Showcause notice to Bharti Telenet

NEW DELHI, Nov 20: The Communications Ministry has issued a showcause notice to Bharti Telenet on misuse of 180 PCO lines as MTNL and BSNL were not getting the revenue from these connections, Lok Sabha was informed today.

Replying to a spate of queries on telecom racket, Minister for Information Technology and Communications Pramod Mahajan said sale of Virtual Calling Card (VCC) without liearnet as brand name in and around Delhi had resulted in losses of around Rs 1.52 crore.

The Minister said fraud control management system has been prepared and any abnormality will be immediately tracked down.

To a demand by Madan Jaiswal (BJP) that CBI probe into this and other rackets involving ISD and STD, the Minister said a permanent special cell of the investigating agency has been set up in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai exclusively for detecting and checking telecom related frauds.

He said close coordination between service providers and investigating agencies is maintained to book offenders.

Mahajan said 51 persons have been arrested for illegal operations since January 1, 2001 and action has been initiated against them by CBI and police.

He said since January 1, 2001, 75 cases involving private firms and persons have been detected for illegal routing of incoming international calls resulting in notional loss to service providers. Besides, 32 other cases of misuse of STD and ISD involving at least 67 persons have also been reported.

The loss suffered by BSNL and MTNL in 16 of these cases is estimated to be around Rs 1.52 crore and in the remaining cases, the loss could not be assessed, he said.(PTI)

Rs 78,000 cr a small target after all clearances: DOD

NEW DELHI, Nov 20 : Amid the ongoing controversies over divestment process, the Disinvestment Ministry today claimed that it could easily garner many times more funds than the disinvestment target of Rs 78,000 crore for the 10th plan provided decks were cleared by the political executive.

"We can raise much more resources than the target of Rs 78,000 crore set for the tenth plan period if all the disinvestment related issues are cleared by the political executive," Disinvestment Secretary Pradeep Baijal told PTI.

At the same time he expressed concern that the disinvestment process had slowed down considerably and warned that even the target of Rs 12,000 crore set for the current financial year was difficult to be achieved in the present circumstances.

He, however, declined to comment on the ongoing political debate on whether Government should not sell equity in profit making PSUs or whether disinvestment should be pursued through public offerings and not strategic sale route.

"It is for the political executive to take a decision on these issues. Once we are told of the decision we can proceed. As such we have put in place a transparent process which allows disinvestment at much lesser time than what was experienced say in case of IBP and Co," he said.

On the potential of the resource mobilisation through disinvestment if given the go ahead, Baijal said "it is possible to raise Rs 11 lakh crore or 9 or 6 lakh crore through disinvestment provided political process permitted."

He said that Government has so far disinvested only 1.13 per cent of its total equity holding in the PSUs from which it has realised around Rs 11,000 crore. (PTI)

Remove misgivings over time limit for disclosures: Assocham

NEW DELHI, Nov 20: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has urged the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to remove misgivings over the time limit for disclosures and called for a re-look at ‘harsh’ penalty for non-compliance of the regulation relating to continual disclosure.

The chamber, in a representation to SEBI, has pointed out that as per regulation seven, any acquirer who acquires shares or voting rights which together with any shares or voting rights already held by him would entitle him to more than five per cent of shares or voting rights in a company shall disclose the aggregate of his shareholding/ voting power to the company within four working days of the receipt of intimation of allotment of shares or the acquisition of shares or voting rights as the case may be.

Similarly, the public announcement referred to in regulation 10 (relating to acquisition of 15 per cent or more of voting rights) or regulation 11 (relating to consolidation of holdings) shall be made not later than four working days of entering into an agreement for acquisition of shares or voting rights or deciding to acquire shares or voting rights exceeding the stipulated limit.

The aforesaid limit of four days is amenable to different interpretations since it is not clear as to how the limit has to be calculated whether the day of acquisition or entering into an agreement for acquisition or decision to acquire should be taken into account (irrespective of the time of acquisition or agreement or decision) or not.

Again, whether the day on which intimation is to be given to the company (for the purpose of regulation no.7) or the public announcement should be made (in terms of regulation 14) should be included or not.

For instance, a person acquires 16 per cent shares of a company at 10 a.m. on the 15th of a month. Assuming that the next few days are working days, whether the public announcement should be made on 18th or 19th or the next working day of that month? would it make any difference if the acquisition is done at 10 p.m. on the 15th instead of 10 a.m.

Further, the chamber has stated that one of the amendments to the SEBI (substantial acquisition of shares and takeovers) regulations, 1997 is the substitution of regulation no.44. According this regulation non-compliance with the disclosure requirement in regulations six, seven or eight, SEBI may interalia, direct disinvestment of such shares as are in excess of the trigger point for disclosure requirements as well as to impose monetary penalty.

Regulation six is a transitional provision. Regulation seven relates to first time disclosure and disclosure on consolidation. Regulation eight relates to continual disclosure by a person holding more than 15 per cent shares or voting rights in any company within 21 days from the financial year ending 31st march and/or record date of the company for dividend.

Assocham has pointed out that it is possible that a person, required to make disclosure under regulation eight, may omit or delay the same inadvertently leading to sebi directing disinvestment of surplus shares.

While the amendment for contravention of regulation six and seven is punitive in nature and hence to be retained, it is our considered view that the penalty provided for contravention of regulation eight is very harsh and hence may be reconsidered, the chamber said. (UNI)

SEBI approves Kania Committee report

NEW DELHI, Nov 20: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has approved the M H Kania Committee’s report on demutualisation and corporatisation of stock exchanges in its entirety, a key SEBI official said today.

The market watchdog approved the recommendations "in toto" at its last board meeting earlier this month, SEBI Executive Director R M Joshi told UNI here.

The Kania Committee report was keenly awaited as many bourses, including the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Delhi Stock Exchange are holding on to their plans of merger, and others like inter-connected stock exchange are hoping to revive themselves once SEBI frames guidelines on demutualisation and corporatisation.

However, framing of guidelines may take some time as it required amendments to the income tax act,1961, the securities contract (regulations) act, 1956, and the indian stamps act, 1899.

The Government may have to amend the income tax act for taxing future profits of stock exchanges after they are corporatised and exempt them from paying high stamp duties while transferring assets, official sources had said earlier.

Besides, the clause (j) of section 2 of SCRA will have to be amended to mean that the stock exchanges could be companies incorporated under the companies act.

The present provisions under the clause defines stock exchanges to "mean any body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, constituted for the purpose of assisting regulating or controlling the business of buying, selling or dealing in securities".

This clause needs to be amended to convert a stock exchange into a company incorporated under the companies act. The terms of the reference of the committee, set up under the chairmanship of former Chief Justice of India M H Kania, included suggestions on demutualisation: separating trading, ownership and membership of bourses— and corporatisation of bourses.

There are two parts to this transition— one, which involves changing the voluntary not-for-profit character of the entity into a for-profit one (in some cases into a corporate body as well) and second, is the process of delinking of ownership of the entity by the members from their trading rights.

The committee was formed earlier this year after the Government announced its proposal to corporatise the stock exchanges, segregating ownership, management and trading rights.

Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in his budget speech for 2002-03 had said that this process would be completed during current fiscal.

The committee, in its report submitted to SEBI on August 28, said the Government’s announcement clearly implies that the process of demutualisation would have to take place through corporatisation of the stock exchanges.

At present three stock exchanges— the Bombay Stock Exchange, Ahmedabad Stock Exchange (ASE) and Madhya Pradesh Stock Exchange (MPSE) have been set up as voluntary non-profit making association of persons seven bourses are companies limited by shares and the remaining 13 are companies limited by guarantee. (UNI)

India committed to reforms: PM

NEW DELHI, Nov 20: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today declared India’s commitment to the process of reforms, the ongoing differences within his cabinet on disinvestments in profit-making public sector units in the oil sector notwithstanding.

"The Indian Government will concentrate on infrastructure projects in the next phase of reforms," Mr Vajpayee told a four-member Canadian Parliamentary delegation, which called on him here this afternoon.

Addressing a press conference here at the end of their week-long visit to India, members of the Canadian delegation, led by Senate Speaker Daniel Hays, said, "we believe India will become a developed nation sooner than later."

"There is no going back on the reforms process...Liberalisation is here to stay," Mr Deepak Obhrai, a member of the delegation quoted Mr Vajpayee as saying. The other members of the delegation were : Mr John Lynch-Staunton, leader of the opposition in the Canadian Senate and Senator Mobina S B Jaffer.

During the course of their stay in New Delhi, the delegation members, besides meeting the Prime Minister, held talks with External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptulla, Chief Eelection Commissioner J M Lyngdoh and other important dignitaries. Mr Hays said the delegation also discussed various other issues with the Prime Minister, including the current Indo-Pak stand-off.

Mr Vajpayee told the delegation that New Delhi could resume dialogue with Pakistan only if the neighbouring country stopped aiding and abetting cross-border terrorism.

Paying rich tributes to the Indian democracy, Mr Hays said, "we are quite impressed at the way the Indian Parliament functions...We witnessed the proceedings of the Houses."

The delegation members hailed the recently concluded Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Despite the terrorist threat, 44 per cent of the electorate in the State exercised their franchise, which was quite a healthy development, they said.

They were confident that the coming Assembly elections in Gujarat would also be free and fair. (UNI)

Preliminary agreement for ADB loan finalised

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Nov 20: Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony today said the preliminary agreement for the multi-million dollar loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had been finalised.

Addressing a post-cabinet press briefing here, he said, however several more hurdles would have to be cleared for getting the assistance.

After being cleared by the ADB Board, the preliminary agreement would have to be cleared by the Union Government, he added.

According to reports, Kerala is likely to get the first instalment of the Rs 3,000 crore ADB loan by the end of December.

Referring to local bodies, he firmly denied any move to curtail their powers and made it clear that several new projects like the ambitious e-literacy campaign would be implemented through them in an attempt to strengthen the decentralisation process.

Denying that the ADB was against the decentralisation process, he said his Government did not want to mix politics with the functioning of the local bodies.

On the proposed urban regulatory authority, he said the Government would not constitue any authority, adversely affecting the functioning of the local bodies.

During the tenth plan period, local bodies would get Rs 8,000 crore out of the total outlay of Rs 24,000 crore.

On regulating self-financing professional colleges, he said next week the State Cabinet would finalise the guidelines for admissions. (UNI)

Punjab Govt to release DA instalment soon

ROPAR (PUNJAB), Nov 20: The Punjab Government would soon release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to its seven lakh employees on the pattern of Central Government, Finance Minister Lal Singh said today.

The State Government has also decided to create a central pool for the surplus employees of the Government for their further deployment in various departments where there is a shortage of staff, he told reporters here.

He said that the Government wuld release this instalment at the rate of three percent per month with effect from July one, 2002 on the central pattern.

Singh said that no Government employee would be retrenched "even if they were surplus with the Government and now the Government has decided to create a central pool for such employees and they would be further deployed from the pool to the varius departments where there may be shortage of staff".

He said the Government would generate additional revenue by stopping tax evasion in the present tax structure.

Singh said that now the world’s leading financing insitutions had come forward to extend financial help to the state in big way and the State Government had taken fresh steps to improve the financial position.

He said that previous Akali-BJP Government had handed over to them a "debt of Rs 52,000 crore to our government which is a major liability for the State Government".

He said Punjab Government had successfully procureed the wheat and paddy with the help of State farmers and there was no major complaint against the procuring staff.

He said that State had procured more then 12 lakh metric tonnes of paddy in comparison to the previous procurment season.

Singh said the Government had purchased electricity worth Rs 400 crore from the neighbouring States to ensure then hours power supply for the State farmers during the last draught season. (PTI)

Precious metals receive setback on weak overseas market

NEW DELHI, Nov 20: Both the precious metals, silver and gold, plunged on the bullion market today on stockists’ selling triggered by weak overseas advices and surrendered fresh ground.

Marketmen said stockists were offering part of their holding in view of a weak trend in the overseas markets which mainly control trading sentiment in domestic markets.

They said most of the Australian traders were active sellers in other Asian markets to book profit as their currency became cheaper against the US dollar.

Standard gold and ornaments dropped by Rs 35 each at Rs 5255 and Rs 5105 per 10 gram respectively. Sovereign also lost Rs 25 at Rs 4200 per piece of eight gram.

Silver ready plunged by Rs 70 at Rs 7695 per kilo while weekly-based delivery declined by Rs 45 at Rs 7690 per kilo. Silver coins were 0/11,900 per 100 pieces.

Following were today’s quotations: silver ready 7695 and delivery 7690. Silver coins buyer 11,800 and seller 11,900 standard gold 5255, ornaments 5105 and sovereign 4200. (PTI)

CIDA to fund developmental projects in Uttaranchal

DEHRADUN, Nov 20: Canada International Development Agency (CIDA) would provide technical and funding assistance to Uttaranchal for developmental activities in the fields of floriculture, agriculture and tourism development.

This was conveyed to Uttaranchal Chief Minister N D Tiwari by Robert Woodhouse, head of CIDA’s community-based economic development project, when he met the Chief Minister here today.

Tiwari suggested wodhouse to help increase the per capita income of Uttaranchal, an official release said.

Millions of graduates are seeking employment and Canada’s specialization in vocational system of education could help develop training facilities, Tiwari said adding that there was scope for developing electronic industry in the State. (PTI)

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