China to amend Sikkim map
Beijing: The old world has taken a fundamental new turn in Beijing, with China promising India that with a signature on a border trade protocol now out of the way, it will slowly take voluntary steps to amend its own maps to bring them in line with the rest of the world’s recognition of Sikkim as part of India. The Chinese side is believed to have given this assurance to Prime Minister AB Vajpayee over the last 24 hours, highly placed sources said on Tuesday. Outlining a brand new roadmap for the future, Beijing said it would not only do away with its own characterisation of Sikkim as an “independent country,” but also move ahead with something it had refused to do so far. Exchange the maps on the Western sector of the line of actual control (LAC) with New Delhi.
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JT group to boost trade ties
Beijing: In a bid to move economic cooperation to “greater heights”, India and China have decided to set up a joint study group of economists and officials to identify new areas and draw up a comprehensive plan for further development of a multi-faceted economic interaction. “Our two governments have decided to make concerted efforts to move our economic cooperation to greater heights”, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a keynote address at a seminar on ‘China-India economic cooperation and development’ here.
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Food industry bitter about Chinese honey
New Delhi: As the trade talks with China begin in Beijing, the domestic food industry has raised the issue of contaminated Chinese honey entering into the country without any sanitary and phytosanitary check. It has also alleged that Chinese honey is being smuggled through Nepal. The UK food standards agency, the Canadian food inspection agency and the German agriculture and consumer protection ministry have, through a series of sample tests, found that Chinese honey had contained traces of an antibiotic, chloramphenicol, which can cause cancer or aplastic anemia if consumed over a long period. The UK, Canada and Germany have stopped imports of Chinese honey and have called for removal of Chinese honey and blended Chinese honey from the retail stores. Executive director of the Centre for International Trade in Agriculture and Agro-based Commodities (CITA) Vijay Sardana alleged that as Chinese honey is being rejected in Europe and North American countries, it is being dumped into India through both legal and illegal channels. The import of Chinese honey jumped to 1,381.03 tonne worth Rs 583.14 lakh in the first nine months of 2002-03 as compared to only 0.16 tonne of Rs 0.09 lakh during 2001-02. He also alleged that Nepalese exporters are re-exporting Chinese honey by taking the advantage of the loopholes in the Indo-Nepal Trade Protocol
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States asked to exempt local taxes
New Delhi: Additional commerce secretary Vinay Bansal has requested the states to exempt the hundred per cent export-oriented units/special economic zone units from indirect levies such as sales tax, octroi, electricity duty, stamp duty etc, to make their operations more economically viable. Bansal was speaking at an open-house meeting organised by the Export Promotion Council for EOUs/SEZs in Mumbai over the last weekend called to discuss various issues relating to these units. Commerce ministry director Ali Raza Rizvi, and Seepz development commissioner V Madhavan Nair, were among those attended the meeting.
Council director-general LB Singhal noted that SEZ units in M’rashtra had been exempted from sales tax, stamp duty and octroi, but they had not been extended to EOUs. The units at SEZs/EOUs should also be exempted from electricity, entry tax, he said.
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Core sector growth slips on oily ground to 4 per cent in May
New Delhi: Negative performance in the oil sector pulled down growth in the infrastructure sector in May. The six infrastructure industries registered 4 per cent growth in May as compared to 5.6 per cent in May 2002. The six industries are crude petroleum, petroleum refinery products, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel. In the first two months of the current fiscal, too, the six industries grew by 4 per cent, as compared to 5.8 per cent in the corresponding period last fiscal. In May, the worst performer was crude petroleum, with -5.1 per cent growth, against an impressive 9.1 per cent in May 2002. In April-May, too, the sector showed a decline of -3.6 per cent, as compared to 5.9 per cent in April-May 2002. Petroleum refinery products showed marginal decline of 0.1 per cent in May, against 8 per cent in May 2002. In April-May, however, there was 3.2 per cent growth, against 8.3 per cent in the first two months of the last fiscal. Cement and finished steel continued good performance, growing at 7.8 per cent and 7.2 per cent in May. The performance was more creditable because the base, 9.7 and 8.7 per cent in May 2002, was quite high for both sectors. Finished steel has been consistently doing well, growing at 9.2 per cent in April-May, against 7.7 per cent April-May 2002. For the first two months of this fiscal, cement grew only by 2.6 per cent, as compared to 10.1 per cent in April-May 2002.
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