Postal bill to hit courier firms
Private courier firms could take a hit in revenue if the proposed changes to the postal regulations go through, says a new survey and research report 'Express Service Industry in India' by the Mumbai-based Credit Analysis and Research (CARE) advisory.

The report says that the Indian express and courier industry could suffer a revenue loss of Rs670 crore a year, or 30-35 per cent reduction in business. The proposed amendment to the bill allows India Post total exclusivity over all document shipments weighing less than 300 grams.

The report estimates the size of the express industry at Rs7,100 crore with 2,500 players, derived from their service tax payment of Rs630 crore in '05-06 which makes it bigger than the tea and entertainment industries.

The study shows that over 52 per cent of all domestic express volumes are documents, of which 70 per cent weigh less than 300gm and about 37 per cent of all express documents are for the same-city, while 16 per cent are to metro cities.

The express industry currently employs around 10 lakh people. Apart from the document exclusivity, CARE says that the provisions for annual registration renewal fees (Rs10,000 for courier and Rs5 lakh for international delivery), and providing 10 per cent of revenues of express and couriers to the government as cost of subsidy to meet postal obligations could severely dent profitability.
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Delhi in for a power windfall as Games come nearer
New Delhi: Delhi's power supply is to be doubled over the next four years so that the city does not suffer embarrassing power shortages during the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

This was decided by a high-level monitoring committee headed by Power Secretary RV Shahi.

Delhi will receive an additional supply of 3,970 Mw by September 2010 over and above its current supply of 3,500 Mw.

Officials said by March 2007 Delhi will start receiving an additional supply of 1,990 Mw, which will be ramped up to 3,480 Mw by June 2010. The additional supply will be increased to 3,970 Mw by September 2010.

The additional power supply will be scaled up to 5,960 Mw by December 2011. The projects will require an investment of Rs 23,840 crore.

Delhi will receive a part of this power from the Damodar Valley Corporation's Mejia expansion project (1,000 Mw), Koderma project (1,000 Mw) and Bokaro expansion project (500 Mw).

NTPC's Dadri-II expansion project (980 Mw), Badarpur expansion stage-III project (980 Mw), and Jhajjar project (1,500 Mw) will also supply power to Delhi.

Sources said Delhi may buy this power at around Rs2.75 per unit.
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EU must cut non-tariff barriers`
New Delhi: A study by the Confederation of Indian Industry has said that India and the European Union have to tackle non-tariff barriers in each other's markets to fully benefit from a bilateral trade and investment agreement that would be finalised at the India-EU Summit at Helsinki on October 11-12. The study shows that nearly 23.38 per cent of Indian exports to the EU are covered by non-tariff barriers, especially in carpets (86.2 per cent), textiles and clothing (65.85 per cent) and leather (31.35 per cent). EU's non tariff barriers affect 3.5 per cent of India's exports affected, compared with a global average of 1.5 per cent.

The study also showed that out of 84 anti-dumping cases initiated against exports from India, the highest percentage, 33 per cent, were from the EU.

It also accounted for 44 per cent of anti-subsidy cases.

Another area of concern for Indian exporters is differing standards among EU countries.

The CII wants negotiations for MRAs in areas of interest to both sides to be held alongside those for the trade and investment agreement.
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