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The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi)’ s insistence that mutual funds cut down on the number of schemes they manage is beginning to yield results, but the scope for merging plans still remains large. In the first five months of this calendar year, more than 30 schemes have been merged, compared with almost half that number in the whole of 2015, according to Value Research. From 2010 till now, roughly 150 schemes have been merged. At present, the mutual fund industry has roughly 350 equity schemes and 1,500 debt schemes. “There is a scope for more mergers across all categories, whether debt or equity,” said Manoj Nagpal, chief executive officer, Outlook Asia Capital. “Several fund houses have paid a price for acquiring schemes from other fund houses during mergers, with a view to boost assets and valuations. That is the main reason why they are reluctant to cut down on schemes,” added asenior fund manager on condition of anonymity. Experts said the older and lar...

The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) on Thursday directed banks tochal kout cyber security policies, separate from the lenders’ IT policy, “ immediately” in view of the rising cybercrimes at banks. In its cyber security framework for banks, the central bank said the number, frequency and impact of cyberattacks “ have increased manifold in the recent past” at banks and other financial institutions, “ underlining the urgent need to put in place a robust cyber security/ resilience framework at banks and to ensure adequate cyber- security preparedness among banks on a continuous basis.” The circular comes a week after RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra said at an event that the central bank would get strict with cyber security flaws at banks and was considering to limit a customer’s liability in case of cyber fraud. The framework, posted on RBI’s website, warned that banks must improve the current defences in addressing cyber risks as entry barriers are getting lowered, while motivation and ...

Public sector banks ( PSBs), which are starved for equity capital, are refusing to tap the markets to raise funds, despite having all the necessary approvals in place. State Bank of India ( SBI), Bank of India, United Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Union Bank and IDBI Bank have had the permissions for more than a year or more but they have refrained from raising capital via the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route. Arun Tiwari, chairman and managing director of Union Bank, points out that even though they have the approvals to raise ? 1,386 crore via QIP, they haven’t done it as yet because they do not need the funds now. “The credit growth in the system has been low and the areas that we are growing in don’t require as much capital. Therefore, the need for capitalraising hasn’t come yet,” he said. The credit growth in the banking systemhas been in the range of 8.5- 11 per cent for almost two financial years now. And the PSBs, excluding SBI, seem to be the worst affect...

There is almost full consensus that the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) is unlikely to lower the repo interest rate in June, especially after signalling in the last policy that it would keenly monitor liquidity dynamics and infuse “ primary liquidity” to support its accommodative stance. Further out, the market remains hopeful that RBI could deliver a last 25- basis point repo cut around August, post clarity on monsoons. Though not a zero probability yet, scope for RBI to implement more repo cuts is shrinking at a fast pace and this could be irrespective of the monsoon dynamics. While headline Consumer Price Index (CPI)- based inflation increased to 5.4 per cent in April, the cereals inflation that should mostly get affected by the monsoon is not too significant even today and is at around 2.5 per cent. Vegetables and pulses prices have been volatile and might continue to be so in the near future. Beyond the food prices, the key issue that is not easily ignorable is the firm to firm...

As the government struggles to get the Opposition on board for the passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill for the goods and services tax ( GST) in the Rajya Sabha, Central and state revenue officials are engaged in a turf war over the unified indirect tax regime. The administrative concerns, if not ironed out, may significantly dent the ease of doing business objective of the key reform, resulting in harassment of taxpayers and rise in litigation, according to experts. Central revenue officers are concerned that states want control over taxes and assessments, rendering the Central Board of Excise and Customs toothless. “ There are administrative concerns over the GST that may result in a rise in litigation and harassment of taxpayers. The GST may end up with the worst rules from state laws and central laws,” said an official who did not wish to be named. “States are striking off almost all our recommendations at the GST meetings,” he added. Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, ...

The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) is unlikely to tinker with its interest rates, days ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy review and the British referendum on European Union membership, say the 10 economists   polled by Business Standard. While RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan in the past has said other factors, including domestic fundamentals, outweigh the US Federal Reserve policy meets, this time it would be different. RBI is also scheduled to release its second bi- monthly policy statement for FY17 on June 7. Not only is the US Fed widely expected to raise rates in June, the possibility of a Brexit, or aBritish exit, wouldbe a majorevent for the global financial markets— and India would be impacted as well. “RBI would not want to move before assessing the outcome of the US Fed meet and Brexit in June,” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economist, State Bank of India. The Indian currency, of late, has acted somewhat jittery, losing a full rupee since the last policy review; ...

www.caonline.in News... 1.Bad Debt admissible if written off as irrecoverable in books: CBDT via (Circular No. 12/2016-Income Tax - (30/05/2016)) 2.Definitive anti-dumping duty on Methyl Acetoacetate via (Notification No. 22/2016-Customs (ADD) - (31/05/2016)) 3.If DTAA does not specifically treat consideration for use of ‘computer software’ as Royalty, such consideration cannot be taxed as Royalty under DTAA via (DDIT Vs Reliance Industries Ltd ( ITAT Mumbai)). 4.SEBI has notified disclosure of the impact of Audit qualifications by the Listed entities. 5.RBI has issued Master Direction on Financial Services provided by Banks Directions, 2016. As per the direction, a Bank is not allowed to contribute more than 10% of its paid up capital and reserves as per last audited balance sheet in factoring subsidiaries and factoring companies. For more News Like us on https://www.facebook.com/caonlineofficial Or Subscribe on mail visit : www.caonline.in

The Narendra Modi government’s crude oil party might be finally getting over. Thanks to the 80 per cent slump in global crude prices between June 2014 and January 2016, the Centre had the leeway of raising excise duty on petroleum products. Thus collecting Rs.1.11 lakh crore in the first nine months of 2015- 16, against Rs. 99,000 crore in all of 2014- 15. Also, oil marketing companies’ collective profits jumped 65 per cent to Rs. 13,090 crore in 2015- 16, while consumers gained through reduced retail prices of petrol and diesel. All of that could soon become history. The price of the Indian basket of crude oil jumped as much as 78 per cent to cross $ 50 a barrel last week, from a multi- year low of $ 28 in January. After the OMCs’ latest round of revision in retail prices, taking effect on Wednesday, petrol is Rs.65.6 a litre. This level was earlier seen in October 2014, around the time global crude price benchmarks started crashing, and two months after the Modi government as...

Highlighting India as the worlds fastest growing major economy despite an unsupportive global environment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said good monsoon, GST passage and higher spending will accelerate the upward curve in the coming years. “When globally the going is good most countries do well. It is when the world is slowing down and world environment is not only unsupportive but at times obstructive, for an economy to grow is most challenging," Jaitley said. Pro- growth policies have helped GDP grow at fasterthanexpected 7.9 per cent in the January- March quarter, and 7.6 per cent for the entire 2015- 16 fiscal, he said. “To grow at this rate in the midst of an unsupportive global environment is itself significant,” Jaitley said addressing aconference before heading for Osaka. Stating that global unpredictability impacts India, he said the shrinkage of global trade as well as fluctuations in currencies has adversely effected the economy. Besides, drought for two c...

India Post Payments Bank ( IPPB) will be set up as a public limited company under the Department of Posts with 100 per cent government equity. The Cabinet approved a proposal in this respect on Wednesday. The total corpus of the payments bank is of Rs. 800 crore, which will have Rs. 400- crore equity and Rs.400- crore grant. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that 650 branches of the postal payments bank would be established in India, which will be linked to rural post offices. India has 154,000 post offices, of which 139,000 are rural post offices. IPPB will obtain banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by March 2017 and by September 2017, all 650 branches of the postal payments bank would become operational. Its services will be available across the country through these 650 payments bank branches, linked post offices and alternative channels, riding on modern technology including mobiles, ATMs and simple digital paym...

Any company that wants to transfer ownership of its non- auctioned captive mines will have to pay the equivalent to 80 per cent of the royalty to the respective state government, the government notified on Wednesday. “We have decided on this amount — equivalent to 80 per cent of the royalty —keeping the concerns of the cement industry in mind. Earlier, we were thinking of imposing an amount far more than this, but after discussions with the industry, we have come to this extremely reasonable amount,” said mines secretary Balvinder Kumar. Ignoring the apprehensions of some companies, the secretary made it clear that this amount would have to be paid even if the mine is getting transferred from one subsidiary to another in the same company. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2016, passed by Parliament in Budget session, was introduced by the government for permitting transfer of non- auctioned captive mines. Now, as the rules and transfer charge...