Sayeed: Power tariff policy next month
Kolkata: The Union Power Minister, P.M. Sayeed, has said that the tariff policy for the power sector would be placed for Cabinet approval in March following another round of discussions with different stakeholders, especially the Left parties.

The Centre has also finalised the selection process of the Chairman and members of the proposed Appellate Tribunal for Electricity and the appointments would be notified this month.

Addressing mediapersons here today, Mr Sayeed said that the States had reservations about the regulator's power to fix tariffs, issue of cross-subsidy and rural electrification.

While a lot of discussions were already held with the States leading to four amendments in the National Electricity Policy (NEP), the tariff policy will focus on an uniform approach in fixing tariffs by different State regulatory bodies.

Talking on State Electricity Boards (SEBs), the Minister said that the accumulated losses, which had skyrocketed from roughly Rs4,500 crore to over Rs30,000 crore during the 1990s was on the decline for last two years. On the proposed unbundling of SEBs, he said that none of the States had opposed the need for the same.
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FICCI Survey: Business confidence on the rise
New Delhi: The Business Confidence Survey for the third quarter 2004-05 by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) shows that Corporate India's business confidence is soaring and the 'feel good' factor is on the upswing.

According to the survey the next six months promises to be exciting, with sales, profitability and exports expected to shoot upwards. With hopes of an industry-friendly Budget and the optimism generated by the economic policy agenda set out by the Prime Minister, India Inc. is on a roll, FICCI President, Onkar S. Kanwar, has said.

The confidence indices computed by FICCI have seen a steep upward revision in their values in the present round of Business Confidence Survey, with all the value of all the three indices in the `significantly optimistic zone.' The Current Conditions Index has registered a gain of 8.3 per cent, going up from 67.8 in the last survey to 73.4 in the present survey. The Expectations Index is up from 69.9 in the last survey to 76.7 in the present round, a gain of 9.7 per cent. The FICCI Business Confidence Index stands at 75.6, a 9.2-per-cent gain over the last quarter value of 69.2.

The Survey, based on responses from 441 companies from diverse industry segments, reveals a marked improvement in the overall economic conditions, industry and firm-level performance during the last six months and there are great expectations of what lies in store in the next six months.

While unveiling the findings of the Survey on Sunday, Mr Kanwar said, "For the first time in the current fiscal all the three indices of current conditions, expectations and FICCI's business confidence are up substantially and have moved to the `significantly optimistic zone'."

Fifty two per cent of the respondents expect a double-digit increase in sales in the next six months, 30 per cent see profits rising between 10-30 per cent and 21 per cent of the respondents anticipate exports to grow between 20-30 per cent or more. Infrastructure glitches, however, continue to hound corporates.
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India and Pakistan: After Baglihar it's Kishanganga
New Delhi: India and Pakistan will meet one last time in Islamabad before the end of the month, to try and resolve the issue of Kishanganga project being built by India.

"In November it was decided to give a three-month deadline to resolve the issue. Even if our second meeting has ended in failure, we can resolve the issue in our third meeting," said Syed Jamat Ali Shah, Indus Commissioner, Pakistan.

India is building a 330MW hydro-power project on a tributary of the Jhelum river in Jammu and Kashmir, which Pak says a violation of the Indus water treaty of 1960. Pakistan has already said that it will seek World Bank arbitration as per provisions of the treaty, if the issue is not resolved before February 28.

Pakistan has already taken its dispute with India over the Baglihar hydro-power project to the World Bank under the same provision.
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