finance minister
09:47
Showing posts with label finance minister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finance minister. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 March 2020
Saturday, 31 August 2019
Merger of Banks
07:58
Amalgamation of National Banks
Amalgamation of National Banks
Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman's Presentation on amalgamation of National Banks
Download Original Document
Saturday, 4 August 2018
Wednesday, 1 August 2018
State Bank of India
18:35
Meeting With Finance Minister
Meeting With Finance Minister
31.07.2018
All India Bank Officers Confideration
Circular No:2018/50
Source:AIBOC
Tuesday, 3 April 2018
Thursday, 22 March 2018
Monday, 26 February 2018
Tuesday, 26 December 2017
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Friday, 25 August 2017
Sunday, 19 March 2017
trade unions
18:50
Central Government asks 10 banks to cut staff benefits for capital
Central Government asks 10 banks to cut staff benefits for capital
FinMin wants banks to get commitment from trade unions
The government has asked 10 public sector banks (PSBs) to curtail employee benefits, including industry-standard pay hikes, if these want to receive any capital. The Centre wants these banks to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the employees’ unions to get a commitment on this. If the unions agree, benefits such as leave travel concessions and perks could go for a few years till the banks returned to health.
All three Kolkata-based banks — United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank — have got this diktat. The letter has also gone to Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Andhra Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Dena Bank, sources said.
These banks had asked for capital from the government, some as little as ~500 crore. But the government is acting tough, as these have a huge bad-asset problem and their profits are dwindling.
According to sources, a letter, which the finance ministry has written to the banks, said capital allocation would be linked with measurable quarterly milestones on which all related parties — banks’ board of directors, management and employees — must commit.
Support in the form of capital would require a tripartite MoU between the government, the PSB concerned and its employees. The MoU would be a commitment to an agreement for a time-bound plan, starting with the financial year 201718. It would be monitored quarterly.
Temporary restructuring of employee benefits would be done only based on need. Any reduction or suspension in benefits could be reversed if the bank concerned successfully managed turnaround operations, said sources.
Senior bankers in some of these institutions confirmed they had received such a letter. A senior executive of a bank said the purpose of the proposed MoU was to have employees on board. “This is a commitment and not a legal provision to put blame on and basis for action against employees,” he added.
Sources said SBI Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of the State Bank of India (SBI), has been asked to advise on the terms of the MoU.
According to a senior union leader, they would explore the option of going on strikes if they were not satisfied with the terms of the MoU.
C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association, said employees were ready to cooperate for the effective turnaround of banks. However, unions and employees would not tolerate a vendetta or harassment. Banks have to be empowered to ensure effective recovery from defaulters, especially corporate borrowers, through legal means.
“The government wants the banks to sign the MoU with the unions to restrict economic benefits of employees. This is probably the government’s way of saying the employees of these banks deserve to be punished,” said a source.
Bank unions might find hurdles to their agitation plans. The P J Nayak committee has already suggested privatisation of PSBs. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed a desire to start privatisation with IDBI Bank. Besides, the government in July 2016 said it would capitalise only 13 banks, out of the 19 it owned, based on performance.
Bank unions were in a spot after the government gave a go-ahead to SBI to merge with its associate banks.
Such an MoU was not unprecedented. In 1998-99, the M S Verma committee report had suggested that banks with a return-on-asset ratio of less than one should be liquidated. Affected banks — Indian Overseas Bank, United Bank of India and Indian Bank — had to sign such an agreement with the unions. These banks had returned to health in three years. Then finance minister P Chidambaram used to preside over the board meetings of these banks and employee benefits were significantly curtailed.
The government is trying the same trick this time and the unions might have to oblige to save the banks from privatisation, sources said.
All three Kolkata-based banks — United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Allahabad Bank — have got this diktat. The letter has also gone to Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Andhra Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Dena Bank, sources said.
These banks had asked for capital from the government, some as little as ~500 crore. But the government is acting tough, as these have a huge bad-asset problem and their profits are dwindling.
According to sources, a letter, which the finance ministry has written to the banks, said capital allocation would be linked with measurable quarterly milestones on which all related parties — banks’ board of directors, management and employees — must commit.
Support in the form of capital would require a tripartite MoU between the government, the PSB concerned and its employees. The MoU would be a commitment to an agreement for a time-bound plan, starting with the financial year 201718. It would be monitored quarterly.
Temporary restructuring of employee benefits would be done only based on need. Any reduction or suspension in benefits could be reversed if the bank concerned successfully managed turnaround operations, said sources.
Senior bankers in some of these institutions confirmed they had received such a letter. A senior executive of a bank said the purpose of the proposed MoU was to have employees on board. “This is a commitment and not a legal provision to put blame on and basis for action against employees,” he added.
Sources said SBI Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of the State Bank of India (SBI), has been asked to advise on the terms of the MoU.
According to a senior union leader, they would explore the option of going on strikes if they were not satisfied with the terms of the MoU.
C H Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees’ Association, said employees were ready to cooperate for the effective turnaround of banks. However, unions and employees would not tolerate a vendetta or harassment. Banks have to be empowered to ensure effective recovery from defaulters, especially corporate borrowers, through legal means.
“The government wants the banks to sign the MoU with the unions to restrict economic benefits of employees. This is probably the government’s way of saying the employees of these banks deserve to be punished,” said a source.
Bank unions might find hurdles to their agitation plans. The P J Nayak committee has already suggested privatisation of PSBs. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed a desire to start privatisation with IDBI Bank. Besides, the government in July 2016 said it would capitalise only 13 banks, out of the 19 it owned, based on performance.
Bank unions were in a spot after the government gave a go-ahead to SBI to merge with its associate banks.
Such an MoU was not unprecedented. In 1998-99, the M S Verma committee report had suggested that banks with a return-on-asset ratio of less than one should be liquidated. Affected banks — Indian Overseas Bank, United Bank of India and Indian Bank — had to sign such an agreement with the unions. These banks had returned to health in three years. Then finance minister P Chidambaram used to preside over the board meetings of these banks and employee benefits were significantly curtailed.
The government is trying the same trick this time and the unions might have to oblige to save the banks from privatisation, sources said.
Source:Indian Bank Kumar
Tuesday, 7 March 2017
senior citizen
07:56
Latest Income tax slabs for FY 2017-2018
Latest
Income tax slabs for FY 2017-2018
The
Latest income tax slabs based on the Union budget presented on 01 February
2017. Calculate your tax based on the tax slabs for year 2017-2018. Detailed
split for general, women, senior citizen etc are provided.
India Income tax slabs 2017-2018 for General tax payers and
Women
|
Income
tax slab (in Rs.)
|
Tax
|
|
0 to 2,50,000
|
No tax
|
|
2,50,001 to
5,00,000
|
5%
|
|
5,00,001 to
10,00,000
|
20%
|
|
Above 10,00,000
|
30%
|
India Income tax slabs 2017-2018 for Senior citizens (Aged 60
years but less than 80 years)
|
Income
tax slab (in Rs.)
|
Tax
|
|
0 to 3,00,000
|
No tax
|
|
3,00,001 to
5,00,000
|
5%
|
|
5,00,001 to
10,00,000
|
20%
|
|
Above 10,00,000
|
30%
|
India Income tax slabs 2017-2018 for very senior citizens (Aged
80 and above)
|
Income
tax slab (in Rs.)
|
Tax
|
|
0 to 5,00,000
|
No tax
|
|
5,00,001 to
10,00,000
|
20%
|
|
Above 10,00,000
|
30%
|
Note - No change in Tax slabs from last year.
Source:FinanceMinister
Wednesday, 1 February 2017
INCOME TAX
22:35
Finance Minister reduces the tax rate from 10 to 5 per cent for individual income between Rs 2.5 to Rs 5 lakh.
Finance Minister reduces the tax rate from 10 to 5 per cent for individual income between Rs 2.5 to Rs 5 lakh.
Finance Minister appeals to all citizens to contribute to Nation Building by making a small payment of 5 per cent tax if their income is falling in this slab.
A simple one- page Income Tax Return form for the category of individuals having taxable income upto Rs 5 lakhs other than business income
The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley reduced the rate of taxation from existing 10 per cent to 5 per cent for individual assesses between income of Rs 2.5 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs. This would reduce the tax liability of all persons below Rs 5 lakh income either to zero (with rebate) or 50 per cent of their existing liability.
While presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in the Parliament today, the Union Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that the present burden of taxation is mainly on honest tax payers and salaried employees who are showing their income correctly. Therefore, post-demonetisation, there is a legitimate expectation of this class of people to reduce their burden of taxation. The Finance Minister further said that if a nominal rate of taxation is kept for lower slab, many more people will prefer to come within the tax net. The Finance Minister made an appeal to all the citizens of India to contribute to Nation Building by making a small payment of 5 per cent tax if their income is falling in the lowest slab of Rs 2.5 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs.
The Union Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that the Government is trying to bring within tax-net more people who are evading taxes. So, in order to expand tax net, it is decided to have a simple one-page form to be filed as Income Tax Return for the category of individuals having taxable income upto Rs 5 lakhs other than business income. Also, a person of this category who files income tax return for the first time would not be subjected to any scrutiny in the first year unless there is specific information available with the Department regarding his high value transaction.
In his Budget Speech, the Finance Minister further said that in order not to have duplication of benefit, the existing benefit of rebate available to the same group of beneficiaries is being reduced to Rs 2500, available only to assessees upto income of Rs 3.5 lakhs. The combined effect of both these measures will mean that there would be zero tax liability for people getting income upto Rs 3 lakhs per annum. and the tax liability will only be Rs 2,500 for people with income between Rs 3 and Rs 3.5 lakhs. While the taxation liability of people with income upto Rs 5 lakhs is being reduced to half, all the other categories of tax payers in the subsequent slabs will also get a uniform benefit of Rs 12,500 per person. The total amount of tax foregone on account of this measure is Rs 15,500 crore.
In order to make good some of this revenue loss on account of this relief, a surcharge of 10 per cent of tax payable on categories of individuals whose annual taxable income is between Rs 50 lakhs and Rs 1 crore has been proposed. This is likely to give additional revenue of Rs 2,700 crore.
The Finance Minister said that the direct tax proposals for exemptions, etc. would result in revenue loss of Rs 22,700 crore but after counting for revenue gain of Rs 2,700 crore for additional resource mobilisation proposal, the net revenue loss in direct tax would come to Rs 20,000 crore.
Source:PIBNEWS
Monday, 16 January 2017
senior citizen
20:19
BIGGER CASH PROP FOR BANKS
BIGGER CASH PROP FOR BANKS
New Delhi, Jan. 15 (PTI): The finance ministry is likely to finalise a capital infusion plan for public sector banks this week based on the request of various lenders affected by demonetisation amid rising bad loans.
The final touches are being given based on the feedback from banks and the plan should be ready by this week, sources said.
The capital infusion will be more than Rs 25,000 crore announced in the earlier budget and the additional requirement will reflect in the final batch of the supplementary demand for grants to be presented in the upcoming budget, they said.
Saddled with rising bad loans, banks have made a case for a higher capital infusion that is reflected in their demands sent to the ministry, sources added. Besides, their normal business has been hit during demonetisation.
The government has announced a fund infusion of Rs 22,915 crore, of the Rs 25,000 crore earmarked for the 13 PSU banks for the current fiscal. Of this, 75 per cent have been released to them.
The first tranche was announced with an objective to enhance their lending operations and enable them to raise more money from the market.
The capital infusion for this fiscal is based on an assessment of the compounded annual growth rate of credit growth for the last five years, banks' own projections of credit growth and an objective assessment of the potential for growth of each banks, the ministry had said.
Under the Indradhanush road map announced last year, the government will infuse Rs 70,000 crore in state banks over four years, while they will have to raise a further Rs 1.1 lakh crore from the market to meet their capital requirements in line with global risk norms under Basel-III.
PSU banks are to get Rs 25,000 crore in each fiscal - 2015-16 and 2016-17. Besides, Rs 10,000 crore each would be infused in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
However, a month ago, finance minister Arun Jaitley had nudged banks to think "out-of-box" while doing business and dealing with challenges, even as state-owned banks sought a higher capital support and tax incentives for senior citizens parking money in fixed deposits.
"The current fiscal is not a conventional year as many major reformative decisions have been taken during the year. There is a need for out-of-box thinking as a series of steps are required about what the government can do and what the banks can do," Jaitley had said.
Stating that the banking sector is the backbone of our economy, Jaitley said he "did not see any serious challenges as far as structural changes were concerned".
Source:Telegraphindia
Friday, 13 January 2017
salary revision
19:40
Budget 2017 and income tax rates: Why Arun Jaitley should cut rates instead of hiking tax exemptions
Budget 2017 and income tax rates: Why Arun Jaitley should cut rates instead of hiking tax exemptions
Given the need to assuage demonetisation pains and the need to collect more taxes, finance minister Arun Jaitley is expected to cut tax rates on February 1, but he has to refrain from populism while doing so.
Given the need to assuage demonetisation pains and the need to collect more taxes, finance minister Arun Jaitley is expected to cut tax rates on February 1, but he has to refrain from populism while doing so. Keep in mind, as the Economic Survey pointed out this year, India’s tax-to-GDP is 5.4 ppt below comparable countries and just 15% of national income is reported to the tax authorities. In this context, while hiking tax-exempt income to, say, Rs 3 lakh—or bringing back standard deduction as appears to have been recommended by the Easwar panel—will be popular, this will remove 15-20 lakh taxfilers out of the 130 lakh there are today. The Survey points out that, had the limits not been raised from FY09, there would have been 1.65 crore more returns and tax-GDP levels would have risen 0.32 ppt due to this alone.
Apart from greater efficiency in bringing in lucrative sectors like real estate into the tax net, the big challenge is the low compliance of those earning between Rs 10-15 lakh—tax compliance here is a mere 10% versus 20-25% in all other tax brackets, based on a comparison of the tax data with a theoretical income distribution of the country for that year. Since this is likely due to the fact that the top 30% tax bracket kicks in at a fairly modest level of income, the solution is to, say, create another bracket of Rs 10-20 lakh and tax that at, maybe, 20%. While this segment brings in around Rs 50,000 crore of taxes—based on data for AY 2014-15—the cut in rates will probably be more than made up by the impact of the increased compliance. This will necessitate cuts in rates in the lower slabs—in AY 2014-15, the Rs 2.5-5 lakh income group brought in around a tenth of personal income tax collections, so the loss in doing so may not be much while the move will be widely welcomed. Since the government loses around Rs 55,000 crore on various tax exemptions like those on insurance, it will be important to phase them out—while this will hurt those in the upper-middle income brackets, perhaps removing surcharges may neutralise the impact.
Though the tax-exemption limit has been overtaken by time, much of this was a recommendation of the Direct Taxes Code in 2009 anyway—that recommended doing away with all tax deductions and taxing incomes of Rs 1.6-10 lakh at 10%, Rs 10-25 lakh at 20% and above that at 30%. The finance minister would do well to revisit that document.
Source:Finacial Express
Wednesday, 28 December 2016
volume of transactions
16:05
Law Ministry rejects Finance move to link small savings to Aadhaar
Law Ministry rejects Finance move to link small savings to Aadhaar
Ahead of launching the demonetisation drive, the Finance Ministry had sought Law Ministry’s opinion whether Aadhaar submission could be made compulsory for small savings scheme.
The Law Ministry has turned down Finance Ministry’s proposal that a person investing in small savings schemes — these attract gross deposits of over Rs 2 lakh crore each year — be made to link the accounts to his or her Aadhaar number.
Ahead of launching the demonetisation drive, the Finance Ministry had sought Law Ministry’s opinion whether Aadhaar submission could be made compulsory for small savings schemes like Kisan Vikas Patra, Public Provident Fund, National Savings Certificate, Senior Citizen Saving Scheme and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana.
The rationale put forth by Finance Ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) was that individuals evade scrutiny by parking cash below Rs 50,000 into multiple small savings accounts because such deposits (below Rs 50,000) do not seek permanent account number (PAN) details.
The Law Ministry turned down DEA’s proposal on October 4 saying such schemes cannot be notified as “service within the meaning of Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act” since small savings are serviced under the Public Account Fund of India and not the Consolidated Fund to which the Aadhaar Act applies.
Section 7 of the Act states that the government can ask an individual to furnish his Aadhaar number to establish his identity “as a condition for receipt of a subsidy, benefit or service for which the expenditure is incurred from, or the receipt therefrom forms part of, the Consolidated Fund of India”.
Not satisfied with the legal opinion, the DEA once again approached Law Ministry to reconsider the October 4 advice, saying that the fresh reasoning for bringing small savings under the Aadhaar ambit was that the “expenditure incurred to campaign for small savings scheme was derived from the Consolidated Fund”.
On December 14, Law Ministry reiterated its earlier opinion and directed that all transactions relating to these schemes should be accounted from the Public Account Fund as per the National Small Savings Fund (Custody & Investment) Rules.
Quoting a 2001 order of a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, the Law Ministry said “when a statute vests certain power in an authority to be exercised in a particular manner, the said authority has to exercise it only in the manner provided in the statute itself”.
In fiscal 2014-15, deposits in small savings schemes were Rs 289,080 crore while withdrawals were Rs 248,667 crore.
Source:FNPO
Thursday, 1 December 2016
TAXES
18:52
No tax on gold or jewellery bought from disclosed income
No tax on gold or jewellery bought from disclosed income
However, the instruction highlighted by the Ministry seems to also place a lot of importance on the discretion of the assessing officer.
The government on Thursday sought to quell rumours that all gold jewellery, including ancestral jewellery, will now be taxed following the passage of the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill 2016 in the Lok Sabha. The government clarified that gold or jewellery bought from disclosed income would not be taxed.
“It is clarified that the jewellery/gold purchased out of disclosed income or out of exempted income like agricultural income or out of reasonable household savings or legally inherited which has been acquired out of explained sources is neither chargeable to tax under the existing provisions nor under the proposed amended provisions,” a government statement said.
The government also highlighted instruction no. 1916 issued in the year 1994 that stated that gold jewellery and ornaments amounting to 500 gm per married lady, 250 gm per unmarried lady and 100 gm per male member of a family need not be seized.
"Further, legitimate holding of jewellery up to any extent is fully protected," the statement said.
However, the instruction highlighted by the Ministry seems to also place a lot of importance on the discretion of the assessing officer.
“The authorised officer may, having regard to the status of the family, and the custom and practices of the community to which the family belongs and other circumstances of the case, decide to exclude a larger quantity of jewellery and ornaments from seizure,” the instruction said. “This should be reported to the Director of Income-tax/Commissioner authorising the search at the time of furnishing the search report.”
Source:The Hindu
Monday, 14 November 2016
Reserve Bank of India
08:15
Ministry Of Finance: Availability and Distribution of all Denominations of bank notes
Ministry Of Finance: Availability and Distribution of all Denominations of bank notes
Finance Ministry reviews the position regarding availability and distribution of all denomination of bank notes in different parts and regions of the country; Issuance of the new series of Rs. 500/- notes commenced; Instructions issued to the Banks and Post Offices to ensure proper distribution of all denomination notes including small denominations up to the last mile including through mobile banking vans and Banking Correspondents (BCs).
The Union Finance Ministry today reviewed the position regarding availability and distribution of all denomination of bank notes. Some of the highlights of the review and the decisions taken are as follows:-
1. In the first four days ( from November 10th to 13th , upto 5 pm ) about Rs 3.0 lacs crores of old Rs.500/- and Rs.1000/- bank notes have been deposited in the banking system and about Rs.50,000 crores has been dispensed to customers by either withdrawal from their accounts or withdrawal from ATM’s or by exchange at the counter. Within these four days, the banking system has handled about 18 crore transactions.
2. Coordination is being continuously done by Ministry of Finance with RBI, Banks and Post Offices to make all denomination notes available at all locations.
3. Instructions have been given to the Banks and Post Offices to ensure proper distribution of all denomination notes. Banks have also been especially advised to ensure the availability and distribution of small denomination notes.
4. Chief Secretaries of the States have been requested to identify the rural pockets, if any, where availability of cash has been a problem and provide all support to the Banks and Post Offices in order to ensure the last mile distribution of small denomination of notes is done through mobile banking vans and Banking Correspondents (BCs).
5. It has been reported that certain business houses viz. Hospitals , Caterers , Tent houses etc. are not accepting Cheques/Demand Drafts and online payment transfer from customers. It is advised that in such cases customer can make a complaint to the concerned District Magistrates/District Administration for action against such establishments.
6. Government of Assam has arranged a Mobile Banking Vans with support of Banks and State Government Staff at certain Hospitals for carrying out emergency banking transactions. All Banks have now been advised to arrange mobile banking vans to the extent possible at major hospitals to carry out emergency banking transaction for patients.
7. Banks have been advised to make arrangements for separate queues for Senior citizens and Divyang persons. Separate queues will also be arranged for exchange of cash to cash and transactions against Bank accounts.
8. Government of Arunachal Pradesh has made special arrangements like cash deposits /withdrawal and opening of new bank accounts in the remotely located areas with the help of Banks and State Government staff. State Governments have been requested to facilitate opening of new Bank accounts as a part of financial inclusion programme.
9. The issuance of the new series of Rs.500/- notes has already commenced.
10. Banks have been advised to increase the Business Correspondents limit of dispensing cash to Rs.2500/- for withdrawal from bank accounts.
11. Banks have been advised to increase the exchange limit over the counter from the existing Rs.4000/- to Rs.4500/-.
12. Banks have been advised to increase the Cash Withdrawal limit at ATMs from the existing Rs.2000/- to Rs.2500/- per day in the recalibrated ATMs, other ATMs will continue to dispense Rs.50/- and Rs.100/- notes until they are recalibrated.
13. The weekly limit of Rs.20,000/- for withdrawal from Bank accounts has been increased to Rs.24,000/-. The limit of Rs.10,000/- per day has been removed.
14. Banks have been advised to increase the issuance and use of mobile wallets and debit/credit cards as also to provide them to those customers and establishments not having access to these non-cash means of payment
15. The last date for submission of the annual life certificate for the Government Pensioners which is to be submitted in November every year has been extended up to January 15, 2017.
Source:PIBNEWS
Wednesday, 26 October 2016
Reserve Bank of India
16:15
Forensic auditor investigating debit card data breach, says RBI
Forensic auditor investigating debit card data breach, says RBI
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that a forensic auditor is investigating the debit card data breach affecting Indian banking system under Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) framework.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that a forensic auditor is investigating the debit card data breach affecting Indian banking system under Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) framework.
The RBI said that it will submit a report on the issue within the next ten days to the finance ministry. The move by the RBI comes in the wake of several public and private sector banks being made to recall or block over 32 lakh debit cards to safeguard their customers from financial fraud.
The finance ministry has asked various agencies, including the RBI to submit their report in ten days. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said last Friday that the government has sought a detailed report on the extent of debit card data compromise following the biggest security breach in the Indian banking industry that affected over 32 lakh card holders. “I have sought a report in the debit card issue. The idea is to contain the damage,” Jaitley said.
Source:The Financial Express
