petro strike off
mumbai: petrol dealers in maharashtra, gujarat, and madhya pradesh have called off their proposed strike from 25 december midnight. the dealers had planned not to lift  products from oil refineries to protest against the arbitrary manner of testing samples from oil bunks by oil company officials. the call was withdrawn as the dealers’ representatives said their demands were partially settled by the oil companies.

govt crosses overdraft limit
mumbai: the ways and means advances balance as on 10 december 1999 amounted to rs 7,951 crore, an increase of rs 2,016 crore over the previous week’s levels and an excess of rs 951 crore over the prescribed limit of rs 7,000 crore for the second half of 1999-2000.

the reserve bank of india released these details in its weekly statistical supplement. the government will be able to bring down the balance within the prescribed limit in a few weeks as over rs 7,000 crore has come into the government’s kitty by way of advance tax collections.