Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 11: Chief Secretary, Mr Ashok Jaitly said that the Jammu and Kashmir has vast potential....more

Daewoo-ICICI finalise 16 pc
interest finance for Matiz

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: ICICI Limited has finalised a 16 per cent interest on both the booking amount and the final loan for Daewoo Motor India Limited.....more

IIP intends to say
goodbye to
Govt funding

DEHRADUN, Nov 11: The Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) here intends to become financially independent....more

Kurlon enters into
JV with Dupont

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: Kurlon Limited, a Manipal Group Company, has entered.......more

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has bagged a consultancy assignment for providing operation and maintenance services for two units of 125 MW each of Surat Lignite Power Project......more

Indirect tax collections
dismal: Javed Choudhury

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: Revenue secretary Javed Choudhury today stated that a shortfall in collections of indirect taxes during the year is likely.......more

Besides, ICICI is also offering interest rate concessions on the final loan to the extent of one per cent to its existing bond holders and Anagram Finance Customers, institution sources told here.

Concessions ranging to about a quarter of a per cent would also be offered to existing Cielo owners and women, the sources added.

While the interest rate for the booking product will remain the same across the country, the rate of interest on the final loan would vary from state to state. In Delhi and Mumbai, the loan would be provided at 16 per cent interest rate while in Chennai, it will be close to 16.5 per cent.

The company would be charging, for the Matiz, Rs 5,000 at booking amount, which would be 30-day product. It means that a customer either collects delivery within 30 days or cancels his booking. The scheme is set to expire on December 15, the sources added.

Daewoo had earlier announced that the company would be collecting just 3,000 bookings for the Matiz in the first phase and the second phase of bookings would commence only after the first lot of orders are met.

Besides ICICI, the company has also entered into financial arrangements with countrywide financing of the Matiz. In addition, it has joined hands with six other financial institutions — American Express, Bank of America, Citi Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Standard Chartered and Sundaram Finance for Private Label Financing to maximise its reach.

The company has also decided not to take the booking route for Matiz. Direct order acceptance for the car would start tomorrow through the 102 Matiz dealers in 86 cities and deliveries would commence on November 16.

With an installed capacity of 72,000 cars per annum at the plant, the company intends to sell 12,000 units of Matiz by March 1999 and 60,000 units in the next year. Beyond 2001, the company intends to sell one lakh cars per annum.

India is one of the three manufacturing facilities worldwide and second only to Korea where production of the Matiz has begun. The third manufacturing base for the Matiz is East Europe.

According to plans, in addition to DMIL’s 200-strong dealer network, Matiz will be sold by direct marketing and through CD ROMs and Internet. To start with, the car would have close to 40 per cent local content level and will achieve 70 per cent localisation within six months of its launch. After this, most of the components will be manufactured in-house and by captive vendors.

The car boasts of a fuel efficiency of 25 km to a litre of petrol under test conditions. Exhaustive test runs have been conducted across the country on the vehicle.

The results are as per the durability test conducted on the vehicle at Millbrook and Mira proving ground in Britain. The total mileage accumulated was 1.8 million km.

Besides, different environment tests, dust intrusion and corrosion tests have also been carried out on the car, Mr Awasthi said.

Daewoo’s total worldwide production of Matiz is expected to reach four lakh units a year when all the plants are up and running. The Matiz is a 796cc petrol driven car which delivers a power of 52bhp at 6000rpm. The car is styled with a five door hatchback and is fitted with a dual collapsible steering.

The company is also looking at making India an export base for the Matiz. (UNI)

We want to say goodbye to the Government and generate resources, even for staff salaries, from sources other than the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), he told visiting newsmen last week.

IIP, like other CSIR Institutes, receives majority of its fund requirements from CSIR.

In the last five years, Rs 35 crore as been invested in IIP without CSIR’s assistance, he said.

Government should at least double science allocations to sustain the threat to Indian science in the next millenium, he said.

Though successive Governments had been trying to improve science, grants were still meagre as much of the budget went for salaries and, as a result, research efforts were being adversely affected, he said.

Prasada Rao said the 40 CSIR laboratories had asked for Rs 200 crore for their modernisation in the current five year plan and Science Minister Murli Manohar Joshi had assured to allocate the amount in a phase-wise manner. (PTI)

Kurlon Vice President (marketing) S Sunder Rajan told here that Kurlon holds 50 per cent stake each in both the ventures — Kurlon Dupont Limited and Kurlon Sealy Limited — with an initial investment of Rs 10 crore and Rs 20 crore respectively.

Mr Rajan said recently Kurlon has tied up with both the companies for the manufacture and marketing of polyfibre mattresses under the brand name ‘comforel’ and spring mattresses called ‘posturedic’. Kurlon’s marketing strength would give the joint ventures a great advantage in the Indian market.

A common manufacturing plant for both the companies has been set up at Dobersepet near Bangalore and trial production has already begun.

The unit has an installed capacity to produce 10,000 dupont mattresses per month and 2,000 sealy spring mattresses. While the dupont products would be priced upwards of Rs 3,000, sealy would be targetted at the high-end segment carrying a price tag ranging between Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 per piece, Mr Rajan said.

Dupont products would be ready for marketing by January and Sealy products would enter the market by February next year, he added.

Kurlon Limited presently has a market share of 65 per cent and hopes to enhance it further with the new tie-ups. (UNI)

The jury of the Institute of British Carriage and Automobile Manufacturers (IBCAM) contest selected Matiz as the best small car for the design award. The award was given for the product itself and not just the package, a statement issued here today said.

The ‘world’s most beautiful automobile’ contest was organised under the aegis of automobile Srl. Matiz won the contest in the small division comprising saloon car with two to five doors. It was declared the most beautiful car from among Fiat’s Seicento, Renault’s Twingo 2, new Clio and Nissan’s new Micra.

The award giving ceremony would be held in January at the polytechnic of Milan, Italy.

Matiz in India is scheduled for a formal launch tomorrow. (UNI)

NTPC bags consultancy order

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has bagged a consultancy assignment for providing operation and maintenance services for two units of 125 MW each of Surat Lignite Power Project.

The Project being set up by Gujarat Industries Power Co. is a lignite based one adopting Circulating Fludised Bed Combustion (CFBC) technology.

According to official sources, the assignment is valued at around Rs 4.5 crore for a period of three years.

Under the consultancy assignment, NTPC will render services like deployment of experts for O and M of the plant and development of O and M system. (UNI)

Indirect tax collections dismal: Javed Choudhury

NEW DELHI, Nov 11: Revenue secretary Javed Choudhury today stated that a shortfall in collections of indirect taxes during the year is likely.

"Revenue collections have not been buoyant and indirect taxes have been particularly sluggish," Mr Choudhury told newspersons here.

However, he said that collection of direct taxes has recorded a growth of 19 per cent over the previous year but there has been a shortfall in indirect tax collection. But Mr Choudhury refused to give any details and figures.

Earlier, while addressing a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr Choudhury said in 1998-99, when the global growth would not be over three per cent, India is likely to witness a GDP growth rate of six per cent.

"Given this strength of the economy, it is felt a greater degree of integration could be effected with the global economy without a high risk."

Talking about the Prevention of Money Laundering Bill (PMLB) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the revenue secretary said both the bills have been placed before Parliament and the Ministry of Finance has given its highest recommendation to the standing committee in favour of the bills.

However, he stated that the department had an open mind on the bills and would welcome any suggestions which could be incorporated in the bills before enacting the final law.

He said that the Finance Ministry has arrived at a consensus that it would be excessive to extend a tough law as PMLB to various common offences which cover falsification of accounts, forgery of valuable securities, use of counterfeit currency notes.

Mr Choudhury further stated that criticism has been made of the provisions under clause 3(b) of the PMLB to the effect that even if a person innocently enters into any transaction, which is related to the proceeds of crime, either directly or indirectly, he commits the offence of money laundering.

"The general consensus in the Ministry is that the provisions in respect of this sub-clause should be modified so as to protect an innocent purchaser of movable property. This can be achieved by amending the clause to say that it would apply to anyone who knowingly and willingly enters into a transaction," he added.

The RBI and other representatives of the banking institutions have objected to the proposed provision in clause 11 requiring that transactions in excess of Rs 25 lakh be compulsorily reported to the Income Tax Department. However, the Ministry feels that the threshold limit is too low and the Government could consider notifying only cash transactions above a threshold of Rs one crore.

However, he said that in the context of recent developments, it is equally important that a law of the nature of the PMLB be made adequately stringent. (UNI)

CS for taping state’s industrial potential

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 11: Chief Secretary, Mr Ashok Jaitly said that the Jammu and Kashmir has vast potential for development of industrial sector which hold key to provide employment avenues.

Speaking at a seminar on "Industry and Business Opportunities in J&K State" , organised by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry here this evening, the Chief Secretary said that the revival and promotion of industrial activity is being stepped up. He stated that while the local units were being encouraged, efforts are on to attract investment from all over the country.

The Chief Secretary argued that in view of liberalisation, the industry sector will have to stand on their own by modernising and adopting new methods of marketing and management.

Mr Jaitly emphasised that the incentives once promised by the Government must be fulfilled.

Describing the industry and business as a vital factor of states economy, the Chief Secretary, stressed the need for revival of activities to improve the overall financial health of Jammu and Kashmir.

Referring to power sector, he pointed out that there was immense resources of untapped hydel power which must be fully exploited.

State is incurring loss of nearly Rs 500 crore in power sector, he said and added that it is imperative that tariff should be hiked to a reasonable level.

The Chief Secretary gave a call to industrialists both in the state and the country to start their ventures especially in key sector, where raw material is available and value-added items. The small scale industrial units have a crucial role in economy of the state, he added.

Mr Ramesh Gupta, president, Chamber of Commerce and Industry in his welcome address called for a comprehensive strategy to give a boost to industry and business activities in the state. He demanded that tourism, sericulture, floriculture, agro-based, horticulture and handicraft sector be given due importance. The software and precision instruments too have their role, he said.

Mr Gupta said power generation programmes must be taken up vigorously in the private sector. The shortage of power hits the industrial sector and so adequate supply of power has to be ensured.

Mr Parvez Dewan, Commissioner, Tourism spoke about the role of this sector as back-bone of the economy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Director, Small Scale Industries, Government of India, Mrs Gurpyari also spoke.

Mr Devender Mahajan, president Bari Brahmana Industrial Association (BBIA), Mr Rattan Dogra, president Association of Small Scale Industries (ASSI), Gangyal, Mr Kuldeep Dogra, president, Small Scale Industries and Prof J N Sadhu gave their assessment of industrial scenario in the state and gave some suggestions for rapid industrialisation and boosting economic activity.

Mr Parveen Gupta, vice president, CCI presented vote of thanks. A large number of captains of industry, leading businessmen, and senior officers attended the seminar.

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