PM says sixth pay commission likely
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government is planning to set up a new pay commission for its employees. "We have decided this. The last pay commission was set up in 1994. The time has now come for a new commission. We are preparing for it," he said.

The current wage bill of the government, excluding pension liability, stands at Rs37,000 crore.

The decision comes despite advice to the contrary by a committee headed by cabinet secretary BK Chaturvedi in June last year. The committee had turned down a request for constituting a Sixth Pay Commission to review salaries and perks of all central government employees.

The committee was of the view that the Centre would not be able to bear the additional burden and that states were just recovering from the impact of the Fifth Pay Commission, whose recommendations were implemented in 1997. Some states were also not keen on revising salaries as they had to bear the additional burden, the officials said.

In fact, states like West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram in their presentation to the Twelfth Finance Commission, had sought a mechanism to ensure that the Centre could not announce any pay revision without consulting states.

Before the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission came into effect, the wage bill (including pension dues of Rs5,094 crore) of the Centre stood at Rs21,885 crore in 1996-97.

This went up by nearly 99 per cent to Rs43,568 crore in 1999-2000. For states, the impact was also severe. Their wage bill went up by 74 per cent to Rs89,813 crore from Rs51,548 crore during the period.

The prime minister said the economy was doing well growing at a rate of 7 to 7.5 per cent and inching towards 8 to 10 per cent. Singh said, "The states are flush with cash. If we accelerate the pace of economic growth, things will improve further," he added.
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India may begin exporting zinc
Mumbai: India, which has been a net importer of zinc in recent years, may export the metal this year as new production is set up to grab a share of the metals boom, a senior industry executive said.

According to Sunil Bhatter chief executive officer of Binani Industries, which owns Binani Zinc, India's second-largest zinc producer, India is expected to have a surplus in the metal. "Domestic demand is growing but the capacity growth planned this year will be at a faster pace," Bhatter said.

Traders also said new capacity planned at India's top zinc producer, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, would help boost export supplies.

While Hindustan Zinc has an annual production capacity of more than 400,000 tonne of zinc, Binani's annual capacity is around 38,000 tonne.
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Cabinet approves privatization of airports
New Delhi: The cabinet has approved the financial bids for the privatisation of the New Delhi and Mumbai airports according to a government official.

"The process of the bidding has been reported to the cabinet, and it has approved the entire bidding," the official said.
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Calicut airport gets international status
New Delhi: The Government has decided to give international airport status to Calicut airport in Kerala.

With the new status the Calicut airport would get support for improving the runway and infrastructure like better arrival and departure facilities.

The security measures would also be further strengthened at the airport.
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Mumbai Port, JNPT to share channel dredging cost
Mumbai: Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) have decided to share channel deepening costs. This is to cope with the bulging container traffic on the 22.5-km-long main harbour channel shared by both the organizations.

The first phase of the channel dredging would cost Rs800 crore. The MbPT would contribute Rs100 crore.

The Tenth Five Year Plan target for traffic-handling at JNPT is over 13 lakh tonnes for 2006-2007. But the Mumbai harbour channel has a depth of around 11 metres below chart datum (BCD), and the 7.2-km-long Jawaharlal Nehru Port channel has around the same depth.
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Centre's gross tax collection up 19 pc till Dec. 05
New Delhi: The Centre has registered an increase in gross tax collection by about 19 per cent at Rs2,30,839 crore till December this fiscal due to rise in corporate earnings and imports.

Net collection after providing for states share was also up by 19 per cent at Rs1,68,715 crore till December, data released by the Controller General of Accounts showed.

In case of direct taxes, corporation tax was up by 21.6 per cent at Rs60,457 crore in the first nine months of 2005-06 as corporates improved their earnings in the first three quarters of 2005-06. The December corporate tax collections were highest so far this fiscal as the Centre mopped up Rs 21,071 crore.

Income tax collection increased by 14.6 per cent to Rs 36,545 crore till December. In the case of indirect taxes, customs duty collection was up by 16 per cent to Rs 47,888 crore till December as imports of both petroleum and capital goods surged.

However, excise duties grew by 8.7 per cent to Rs 67,220 crore in April-December this fiscal despite increase in industrial activity. Other taxes especially service taxes added another Rs 18,729 crore to the government's kitty.
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Cabinet postpones decision on OVL's exploration bid in Nigeria
New Delhi: The Cabinet has postponed its decision to allow ONGC Videsh (OVL) to re-enter the race for two exploration blocks in Nigeria that it lost to a Korean firm despite being the highest bidder.

OVL had sought permission to pay a signature bonus of US$485mn to Nigeria's Department of Petroleum Resources for beginning work on OPL-321 and OPL-323. The Indian firm got the opportunity to get back the blocks after Korean National Oil Corp (KNOC) delayed submission of bank guarantees for payment of signature bonus.

OVL was the top bidder for both the blocks but had to give away to KNOC as the latter was given the first right of refusal by the Nigerian government.
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NPPA revises drug prices
New Delhi: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has decided to revise the price of bulk drug metronidazole and its derivative metronidazole benzoate from Rs470 per kg to Rs471 per kg and Rs373 per kilogram to Rs401 kg, an increase of 0.21 per cent and 7.57 per cent, respectively.

Metronidazole is used in the treatment of amoebic infection. The increase would result in about a 1 per cent hike in the formulation price of metronidazole benzoate and a negligible or no hike in metronidazole prices.

In other cases, the authority after considering the available information decided that the existing notified prices be continued. For the first time, the prices have been set in respect of 11 formulation packs, besides five imported insulin formulations according to a government release.
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Assocham advises consensus to end confrontation on airport
New Delhi: Industry chamber Assocham has advise that consensus should be reached between various stakeholders, including unions, over the modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports said Assocham president, Anil K Agarwal, in a statement here while welcoming the Government's decision.

He stressed on the need for evolving a consensus among all stakeholders, including airport unions, so that the modernisation process goes ahead without any hiccup. The decision to hand over the modernisation project to private parties was 'in the spirit of liberalisation', he added.

GMR-Fraport and GVK-South African Airports consortia recently won the Rs 5,400 crore airport modernisation projects in Delhi and Mumbai respectively as the empowered group of ministers (GoM) cleared their financial bids.
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