Pre-budget meet: Ficci for lower direct tax burden; simplifying FBT
New Delhi: In a pre-budget meeting with finance minister P. Chidambaram, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) presented a range of fiscal and technology related policy initiatives to stimulate industrial growth that would encourage value addition and also create employment in the country.

Leading industrialists took the opportunity to drive home the message that direct taxes burden of the corporates is high, when compared with Asean rates, and this was impacting their competitiveness. A section of industry suggested cut in corporate tax rate to 25 per cent.

India Inc also made a pitch for the scrapping of the fringe benefit tax (FBT) or "if not scrapped they said it should be simplified and genuine business expenses must be allowed as deduction," said N. Srinivasan, vice-president, FICCI.

Ficci also made a unanimous call for a hike in the depreciation rate on plant and machinery under the income-tax law from 15 per cent to 25 per cent. As part of tax reform measures, Ficci has proposed abolition of dividend distribution tax. For widening the tax base, Srinivasan said that Ficci has suggested to the Government to bring the "rural rich" into the income-tax net.
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ICICI Bank signs up Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassador
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has signed up Shah Rukh Khan as its global ambassador, two-and-a-half years since superstar Amitabh Bachchan endorsed the brand, the company said in a press release issued.

K.V. Kamath, managing director and CEO, ICICI Bank, said, "We are proud to have Shah Rukh Khan as our global brand ambassador. Having established our leadership in the retail business over the last five years, the bank is now poised to scale new heights in the global arena."
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Reliance asks for compensation for selling petro products below cost price
New Delhi: Reliance Industries (RIL) has sought compensation similar to what is being offered to public sector oil marketing companies (Indian Oil Corporation, IBP, Bharat Petroelum and Hindustan Petroleum) for selling petrol and diesel below cost price.

RIL, said that if part of the losses suffered by the OMCs on sale of petrol and diesel is compensated through the issue of oil bonds and discounts extended by upstream firms such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India Ltd and GAIL (India), then the same should also be offered to RIL.

A company spokesperson said after administered pricing mechanism was dismantled in 2002, Reliance Industries should be treated on a par with public sector companies. He also said that the retail price of petrol barely makes up for its cost of production. Diesel is being sold at a loss of Rs2 a litre.

Asked why Reliance was selling fuel below cost when it was not bound by any Government diktat unlike the PSU oil companies, he said the company could not sell petrol and diesel at a price higher than its competitors.
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Maruti effects price hike of up to Rs.15,000
New Delhi: Market leader Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) has increased prices of its vehicles across all models by Rs1,500 to Rs15,000. The increase in price will be effective from today, the company said in a statement. The company says the price rise is due to increase in input costs and freight costs, which went up following higher oil prices.

MUL had increased the prices of its vehicles in October citing the same reason. The prices have been increased by as much as 3.5 per cent on the Versa van and as much as 1.2 per cent on the Alto.
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GlaxoSmithKline launches vaccine to prevent whooping cough
New Delhi: GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK) has launched its vaccine Boostrix used for the treatment of whooping cough in the country. The vaccine has been registered for use in children over the age of four years, who have already received their primary DTP doses in the first and second years of life.

The company says people of all age groups could also benefit from the use of the vaccine. The vaccine gives protection for up to seven years with 50 per cent lower reaction rate as compared to some other vaccines.

The company is also conducting trials of the rotavirus vaccine that causes dehydration, vomiting and fever and has been responsible for nearly five lakh deaths each year. The company has obtained approval to conduct the trials on 300 to 400 children.
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Assam Co. completes valuation
New Delhi: Assam Company's (ACL) oil and gas division has been valued at US$157-187mn, while the net worth of its tea division is estimated to be in the range of Rs330-360 crore, according to auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Recently, the company entered into a memorandum of agreement with DMS Petroleum Exploration, USA and also acquired a 33.33 per cent working interest in Yorketown Point Gilbert Prospects, South Australia, under the DMS Petroleum Exploration Licence 73, located at Stansbury Basin, 30 km away from Adelaide.
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Nagarjuna Const. gets Rs.520-cr order from NHAI
Hyderabad: Nagarjuna Construction Company has secured an order valued at Rs520 crore from the National Highways Authority of India for construction of highways from the Oral-Bhognipur section on NH No: 25 (35 km) and the Bhognipur-Barah section on NH No: 2 (17.8 km.) in Uttar Pradesh.
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TVS Tyres launches new variants
Hyderabad: TVS Group company, TVS Tyres, will roll out 10 more new tyres (two-wheeler) during 2006. The company has targeted an increase in the market share of `after market' sales from 12 per cent to 17 per cent in the financial year 2006-07.

Company officials said the total `after market' sales is around Rs10 lakhs a month and the market has a potential to grow as the two-wheeler segment is growing fast.

The seven new variants launched by the company include Crusader, Terminator, Jumbo, Dragon, Olivia, Badshah and Josh.
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Adidas AG too hike stake in Indian subsidiary to 100 pc
New Delhi: German sports goods maker Adidas AG is hiking its equity in Adidas India from 91.4 per cent to 100 per cent, following clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The increase in stake would take place through the transfer of 4.7 million equity shares of Rs10 each held by Magnum (Magnum International Trading Company, India) in AIM to Adidas International B.V., Netherlands.

Adidas AG had earlier increased its stake in AIM from 80 per cent to 91.4 per cent amounting to US$12.06mn in the paid-up capital of US$13.2mn of Adidas Trading by the issue of equity shares on a right basis.
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H&R Johnson to expand capacity
New Delhi: Tile maker H&R Johnson (India) is hiking capacity at its plant in AP and will invest around Rs50 crore towards this. Backed by the new investment the manufacturing capacity at the company's plant at Vijayawada will double from 12,500 sq meters per day to 25,000 sq meters per day, starting from the month-end.
According to the company, its overall capacity-building investments this fiscal will touch Rs200 crore.

The company had earlier announced an investment of Rs110 crore for setting up a manufacturing plant at Ajmer in Rajasthan. H&R Johnson is investing another Rs40 crore at its Rajkot plant to expand capacity from the present 5,000 sq m per day to 12,000 sq. m. per day.

The company manufactures Johnson, Porselano, Maorbonite and Endura brands of tiles and Milano brand for kitchen and bathroom products.
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DaimlerChrysler India sells 2,000 vehicles in India
Mumbai: DaimlerChrysler India sold 2,019 vehicles in India during 2005, crossing the 2,000-mark for the first time in its 10-year history.

The company also netted the highest-ever sales for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, E-Class and C-Class cars for India.

The company says it achieved this despite floods and is optimistic about the future, the company said in a release.
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Toyota having second thoughts about another plant in B'lore
Bangalore: With its plant in Bidadi, outside Bangalore, staying shut for the third day in a row on Monday, following a lockout declared by the management, Japanese car maker Toyota Kirloskar Motor is having second thoughts about setting up another plant in the state.

Recently Toyota had obtained the state government's approval to build another plant with a capacity to produce over 1,50,000 small cars, possibly in JV with Daihatsu.

The company's 1,500 workers went on strike on Friday after three employees were dismissed from service for alleged misconduct.

A fourth employee, against whom a probe was conducted, was reinstated while 11 more workers stayed suspended pending a final report on some incidents which occurred in '04.

The management of TKM has been staying away from conciliation meeting of the labour commissioner on Monday since it feared danger to the lives of officials.
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TV 18 Q3 net up 47 per cent
New Delhi: Raghav Bahl promoted TV 18 Network has posted a 47 per cent rise in net profit at Rs12 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005.

The revenues grew 55 per cent at Rs38.11 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2005, a company statement said. The operating profit for the quarter increased 54 per cent year on year at Rs20.83 crore.

Raghav Bahl managing director of TV 18 said, "It has been a historical quarter for the company - CNBC TV18 and Awaaz channels have posted record growth and we have seen CNN-IBN launch to a tremendous response from viewers," he said.
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BPCL incurs losses on LPG sales
New Delhi: Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) is losing Rs195 on sale of every LPG cylinder and Rs2 on every litre of diesel due to the fact that domestic prices were way below international rates, according to Ashok Sinha, chairman and managing director of the company.

Sinha said the company is losing Rs10 per litre on kerosene while the current prices of petrol barely meets the cost.
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Dishman Pharma to set up facility in China
Ahmedabad: Dishman Pharmaceuticals is setting up a greenfield manufacturing facility in Shanghai China. To begin with, the company plans to manufacture 11 drugs at the Chinese facility for the European and the US markets and is considering going in for GMP products once the first phase of the facility is on stream.

Company officials said the company has acquired 80,000 sq meters of land in Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) for Rs18 crore. The land has cogen facilities for areas such as steam, compressed air, solvent storage, natural gas and effluent treatment. The total investment in the project would be around Rs45 crore.

Dishman Pharma plans to manufacture six non-GMP quarternary compounds (Quats) and five intermediates in the China plant.

Dishman Pharmaceuticals makes ammonium and phosphonium Quats — speciality chemicals — which, apart from being inputs in the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates, also find application in agro-chemicals, polymers and surfactants.

Dishman Pharma said the Chinese manufacturing facility would offer it a major advantage in terms of cost of the production. It would be able to cut costs of commodity chemicals by nearly 20 per cent and costs of utilities by as much as 50 per cent in China facility company officials said.
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Corporates not to use OneIndia
New Delhi: Companies may not get to use the government's soon to be launched OneIndia telephone rates. The government is unlikely to extend the facility to corporates and fixed line "large-scale" users of Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, who already enjoy local calls at discounted rates because they pay higher rentals.

BSNL and MTNL provide concessional rates to large scale users and do not want to complicate the OneIndia policy by reworking the schemes, official sources said. Besides, the department of telecommunications (DoT) wants to retain the existing rentals under the new policy.

At present, large-scale users enjoy discounts on local calls that are equal to or even lower than tariffs proposed under the upcoming policy. Under BSNL's Rs 975 rental "special plus" scheme, a three-minute local call costs Re 1.00, while under the Rs1,450 rental "super" plan, the charge for a local call is 90 paise.

Additionally, in the "premium" package, with a rental of Rs2,450, local calls cost 80 paise, equivalent to the subsidised rates paid by customers in rural India.

As high-end landline users accounted for a significant per cent of the total revenue, the move would ensure that PSUs were not subject to further losses on account of OneIndia, sources added. BSNL had earlier said it would face revenue loss of about Rs4,500 crore in the first year if OneIndia was implemented.

OneIndia was slated to come into effect from January 1, but could not be launched as BSNL was yet to work out a uniform tariff plan acceptable to all segments.
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