President okays Finance Bill
New Delhi: The Finance Bill 2004 has received the assent of the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Friday and accordingly has been enacted into a law.
Parliament had on August 26 this year passed the Finance Bill 2004, after which the Bill was sent to the President for his assent.
The Presidential assent to the Bill, according to informed sources, would imply that Budget announcements such as an increase in the rate of service tax from 8 to 10 per cent would have to come into effect from Friday
.
Further, 13 new services including business exhibition services, airport services, transport of goods by air, opinion poll services and travel agents (other than air/rail travel agents) were also to come under the service tax net from today.
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Inflation at four year high of 8.33 per cent
New Delhi: The annual wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rate touched a four-year high of 8.33 per cent for the week ended August 28, against an inflation of 8.17 per cent registered during the previous week.

According to the data released on Friday, the year-on-year inflation rose largely due to a rise in the index for fuel and power, even as the prices of primary articles went up marginally.
According to the data, the index of the primary articles' group, which has a 22 per cent weightage in the index, was up by 0.1 per cent to 192.9 points due to a rise in prices of both food and non-food articles. A 11-per cent hike in the price of naphtha and four per cent rise in furnace oil prices pushed up the index for the fuel, power, light and lubricants' group, which has a 14.23 per cent weightage in the WPI basket, by 0.6 per cent.

The food products' group index rose by 0.3 per cent to 175.6 points due to higher prices for rice bran oil, baby food and gur (two per cent each) and groundnut oil, salt, imported edible oil, maida, sugar, sunflower oil, gingelly oil and atta (one per cent each).

The index for the non-metallic mineral products' group rose sharply by 0.5 per cent to 156.5 points due to six per cent hike in the price of building bricks and two per cent in fire bricks. Base metals alloys and metal Products' group index also rose by 0.5 per cent to 207.6 points due to soaring prices of ferro manganese (25 per cent), copper bars and rods (12 per cent), bolts and nuts (seven per cent), steel wire ropes, steel wire and MS bars and rounds (five per cent each)

The index for the machinery and machine tools' group rose by 0.7 per cent to 137.9 points due to higher prices of jelly-filled telephone cables (27 per cent), enamelled copper wires (11 per cent) and tractor components and accessories (six per cent).
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Industrial growth touches 7.9 per cent in July
New Delhi: AMIDST the gloom of wholesale inflation rate touching a three-and-a-half high of 8.33 per cent comes news of Indian industry truly on a roll. The latest `quick estimates' of the official Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for July reveal a year-on-year growth of 7.9 per cent, as against 6.6 per cent for the same month of 2003.

While the index for `manufacturing' grew by 7.6 per cent (8 per cent), those for `mining' and `electricity' went up by 3.7 per cent (2.9 per cent) and 14.1 per cent (1.4 per cent), respectively.
The overall growth rate in the general IIP for April-July 2004 worked out to 7.8 per cent, which is higher than the 5.9 per cent year-on-year increase recorded during the corresponding four months period of 2003.

Moreover, all the three sectors comprising the IIP have registered higher growth rates so far this fiscal - manufacturing (8 per cent vs 6.4 per cent), mining (5.2 per cent vs 4.8 per cent) and electricity (7.9 per cent vs 2.7 per cent).

The `use-based' classification of the IIP provides an equally encouraging picture. The index for `capital goods' - a reliable proxy for investment activity taking place in the economy - has shown a growth rate of 14.7 per cent during April-July 2004 (over and above 9.1 per cent), with this trend continuing in the latest month of July as well (16.2 per cent vs 11.2 per cent). This is consistent with the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh's, statement last week asserting `buoyancy' in investment climate.
During July 2004, the year-on-year growth rates amounted to 5.7 per cent (4.1 per cent) for `basic goods', 5.4 per cent (7.3 per cent) for `intermediate goods', 15.1 per cent (8.6 per cent) for `consumer durables' and 8.7 per cent (6.7 per cent) for `consumer non-durables'.

For the April-July 2004 period, the growth rates stood at 4.9 per cent (4.4 per cent) in basic goods, while being 9.5 per cent (4 per cent) for intermediate goods, 12.6 per cent (5.1 per cent) for consumer durables and 5.5 per cent (9.9 per cent) for consumer non-durables.
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HPCL to take part in next round of NELP
Mumbai: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd will bid in the next NELP round and will also bid for ONGC's offshore marginal fields.

M.B. Lal, Chairman and Managing Director, HPCL, told reporters that the oil marketing company would go ahead with its plans for expanding it's presence in exploration and production. He said the company had received "no direct communication" from the Ministry of Petroleum asking oil companies to focus only on their core business. The company is also planning to set up wind and bio-diesel-fired power projects.

HPCL was likely to pick up a stake in Indian Oil Corporation's Panipat refinery as part of its agreement with the corporation. He said the company would not put up its own petrochemical project although a stake in IOC's 6 million-tonne Panipat refinery would ensure HPCL a presence through IOC's petrochemical project being set up at Panipat.
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Expo on food processing kicks off
Hyderabad: Over 103 exhibitors from 10 countries are taking part in four top-of-the-line exhibitions on food processing, dairy, sweet and snacks and packaging technology that commenced at the Hyderabad International Expositions (HITEX) on Friday.
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy inaugurated the exhibitions.

The three-day International Food Tec, Dairy Universe, Sweet &Snack Factory and Indpak 2004 exhibitions, is being organised simultaneously by the Cidex Trade Fairs Pvt Ltd. CIDEX is a joint venture of Messe Dusseldorf and Kolnmess International.

Apart from India, the exhibitors are from Germany, Netherlands, France, Taiwan, Italy, Korea, UK, Belgium and Australia. At a similar exhibition held at HITEX last year Rs.12 crore worth of orders were generated. CIDEX was focusing on holding exhibitions in Hyderabad not only because of the good infrastructure facilities at HITEX, but also for tapping the South Indian market.
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Ifra India starts off on Sept 15
Hyderabad: Ifra India 2004, the 12th conference of the newspaper publishing industry, would be held here during September 15&16. Over 350 delegates from the industry covering Indian, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Middle East are expected to participate.

An expo, displaying the latest products and services of interest to the publishing industry would be organised. A technical workshop on printing technologies, publishers forum on financing growth, innovations in Newspaper, Mobile publishing etc. would be discussed. Reiner Mittelbach, CEO of Ifra Germany, will deliver the keynote address on `The intelligent newspaper of the future'.
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25 FDI plans worth Rs.201.58 crore cleared
New Delhi: The Government on Friday cleared the Canada-based Royal Indian Raj International Corporation's plan to invest Rs.178 crore in Royal Garden City Enterprise Private Ltd for the development of integrated township in Bangalore.

The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, approved a total of 25 proposals involving FDI worth Rs.201.58 crore.

The proposal of Hong Kong-based Igarashi Electric Works (HK) Ltd to invest Rs.8.64 crore in Igarashi Electric India (P) Ltd for 72 per cent foreign equity in the company has also been okayed by the Minister. The company would be engaged in the manufacture and export of carrier assemblies.

The Minister has also given the go ahead to Benetton Group SPA for transfer of shares of DCM Benetton from residents to non-residents involving FDI worth Rs.5.46 crore. The company would be setting up an integrated manufacturing facility for the textile sector in knit fabric area, according to a release.
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