Bond to customs dept. must

The Finance Ministry has decided to ask beneficiaries of advance licences to provide a bond to the Customs Department against each licence issued to them. As of now, exporters give a legal undertaking/bank guarantee to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade as warranty against the export obligation and value addition undertaken by them at the time of obtaining the advance licence. Finance Ministry officials say the decision to ask for a bond in favour of the Customs Department has been taken to minimise the risk of losing revenue through misrepresentations under the Advance Licensing Scheme. Such tightening up has become necessary since the revised Exim Policy has scrapped the condition that realisation of export proceeds is necessary for utilising facilities like transferability of licences.

Maruti hikes prices again

In a quiet move, Maruti Udyog Ltd has implemented an across-the-board hike of Rs. 4,500 in the basic prices of its entire range of passenger cars. The price increase is on account of the catalytic converters that are being mandatorily fitted on cars to be sold in the four metros — Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Along with the excise duty on the basic price and the sales tax which differs from State to State, the increase in cost to the customer in Delhi, for instance, works out to about Rs. 6,800. It would be slightly more in other parts of the country, including the other metros. The other manufacturers, it is learnt, have also effected similar hikes for fitting the converter. The actual increase in car prices in the four metros would have been much higher but for the cross-subsidisation by way of a flat hike on the entire production.

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