Daily Excelsior...Business

Aes, Orissa yet to
thrash out solution
to power row

BHUBANESWAR, July 21: The US-based Aes Corporation and the Orissa Government have failed to arrive at a compromise on the power major’s ...........more

NH from Ambala
to Hisar being widened

CHANDIGARH, July 21: The National Highway No 65 from Ambala to Hisar is being widened from 5.5 mtrs to 10 mtrs at a cost of Rs 22 crore by the ..........more

Prabhu to hold meet
to arrive at consensus
on power reform

BANGALORE, July 21: Union Power Minsiter Suresh Prabhu will soon hold meetings with heads of political parties in an attempt.....more

Gold moves down
in thin trade

NEW DELHI, July 21: In restricted trading activity, gold prices declined further on the bullion market today on reduced offtake and closed with moderate losses. Other prices remained steady on small alternate bouts of trading......more

CBI case against
Customs officer

NEW DELHI, July 21: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against a .......more

Earth Station, Software
Technology Park in Shimla

SHIMLA, July 21: Himachal Pradesh came on the global software export map today with the commissioning of the Earth Station and Software Technology Park here.......more

Aes, Orissa yet to thrash out solution to power row

BHUBANESWAR, July 21: The US-based Aes Corporation and the Orissa Government have failed to arrive at a compromise on the power major’s threat to pull out from power distribution in the state unless its terms and conditions were met.

Aes Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Bakke met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and State Energy Minister A U Singdeo yesterday and apprised them about the possibility of the Central Electricity Supply Corporation (CESCO) withdrawing from power distribution.

The Aes Corporation had set five conditions for continuing operations of its distribution arm - the Cesco. Its demands included a significant rise in power tariff, a multi-year tariff with no interim regulatory interval and clearance of all outstanding dues.

Mr Bakee later told newspersons that the discussion with the Government was cordial and frank but admitted that no decision had been reached. He said the aes had presented its case before the Chief Minister.

The Government, he said, was open and responsive and had promised to consider the case.

Mr Bakee said the aes was interested in continuing its operations, but wanted implementation of the fundamental changes recommended by the World Bank.

He also took exception to the fixation of power tariff by the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Authority (OERC) and suggested that there should be a multi-year tariff based on objective assessment.

The Aes President said the company had spoken about the difficulty in running CESCO in the state. "We will return in a couple of weeks to learn the State Government’s response," he added.

State Energy Minister A U Singdeo said the Aes had been asked to formally submit its proposals in writing for consideration, adding that it had agreed to do so.

He said the suggestions of the Aes would be examined after such submission. He added that it would be premature to conclude that the aes would withdraw from power distribution in the state.

The Energy Minister, however, disapproved of Mr Bakke’s threat to pull out from the operation without consulting the Orissa Government. (UNI)

NH from Ambala to Hisar being widened

CHANDIGARH, July 21: The National Highway No 65 from Ambala to Hisar is being widened from 5.5 mtrs to 10 mtrs at a cost of Rs 22 crore by the Haryana Public Works Department, an official spokesman here today said.

The Jind-Rohtak track of National Highway No 71 was also being widened to 10 mtrs at a cost of Rs 12 crore, the spokesman said, adding that a distance of 13 km from Ramgarh to Mouli would also be widened to 10 mtrs at a cost of Rs five crore. Rs 14 crore would be spent on widening the National Highway No 65 from Hisar to Surewala Chowk while Rs 8 crore had been earmarked for widening the road from Surewala Chowk to Narwana. (UNI)

Prabhu to hold meet to arrive at consensus on power reform

BANGALORE, July 21: Union Power Minsiter Suresh Prabhu will soon hold meetings with heads of political parties in an attempt to arrive at a consensus on the power reform process.

Talking to newspersons after signing the Power Purchase Agreement between National Thermal Power Corporation and the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited for supply of bulk power from 500 mw unit under the third stage of Ramagundam super thermal power project, he said such a consensus was necessary to ensure that the reform process was not derailed in the event of a change in Government at the Centre and States.

Such issues should be kept out of the purview of the political system, the minister observed.

Referring to the example of Karnataka, Mr Prabhu said the reform process initiated by the Congress Government was being objected to by a party, which was in power at the Centre. Such differences should be avoided, he added.

Mr Prabhu said as per the proposal of the Centre to securities arrears from various state power utilities to the central generating stations, amounting to Rs 41,000 crore, the state utilities need to pay only the principal amount of arrears with 20 per cent of the interest dues waived off and the balance interest converted to bonds. However, a Chief Ministers’ meeting had urged the Government to increase the interest waiver to 60 per cent.

Mr Prabhu said the Union Power Ministry would shortly take up district level power planning for all districts in the country to find out the cost and benefit ratios of each district and make them separate profit centres.

With the power sector failing to reach the capacity addition target for the eighth and ninth plan, he said efforts were on to ensure that the tenth plan project was achieved. With expected flow from independent power producers not coming in, steps would be taken to increase the investment by Central and State sectors to attain the target. NTPC would be expected to add 20 per cent of the targetted generation. Several structural changes should also take place to enable the increase in the plant load factors of various units to supplement additional power, he added.

He did not rule out the possibility of NTPC taking up joint venture projects with various state units.

Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, in his address, pointed out the impediments the state had to face in view of the drought conditions during the last two years. However, he assured Mr Prabhu that the state would go ahead with its reform process to ensure that the consumers got quality power.

Under the PPA for supply of bulk power, NTPC would supply 87 mw of power from the first unit of the third stage of the Ramagundam thermal power plant, construction of which was likely to start in august. NTPC had already signed the PPA with Aptransco, Pondicherry and Kerala, besides Karnataka. It hoped to sign the PPA with Tamil Nadu shortly. The Rs.1780 crore project was expected to go on stream from August 2005. (UNI)

Gold moves down in thin trade

NEW DELHI, July 21: In restricted trading activity, gold prices declined further on the bullion market today on reduced offtake and closed with moderate losses.

Other prices remained steady on small alternate bouts of trading.

Marketmen said prices were steady in the absence of any worthwhile trading activity.

They said prices were unchanged also due to off marriage and off festival season.

Standard gold and ornaments lost further by Rs.10 each at Rs.4400 and Rs.4250 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign held unchanged at Rs.3700 per piece of eight gram.

Silver ready and delivery based both were unchanged at Rs.7055 and Rs.7090 per kilo respectively. Silver coins were asked at previous level of Rs.10,900/11,000 per 100 pieces.

Following were today’s quotations: Silver ready 7055 and delivery 7090. Silver coins buyer 10,900 and seller 11,000 standard gold 4400, ornaments 4250 and sovereign 3700. (PTI)

CBI case against Customs officer

NEW DELHI, July 21: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against a senior Customs officer for allegedly possessing assets worth more than Rs 26 lakh which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

K P Singh, working as Deputy Commissioner at New Delhi, was charged with possessing movable and immovable properties worth lakhs of rupees, for which he could not give satisfactory answer, the CBI alleged in the report filed in a special CBI court.

The CBI raided the official and residential premises of Singh on June 9, 2001. Singh was found possessing assets worth Rs 49,75,494 including two plots worth Rs 10 lakh in Gomti Nagar in Lucknow, one independent house in Preet Vihar in Delhi, one flat at Dwarka in Delhi, and jewellery worth Rs 3.55 lakh the CBI alleged.

Singh, who is an engineer with M Tech degree from Kanpur, joined Indian Revenue Service in 1993. Before joining Customs, he was working with the Uptron for a few years.

Singh earned Rs 15,85,050 during his service period since September 1989 to May 2001. He also received Rs 12,25,000 by selling a flat at Dwarka in Delhi. So his total income was Rs 28,100,50.

The likely savings after deducting the expenditure from the income was calculated at Rs 22,81,700. Thus he was found to be possessing assets worth Rs 26,93,794 which were disproportionate to his known sources of income, the CBI alleged.

The Customs officer has been charged under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. (UNI)

Earth Station, Software Technology Park in Shimla

SHIMLA, July 21: Himachal Pradesh came on the global software export map today with the commissioning of the Earth Station and Software Technology Park here.

The state-of-the-art facility provided by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) would go a long way in facilitating the setting up of software development units in the State, STPI sources said.

The strategic location of Earth Station at Kamna Devi temple ensures that not only a large portion of the Shimla town could have line of sight communication with the station but also areas within a radius of about 20 km of the station could utilise this facility.

The Software Technology Park at Kasumpti was equally ideally located on the National Highway and was easily approachable and quite sunny.

The Earth Station and the Technology Park were inaugurated today by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

This park had been set up at a cost of Rs 6 crore, out of which Rs 3.30 crore had been given by the Department of Commerce, Government of India. The facilities created under the project would be run and maintained by the STPI and the Earth Station would provide the high speed data communication facilities to the IT industry through the international gateway through Thaicom, a Thailand-based satellite. Inaugurating the park the Chief Minister P K Dhumal said that the IT policy of the State released recently envisaged that the Department of Information Technology will act as a single window for clearing various IT proposals.

All IT software and service industries including services and training institutions in IT would be entitled to industry status and as such would be entitled to get all the concessions and incentives available to the industries under the existing industrial policy of the State Government.

Dhumal said that the State Government would facilitate creation of venture capital fund of Rs 20 crore in association with the State Co-operative Bank, SIDBI and other financial institutions to meet the equity requirements of the small and medium enterprises/IT start-ups.

Presiding over the function, the Union Minister for Information Technology, Pramod Mahajan said that the target revenue from software had been fixed at 50 billion US dollars by 2008.

He said that STPI had accorded priority treatment to exports through "single window mechanism" and the STPI scheme had attracted a large number of entreprenuers who were in software development and exports.

More than 6500 units had been approved and 3500 units had become operational, he added.

He announced 50 per cent subsidy to those availing the facilities of STPI for one year to attract entrepreneurs.

He congratulated the State Government for introducing e-governance in Hamirpur district and said that the Government would consider to introduce this in other districts also. (PTI)