PM's agricultural package to be ready in 10 days
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's plan for allocating Rs 25,000 crore additional central assistance (ACA) for agriculture will be ready within 10 days.

Sources in the Planning Commission said it has proposed that the states with more dry land should be given more funds officials said. The Plan panel has also suggested that the Centre's contribution should not be less than 50 per cent.
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Dumping duties on tyres from China, Thailand proposed to be raised
New Delhi: In its recommendations to the Finance Ministry, the Directorate-General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties has recommended that the duty on tyre, tube and flaps be set at $135.65 far higher than the provisional duty imposed in October 2006 which was $99.3 in the case of imports from China and $121.03 in the case of imports from Thailand.

The Authority has recommended that the definitive duty on import of only tyres at $121.67, $10.06 for only tubes and in case of import of only flaps, at $3.92. These definitive duty rates are the same for imports from China and Thailand.

The domestic tyre industry has been seeking relief from the dumping of bias (non-radial) truck and bus tyres from China and Thailand. The imports from China for the period between April and December, 2006 was close to 5.5 lakh units as against the total imports of just over 3 lakh units for the whole financial year 2005-06.
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Petrol, diesel price not to be raised: Murli Deora
New Delhi: The Petroleum ministry has no immediate plans to raise the retail selling prices of petrol and diesel said Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora. He also indicated that he would meet the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, next week to seek bonds to partly compensate the State-owned oil companies for selling products below the cost price.

The Ministry is expected to seek Rs19,000-crore worth of oil bonds for Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd in the current fiscal year ending March 2008. The total under-realisation for the fiscal is estimated to be Rs55,000 crore. The Government expects state-run upstream companies to chip in an equal amount (Rs19,000 crore) as part of sharing the burden of higher crude prices. The balance Rs17,000 crore will be borne by the refining and marketing companies themselves.

Oil companies said the under-recovery on petrol and diesel stood at Rs4.97 and Rs4.45 per litre respectively. The under-realisation on sale of kerosene sold under the public distribution system stood at Rs14.64 per litre and that on sale of domestic liquefied petroleum gas was Rs189.14 per cylinder.
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Textile exports to US: rising volumes, falling value
New Delhi: Textiles exporters to the US are getting hit badly with the hardening of the rupee against the greenback Though volumes of exported goods surged during January-March this year, the dip in export value, primarily on account of the appreciating rupee and a sustained rise in the domestic interest rate regime, has translated into a 10-15 per cent dip in the realisation for most textile exporters during the last six months, according to industry estimates.

Over 60 per cent of India's apparel exports are headed for the US. As per the US Office of Textiles and Apparel data, during the first three months of 2007, India's exports of textile and apparel products to the US declined 0.43 per cent in value terms even as export volumes surged 7.49 per cent against the corresponding period of the previous year. China, on the other hand, has registered increases in both volume and value terms, up 24.86 per cent and 46.47 per cent respectively. Other key exporting nations such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, where local currencies have depreciated against the US dollar, have seen higher growth in value terms, even though export volume growth has not been significant. Pakistan's textile exports to the US grew by 6.54 per cent in value terms even as the volume growth was only 0.57 per cent.

The downturn in Indian textile exports has prompted the Prime Minister to mandate the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council with the task of suggesting measures to neutralise the effect of the surging rupee on textile exports.

The rupee has appreciated against the US dollar by 9.4 per cent on a year-on-year basis till May this year while the Chinese yuan appreciated by 4.68 per cent and the Bangladesh taka by 0.95 per cent.
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