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Thursday, 30 October 2014

Black money: Centre gives apex court list of 627 account holders



The Centre on Wednesday submitted a sealed cover to the Supreme Court containing a list of 627 Indians holding black money in bank accounts abroad along with a status report on the investigation conducted against them.
The three-judge Bench of Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices Ranjana Desai and Madan B Lokur, which had hardened its stand on Tuesday against the Centre for non-disclosure of all names, decided not to reveal the names.
The Bench made it clear to Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi that it did not intend to open the three envelopes submitted by him and asked the Registry to send them to the Special Investigation Team. It directed that the envelopes should be opened only by SIT Chairman Justice MB Shah and Vice-Chairman Justice Arijit Pasayat, for a further probe in respect of the 627 names.
The Bench also empowered the SIT to evolve its own procedure in accordance with law after hearing the grievances and difficulties of the Centre with regard to treaties with various countries and the submissions of petitioner Ram Jethmalani and his counsel.
Earlier Rohatgi told the court that the first document contained details of correspondence, treaties and agreements India had signed with France and other nations where the money was said to be stashed; the second contained the 627 names; and the third gave the status report on the investigation in these cases.
Rohatgi said that more than half the people in the list of 627 were Indian nationals while the rest were Non-Resident Indians. He said that most people named in the list had their accounts with HSBC Bank, Geneva.
The Attorney-General added that the details of account holders with entries dated up to 2006 were supplied by the French government to the Centre in 2011. He said that the information was stolen from HSBC Bank in Geneva and reached France from where the Government got the information.
The AG said the income-tax law had been amended to extend the period of limitation for launching a prosecution, and that the investigation should be completed by March 31, 2015. He said the Centre was not interested in protecting anybody and would follow the court’s orders.
When the CJI asked the AG whether the Government was pressing the application seeking modification of the orders, the AG said he was not doing so.
The Bench asked the SIT to submit a status report on the probe by November 30 and posted the matter for further hearing on December 3.
AAP’s intervention petition
Meanwhile Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party, through his counsel Prashant Bhushan, filed an intervention application stating that he had personal knowledge of some of the names having black money stashed in foreign bank accounts and was also in possession of the statements made by such persons before income-tax authorities.
Bhushan told the court that at the time of raids of their premises, these persons had confessed to holding black money in foreign accounts and also disclosed the modus operandi of how the ill-gotten money was transferred from India to their foreign accounts, and further, how this money was brought back through hawala transactions.
Kejriwal said that though the Government had revealed eight names, the list did not contain the names of the three who had given statements. He said he was placing all such names/information, obtained through a whistleblower, before the court so that a thorough investigation could be ordered and effective steps taken to check such illegal transactions of black money. The Bench said it would consider the application on December 3.

GA Team
Mahendra Educational PVT LTD

Friday, 17 October 2014

New team to steer economy

Arvind Subramanian is Chief Economic Adviser

With the appointment of former IMF economist Arvind Subramanian as the Chief Economic Adviser and Rajasthan cadre IAS officer Rajiv Mehrishi as the finance secretary, the Narendra Modi government has brought in a new team to steer the economy, five months after it came to power.
Mr. Subramanian, earlier a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, is pronouncedly pro-market. He has in the past argued for quicker subsidy reforms, fast introduction of GST, and faster deficit reduction than the temporal target set by the government.
The medium term fiscal policy envisages a progressive reduction of the deficit to three per cent of the GDP by 2016-17.
His appointment is a bold signal from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a ministry official told The Hindu . “Mr. Subramanian was critical of the first budget, but that he still gets this job is a clear signal that the government is serious about reforms.”
Mr. Mehrishi replaces Arvind Mayaram, who has been appointed the new Tourism Secretary. Mr. Mehrishi is also known to be pro-market and has been handpicked by Mr. Jaitley.

BASED ON THE HINDU
GA TEAM
MAHENDRA EDUCATIONAL PVT LTD

PM rolls out labour reforms

Modi combines pro-worker promises with industry-friendly changes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday unveiled new measures for the youth, workers and employers to improve ease of doing business for enterprises while expanding government support for training workers.
“Ease of business is the greatest requirement for India’s success. It will be a priority under Make in India. Labour’s problems must be seen from labour’s point of view,” he said.
Mr. Modi also launched the Universal Account Number scheme (UAN) for all Provident Fund contributors which will allow portability and online tracking of PF benefits.
Inaugurating the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Shramev Jayate Karyakram, organised by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr. Modi said the aim of the programme was to emphasise the dignity of labour, especially that performed by blue-collar workers, referring to them as “shram yogi.”

BASED ON THE HINDU
GA TEAM
MAHENDRA EDUCATIONAL PVT LTD

Saturday, 4 October 2014

“What is ISLAMIC BANKING”

Islamic banking refers to a system of banking activities that is consistent with the principals of Shariat law. Shariat prohibits the acceptance or giving of interest . The economic activity of Islamic banking is by becoming a share holder in the profits of the activity. Recently, the R. B. I. has permitted a N B F C called Cheraman Financial Services Limited, floated by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation ,with capital of Rs 1000 crore, to work as an Islamic financial institution.

GA TEAM
MAHENDRA EDUCATIONAL PVT LTD

RBI may not cut interest rates in monetary policy review as inflation levels remain high

Raghuram-rajan-rbi

With retail inflation continuing to remain at elevated level, the Reserve Bank is unlikely to cut interest rates in its upcoming monetary policy review this week. The RBI will unveil its fourth bi-monthly policy on September 30.
Although consumer price index (CPI), which the central bank is monitoring closely, has shown a declining trend in the past few months, the levels are still out of its comfort zone. RBI has set a glide path for CPI inflation at 8% by January 15 and 6 per cent by January 2016.
Retail inflation or CPI eased to 7.8% in August from 8.59%in April.
Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation has also eased, although more sharply, to 3.74% in August from 5.55% at the start of the current fiscal.
Banking experts however still believe that it may not be time for rate cut yet. State Bank of India chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said: "RBI is likely keep interest rate unchanged." Echoing the similar view, Bank of Baroda Executive Director Rajan Dhawan told PTI: "I think RBI would not change interest rate in the policy review because of inflation overhang."
Credit rating agency Care Rating said RBI has less room to cut policy rates on September 30 as there remains an upward threats to inflation going ahead. "Given the economic parameters of improving growth of 5.7% (Q1 FY15) GDP and elevated retail inflation on the back of potential threats to inflation going ahead, we do not foresee any room for a rate cut in the upcoming policy announcement," Care said in a report.
In a hint to the market that the cut in interest rates is still far away, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had recently said there was a need to 'break the back' of inflation which remains high. "The real problem is inflation that is persistent. We have been emphasising again and again in order to 'break the back' of inflation, we got to break this persistence," Rajan had said at an event.
Rajan had said that RBI will be in a much more comfortable position once inflation is contained. "I have no desire to keep interest rates high for even a second longer. I want to bring down interest rates when feasible. It will be feasible when we would have won the fight against inflation," he had said at a banking event earlier this month.
Canara Bank chairman and managing director RK Dubey said RBI will lower the rates only if inflation comes down consistently for a few months. "So, I expect some change in rates only by January," Dubey said.
Market participants, however, will closely watch the tone of the monetary policy.
In the last monetary policy review in August, RBI, for the third consecutive time, left the repo rate unchanged at 8%.
It, however, lowered the Statutory Liquidity Ratio, the portion of deposits that banks are required to keep in government bonds, by 0.5% to 22% from 22.5% to unlock about Rs 40,000 crore into the system.
According to Care Rating, RBI may not cut SLR on September 30 but even if it slashes SLR it won't come as a surprise. "It (SLR cut) could probably be a part of the long term goal of lowering the SLR rather than a short term measure," Care Rating said.
Indian Banks Association chief executive MV Tanksale said there was no need for a SLR cut now as credit pick up is slow and also there was no urgent need of liquidity.

GA TEAM
MAHENDRA EDUCATIONAL PVT LTD

Monday, 8 September 2014

Current account deficit narrows - RBI

Contraction in trade deficit helps, says RBI

India’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed sharply to $7.8 billion (1.7 per cent of gross domestic product) in the first quarter of 2014-15 from $21.8 billion (4.8 per cent of GDP) in the year ago period. However, it was higher than $1.2 billion (0.2 per cent of GDP) in Q4 of 2013-14. “The lower CAD was primarily on account of a contraction in trade deficit contributed by both a rise in exports and a decline in imports,” said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a press release on Monday.
On a Balance of Payments (BoP) basis, merchandise exports, at $81.7 billion, increased by 10.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2014-15 as against a decline of 1.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2013-14. On the other hand, merchandise imports, at $116.4 billion, moderated by 6.5 per cent as against an increase of 4.7 per cent.
The decline in imports was primarily led by a steep drop of 57.2 per cent in gold imports, which amounted to $7 billion, significantly lower than $16.5 billion. “Notably,” said the RBI, “non-gold imports recorded a modest rise of 1.3 per cent as against a decline of 0.6 per cent in the corresponding quarter of last year reflecting some revival in economic activity.” As a result, merchandise trade deficit (BoP basis) contracted by about 31.4 per cent to $34.6 billion in the first quarter of 2014-15 from $50.5 billion in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Net services receipts improved marginally on account of higher exports of services. Net services at $17.1 billion recorded a growth of 1.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2014-15.
However, net outflow on account of primary income (profit, dividend and interest) amounting to $6.7 billion was higher than that of $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2013-14 as well as in the preceding quarter ($6.4 billion).
In the first quarter of 2014-15, gross private transfer receipts at $17.5 billion, however, were marginally lower compared with the corresponding quarter of 2013-14. In fact, the RBI said that in the first quarter of 2013-14, “private transfers had shown a significant increase of around 6 per cent over the preceding quarter, possibly responding positively to the rupee depreciation.” Foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment on a net basis recorded inflows.
While net inflow, on account of portfolio investment, was $12.4 billion as against an outflow of $0.2 billion, net FDI inflow was substantially higher at $8.2 billion ($6.5 billion).
The RBI said that loans (net) availed by deposit-taking corporations (commercial banks) witnessed an outflow of $2.6 billion “owing to higher repayments of overseas borrowings and a build-up of their overseas foreign currency assets.” Under currency and deposits, net inflows of NRI deposits amounted to $2.4 billion from $5.5 billion.
The amount of loans (net) of other sectors (external commercial borrowings) at $1.7 billion was much higher than $0.9 billion in Q1 of 2013-14. The RBI also said that there was a net accretion of $11.2 billion to India’s foreign exchange reserves in Q1 2014-15 as against a drawdown of $0.3 billion in the year ago period.

BASED ON THE HINDU
GA TEAM
MAHENDRA EDUCATIONAL 
PVT. LTD.

RBI norms on Basel III instruments are credit positive: Moody's

The new norms by RBI for the instruments compliant under Basel III to raise Tier-I capital are credit positive for Indian banks, in particular public sector banks, according to Moody’s credit rating agency.
“They will make the instruments more attractive to investors, broaden the investor base for additional Tier 1 (AT1) securities to include retail investors and allow banks to have a higher proportion of AT1 capital in their Tier 1 capital,” Moody’s said in its credit outlook report.
New guidelines
On September 1, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had revised some of its rules governing instruments that qualify as bank capital under Basel III.
RBI has cut the minimum maturity for Tier 2 capital that banks can issue to five years from 10 years. It has also allowed retail investors to buy Tier 1 capital.
Basel III capital norms
Indian banks have to comply with Basel III capital norms by March 2019, including maintaining a minimum capital adequacy ratio of 11.5 per cent.
“Several changes will make AT1 instruments more attractive to investors. Write-downs of principal when a bank’s common equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital breaches the trigger level can now be temporary, giving investors the possibility of recouping their losses if the health of the bank improves,” said Srikanth Vadlamani, Vice President - Senior Analyst, Financial Institutions Group, Moody's Investors.
Broader investor base
Further, lack of broader investor base discourages banks from issuing Tier 2 instruments. RBI has tried to address this by widening the investor base to include retail investors.
The other key change in the new rules is the removal of certain limit on the amount of AT1 that a bank can use for calculating its Tier 1 capital, which effectively limited AT1 issuance to 1.5 per cent of risk-weighted assets.
At a time, when public-sector banks are finding it difficult to raise equity capital from the public markets, this provides a way for banks to bolster their Tier 1 ratio by raising a higher amount of AT1 capital.
Low capital levels are a key credit weakness for many Indian banks, particularly public sector banks. 

BASED ON BUSINESSLINE
GA TEAM
MAHENDRA EDUCATIONAL PVT LTD