Bangladesh has ruled out the immediate possibility of export of natural gas to India. Bangladesh commerce minister Tofail Ahmed said that no decision has been taken by his government in this regard. He categorically said that the issue of gas export did not figure at all during the talks between the Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his team with the prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Bangladeshi officials during Vajpayee's Just-concluded visit here. We have to assess the exact quantity of availability of gas and then the domestic requirement has to be examined. Thereafter, the requirement of natural gas or setting up gas-based industries and various value-added products has to be examined and assessed,'' he said. ``So the question of natural gas export does not arise now before the assessment is completed,'' Ahmed, who was present along with some other Bangladeshi ministers during the talks with the Indianleaders said. Meanwhile, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Begum Khaleda Zia has asked for resisting what she said the "attempt" to export gas without ascertaining its actual reserve, future domestic demand and uses. In a statement, she warned that any decision to export gas at this stage would be ``suicidal''.

Punitive cess on tobacco

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu urged the commerce ministry to withdraw punitive cess of five per cent and Rs two per kilogram on the purchase of tobacco. Naidu while reviewing the meeting on the purchase and marketing of tobacco with the officials, growers union, said commerce ministry should issue orders to State Trading Corporation (STC) to pay competitive prices to the growers, to buy excess and unauthorised tobacco, and not to restirct to 25 per cent of arrivals and to purchase mixed grades and pale tobacco, an official release said here. Naidu asked the tobacco board to withdraw the order regarding twelve-and-a-halfquintals per barn limit, and to reopen all five auction platforms in the state by tomorrow and permit sale of excess and unauthorised tobacco. Naidu in a letter to union commerce minister Ramakrisha Hegde said performance of STC had been very unsatisfactory and in some platforms, price offered was less than even the open market price and urgd the minister take immediate steps to solve the present crisis faced by tobacco farmers in the state.

Plea to lift ban on rose onions

Karnataka government has asked the centre to lift the ban on the export of rose onions immediately so as to help the farmers. Describing the situation of onion growing farmers as grave as a result of ban on export of all varieties of onions, Karnataka minister for social welfare KM Krishna Reddy said that if centre fails to lift the ban, the farmers may be put to untold loss and damage of the produce. In a letter to union commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde he said "as the Bangalore rose onions are having no local market it isimportant to ensure the movement of onions outside the country." Reddy said the situation may cripple the enthusiasm and economic position of the farmers, as they are not sure of getting their returns, and they (farmers) may resort to agitation.

SAIL endorese Mckinsey report

The board of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has accepted the Mckinsey report on restructuring for turning around the monolith through a number of steps including hiving off some of the loss-making non-core operations. The board, in its last meeting, broadly endorsed the report but the implementation would take some time depending on a number of factors, SAIL chairman Arvind Pande has said. Talking to PTI after the latest board meeting held here recently, Pande said that corporation had submitted a turnaround package to the government for approval on the basis of this report. SAIL had commissioned the high profile consultancy firm to suggest measures for restructuring of the company in the wake of sharp decline in profitabilityand growing competition. Among other things, Mckinsey had asked SAIL, which posted net losses of a whopping Rs 1,574 crore during the last financial year, to hive off some of the non-core activities including captive power plants, cut down the man-power to make sail a "lean and efficient" organisation and concentrate on its core activity of steel making. Mckinsey had also recommended retention of only four integrated steel units apart from suggesting rationalisation of manpower.