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  RBI again seeks more power to rein in PSBs The RBI has yet again made a strong case for more power to regulate public sector banks (PSB) effectively. RBI Governor Urjit R Patel, who appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance on Tuesday, also submitted a detailed written response to questions that the members had raised. The meeting was called to record the Governor’s evidence on ‘Banking Sector in India: Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward, Including Non-Performing Assets/Stressed Assets in Banks/Financial Institutions.’ Sources said the RBI, in a written submission, said Section 5(C) of the Banking Regulation (BR) Act defines a banking company as ‘any company’ which transacts the business of banking in India. PSBs are not companies, but corporations formed by statutes. They are, therefore, not ‘banking companies’ and the BR Act does not apply to them in full. “Only those provisions of the BR Act specifically enumerated in Section 51 of that Act or elsewhere...

  Cabinet hikes carpet area for affordable housing, higher demand seen The decision could help homebuyers access bigger, ready-tomove-in houses at lower costs. In some good news for builders and middle-class homebuyers, the Union cabinet increased the carpet area of houses under the government’s affordable housing scheme on Thursday. The decision could help homebuyers access bigger, ready-to-move-in houses at lower costs, while developers with large inventories could look forward to renewed demand, triggering a virtuous cycle of employment generation and economic growth. The tweaks to the NDA government’s flagship housing programme—pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Pmay)—follows requests from the industry which was saddled with thousands of flats that had margin- ally bigger carpet areas than allowed under the scheme. In the first middle income category (Rs6-12 lakh/annum), the carpet area was raised from 90 to 120 sq. m (968 sq. ft - 1184 sq. ft). In the income category of R...

 NIIF may Lend a Hand to Resolve Stressed Assets Infra fund could be roped in as investor to set up ARC to take over stressed loans The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) may be roped in as an investor to set up an asset reconstruction company (ARC) that will take over the stressed loans of state-run banks, said a senior government official. “Bankers are thinking to get NIIF as a sponsoring agency. They (banks) themselves can pitch in some capital,” the official said, adding that Asset Reconstruction Company of India Ltd, sponsored by public sector banks (PSBs), has legacy issues. Acting finance minister Piyush Goyal had last week announced a committee under the chairmanship of Sunil Mehta, non-executive chairman of Punjab National Bank, to examine the idea of an ARC and/ or asset management company (AMC) for faster resolution of stressed assets involving multiple state-owned lenders. The committee is to give its recommendations in two weeks. The governm...

Our Target is to Turn Railways Profitable, Double Its Revenue’ Railway minister Piyush Goyal tells ET his focus is to improve signalling, expand electrified network & add more lines Railway minister Piyush Goyal has set a target of doubling the national transporter’s revenues to Rs 4 lakh crore by 2025 to make it profitable by then. Over this period, the total investment by the railways would be about Rs 9 lakh crore, he said. Our target is to turn the railways profitable so that it doesn’t have to take any gross budgetary support from the government,” Goyal told ET in an interview. “We intend to double revenues by 2025.” The minister said his focus was to increase capacity by improving signalling, expanding the electrified network, adding more lines in congested stretches and enhancing utilisation of assets. “Reducing cost is the most important thing. If we were to electrify large parts of our network, we can easily save around Rs15,000 crore in fuel bill itself,” the mi...

Dealers of Imported Sports Goods Under Taxman’s Lens DRI probes whether marketing spends like sponsoring events and roping in brand ambassadors be added to total import cost Does getting a sport star to endorse a brand or sponsoring a sports event be treated as imports? The intelligence arm of the tax department seems to think so. They content many dealers of imported sports goods and equipment unvalued their imports and sign contracts that obligates them to plough a sizeable amount of the value into endorsements and sponsorship deals. Revenue sleuths are investigating whether Indian dealers who import golf kits, table tennis rackets, badminton rackets and shuttlecocks must treat any marketing spend like sponsoring events and roping in brand ambassadors as imports. Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has initiated investigations against dealers of imported golf kits, badminton and table tennis goods of brands like Callaway, Ping, Yonex, Donex, Li Ning and Tietlist. In s...

  IIP rises by 4.9% in April; retail inflation inches up to 4.87% in May The industrial growth, measured on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 3.2 per cent in April last year Industrial output expanded by 4.9 per cent in April this year, spurred by higher growth in manufacturing and mining sectors. The industrial growth, measured on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 3.2 per cent in April last year In March this year, industrial production had grown at 4.4 per cent.  As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the manufacturing sector, which constitutes more than 77 per cent of the index, recorded a growth of 5.2 per cent in April, up from 2.9 per cent in the year ago month. The mining sector too expanded by 5.1 per cent, up from 3 per cent in April 2017. The growth in power generation, however, slipped to 2.1 per cent in April this year, from 5.4 per cent in the year-ago month.  Meanwhile, retail inflation inched up to 4...