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Slashing
of duty on gold DUBAI, Mar 1: The slashing of duty on gold in the general budget, presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha yesterday....more No
shortage of funds for NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Government today said there would be no shortage of funds for 54,000 kms express highways with substantial contributions ...more Rajasthan
gets 180 mln JAIPUR, Mar 1: An agreement has been signed for a World Bank loan of 180 million US dollars for power sector reforms in Rajasthan.....more Govt
has no received NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The Government has not received any complaint of corruption in the allocation of funds from the Member of Parliament Local......more |
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Talks
on for purchase NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Negotiations on all relevant issues are in progress with British......more Oil
industry, trade body CHANDIGARH, Mar 1: The Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade (COOIT).......more
Loss-making
SEBs will NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The loss-making State Electricity Boards (SEBs) will be given......more RBI
will cut rates further if NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said he has laid the groundwork........more |
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Slashing of duty on gold augurs well for Dubai trade DUBAI, Mar 1: The slashing of duty on gold in the general budget, presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha yesterday, augurs well for the Dubai gold trade as it would spur the demand for the yellow metal, industry representatives here say. "Gold imports into India will perhaps increase. More gold will flow to India from all places, including Dubai," Mr D V Pathy, Manager, Gulf countries at the World Gold Council said. Mr Pathy said even if difference in the price of gold in India and Dubai narrowed, the Dubai gold had its brand equity in its "unquestionable quality." Gold traders in Dubai were confident that more gold and jewellery would now flow into India from Dubai. A leading jeweller said Dubai’s fame for pure gold and lower customs duty would catalyse trade. Meanwhile, leading NRI businessmen and social activists have welcomed Mr Sinha’s fourth general budget, describing it as growth-oriented but regretted that there was no mention of NRIs in it. Mr Paras Shahdadpuri, Chairman of the Oversea Indians Economic Forum, said the Finance Minister has satisfied all sectors of the Indian economy. However, he felt that the Finance Minister did not give any recognition to the role of NRIs in India’s development."I would call NRIs as national reserve of India and they must be harnessed for India’s speedy growth," Mr Shahdadpuri added. Mr Kamal Vachani, convenor and regional representative of the Federation of India Export Organisations (FIEO), said the reduction of customs duty on IT products would encourage manufacturers to bring out quality and competitive products. The reduction in corporate tax and personal income tax ceilings were welcome steps, he added. Mr Bharatbhai Shah, NRI activist, however, stated that it was a "political budget," drafted with an eye on the coming Assembly elections in some states. Since the Finance Minister had not imposed any nex taxes and levies, people at large would heave a sigh of relief, he added. Mr Yousaf Ali, Managing Director of the Emke Group, welcomed the "growth-oriented and market-friendly" budget but regretted that there was no mention of NRIs in it. Mr K V Shamsudheen, Director of a leading securities company, observed that though there was no mention of NRIs in the budget, revival of the stock market would give them good opportunities. (UNI) |
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No shortage of funds for highway projects: Govt NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Government today said there would be no shortage of funds for 54,000 kms express highways with substantial contributions coming from the private sector. Replying to supplementaries during question hour in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways B C Khanduri said the problem of land acquisition for these highways had been almost resolved after handing over the task to State Governments. "While the Centre will provide funds for land acquisition, under the new arrangement we have authorised the State Governments to undertake the task of acquiring land which till now was a problem area," Khanduri told Ambika Soni. On the funding for the expressways, he said as much as Rs 20,000 crore would be provided under the national highway development highway programme, Rs 20,000 through external assistance and Rs 10,000 by the National Highway Authority of India. He said a sum of Rs 1,65,000 crore would be required for construction and maintenance of the 57,772 kms of national highways. (PTI) |
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Rajasthan gets 180 mln dollar WB loan for power reforms JAIPUR, Mar 1: An agreement has been signed for a World Bank loan of 180 million US dollars for power sector reforms in Rajasthan. Joyele Chessard, World Bank representative, signed the agreement on behalf of the bank and Additional Secretary, Finance, Dr Adarsh Kishore, on behalf of the Union Government, in New Delhi yesterday, an official release said here today. The loan would be released to the state by June 2005, it said. A separate agreement was also signed between the World Bank and the Rajasthan Government. The loan is to be spent on schemes for strengthening the power sector by setting up capacitators and new substations, and through system monitoring and technical advisory services, the release added. (PTI) |
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Govt has no received any
complaint NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The Government has not received any complaint of corruption in the allocation of funds from the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), Minister of State for Planning and Public Grievances Arun Shourie informed the Rajya Sabha today. If any specific case was brought to his notice, he would have it examined, Mr Shourie said responding to members who complained that officers demand their cut before releasing funds from the MPLADS for development work. He said the Comptroller and Auditor General was looking into the issue. He said the release of funds was sometime delayed because of election and he had taken up the matter with the Chief Election Commissioner. Earlier, the members complained that funds were not released for months together if the officers were not given their cut. Inflated estimates of cost of development works were made. No physical verification of the works were carried out with the result sub-standard materials were used with impunity. The members called for evolving a mechanism whereby physical verification of the works could be done, Benami transactions checked and quality control ensured. (UNI) |
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Talks on for purchase of hawk: George NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Negotiations on all relevant issues are in progress with British aerospace systems for purchase of jet trainer "Hawk" from Britain, Defence Minister George Fernandes informed Lok Sabha today. "Unless the training philosophy undergoes changes, the Hawk designs will remain relevant," he told a member in a written reply. The member wanted to know whether Hawk aircraft have been declared obsolete by Britain. (PTI) |
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Oil industry, trade body welcomes budget CHANDIGARH, Mar 1: The Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade (COOIT), an apex body of the vegetable oil sector has welcomed the union budget and the measures for providing relief to Gujarat earthquake victims. The COOIT Chairman, Devi Prasad Khadelia in a statement here today congratulated the Union Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha for hiking tariff on edible oils and crude edible oils, and said his organisation had been pleading for it for long time. Welcoming the Government’s announcement of review of the Essential Commodities Act (1955), Mr Khadelia said that ‘undue restrictions’ under the Act were hampering the growth of vegetable oil sector. He, however, said that allowing 20 per cent concessions in import duty on Crude Palm Oil (CPO) to sick vanaspati units was fraught with serious implications and would be counter productive.Sickness in the industry should be effectively tackled through financial restructuring and consolidation rather then through concessional duty as this could be misused, he claimed. (UNI) |
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Loss-making SEBs will be
given all NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The loss-making State Electricity Boards (SEBs) will be given all central assistance, irrespective of any ceiling, if they offer guarantee to break-even within two years, Power Minister Suresh Prabhu informed the Lok Sabha today. Responding to members during question hour, the minister said barring two SEBs (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) all other boards in the country were undergoing losses, warranting immediate reforms, including rationalisation of tariff structure. The issue of impending reforms will be taken up at the March three meeting of State Power Ministers, Mr Prabhu said adding that the State Governments had been asked to adopt transparent policies on subsidies and promote friendly, efficient environment. He said the main thrust would be on bridging the gap between the cost of power and the average tariff by reducing transmission and distribution losses, eliminating power theft, rationalising power tariff structure and improving operational efficiency of the SEBs. Minister of State for Power Jayawantiben Mehta said availability of power in the country had increased by 4.4 per cent during April 2000-01, while the energy requirement rose by 6.4 per cent. Power generation increased by 7.1 per cent during 1999-2000 over the previous year. She said the Government had taken several steps, including renovation and modernisation of power plants, increasing pland road factor and disbursement of loans by the Power Finance Corporation for improving power generation of thermal plants. A hydel policy for exploitation of hydro potential had also been formulated. In another reply, Ms Mehta said the collapse of the Northern Grid on January two had disrupted of railway traffic and affected industrial units. An inquiry into the collapse had shown that there was some malfunctioning in a pole of Rihand-Dadri line as early as December 14 due to multiple failure of converter transformers. This had restricted the transmission capacity of the eastern part putting severe strain on transmission capacity. The Power Minister had written to Chief Ministers concerned to ensure grid discipline by restricting their drawals from the grid. Certain measures had been taken to prevent recurrence of such breakdowns, she said. These included periodic preventive and regular maintenance of lines and substations, introduction of free governor mode of operation of all generating stations, and ensuring proper operation of under frequency load shedding relays in state electricity distribution systems. (UNI) |
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RBI will cut rates further if situation warrants: Sinha NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said he has laid the groundwork in the budget for a low interest rate regime and it was now for Reserve Bank to cut interest rate when the situation warrants. "I hope the Governor and the Board would take steps whenever they feel it is warranted," he said at the FICCI seminar on budget here. "I am a great believer of the autonomy of RBI. I had set the fiscal parameters and the monetary parameters are at the hands of the RBI Governor," he said, indicating to the fiscal changes in the budget. RBI had slashed bank rate days before the budget by 0.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent and the industry had demanded a further cut to make them competitive as cost of borrowing was much lower elsewhere in the world. Sinha admitted that a subsidy element present in interest rates had made the real interest rate high. "It (high rate of interest rate) makes no economic logic at all," he said justifying the 1-1.5 per cent cut in rates in small savings rates in the budget. He proposed setting up an expert committee to work out a formula for realigning the interest rate on small savings and contractual savings like provident funds with inflation rate. The main purpose for such a formula would be to have an automatic mechanism for effecting changes in interest rates of small savings instruments whenever there were appreciable changes in inflation rate. (PTI) |
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