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FM to chug
along NEW DELHI, Feb 25: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is likely to give a further policy push to disinvestment......more CAG raps WB Land KOLKATA, Feb 25: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has rapped the West.....more Film, entertainment NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The budget to be presented on February 28 by Finance Minister Yashwant.....more Govt defends payment NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The Centre has defended in Delhi High Court payment of ........more |
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IDBI
awaiting IOC KOLKATA, Feb 25: The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) today said it was awaiting the decision of Indian Oil Corporation on participation in Rs 5170 crore Haldia petrochemicals, before finalising the debt .....more NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The annual inflation rate zoomed up by 0.36 percentage points to touch a new high of 8.57 per cent for week ended February 10 due to costlier manufactured products. ...more Presentation of cheque in NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The Supreme Court has ruled that to fasten criminal liability on a person on account of dishonouring of a cheque, the same has to be presented within six months at the bank on which it is drawn...more Sikkim prepares ground NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The north eastern state of Sikkim has at last realised the virtues of foreign investment....more |
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FM
to chug along disinvestment path NEW DELHI, Feb 25: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is likely to give a further policy push to disinvestment in his budget without getting bogged down by a storm in Parliament over sale of Government equity in the Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. Analysts do not foresee the BALCO controversy acting as a deterrent for the Finance Minister since the opposition, noteably, the Congress has targetted the Government not on the policy issue but the manner in which the valuation was done. Taking an extreme, it is only a question of transparency that is being raised by the political parties, including some of the supporting parties in the national democratic alliance Government. "We are not against disinvestment. We are doing that in our own state. All that we want is transparency", TDP leader in Lok Sabha K Yerranaidu has said. Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, on his part, is doing his best to try and convince the supporting parties that the BALCO-sterlite deal was above board."I have told TDP leaders to ask me not one but 50 questions on the BALCO deal and we are prepared to discuss it all inside and outside Parliament’’, Mr Shourie said. While the signing of the deal with Sterlite which quoted the highest bid of Rs 551.50 crore for BALCO might take some time in the backdrop of a faceoff between the Government and the opposition, analysts feel that even the shortfall of the Rs 10,000-crore disinvestment target for the year 2000-01 would not come as a major roadblock for implementing the new public enterprise policy. The implementation of disinvestment programme is mainly a function of the market forces."The time schedule depends on the market forces", Mr Shourie has been defending his department as and when he is reminded of the slip in the target. Against the target of Rs 10,000 crore for the year 1999-2000, the achievement was Rs 1829 crore. Given the experience of the last 11 years, ever since reforms were introduced, the Finance Minister would once again set a target no matter whether the previous milestones were reached or not. In the first year of reforms, the Government raised Rs 3038 crore against target of Rs 2500 crore, in 1992-93, the realisation was Rs 1913 crore against Rs 2500 crore. The then Finance Minister went ahead and fixed a the target of Rs 4000 crore for 1994-95 undeterred by the fact that there was nil realisation in the previous year against the target of Rs 3500 crore. It was only in 1994-95 and 1998-99 that the targets were exceeded. Mr Sinha would also be encouraged to look for a higher amount through disinvestment since the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment has given in-principle approval for 30 PSUs which are at different stages of implementation. The noteable among them are Air India, Indian Airlines, IBP, Maruti Udyog Ltd, Hindustan Cable, Indian Petrochemical Corporation, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and the CMC Ltd. With the closing of the technical bids for the airlines, the AI/IA disinvestment is expected to be completed by June, 2001, going by the expectations of the Disinvestment Minister. As far as the considered policy is concerned, the Government is committed to bring down its stake in all non-strategic PSUs to 26 per cent or lower, if necessary, restructure and revive potentially viable PSUs so that better realisation was possible and close down the units which cannot be revived. There were times when differences among cabinet members arose over what was the strategic and what was the non-strategic sector area. However, with the backing of Prime Minister’s Office, the disinvestment had his way in regard to contentious decisions over VSNL and IBP where there was enough resistance from Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Petroleum Minister Ram Naik. The Government, on its part, has listed three sectors of defence, railways and atomic energy as the strategic areas where the Government would retain its monopoly. Enough indication was available in the economic survey for the push factor for privatisation on the cards."Accelerated privatisation of the competitive segment of the public sector should serve in stimulating industrial growth", the survey had stated. (UNI) |
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CAG raps WB Land
Reform Deptt for KOLKATA, Feb 25: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has rapped the West Bengal Land Reforms Department for non-realisation of revenue amounting crores of rupees in the last fiscal. The CAG report, placed in the State Assembly recently, revealed a revenue loss of about Rs 13,800 lakh in 77 cases falling under irregular transfer of land, non-levy and non-realisation of rent, cess, surcharge and damage fee. The report charged the department with failing to furnish the figures for arrears of revenue. Neither did the department prepare the revenue budget nor reconcile the figures for actual collection with those maintained by the Principal Accountant General. During the course of 1999-2000, the concerned department accepted under assessment of around Rs 11,200 lakh involving 49 cases of which 41 cases involving earlier years, the report pointed out. In eight districts, the authorities handed over 1742 acre of non-agricultural land to 32 different organisations between august 1980 and November 1998 without prior approval of the board of revenue and realisation of revenue. Non-observance of the procedure for settlement of land resulted in non-realisation of revenue of Rs 722 lakh. The report said in six districts, 319 acre of land had been handed over to different organisations between February 1988 and July 1998 and the sanction of Government had also been obtained, but due to non-observance of the procedure for settlement, revenue of nearly Rs.115 lakh remained unrealised. The report also said that non-settlement of land under unauthorised occupation led to non-realisation of Government revenue amount Rs.1315 lakh, and added that non and incorrect renewal of long-term leases resulted in the non-realisation of revenue to the tune of Rs. 635 lakh and Rs.108 lakh respectively. Incorrect determination of rent led to under assessment of Rs.11.40 lakh, while non-assessment of market value and capitalised value of land transferred to the Central Government departments resulted in blockage of revenue amounting to Rs.20.14 crore, the report said, adding that due to non-maintenance of time schedule for disposal of settlement cases, a revenue of Rs.1074 lakh remained blocked. The report also attributed loss of revenue to non-settlement of fisheries and non-recovery of lease rent, non-collection of arrears of revenue from Government markets, non-payment of lease rent of hats (rural markets) by municipalities, non-settlement of fully and partly vested tanks and extraction and removal of minor minerals without permits. (UNI) |
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Film, entertainment industry
wants more NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The budget to be presented on February 28 by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha is expected to reflect the seachange that is coming about in the entertainment industry through convergence of technologies, particularly the internet, telecom and entertainment sectors. Finance Ministry sources said there had been a major outlook change with the passing of the Information Technology Act, clearance to direct-to-home television and setting up of DTH platforms, allotment of FM radio channels, and the finalisation of a Communications Convergence Bill. Meanwhile the film industry, which has been reeling under a crisis with the entry of television channels and resultant video piracy with little help despite recognition as an industry, has demanded abolition of the counterveiling duty on colour negative cinematographic prints which is not manufactured in India. Film industry leaders, who feel that the budget last year had brought some relief when some very long-standing demands were conceded, told UNI that the Government has still done very little for the entertainment sector which makes such a major contribution to the national exchequer. They say Indian cinema can move towards corporatisation and modernisation only if it is given the proper impetus to work in an atmosphere of creative freedom bereft of financial worries. The industry has been demanding rationalising of entertainment tax - which is a state subject - and strong measures to curb video piracy. The Government had partly conceded the demands of the industry when the basic customs duty on colour positive films in jumbo rolls and colour negative rolls in certain sizes was reduced from 15 per cent to five per cent, but the industry wants a complete abolition, as it says raw stock in negative film is not produced in the country and the public-sector hindustan photo films is merely involved in slicing jumbo rolls imported by it. Mr Sinha had last year announced several concessions which included extension of 100 per cent exemption on export profits to corporates in the entertainment industry to non-corporate assessees with effect from 1999-2000. Late last year, the Industrial Development Bank of India Act was extended to cover the entertainment industry to enable them to get finance from banks. The broadcasting fraternity has urged the Government to equate entertainment software with information technology business in matters of taxation, excise and custom duties in the budget. It is argued that importing capital intensive hardware would require relaxation in areas of import duty which would ultimately benefit the viewer in terms of the lower subscription cost as also help increase export of software. Meanwhile, Prasar Bharati sources said the Government should raise its grant-in-aid to cover the gap in its resources in meeting its revenue expenditure. The budget last year had provided for Prasar Bharati to be funded as a full-fledged autonomous body with effect from April one and receive a grand-in-aid amounting last year to Rs 963 crore. There was also a provision for the first time for the public broadcaster to get a loan in 2000-2001 to the tune of Rs 170.30 crore to finance its capital expenditure. The total budgetary support for Prasar Bharati had thus been fixed at Rs 1130.30 crore. (UNI) |
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Govt defends payment of
commitment charges NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The Centre has defended in Delhi High Court payment of commitment charges annually on all project loans from foreign creditors including World Bank and Asian Development Bank saying it is inevitable. "Since commitment charges are required to be paid on the undisbursed portion of the loan, there will always be at any given point of time an inevitable stock of undisbursed funds until the end of the project," Finance Ministry said in its reply to a petition challenging payment of huge amounts annually as commitment charges on unutilised loans, which in 1998-99 stood at whopping Rs 47,700 crore. The ministry’s affidavit said the external assistance was generally linked to specific developmental projects and its utilisation depended upon the time taken in completing the work on a particular project. Payment of several crore rupees annually as commitment charges on loans, which remained unutilised for years, was challenged in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the ground that it was putting unnecessary burden on the comman man. While the PIL had alleged that Government had payed Rs 93.77 crore as commitment charges on unutilised loan during 1996-97, the Finance Ministry stated that the amount paid to foreign creditors during this period was Rs 55.91 crore. The ministry said the commitment charges paid to the foreign creditors during 1994-95 was Rs 59.63 crore, followed by Rs 55.91 crore in 1995-96 and Rs 48.59 crore in 1998-99. While fixing next hearing on April 20, a bench comprising Justice Arijit Passayat and Justice D K Jain said ministry’s reply did not contain full details. The ministry said that in most of the cases, completion of the projects varied from three to seven years, while the creditors extend the assistance for a complete project at once and not in phases. "The projects are also not designed in a manner that the entire amount would be disbursed in the first year itself and many other factors like land acquisition, contracting delays and litigations also delay the work further," it said. The ministry said as per a circular issued by its budget division, all union ministries and departments were required to levy a guarantee fee at the rate of one per cent on internal borrowings and 1.2 per cent on external borrowings. The guarantee fee had to be levied from the date of guarantee and thereafter on April one, every year on all the undisbursed loans, it said. Different foreign creditors had been charging different rates of commitment charges with World Bank claiming 0.25 per cent after a remission of 0.5 per cent, Asian Development Bank 0.75 per cent on graded basis and France and Germany had been charging at the rate of 0.25 per cent, the affidavit said. The Department of Economic Affairs had already started providing donor-wise and project-wise details on commitment charges in the annual external assistance brochure from 1997-98 onwards to ensure greater transparency in this regard, the ministry said. (PTI) |
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IDBI awaiting IOC decision on HPL for debt restructuring KOLKATA, Feb 25: The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) today said it was awaiting the decision of Indian Oil Corporation on participation in Rs 5170 crore Haldia petrochemicals, before finalising the debt restructuring programme for HPL. "The debt restructuring for HPL depends on IOC’s decision on whether or not to participate in the project. If IOC does not come, it will be a painful restructuring," IDBI Chairman S K Chakrabarty said here. The consortium of financial institutions, including IDBI, IFCI and ICICI, have already agreed to grant a 18 month moratorium on repayment of the term loan. In a meeting last week, the creditors decided to shift the repayment schedule from April one, 2001 to October one next year, he said adding the decision has been already communicated to the HPL management. However, a total restructuring of the Rs 4,200 crore debt component would depend on the IOC’s decision to pick up stake in the project, which was promoted by West Bengal Government, the Chatterjee group and the Tatas. Asked on the nature of the restructuring, Chakrabarty said the creditors, once they were conveyed the IOC decision, may decide on converting the debt into equity or waiver of principal or interest rate cut. (PTI) |
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NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The annual inflation rate zoomed up by 0.36 percentage points to touch a new high of 8.57 per cent for week ended February 10 due to costlier manufactured products. The inflation rate based on wholesale price index for all commodities (base year: 1993-94 = 100) peaked a new high this calender year from the previous week’s 8.21 per cent and only 3.04 per cent a year ago. Close on the heels of point-to-point inflation, WPI also rose minutely by 0.1 per cent to 158.4 during the period from 158.2 in the previous week. The index was 145.9 a year ago. The final WPI for the period ended December 16 stood at 158.5 as against the provisional figure of 157.7. The final inflation rate during mid-December stood at 8.56 per cent from the provisional 8.01 per cent. The All India Consumer Price Index for agriculture and rural labourers during January 2001 declined by three points to 301 for agricultural labourers and by four points to 303 for rural labourers. Prices of manufactured products increased by 0.3 per cent, while that of primary items declined by 0.1 per cent and fuel remained firm at previous week’s level. The index for primary articles’ group fell to 161.1 from 161.3 in the previous week and 155.1 a year ago due to cheaper non-food articles. Food articles’ group index, however, stood firm at 168.5 in the previous week even as prices rose for fish-in, and (six per cent), barley (two per cent), jowar, bajra, ragi, fruits and vegetables (one per cent each). There was decline in the prices of gram, masur and eggs (two per cent each), wheat, arhar, milk and fish-marine (one per cent each). The index for non-food articles’ group fell substantially by 0.5 per cent to 146.1 from 146.8 due to cheaper hides raw (five per cent), soyabean (two per cent), raw cotton, mesta and rapeseed and mustard seed (one per cent each). But there was four per cent rise in the price of copra and two per cent in sunflower price. Fuel, power, light and lubricants’ group index stood firm at the previous week’s level of 221.4 during the period. The index was only 168.1 a year ago. (PTI) |
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Presentation of cheque in drawee bank necessary: SC NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The Supreme Court has ruled that to fasten criminal liability on a person on account of dishonouring of a cheque, the same has to be presented within six months at the bank on which it is drawn. With this ruling, a three-judge bench comprising Justice K T Thomas, Justice R P Sethi and Justice B N Agrawal removed a persistent doubt and conflicting rulings of High Courts about the presentation of the cheque. While some High Courts had held that presentation of cheque at any bank would suffice to fasten the criminal liability on the person issuing a cheque if it bounced, certain other High Courts had held that it had to be presented before the bank on which it was drawn. The bench, in a recent ruling, said "a combined reading of Sections 2, 72 and 138 of the act would leave no doubt in our mind that the law mandates the cheque to be presented at the bank on which the cheque is drawn if the drawer is to be held criminally liable. "Such presentation is necessarily to be made within six months at the bank on which the cheque is drawn, whether presented personally or through another bank, namely, the collecting bank of said it has perused the conflicting judgements of Punjab and Haryana, Gujarat and Madras High Courts and added it was of the opinion that the Madras High Court had not correctly interpreted provisions of the law in this behalf. Justice Sethi said if the cheque was not presented before the drawer’s bank within the statutory period of six months, the criminal courts would have no jurisdiction to issue summons against the person issuing the cheque. He clarified that it did not, however, mean that the cheque was always to be presented to the drawer’s bank on which the cheque was issued. "The payee of the cheque has the option to present the cheque in any bank including the collecting bank where he has his account," Justice Sethi said. However, he observed that "to attract the criminal liability of the drawer of the cheque such collecting bank is obliged to present the cheque in the drawee or payee bank on which the cheque is drawn within the period of six months from the date on which it is shown to have been issued." "The non-presentation of the cheque to the drawee to the drawee-bank within the period specified in the section would absolve the person issuing the cheque of his criminalliability under Section 138 of the act," Justice Sethi said. However, the bench said that though non-presentation of a cheque within the stipulated time period would absolve the person who had issued the cheque of criminal liability, he would otherwise be liable to pay the cheque amount to the payee in a civil action initiated under law. (PTI) |
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Sikkim prepares ground for foreign investors NEW DELHI, Feb 25: The north eastern state of Sikkim has at last realised the virtues of foreign investment by joining the race of State Governments’ rolling out red carpet for these companies to bail them out of industrial stagnation and low growth. Haunted by prospects of squeezing of job opportunities in the Government, the Himalayan state is now trying to create quality employment by inviting MNCs. It has put in place hospitable climate for private investment-high literacy, low power tariffs, social peace, a lucrative and transparent disinvestment policy, flexible labour policy and a bureaucracy willing to bend backwards to get them in. Experts say its main constraint is the small market and work force and, therefore, only a few activities are ideally suited. These include tourism, particularly adventure tourism, and health care. To its chagrin the state has no foreign investment at present. The State Government recently organised a Sikkim Investor Forum in the capital, presided by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling which was attended by a host of large corporates and embassy representatives. These included the Tata Group, Oberoi, three apex chambers- the ASSOCHAM, the FICCI and the CII- and the Canadian High Commission, to name but a few. State Government officials say the investors, including the Tata in hydro power, the Oberoi in constructing hotels and the sita travels in tourism, had show keen interest. ‘We will back our commitment with money’, said a business executive who attended the meet. ‘We want to ‘Sikkimise’ the globalisation process ,says Mr Chamling. "In Sikkim, we are fully aware of the process of globalisation. We would like to exploit each bit of its advantages. At the same time, we are driven to minimise the adverse impact of this process , Mr Chamling adds. The State Government buttress its claim by stating that it will increasingly open the productive sectors to the private entrepreneurs. It has dawned on the officials that there has been a steady erosion of entrepreneurial urge largely because of planners’ skewed priorities, ignorance about the opportunities, inability to attract appropriate private investors and wrong prescription of incentives. It now wants to discard all this. All these virtually, have, overshowed the political will of the Government. We are now in the process of correcting each of these ills and providing very durable solutions, Mr Chamling says. "We already have in place a number of reports and studies which can be used by the private sector. In tourism sector, for instance, we have a seven volume comprehensive master plan prepared by the tata economic consultancy services. We have similar reports and studies on. Horticulture prepared by the Indo-swiss project sikkim, manpower planning and management by the institute of applied manpower research and on power projects, prepared by national hydro power corporation. In addition, we have studies available in many other specific areas including energy, agriculture, small scale industries, education and infrastructural projects , an official says. (UNI) |
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