Daily Excelsior...Business

SBBJ records
Rs 190.06 cr gross
profit in H1: CMD

JAIPUR, Nov 1: The State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) has recorded Rs 190.06 crore gross profit and net profit of Rs 74.06 crore during the half year that ended last month in the current fiscal, the Bank Chairman cum ......more

FM: Economic growth
will be ‘satisfactory’
despite odds

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today said India would achieve a "satisfactory" growth rate in the current fiscal despite the "panic" the world over in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United ...more

Exide plans buyback
at Rs 70 per share

KOLKATA, Nov 1: Exide Industries Limited (EIL), India’s leading storage battery company, today announced its plans to buyback its own shares. The buyback decision was taken by the company’s board, which met here today. ...more

Exports slump 1.95 pc
during first six months

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Indian exports continued to be plagued by global recession, as it dipped by 1.95 per cent during the first six months to 20.96 billion.......more

Draft LNG policy to be
made public soon: Naik

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: The Government is preparing a draft integrated policy on Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) that would soon be made public to generate debate and obtain feedback,. .....more

Reduction in purchase
tax may not bring succour
to growers

KOCHI, Nov 1: Reduction in purchase tax on rubber from 11 per cent to six per cent announced by State Government might not bring succour to growers, N Radhakrishnan, president, Cochin...... more

PTL improves
operating margins

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Punjab Tractors Ltd (PTL) has improved its operating margins during the first half of the current fiscal to 19.4 per cent compared to 18.8 per cent during the corresponding period last year.....more

Silver continue downward march, gold steady

SBBJ records Rs 190.06 cr gross profit in H1: CMD

Talking to the mediapersons here, Mr Puri said that excluding the one time extra-ordinary income of ‘interest on income tax refund’ of Rs 13.07 crore during the period, the gross profit went up by 22.55 per cent.

The net profit enhanced by 13.60 per cent as compared to the corresponding figures the last fiscal, he said.

The CMD said that the bank’s total income rose from Rs 720.32 crore to Rs 787.07 crore during the last six months showing a growth of of 9.27 per cent.

Similarly, the net interest income has gone up from Rs 230.82 crore to Rs 242.51 crore during the same period. The bank’s aggregate deposits had crossed Rs 10,728 crore as on September 30 this year recording Year on Year (YoY) growth of 14.63 per cent, he said.

The Bank’s total advances stood at Rs 5554 crore on September 30 registering yoy growth of 12.59 per cent. Also the per employee business has gone up from Rs 1.05 crore to Rs 1.25 crore as on March 31, 2001, the CMD pointed out.

Replying to a question Mr Puri said that the bank’s main focus would now be better customer service and the SBBJ had immediate plans to introduce single window facility and anytime and anywhere banking facilities.

Referring to ATM, he said that the facility would also be made available to the general customers without any extra charge and a national network with 1000 atms, across the country in coordination with the SBI, would be installed by June 30 next.

50 ATMs would set up by March next in Rajasthan and another 50 would be set up in the next fiscal, Mr Puri said.

The CMD said that top priority would be accorded to technological upgradation and said that as many as 274 branches had already been computerised upto September 30 this year.

The bank had already achieved more than 71 per cent business under the computerised operations he said adding that this was well above the CVC guidelines in this respect.

With 10,410 new Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) being issued during the half year period, the total number of KCC had gone up to 52,157, he said.

The Bank’s priority sector advances to net bank credit as on September 30, 2001, stood at 42.81 per cent against the RBI benchmark of 40 per cent, Mr Puri added. (UNI)

FM: Economic growth will be ‘satisfactory’ despite odds

"I am confident that given our own large market, sub-continental dimension, our own resources and resilience of the economy, it is possible to overcome the challenges and achieve a growth rate which will be satisfactory," Mr Sinha said while addressing the sixth insurance summit organised by the CII.

Admitting that the growth of the manufacturing sector had declined, threatening to offset the gains on the agriculture front, the Finance Minister said, "if manufacture does not pick up, growth will not be as satisfactory as we would expect."

He, however, expressed the hope that things would improve but for some unforeseen developments.

Asserting that the Government was determined to move ahead on the path of liberalisation without shortcircuiting the democratic institutions and procedures, mr sinha admitted that there has been a "lot of disappointment" in labour market reforms.

"However, we must admit that this is the most difficult area of market reforms. There is tremendous opposition. But we are determined to move ahead with reforms."

Responding to remarks that the reform process was faster in China, the Finance Minister assured the trade and industry that "India is not lagging behind and it will move forward within the democratic system we have."

Mr Sinha said the new private companies entering the insurance sector had a great scope for good business as the Indian household had a penchant for saving even if it meant taking risk. This was evident from latest figures which showed that household savings had registered a record of 19.8 per cent of GDP in 1999-2000, from the previous high of 19.7 per cent in 1994-95.

This was despite negative growth in the savings rate of private corporate and public sector enterprises. While the savings of the private corporate was down to 3.7 per cent, from the high of 4.9 per cent in 1995-96, PSE savings declined to minus 1.2 per cent, from two per cent in 1995-96.

Responding to remarks that infrastructure development was progressing at a slow place, Mr Sinha said the Government was counting on insurance and pension funds for meeting the massive investments required for speeding up such development.

Listing the challenges facing the new private players in the insurance sector, the Finance Minister said "opening up the sector has proved to be a powerful fillip for the growth of the public sector, energising it into action."

Identifying the reforms required in the insurance sector, Mr Sinha said there was need for a code of conduct for ensuring best international practices, besides upgrading the supervision and surveillance. Involvement of market participants in decision making should be ensured, as also high solvency standards and alternative distribution channels.

The Insurance Amendment Bill, pending before parliament, would facilitate e-transactions and the use of ATM and credit cards by policy holders.

CII president Sanjiv Goenka said the Confederation did not share the prevailing global feel bad factor and it was possible for India to achieve a six per cent growth in the current year.

Accepting that the right policies were in place and procedures simplified, he, however, said implementation of these was found wanting.

Mr Scott Bayman, President and CEO of GE India, said the reform process should be speeded up further. (UNI)

Exide plans buyback at Rs 70 per share

Exide has proposed to buyback 10 percent of its shares at a maximum price of Rs.70 per share through the open market route.

Exide’s buyback plans come closely after the new ordinance, promulgated recently, which amended the companies act, permitting companies to buy back shares up to 10 percent of their capital and reserves without the need of shareholders’ approval.

Commenting on the decision, Exide chairman S B Ganguly said, we believe this move will help enhance shareholder value.

In the recently declared half yearly results, Exide had revealed a much improved performance during its second quarter with profit before tax at Rs 15.40 crores and sales showing an upward trend. (UNI)

Exports slump 1.95 pc during first six months

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Indian exports continued to be plagued by global recession, as it dipped by 1.95 per cent during the first six months to 20.96 billion dollars and widened the trade deficit to 4.96 billion dollars during the period despite a fall in oil imports.

Exports during September 2001 also saw a decline by 8.61 per cent to 3.52 billion dollars as against 3.85 billion during the same period last year.

Exports during April-September, 2000 stood at 21.39 billion dollars.

Imports during April-September, 2001 are valued at 25.93 billion dollars representing a growth of 1.81 per cent over the level of imports valued at 25.57 billion during the same period of previous year, according to official data released here today.

Oil imports during the first six months are valued at 7.63 billion dollars which is 8.1 per cent lower than oil imports valued at 8.3 billion dollars in the corresponding period last year.

Non-oil imports during April-September, 2001-02 are estimated at 18.3 billion dollars which is 6.6 per cent higher than the level of such imports valued at 17.17 billion during the corresponding period of last year.

Trade deficit during April-September this year is estimated at 4.96 billion which is higher than the deficit of 4.83 billion registered during the same period of last year, official figures reveal. (PTI)

Draft LNG policy to be made public soon: Naik

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: The Government is preparing a draft integrated policy on Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) that would soon be made public to generate debate and obtain feedback, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik said here today.

Inaugurating the first Indo-French LNG conference, Mr Naik said the idea was to evolve a vibrant national policy on LNG because it was emerging as the most important energy source of the 21st century.

The Minister said priority had been accorded to the power and the fertilizer sectors for the use of gas, in addition to extracting value added products like LPG. The Government had also given preference to its use in domestic and transport sectors.

He said his Ministry had made an allocation of around 120 million metric square cubic meter per day (MMSCMD) for the country, while the demand for natural gas was much higher.

The country has total recoverable reserves of 658 million tonnes (mt) of crude oil and 628 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Out of sedimentary area of about 3.14 million square km comprising 26 basins, only six had been explored for oil and gas, he said.

Approximately 70 per cent of the sedimentary area lies unexplored. Only 16 per cent is well explored and the rest is poorly explored, he added.

Till recently, exploration activity was largely in the hands of the two national companies - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL). The two have a share of about 88 per cent of the country’s present oil and gas production, while private and joint venture consortium contribute the rest.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Santosh Gangwar said the availability of gas in the country is just to the tune of around 70 MMSCMD, while the Government has made an allocation of 120 mmscmd. He said this demand is expected to go up further by 2006-07 to around 231 MMSCMD and 391 MMSCMD by 2024-25.

He stressed the need for optimizing utilisation of domestic finds. He said the present production potential of natural gas in Tripura was over 3 million cubic meter per day while utilisation in the region was only one million cubic meter per day, he added.

Speaking at the meet Mr Proshanto Banerjee, chairman and managing director of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) said the fundamental basis of this initiative is to bring the best level of technology and facility to india to prepare it for the 21st century.

He said GAIL in its endevour would enhance the infrastructure facilities to bridge the burgeoning gap between demand and supply of natural gas in the country.

The conference was organised under the aegis of Indo-French working group on energy, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Embassy of France in India. (UNI)

Reduction in purchase tax may not bring succour to growers

In 1997, Government had announced tax reduction from September to November, 1997 at the rate of four per cent and the prices fell from Rs 40 per kg to Rs 32.50 in the period, he said in a release here today.

The tax reduction now announced by Government will benefit the industry to the extent of Rs 18 crores, he said, adding tyre and non-tyre sector industries "are in financial difficulties due to set back in sales."

The carry forward stock was expected to increase to 2,20,0000 tonnes by the end of January next, he said, adding unless substantial quantity of rubber was removed from country through exports, growers will continue to suffer.

Government should have asked the state procuring agencies to purchase 50,000 m tonnes rubber from the market immediately and export the same in two to three months. The procuring agencies could borrow required amount from banks for the purpose, he added. (PTI)

PTL improves operating margins

The operating profit reached Rs 89.2 crore from Rs 86.5 crore, mainly due to the company’s thrust on cost containment and value addition.

The result is considered impressive as other major players in the field like Mahindra, Escorts and Eicher have reported losses.

PTL has improved its market share to 21.4 per cent by selling 21,470 tractors compared to 18.5 per cent during the corresponding period last year.Its improvement in market performance is spread over all the states except Gujarat. (UNI)

Silver continue downward march, gold steady

NEW DELHI, Nov 1: Silver prices continued to decline on the bullion market today on sustained selling by stockists amidst new stocks arrival and closed with further losses. On the other hand, gold was quoted at unchanged levels despite a weak trend in other Asian markets as festival buying saved it from a major fall. Marketmen said stockists who created huge stocks in silver ahead of festival season and Diwali were seen selling part of it influenced by a weak trend in international market. They said gold was also under pressure but escaped any major fall on scattered buying by local customers for the festivals. Gold in Hong Kong market was quoted down by more than two US dollar an ounce at 278.60 U.S. dollar. Silver ready was further down by Rs.45 at Rs.7155 per kilo and weekly delivery by Rs.35 at Rs.7155 per kilo. Silver coins remained unchanged at Rs.11,500/11,600 per 100 pieces. Standard gold and ornaments were unchanged at Rs.4650 and Rs.4500 per ten gram respectively. Sovereign was quoted at last level of Rs.3850 per piece of eight gram. Following were today’s quotations: Silver ready 7155 and delivery 7155. Silver coins buyer 11,500 and seller 11,600 standard gold 4650, ornaments 4500 and sovereign 3850. (PTI)