Singur enters Beijing class

by ASHIS CHAKRABARTI

 Martin Mulligan of theFinancial Times uses Singur as paradigm for problems of industrialization

The Nano didn’t roll out of Singur. But the controversy over the stillborn project seems to be rolling far and wide. Just last month, Mulligan used the same model in another workshop for journalists he conducted in Sofia, Bulgaria. The contrasts between the responses of his students in Beijing and Sofia could surprise both Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee.

In communist Beijing, the journalist-students had more sympathy for Mamata. The consensus in Mulligan’s class was that higher compensation to landlosers in Singur at an earlier stage could have saved the project. In other words, the communist scribes didn’t think the Marxist government in Bengal had done enough to carry the farmers on its side.

In Sofia, the response was “more sophisticated”, Mulligan tells me over cups of green tea at the lounge of a Beijing hotel. The Bulgarians were more sympathetic to the Bengal chief minister and blamed Mamata’s “cynical politics” to exploit Singur in order to regain lost political ground.

But why did he choose the Nano story for his workshops? Mulligan says he had two broad reasons. One: the international focus on Nano, slated to be history’s cheapest car. “Here is a car that’s on offer for just the price of the stereo system of a Mercedes. That’s simply fantastic.”

The other reason is the widely varying kinds of reporting of the story in the international media. In his class in Beijing — he’s at Xinhua on a Thomson Foundation assignment — Mulligan gave the examples of three British papers — The Guardian (“sympathetic” to Singur farmers), Evening Standard (“absolutely Right-wing, pro-business”) andFinancial Times (“more balanced”).  more

Rs. 30,000-crore sops for Nano project

Rs. 30,000-crore sops for Nano project: document

Special Correspondent

Modi orders probe into leak of details

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A sellout: Congress

Challenges Modi to debate on project

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AHMEDABAD: The Narendra Modi government is reported to have offered over Rs. 30,000 crore in sops to Tata Motors to bring its Nano car project to Gujarat.

The government has agreed to not only provide a soft loan of Rs. 9,570 crore at a negligible interest of 0.1 per cent for setting up the project but also defer repayment for 20 years, besides initially meeting all the cost of infrastructure development, cut in power tariff rates and an expenditure of Rs. 700 crore on shifting machinery and equipment from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand.

While the Chief Minister’s office refused to give details of the October 7 agreement signed between the government and Tata Motors, an official document submitted to the Cabinet for approval was leaked to the media, bringing to light the concessions offered to the company to bring the “prestigious” project to Gujarat.

Mr. Modi has reportedly ordered an inquiry into the leakage of the document.  more

Price of a small car: Subsidies, tax breaks got Tata to Singur

Kolkata September 09, 2008, 0:08 IST
The agreement between Tata Motors and the government of West Bengal to manufacture the world's cheapest car in the state involved much more than subsidies on land and interest paid on bank loans.
Nano, small car
The government worked out a package — which included tax paybacks and concessional power — to match the benefits the plant would have enjoyed in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, both designated backward areas that attracted central tax concessions.

The documents, which the West Bengal government released today, show that the state government will provide to Tata Motors a loan of Rs 200 crore at 1 per cent interest per year repayable in five equal annual installments starting from the 21st year of the date of disbursement of loan.

If the state had put the sum in a fixed deposit scheme, its principal would be worth Rs 3,000 crore in 20 years. Read more

This loan was disbursed within 60 days of signing of the agreement in May 2006.

The West Bengal government will also provide electricity for the project at Rs 3 per KwH, against the going rate of Rs 4.15 per KwH.

In the case of a more than 25 paise per KwH increase in tariff in every block of five years, the government will provide relief through additional compensation to neutralise the additional increase.

The state government also promised to revisit the computation of the comparison of benefits offered by Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The incentive package in these states comprised excise exemption for 10 years and 100 per cent income tax exemption for the first five years and 30 per cent for the next five years.

The state government also subsidised the cost of land required for the factory and the interest paid by Tata Motors on loans taken to build the project.

Thus, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) is to provide Industrial Promotion Assistance in the form of a loan to Tata Motors at 0.1 per cent interest a year for amounts equal to gross VAT and CST received by the government of West Bengal in each of the previous year ended March 31 on the sale of each Nano from the date of commencement of sales.