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RBI acts, FM speaks up The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday constituted an expert panel that will look at the divergence in asset classification and provisions reported by banks visàvis those interpreted by the central bank´s auditors, and also to examine the rising incidence of fraud in the banking system. The panel will be headed by former RBI board member YH Malegam, who had also earlier led several RBI committees on important reform measures.The panel will explore “factors leading to an increasing incidence of fraud in banks and the measures (including IT interventions) needed to curb and prevent it; and the role and effectiveness of various types of audits conducted in banks in mitigating the incidence of such divergence and fraud,” the RBI said in a statement on its website. The other members of the committee will be Bharat Doshi, member of the RBI board;SRaman, former chairman and managing director of Canara Bank and former whole time member of the Securities and E

GST woes likely to hurt handicraft exports in 2017-18 Problems related to refund of goods and services tax (GST) and slow demand in global markets would impact export of handicrafts and could lead to decline in shipment by about 3.5 per cent in the current fiscal year, the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) said.EPCH Chairman O P Prahladka on Tuesday.He urged the government to immediately start refunds due to liquidity crunch faced by exporters.“About Rs 35 billion is stuck and it is impacting handicraft exporters, which are mainly in MSME sector. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 21th February 2018

Mismatch in govt GST export refund numbers The latest figures from the government on claims filed by exporters for refunds under the goods and services tax (GST) grossly contradicts its earlier statement of facts in this regard. At the end of November 2017, the finance ministry had said the cumulative total of GST refund claims from shippers from July 1 rollout of the new tax till endOctober was Rs 65 billion. And, inamidJanuary letter to the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the ministry has stated the total of such refund claims from July 1 till December 31 was Rs 55 billion —of which Rs 19.23 billion had been paid. The communication has been reviewed by Business Standard. Asked to explain how a cumulative figure could melt in this manner, despite the addition of claims for November and December,asenior Finance Ministry official said, “At this juncture, it cannot be commented on.” Ajay Sahai, director general of FIEO, said: “There is no consistency in the fi

NBFCs amy grab larger share of corporate lending The share for non-bank finance companies (NBFCs) in corporate lending might increase as the revised stressed asset framework predicts higher non-performing assets (NPAs) for banks. “Pressure on asset quality could mean that banks would not be as aggressive about lending as before, because they would focus on resolving NPAs," said Karthik Srinivasan, Group Head, Financial Sector Ratings, Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency. NBFCs have seen a strong growth rate in retail, but corporate lending is a new space for them. A CRISIL report said the share of wholesale credit in the NBFC credit pie was expected to increase to 19 per cent by 2020 from 12 per cent in 2014. It signals the shift of NBFCs towards corporate lending. “While NBFCs would continue to do well in their traditional stronghold of retail finance, they are growing fastest in the wholesale finance segment," said the CRISIL report.Pricing pressure fo

I&B representative on Prasar Bharati board complains against chairman The spat between the I&B ministry and Prasar Bharati, which erupted last week, has turned serious with I&B additional secretary Ali Rizvi complaining to the ministry that he was “unfairly shouted down” by chairman A Surya Prakash in the board meeting on February 15. At the gathering, some senior PB officials had taken “strong exception” to the ministry’s alleged interference with the organisation’s autonomy.Rizvi, an I&B representative on the PB board since October last year, was present in the meeting where PB officials, including Prakash, reportedly objected to the ministry seeking to terminate the services of all contractual employees of the autonomous body that functions under the ministry. Senior I&B officials said Rizvi’s written complaint is serious and is being looked into. According to senior ministry officials, the disagreement with Prakash started a few days back when the minist

EPFO likely to announce 8.7% interest Retirement fund body Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is likely to retaina8.65 per cent interest rate on provident fund deposits for its about 50 million members for 201718 at its trustees´ meet on Tuesday, sources said.To maintain the 8.65 per cent interest this fiscal, the EPFO had sold a portion of its investments in the exchange traded funds (ETF) worth Rs 28.86 billion earlier this month, the sources said. EPFO had announced this rate on deposits for 201617,atad lower than 8.8 per cent in 201516.It has earned a return of Rs 10.54 billion on sale of ETFs this month, which would be sufficient to provide 8.65 per cent rate of interest this financial year, said the sources.EPFO has been investing in ETFs since August 2015 and has so far not monetised the ETF investments.The EPFO has invested around Rs 440 billion in ETFs till date. According the latest evaluation of the EPFO´s investments in ETFs, it has earned a return of 16 p

MSCI to Consult Fund Managers Before Decision on India Weightage To assess whether decision by Indian bourses would hinder access to domestic markets Rajesh Mascarenhas & Reena Zachariah MSCI will check with global fund managers before deciding on whether to cut India’s weight in its indices in the wake of the move by domestic exchanges to bar the use of local derivative products on overseas bourses. The USbased index provider, said a senior executive, will start the process of getting feedback from international investors on this matter as the exchanges and authorities get into a huddle to decide their next step. The US-based index provider said late last week that the joint decision by Indian exchanges to stop providing licences and data to foreign bourses was “anticompetitive.” It warned that this could impact India’s weightage in the indices, which are used by overseas asset managers to construct exchangetraded funds (ETFs) and benchmark portfolios. A reduction in the c