HMIL will finish calander year with addl production

BANGALORE, Oct 23: The Hyundai Motor India Limited, makers of the Santro and the luxury segment Accent cars, will finish the calender year with an additional production of 5000 cars.

Company president A P Gandhi told newsmen here last night that the company would be producing 55,000 cars during the current year as against the targetted 50,000 vehicles. Accent whose bookings started two days ago would account for 2500 cars. The financial year would see a production of 60,000 vehicles, he added.

The company which completed sale of 50,000 santros recently, had cornered 38 per cent of the market for the lower end cars during the last two months.

He said Santro had an indigenous content of 86 per cent while the local component content for accent was estimated at around 70 per cent.

Aimed at upper class and higher end of the market, accent deluxe models were expected to sell well, Mr Gandhi said and added that the company was not perturbed by the lower price of Ford Ikon. The release was planned a year ago and not in a hurry to beat the Ford’s latest model built for India.

He said Accent has been developed at a cost of 90 million dollars. This was included in the 614 million dollars invested by the parent company so far.

Powered by a 1500 cc four cylinder multipoint fuel injected alpha engine, accent was very distinct in its style and technology. The company offered three variants of the vehicle coming in six colours. (UNI)

FM calls for strike withdrawal

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha today asked agitating transpoters to immediately end the strike over the diesel price hike saying it was ‘totally unjustified and anti-people.’

As the strike is totally unjustified and anti-people it should be withdrawn as early as possible, Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) seminar here.

Truck operators across the country are on an indefinite strike demanding roll back of the steep 35 per cent hike in diesel prices effected by the Centre early this month.

The diesel price hike was inevitable and we are not directly responsible as domestic prices have been linked to international prices, he said

Linking of domestic petro products prices to international levels was the result of a sound policy decision of the earlier Government and the country would have to cope up with the fall out of such steps, he said.

Any delay in hiking diesel prices would have ruined the balance sheets of domestic oil companies by absorbing the gap in domestic and international prices, he said.

Stating that majority within Parliament alone was not sufficient to undertake unpopular policy decisions, Sinha said efforts should be made to convince people of such harsh measures. (PTI)

FM to meet CMs soon on VAT

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: The Centre has convened a meeting of State Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers soon for a phased introduction of a unified single rate Value Added Tax (VAT) system as part of reform process, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha announced today.

We have decided to call a meeting of Chief Ministers on VAT to take forward tax reforms as quickly as possible and have a system that matches with the rest of the world in the next couple of years, Sinha said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has already indicated that deepening of tax reforms was the top most priority of the Government and the meeting of Chief Ministers would be held before the Winter session of Parliament in this regard, Sinha told a FICCI meeting here.

We intend to sit down before the next session of Parliament so that we can discuss this issue threadbare to evolve a joint approach on tax reforms. We want to involve the State Governments because without their cooperation it is not possible for the centre to move towards a single rate of VAT, he said.

A lot has been done on tax reforms but a lot more remains to be done as even today we are not on par with the rest of the world as far as tax system is concerned, he said. (PTI)

FDI approval route to go, says Sinha

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: The Government will abolish the approval route for the Foreign Direct Investment, launch aggressive tax reforms, cut fiscal deficit even as it has appointed the second Labour Commission to unveil labour reforms, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said today.

Agreeing that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) had remained sluggish over the last few years, Mr Sinha said that foreign investors would need to go to RBI just for statistical purpose.

"The best way to promote FDI is to get out of decision making", Mr Sinha said inaugurating the presidential summit of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here.

Mr Sinha would soon call a conference of Chief Ministers and State Finance Ministers to find ways to cut the fiscal deficit of both Centre and States and move towards a single Value Added Tax as quickly as possible. "The states would be involved in the second generation reforms", he added.

Instead of resorting to a rigid artificial cap on expenditure, the Centre would discuss the entire spectrum of Government spending with the states based on the zero-based budgeting method.

"The casualness and lethargy in expenditure control should be subjected to scrutiny and will start implementing these measures from next year." The proceeds of disinvestment of public sector companies would be used in the creation of new wealth or to retire the existing debt burden, Mr Sinha said emphasising the need to convey these measures to the people in a jargon-free language.

Referring to the demand of the industry for labour reforms, Mr Sinha said the second Labour Commission would look into the entire gamut of labour related issues. The Commission would submit an interim report and seek to convey a positive connotation of labour reforms. "These will be pro-labour and will protect their interests since in democracy we cannot do things which meet large opposition."

Regretting that Government’s compulsion to increase diesel prices has not been appreciated and projected in the right earnest, the Finance Minister said the mechanism to bring parity of petroleum product prices with international levels was introduced by the previous Government.

He dubbed the strike by truck operators as "anti-people and totally unjustified" reiterating that hard decisions would have to be taken and populism eschieved in the long term interests of the country. However, efforts would be made to convince people on these measures.

Mr Sinha said the issue of interest rates is totally within the domain of the Central Bank. The Finance Minister’s comments on interest rates are significant as the busy season credit policy of the RBI is just a week away and industry has been clamouring for cut in interest rates. Responding of industry demand to cut subsidies, Mr Sinha said that the subsidy is inevitable for the poorer sections. "Not all subsidy is unnecessary". The Government would look into the hidden subsidies to prune expenditure.

He gave the examples of the European Union and Japan which give huge subsidies to agriculture. However, he agreed that the subsidy should be better targetted and system for its disbursement be streamlined.

Mr Sinha said the image of India as a difficult country has remained unchanged since over two decades and asked the industry in join hands with the Government to project the achievements of the country. "We need to go out and remove misunderstandings about India." (UNI)

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