 |
|
| HC notice to
AEPC, Centre on exporters’ guild plea NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Delhi High Court has issued show cause notices to the Union Textiles Ministry and the . ....more FIEO
calls for customs NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has called upon the Union Government to...more Political instability takes NEW
DELHI, Dec 29: Despite
brave words of optimism and concerted action at the
highest levels in the government, coalition.... more NASHIK,
Dec 29: (SMS)
of onion producers have decided to observe a bandh in
Lasalgaon on JanuaryThe Shetkari Mazoor. ...more MUMBAI, Dec 29: Bangladeshi High Commissioner Shafi Sami....more |
 |
Paint and varish
companies evading Sales Tax JAIPUR, Dec 29: The State Commercial Taxation Department has detected evasion in sales tax worth Rs nine crore....more Autodesk Inc named SAN RAFAEL, Dec 29: Autodesk INC has been named one of the "100 best companies to work for in America" by....more ASSOCHAM predicts NEW
DELHI, Dec 29: The
Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India
today claimed that paring of the GDP growth forecast by
the Reserve ....more BANGALORE,
Dec 29: Indian
Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-IC) has successfully
completed its designed life of three years, according to
. .more NASIK, Dec 29: Prices of onion at Lasalgaon and Manmad markets in the district crashed following arrival of the commodity..more |
 |
HC notice to AEPC, Centre on exporters’ guild plea NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Delhi High Court has issued show cause notices to the Union Textiles Ministry and the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) on a plea of the exporters’ guild highlighting alleged financial irregularities and bunglings of over Rs 100 crore, committed by AEPC and its executive committee. Justice Anil Dev Singh issued the notices on the petition filed by the All India Garment Exporters common cause guild and five prominent garment exporters through their advocates Sohail Datt, Jagdev Singh and Saran Suri. The guild urged the court to direct the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) or any other independent agency to investigate the financial affairs of AEPC and fix a time frame for completing the investigation. The investigation should also be conducted to ascertain how the Government permitted AEPC to indulge in such "fraudulent activities" for years together. Responsibilities should be fixed against officials responsible for "misapplication and illegal retention of Government funds and their mis-utilisation," the petition demanded. The guild urged the court to prevent the Government from extending any fresh grant to the AEPC as it was brazenly committing financial irregularities and not meeting the very purposes and conditions of the grant. It wanted a court declaration that the imposition of conditions of providing earnest money deposits and bank guarantees for quota in relation to Berlin fair as well as forfeiture of the said amounts of the exporters was wholly without jurisdiction being outside the purview of the garment export entitlement policy of AEPC. The guild said the petition was being filed to safeguard exporters’ interests following "total misutilisation, misapplication and misappropriation of the public funds of the Government as well as that of the exporting community meant to be used for export promotion with impunity and with knowledge of the Textile Ministry." The petition also pointed out "total inaction" by the Government to prevent, check and control the "irregularities" being committed. (UNI) |
|
FIEO calls for customs duty on export production NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has called upon the Union Government to make the customs duty on inputs for export production. FIEO president Ramu S Deora, in a pre-budget memorandum, said anomalies continue to exist in the duty structure in respect of some industries and products. In fact, he says, in every annual budget, fresh anomalies have crept in where none existed before. Mr Deora said the anomalies in such cases should be rectified by reducing the duty on inputs by at least five per cent as compared to the duty on the finished products. The FIEO president has also suggested reduction of customs duty on spares. This is essential, he says, because manufacturers who have imported textile machinery for export production have to import essential spares for maintenance and repairs on a continuing basis. Imports of such spares at high tariff rates, he said, adds to their overall production cost. Similarly, he opined that the customs duty on apparel grade raw wool should be reduced to five per cent so that exporters can compete with their counterparts from China, Korea, Japan, European Union, where the import duty on apparel grade wool is ‘zero’. The FIEO president has also suggested that the levy of Special Additional Duty (SAD) should be abolished, according to a FIEO release here. (UNI) |
|
Political instability takes heavy toll of floundering economy NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Despite brave words of optimism and concerted action at the highest levels in the government, coalition politics and lack of consensus on crucial macro economic issues among political parties have taken a heavy toll of the floundering economy this year, with the much-touted internal road map of reforms yet to see the light of day. The industry according to the Associated Chambers of the Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) is clearly disappointed by the turn of events during the year with the uneven pace of economic reforms occupying the centrepiece of the gloom on the economic front. While appreciating the efforts of the Finance Ministry to pull the economy out of the morass, the ASSOCHAM president K P Singh lamented that the capital market continues to be depressively low, key infrastructure sectors, the main growth drives, have yet to receive the boost and there is a lack of clarity of approach towards attracting FDI (exemplified by the Tata Airlines case). According to the Chambers’ assessment, "many vital domestic reform measures are lagging behind. Some like opening up the insurance sector and IPR issues took a backseat because of lack of political consensus. Investments are stalled because of procedural delays in supplying basic infrastructure, such as electricity, water, roads and communication." Worse, public sector enterprises which supply the bulk of basic inputs and infrastructure, continue to be run inefficiently and 3xcessive fiscal subsidy is not only inflating fiscal deficit but leading to misallocation of resources. The question uppermost in the minds of businessmen is whether the economy will recover in 1999. The Chamber feels that industry could recover next year provided a conducive climate is created. Wherein the current level of real interest rate would have to be brought down by at least two to three percentage points. This would require a big reduction in fiscal deficit. Moreover, public investment in infrastructure would have to be stepped up considerably, which under the present circumstances seems unlikely. In the absence of favourable domestic impulses, the country’s hope lies in a quick recovery of the world economy. A rise in export growth will improve the trade balance and put the pressure off the current account deficit. The improved trade balance would, in turn, increase gdp through the multiplier effect and thereby increase the government’s tax revenue. This would eventually lower the fiscal deficit and the inflation rate. Cautioning against expecting a big jump in GDP growth through fiscal expansion, ASSOCHAM pointed out that a spurt in aggregate demand may benefit the domestic industry only in the short run. In the medium and long permit may aggravate the already deteriorating balance of trade, exchange rate, fiscal deficit and inflation. The long term solution, therefore, lies in improving the productivity of labour and capital through micro-level reforms. In the absence of exansionary fiscal and monetary policy, it will be the recovery of the exports and the agricultural sector which should lead to a structural improvement in demand. This, according to assocham, would influence business expectations positively. However, this improvement will remain fragile if the world economy does not recover sufficiently. Given favourable circumstances, it is reasonable to expect that investment should start flowing, although the rise in investment would only be modest. The non-agricultural sector is likely to grow faster from 1.5 per cent now to around 6.7 to seven per cent in 1999. Regarding the fiscal and monetary policy options before the Government, ASSOCHAM stated that the Government would be able to raise public expenditure only moderately, if it is to be financed by current revenue. The option to raise tax rates is inconvenient, because that will harm private expenditure and offset the positive impact on the economy. On the other hand, too much widening of the Government deficit will fuel inflation again and will force the Reserve Bank to tighten the monetary policy. If the Government deficit remains at least stable there may be even some room for further softening of monetary policy. But this would also depend on the Government’s ability to restrain inflation levels. Under the current uncertain situation, it is unlikely that investment growth will pick up strongly in 1999-2000. With excess capacity at the aggregate level, demand will have to grow at a much faster rate to stimulate investments in enterprises substantially. Therefore, only a modest acceleration of investment growth from four per cent to five per cent can be expected. On the other hand, consumption growth will slow down again slightly due to the absence of new impulses from monetary policy, the Chamber said in a statement here. (UNI) |
|
SMS to observe bandh in Lasalgaon on Jan 5 NASHIK, Dec 29: The Shetkari Mazoor Sanghtana (SMS) of onion producers have decided to observe a bandh in Lasalgaon on January five to protest against the Government decision to ban the export of onions which has resulted in severe losses for the farmers. The SMS leader Laxman Pagar, in a meeting called to address onion growing farmers yesterday at Lasalgaon Bazar samiti, said that the excess availability of onions in the bazaar have lowered the prices of onions as much as Rs 104 per quintal which caused great loss to farmers. The ban on export has resulted in a glut which in turn will result in wastage of crop due to abundance, he added. (UNI) |
|
B’desh calls India to expand list of importable items MUMBAI, Dec 29: Bangladeshi High Commissioner Shafi Sami today called upon India to expand the list of freely importable items from his country. "India could at the most retain a small negative list, barring, which all other goods could be made freely importable from bangladesh," Mr Sami said while addressing a meeting organised by FICCI here yesterday. He said such a gesture by India would go a long way towards confidence building measures between the two countries. Mr Sami urged Indian corporates to tap vast opportunities in Bangladesh. He said Bangladesh can export its surplus gas and power to the North-East and West Bengal. (UNI) |
|
Paint and varish companies evading Sales Tax JAIPUR, Dec 29: The State Commercial Taxation Department has detected evasion in sales tax worth Rs nine crore by wholesale dealers and manufacturing companies of paints and varnish. Cases were registered against these companies and the Department is expected to recover Rs 1.50 crore from tax, penalty and interest from the tax evaders, an official release said. The release said the Department recovered penalty to the tune of Rs 18.50 crore till November this year from the tax evaders. A sum of Rs 28 lakh was recovered recently from two commercial firms in Jaipur and Jodhpur by settling their tax evasion cases. The Department would launch a special recovery drive from January one to achieve the recovery target for the year, the release added. (PTI) |
|
Autodesk Inc named best company SAN RAFAEL, Dec 29: Autodesk INC has been named one of the "100 best companies to work for in America" by Fortune magazine. The rankings, which appear in the January 11th issue of fortune, were compiled through extensive research, analysis and a poll of more than 27,000 employees at hundreds of companies nationwide. Autodesk is number 35 on the list from over 200 companies considered, and one of only 21 companies from California honoured this year. Autodesk is the fourth largest PC software company in the world and the leading supplier of PC design software and multimedia tools. More than three million customers use the company’s 2D and 3D products for architectural design, civil engineering design and surveying, mechanical design, geographic information systems and mapping, and through its kinetix division for film and video production, and video game and web content development. (UNI) |
ASSOCHAM predicts decline in economic growth NEW DELHI, Dec 29: The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India today claimed that paring of the GDP growth forecast by the Reserve Bank of India to less than six per cent conforms to the assessment by the Chamber in early November that the economy would not growth by more than 5.5 per cent during the year. The Chamber’s assessment was announced at the seminar on ‘Mid-Year Review of the Economy’ which was inaugurated by the RBI Governor Bimal Jalan. The RBI, in its report an currency and finance, 1997-98 has expressed concern over the Government’s fiscal management, stating that the April-October trends show that the fiscal deficit target of 5.6 per cent will not be met, mainly due to over 28 per cent increase in revenue expenditure and a slow 11.7 per cent growth in revenue receipts. ASSOCHAM had predicted that the fiscal deficit could easily balloon to Rs 1,05,000 crore, representing 6.4 per cent of the GDP. For achieving substainable and higher growth rates, the need of the hour, according to ASSOCHAM, is to address the structural weaknesses, by improving the rate of return on capital in PSUs, aggressive disinvestment, reducing public dissaving, lowering government debt and increasing capital expenditure so that business confidence improves. There is also need to priorities infrastructure funding by infusing long-term funds like insurance, P.F. and pension funds and give a major thrust to the short-gestation and less capital-intensive services sector, ASSOCHAM said in a statement here. (UNI) IRS-IC completes 3 years of operation BANGALORE, Dec 29: Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS-IC) has successfully completed its designed life of three years, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The satellite, which was launched by Russian Molniya rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhastan on Dec 28,1995, continued to function satisfactorily and there was sufficient propellant on board for attitude and orbit control operations. At present, the satellite was in a polar sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 817 km with an orbital inclination of 98.71 degree with respect to equator, an ISRO release said today. The 1,250-kg satellite was carrying a unique combination of three cameras — a Panchromatic Camera (PAN), a Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor (LISS-III) operating in four spectral bands and a Wide Field Sensor (WIFs) with a resolution of 188.3m and a wide swath of 810 km. IRS-IC was joined by an identical satellite, IRS-1D, on Sept 29, 1997. IRS-1C had so far completed about 15,600 orbits and data from this satellite was being received by several stations —USA, Korea, Japan, Dubai and Germany — besides the Indian National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad, it said. The other launches planned are IRS-P4 (Oceansat) for Ocean Remote Sensing, IRS-P5 (Cartosat) for high resolution mapping and IRS-P6 (Resourcesat) for resources survey in the coming years. (PTI) NASIK, Dec 29: Prices of onion at Lasalgaon and Manmad markets in the district crashed following arrival of the commodity at Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC). Onion prices declined by Rs 200 in Manmad APMC and by Rs 304 in Lasalgaon APMC during auction held yesterday. About 262 quintals of onion was auctioned at the rate of Rs 401 to Rs 821 per quintal in Manmad market. Senior Congress leaders from Lasalgaon have sent a fax message to Union Agriculture Minister and Commerce Minister asking them to lift the ban on onion export forthwith, a report said. (PTI) |
|