New national drug agency to come into effect this year
Mumbai: The National Drug Authority, the centralised drug licensing agency proposed by the Task Force for Drug Standardisation and Quality Control under R A Mashelkar, is expected to come into effect this year.

The new agency would replace the existing Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and the state level drug control agencies by merging the functions and responsibilities of the central-state departments. At present the CDSCO is responsible for approval of new drugs, in addition to issuing licenses for marketing and imports of new drugs.

Manufacturing licenses and production facility inspections along with trade licensing are currently handled by the state drug authorities.

The draft proposal for setting up the central agency has already been sent to the Cabinet for approval and the clearance is awaited. The authority would deal with issues of safety of drugs, licensing, medical devices and alternate systems of medicine would also be brought under its purview.

According to the draft proposal, the new agency would have an advisory board, which would comprise representatives from Health ministry.
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Excise cuts to reduce Rs800 crore in government revenue
New Delhi: The government will lose about Rs700-800 crore in excise revenues due to the reduction in special excise duty (SED) on small cars. Motor vehicles and tractors as a category, usually account for about 5 per cent of the total excise collection in a year, with the motor car industry contributing more than half of it.

Finance minister P Chidambaram's in Budget 2006-07, announcement of an excise reduction for small cars -that are less than 4,000 mm in length with an engine capacity of up to 1,500cc for diesel cars and up to 1,200cc for petrol cars will lead to a loss about Rs700-800 crore in the next fiscal year, unless there is a big growth in that segment of the car market. The motor car industry is estimated to have contributed about Rs2,800 crore as excise revenues in 2004-05.

Excise collection from motor vehicles and tractors as a category had registered a
7 per cent negative growth till November 2005, largely due to the slowdown in the sale of motor cars. The government has projected the excise collection for 2006-07 to be at
Rs1,19,000 crore, up 6 per cent from Rs112,000 crore in the revised estimates for 2005-06.
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CII wants new postal Bill revised
New Delhi: The CII has asked for an urgent revision in the proposed recommendations of the Indian Post Office (Amendment) Bill saying that the Bill's present provisions will severely affect India's credibility in the global business environment besides leading to inefficiency in the Indian industry.

The draft of the Post Office (Amendment) Bill ensures that all documents and letters below 500 grams in weight, will be the exclusive domain of the department of posts, thereby forbidding Indian courier and express companies from carrying documents weighing less than 500 grams.

The CII's argument is that express and courier industries provide employment to over 10 lakh individuals, drawn mostly from the economically weaker and unskilled segments of the population. These industries are not only large employment generators, but also significant contributors to the national exchequer, with a contribution of over
Rs600 crore.

CII believes that the courier and express industries comprise 2,500 diverse operators in both the organized and unorganized sector; generating Rs6,250 crore in revenue through servicing both distribution needs in India & overseas.
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Tea output hits all-time high
Guwahati: The tea industry seems set to rejuvenate with the industry achieving a record production in 2005. The country produced a record 928-million kg in 2005 compared to 820-million kg a year ago.

Industry officials said prices of tea are beginning to increase and the overall mood is positive.

The $1.5 billion tea industry had been facing a crisis with prices dropping in the weekly auctions since 1998. Lately prices have begun to firm up and a kg of good quality Assam tea sold at Rs70 in the auctions in the past week. Assam accounts for
55 per cent of the country's total production.

In 2004, the average price in the auctions was Rs62 a kg and in the last five years had dipped to as low as Rs58. Official at the Tea Auction Centre in Guwahati said the higher prices were due to better quality tea being produced.

Domestic tea consumption, which has remained stagnant for over a decade, shot up from 630-million kg to an estimated 733-million kg last year.

Tea exports, however, slipped from 190-million kg in 2004 to 180 million kg last year. The slump in prices and exports was largely attributed to cheap and inferior quality teas produced by many new tea-growing countries, thereby pushing premium quality Indian teas to stiffer competition in the global market.
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