Articles by Nishtar

February 1, 1969 will never get it, because of the wrong attitude taken up by the Department in the first instance and the unending proceedings which go on in respect of every year's assessment.

January 18, 1969 duced chlorine. It is claimed that the methyl bromide plant is making products conforming to international standards. Sales increased from Rs 10.45 crores to Rs 11.16 crores but, with gains in production eroded by increased costs, gross profit could look up from Rs 2.57 crores to Rs 2.65 crores. With the addition of non-recurring items, these figures are inflated to Rs 2.86 crores (Rs 2.64 crores), A sum of Rs 21 lakhs added to the 1967-68 accounts represents excise duty on kiln gas for previous years not payable under Supreme Court judgment. And Rs 7 lakhs added in the previous year accounted for assets sold out. Net profit is thus Rs 1.26 crores (Rs 1.12 crores) which covers the unchanged dividend of 17 per cent well over twice. In addition, there is a gift of equity shares in the proportion 3:10. These new shares will rank for dividend from the current year. With a view to meeting the additional requirements of finance, shareholders' approval is being sought for authority to issue debentures upto Rs 2 crores, as and when necessary. The company's application for the fertiliser project submitted over a year ago is still under consideration of Government.

Fun of Ignorance Nishtar MORARJI Desai is reported (by a financial daily) to have stated in his inaugural address at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Calcutta Stock Exchange that "If the purchaser dues not pay and the seller does not deliver the shares, the transaction should be treated as null and void". One might have dismissed it as a case of misreporting if Morarji had not made almost similar observations in May last. The occasion then was the laying of the foundation stone of the new building of the Bombay Stock Exchange and what he said, apart from many other ridiculous things, was that "It is wrong for anybody to sell shares when he is not possessing a single share".

December 7, 1968 NEW INDIA FISHERIES has to pay its Japanese skippers and engineers Rs 10,000 and Rs 8,000 per month as the Japanese Labour Union, of which they are members, insisted on substantial increases in their salaries. The company has repatriated four of them, but it still has 16, each one of whom costs the company on an average over Rs 1 lakh per annum. Efforts are being made at complete Indianisation by 1974. During the year ended March 1968, NIF

Consortium in Haste Nishtar A GOOD idea hastily implemented can do incalculable harm and even ruin the cause it seeks to promote. This might well come true of the proposed Groundnut Extraction Export Development Association which is scheduled to commence operations from January. This body has been set up mainly for stepping up exports of groundnut ox- tractions to free currency areas. The need for boosting such exports is all too obvious; there has been a very steep decline in exports to West Europe over the years. And the consortium approach has much to commend itself. What is most disturbing is the strategy that has been evolved to achieve the objective.