News

    INDEX of industrial production (IIP) data showed a marginal deceleration from the previous month but continued to post a robust growth of 16.7 per cent in January 2010. The growth was primarly led by the manufacturing sector, especially for capitall goods and consumer durables.

  The manufacturing sector posted a hefty growth of 17.9 per cent (one per cent in the corresponding month last year) during the month under review. Mining and electricity also registered significant growth rates of 14.6 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively, as against 1.8 per cent and 0.7 per cent in January 2009.

                          INFLATION RISES TO 16-MONTH HIGH

      The annual inflation shot up to a 16-month high of 9.89 per cent in February 2010 due to higher prices of fuels announced in the Budget and manufactured goods. The latest figure marked a 1.34 percentage points rise over 8.56 per cent in January 2010 and gave rise to expectations of the RBI signalling higher interest rates in its policy review in April 2010. Overall inflation a year ago, i.e. in February 2009, was as low as 3.50 per cent.

    Global financial services firms, such as Goldman Sachs, citi and Nomura, saw inflation  topping 10 per cent in March 2010 as the full impact of the excise hike on motor fuels and partial roll back of stimulus is felt.

   In February 2010, the index for fuels has shot up by 10 per cent year-on-year in the latest WPI, mainly on account of higher prices of petrol and diesel. While petrol became dearer by 11.7 per cent, diesel rose by 8.9 per cent.

  For the second time this month, state-owned oil retailers raised aviation turbine fuel price by 2.4 per cent, in step with firming global rates, early this week.

                     AIR TRAFFIC GROWS BY 15.6 PC IN FEB.’10

      Continuing the strong revival flight, domestic air travel has grown by 15.6 per cent in February 2010. with 39.15 lakh passengers flying within the country as compared to 33.85 lakh in the same month last year, More importantly, February’s figure was close to January’s 40.87 lakh and there was not a sharp drop after the peak winter travel season.

      The growth is robust and yields have improved, March will see a modest growth over last year and then from April onwards we expect strong growth numbers. The domestic airline industry is on a recovery path and the low-cost model has prvoed itself here.

                     CORPORATE TAX COLLECTIONS RISE BY 20PC ON ROBUST SHOW

      According to the provisional numbers, released by the Income -Tax Department, overall corporate tax collections rose by more than 20 per cent with energy, consumer goods and drug compaines leading the payments.

      India Inc thus seems to have fared well in the current financial year, despite an overhang of the global slowdown considering the buoyancy in the trend of advance tax payment Barring a few companies most companies have paid a higher tax in January March quarter and for fiscal 2009-10.

     Advance tax payments for Q4 of fiscal 2010 indicate that LIC, RIL and TCS are among the top few that have projected hefty  growth in their profitability : LIC’s Rs 864 crore payment for Q4 was much above RIL’s Rs 770 crore. In the same period last year, the public sector, Lic paid Rs 810 crore as compared to RIL’s tax outgo of Rs 365 crore.

    The tax mop-up from the banking sector was poor :Bank of India paid Rs 100 crore (Rs 590 crore last year) and Union Bank of India paid Rs 185 crore (Rs 253 crore last Year).

               VEGETABLE OIL IMPORT UP BY 5.5 PC THIS EYAR

    Vegetable oil import was down by 8 per cent to 7 lakh tonnes in February 2010 from 7.62 lakh tonnes a year ago This is largely due  to excessive imports during the first quarter (Nov-Jan.) of the oil year 2009-10 and larger stocks at the ports as also in the pipelines, according to the Solvent Extractors Association. The overall import during the November-February period of the year was up by 5.5 per cent to 31.14 lakh tonnes compared to 29.511 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period in the previous year.