as exclusive reforms on the external front alone would create a situation where all segments in the society would become more import-dependent without substantial value addition to the products and the economy as a whole. Citing the Value Added Tax (VAT) as an example, SIAM president R Seshasayee said in a statement today that unless VAT is implemented in a manner that will eliminate the cascading effects of taxation, the concerns of the industry adequately addressed, there is no case for reforms in import tariff in isolation. The VAT implementation programme as it is presently proposed, does not address issues of multi-tiered and inter-state operations as in the automobile industry, he said. Siam also wanted the Government to articulate an auto policy and the proposals for the union budget 2002-03 be in line with and integral to the auto policy. He said SIAM supported the Government in its vision for a progressive reduction of import tariff to reach ASEAN levels in three yars time and the Government’s thrust in making India a preferred destination for manufacturing. SIAM proposed a uniform excise duty on automobile chassis activity changing the present system of imposing excise, 16 per cent, on the organised sector alone. It also pointed to the safety requirements and consumer activism holding the vehicle manufacturers responsible for the accidents and mishaps caused by safety lapses. Alternatively, Mr Seshasayee suggested that a specific duty of Rs 4200-Rs 8400 may be collected at the point of the chassis and exempt body building activity completely. This would ensure fair play for the organised sector, he said. The industry has also sought reduction in excise duty for vehicles with a seating capacity of upto eight persons, excluding the driver to 16 per cent. However, if the Government is not in a position to bring down the rate to 16 per cent in one go, it should reduce it at least to 24 per cent from the present level of 24 per cent. SIAM has suggested that the benefit of lower excise duty available to cars registered as taxis be extended to multi-utility vehicles (7-12 seaters) used as taxis. The Society has asked for reduction in the excise duty for ambulances instead of the present system of paying excise duty at the rate of 32 per cent while clearing the vehicles and later obtaining a refund of 16 per cent on registration of the vehicle as an ambulance. It has urged the Finance Ministry to reduce customs duty on components, ie. Imports in any form other tha completely built units to 30 per cent from the current level of 35 per cent. It also sought a status quo in customs duty on CBUs of vehicles. Recalling the growing concerns about environment,the siam president sought concessional import duty for components of electric vehicles and on raw material for CNG conversion kits. Currently duty on raw materials is more than the duty on final products/components of CNG conversion kits. He called for encouragement to research and development in the automotive sector by providing fiscal incentives. Research and development subsidies are permissible under the WTO regime, he pointed out. He wanted the Government to adopt policies that promote value addition in India, encourage research and development, and remove other procedural bottlenecks to provide indian industry a conducive environment. These would enable the industry to become globally competitive and provide the Indian customer a contemporary choice to suit his purchasing power, he said. (UNI) |
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Investment would increase, if interest rate is reduced: FM JAMSHEDPUR, Dec 1: Union Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha has said investment in the country would increase if the rate of interest is reduced. Addressing the members of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here last night, Sinha said, the current rate of interest in India ranged from six to seven per cent in comparison to USA’s two per cent. Despite the recession, Sinha expressed the hope that the present economic growth rate of 5.2 per cent would increase as the situation was most likely to take a turnaround from mid-2002. The Finance Minister said against all odds, the Government was able to keep inflation rate under control and to keep it under check, prime lending rate had been reduced. He said the real interest rate was very high as the government was paying Rs 1,02,000 crores towards interest annually and to repay it the Government has borrowed Rs 1,18,000 crores. A large sum of Rs 80,000 crores had been paid for petroleum products alone. However, he expressed satisfaction with 46 billion dollar foreign currency reserve. (PTI) |
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