Natwar: India, China must move together
Kolkata: Speaking at a business seminar, organised by the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) in association with the Consular Corps of Kolkata, the Union Minister for External Affairs, K. Natwar Singh said that India strongly believed that India and China, inheriting great civilizations, had to move together rather than confront each other.

Similarly, India wanted to establish friendly ties with all countries in South-East Asia. He said, "West Bengal stands to gain maximum economic advantage from the emerging situation."

The West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said he was aware of the State's locational advantage. All efforts were being made to send the message that the incumbent Left Front Government in the State was private investor friendly as well as committed to curbing trade union activities. Incidentally, he said that the State Government had altered its policies in conformity with changes taking place throughout the world.

The Chief Minister said: "We are learning our lesson from mistakes we made in the past. The people who love to criticise us should see how rural Bengal has progressed and private and foreign investments are coming into the State in areas such as information technology, iron & steel, chemicals & plastics and food processing."

However, M. Bhattacharjee urged Mr Singh to take a personal interest in trying to arrange for financial assistance from the Centre, facilitating the State Government to develop necessary infrastructure such as international standard airports, seaports and roads. The State Government was yet to develop adequate infrastructure facilities due to shortage of resources. The Government was thus welcoming private investments in the infrastructure sector.
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Indirect tax collections up 11.7 percent in April-Nov
New Delhi: The Centre's indirect tax collections for the period April-November 2004 surged 11.73 per cent to touch Rs1, 02,553.25 crore as against Rs91,790.21 crore recorded during the same period in the previous financial year.

While customs duty collections for the period under review increased by 12.1 per cent to Rs35,720.24 crore (Rs31,863.73 crore), excise duty collections stood at Rs59,819.26 crore (Rs55,605.40 crore). An official release said that service tax collections during the first eight months have increased by 62.31 per cent compared to the same period last year.
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Fuel prices may be revised monthly or quarterly
New Delhi: Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has hinted that the system of fortnightly revision of petrol and diesel prices is likely to be replaced with monthly or quarterly revisions.

Petrol and diesel prices, in keeping with the current practice of fixing prices on 1st and 16th of every month, are due to be reviewed tomorrow, but may not be lowered in line with the fall in international prices.

Aiyar refused to say if the public sector oil firms will slash petrol and diesel prices in step with the decline in international prices. The UPA-government is averse to making frequent changes in fuel prices.
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ONGC and Gail to market LPG
New Delhi: The government will allow exploration firm ONGC and gas utility Gail to market domestic LPG to increase penetration of the clean cooking fuel to 75 per cent of the population. ONGC and Gail would be allowed to market subsidised LPG but only in unsaturated semi-urban and rural markets.

Public sector oil marketers - Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and IBP - have already withdrawn about 5000 locations in the country for LPG dealerships, which had been advertised and are now being advised by the Petroleum Ministry to stop appointing dealers in saturated urban markets.

ONGC and Gail, besides the four marketing companies, will appoint one LPG dealer for a cluster of 4-5 villages. Though the cooking gas sold in these areas will be subsidised (as is being currently sold to urban markets) the rural consumers would have to pay a small transportation cost.
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