The Hindu Business Line : The gas leak

THE Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas does seem to have a serious "leaking" problem. The former Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, had a difficult time keeping his ideas to himself.

His proposal for establishing a petroleum research institute in Amethi (Ms Sonia Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency) and placing Congress functionaries on the boards of public sector oil companies were two leaks that caused a huge embarrassment to his party and may have had something to do with his eventual ouster.

In the subsequent months, almost all proposals under discussion within the Ministry, including strategies to `contain' some oil PSU chiefs, became public. An exasperated Mr Aiyar likened himself to Ali Baba surrounded by 40 thieves stealing documents from his Ministry.

His successor, Mr Murli Deora, was probably forewarned about the problem with the Petroleum Ministry and in his very first interaction with the media, he expressed `shock' at the way information was going out. As a first step he had the entire staff of the Minister's office changed, but Mr Deora seems to have underestimated the reach of the resourceful entities with eyes and ears within the Ministry.

The report of the Rangarajan Committee on Taxation and Pricing Issues for the Petroleum Sector is yet to be submitted, but the media is full of details on the position that the expert committee would take on various issues before it. There has been some preliminary communication between the committee and the Ministry and all this has apparently found its way out, leading to a comment by one committee member that it felt as if they were writing press releases for the Ministry and not a report.

Catch `em young

THE Finance Ministry seems to have finally got it right. Having failed to persuade people through insipid ad campaigns to pay taxes, the catch-them-young principle adopted for the service tax campaign has paid off.

This campaign targets children, explaining to them why it is important to pay taxes, and then has them asking their parents whether they actually pay tax.

The advertisement works on the principle that no parent wants to look small before the child; nor can they easily lie. The proof — service tax collections have shown a 66 per cent spurt in the current fiscal, albeit helped by the increased rate of tax and the extension in coverage.

But, as is its wont, the Ministry did goof up initially when the campaign showed a child asking the father why he was conniving with "Gupta uncle" in evading service tax. There was rightful indignation in the Gupta community and the Government was forced to alter the ad by not identifying the community of the uncle who was helping daddy evade the tax.

Wanted, more rooms

NDIA is the happening place for overseas corporates, and many of them have already made visits to the country, or are planning to. But in the process, they have discovered another infrastructure snag.

Recently, a Bangalore-based company had a foreign delegation visiting its manufacturing facility but could not locate adequate accommodation for the visitors, even in the city's high-end hotels. Eventually, the company put up the guests in Chennai and flew them in and out of Bangalore every morning and evening during the visit.

Now comes the news that Suzuki Motor Corporation has planned the visit of 2,400 of its Japanese dealers to visit India for a ground study of the way the company's Indian dealers operate. Sixteen plane-loads are to come in, but Suzuki has staggered the arrivals so that adequate arrangements can be made for the visitors. There was simply no way the company could have located that many rooms in any city had all of them flown in together.

Our New Delhi Bureau