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AICC
to announce Gandhi's re-election
New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi was re-elected as Congress President on Friday
but the AICC is expected to make a formal announcement of the election only
today.
AICC's
Central Election Authority Chairman Oscar Fernandes said that a total of 100
nominations had been received proposing Gandhi's name and there was no other
candidate for the post. The re-election of Gandhi was a foregone conclusion
as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party Chief Ministers, union ministers and
several senior leaders filed a total of 100 nominations proposing her name
for the top party post.
Sonia
Gandhi had taken over as party President in 1998 replacing Sitaram Kesri.
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PM
to inaugurate Nathpa-Jhakri hydro project
Jhakri: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will formally
inaugurate Asia's largest hydro project, the 1,500 MW
Nathpa-Jhakri at Jhakri today.
The project was originally scheduled for completion in December 1998 at an
estimated cost of Rs4,336 crore has now finally been completed after 15 years
at a whopping cost of Rs8,657 crore. The first unit, 250 MW, of the project
was commissioned in October 2003 and all the six units started generating
power in May 2004.
The
project, which has generated 7,423 million units of electricity till date,
has earned revenue of Rs1,600 crore.
The
project has Asia's largest underground powerhouse complex, desilting chambers
and one of the longest power tunnels in the world.
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Govt.
hikes natural gas price
New Delhi: The Government has approved a hike in natural gas prices to
Rs3,200 per thousand standard cubic meters from Rs2,850 for power and fertiliser
units.
The
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the gas price increase
at a meeting last week but Finance Minister P Chidambaram had at that time
stated that a decision on price revision for natural gas had been deferred.
Meanwhile,
National Ferilisers Limited has said that it will not be affected as government
will have to bear the subsidy bill.
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Oil
companies, ISMA to sign pact on ethanol-blended petrol supplies
New Delhi: The Oil marketing companies and the Indian Sugar Mills' Association
(ISMA) will sign an agreement next month for supply of ethanol blended petrol
in ten States including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh,
Maharashtra and four Union Territories from July.
The ethanol-blended petrol (EBP) programme has the indigenous ethanol suppliers
and the oil marketing companies as equal partners. The oil marketing companies
have separately invited tenders for sourcing indigenous ethanol and negotiations
are on.
Petroleum Ministry officials said that the technical, administrative and logistical
issues have been sorted out and that they are ready to roll out the programme
in ten States and four Union Territories immediately.
ISMA members will now quote a price in tenders issued by oil marketing companies
for sourcing of ethanol, after which the two sides will sign a memorandum
of understanding.
Officials said that 3.6 lakh kilolitre (kl) of ethanol was needed for doping
five per cent ethanol in petrol in ten States and for the programme to spread
to all over the country, 0.5 million kl ethanol was needed. For doping 10
per cent ethanol in petrol, 1 million kl ethanol was needed.
According to ISMA, India's sugar output in 2005-06 (October-September) is
expected to touch 17.5-18.2 million tonnes.
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Infrastructure
growth down at 3.6 per cent during April 2005
New Delhi: Growth for infrastructure industries in the new fiscal has
slowed down to 3.6 per cent during April 2005, as compared to 10.5 per cent
a year ago. The skid was due to decline in petroleum refining and crude oil
production.
Coal
was the only exception among the six core sector industries by logging a higher
growth of 8.2 per cent last month as against 7.2 per cent in April 2004, according
to the figures released by the government.
Petroleum
refining production declined by 7.9 per cent while production of crude petroleum
decreased by 0.4 per cent during the month compared to a growth of 13.3 per
cent and 9.4 per cent in April 2004.
Electricity
production slipped substantially in April 2005 posting a growth of a meagre
2.9 per cent compared to 10.5 per cent in the year-ago month.
Cement
production grew by only 6.9 per cent during the review month as against an
impressive 16.5 per cent while finished steel production rose 7.5 per cent
compared to 9.2 per cent in April 2004.
The
six infrastructure industries, which have a combined weightage of 26.68 per
cent in the Index of Industrial Production, had posted 4.4 per cent growth
in 2004-05 as against a high of 6.2 per cent growth during 2003-04.
The
tax reforms carried out by Finance Ministry last year led to higher growth
in direct taxes and improvement in the overall Tax-GDP ratio.
Direct
Tax to GDP ratio surged from 3.81 per cent in 2003-04 to 4.32 per cent in
2004-05 and is estimated to be 5.09 per cent this fiscal. Of the direct taxes,
the share of corporation tax to GDP rose from 2.3 in 2003-04 to 2.67 per cent
in 2004-05 and is slated to be 3.18 per cent this fiscal. The share of income
tax will go from 1.5 in 2003-04 to 1.64 per cent in 2004-05 and further to
1.9 this fiscal.
Indirect
Tax to GDP ratio was slated to be 5.52 per cent this fiscal, which is marginally
higher from 5.5 per cent in 2004-05 and 5.34 per cent in 2003-04.
The
share of Excise is slated to go up from 3.29 per cent in 2003-04 and 3.24
per cent in 2004-05 to 3.49 this fiscal. The share of Service tax is slated
to go up from 0.29 per cent in 2003-04 and 0.46 per cent in 2004-05 to 0.5
per cent this fiscal.
The
Government expects a 20 per cent jump in tax collections at Rs 3,02,329 crore
this fiscal.
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