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Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Friday said the issue of automatic exchange of tax information between India and Switzerland was likely to come up for discussion when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits that country on June 5. The PM will go on a five-nation tour on Saturday. He will be visiting Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico. New Delhi would also seek Swiss and Mexican support for its membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The issue of India’s membership to the nuclear non-proliferation body could also come up during his meeting with US President Barack Obama. India officially applied for the membership of the 48-member NSG on May 12. The US, Switzerland and Mexico are NSG members. On India’s engagement with the Swiss on the issue of black money, Jaishankar said: "We are in touch with the Swiss government under the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) mandate and we have had some discussions on this and we have a few planned in the ne

Admitting to "some discrepancies" in the GDP data, which soared to Rs 2.14 lakh crore in 2015-16 or up to 1.9 per cent, Chief Statistician TCA Anant today said the government is making efforts to minimise them. Some discrepancies in national accounts will always be there because of delay in reporting of information by various agencies including state governments but the effort is to report data as accurately as possible, he said . Business Standard New Delhi, 04th July 2016

Listed public sector firms, which represent the better part of the larger universe of state- owned firms, had a bad year with their combined profits plunging by 44 per cent on shrinking sales. The trouble was most pronounced in the banking sector but was not limited to it, as a couple of industrial sector firms also slipped into red. The numbers reiterate the challenge faced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he tries to balance the contradictory expectations of two of his key constituencies: reform- focused investors and nationalist hardliners. In aninterview to The Wall Street Journal a head of the second anniversary of his government last month, Modi said, “ In any developing country in the world, both the public and private sector have avery important role to play. You can’t suddenly get rid of the public sector, nor should you.” An analysis of 66 listed public sector firms, which recorded revenues of Rs.50 crore or more compiled by Business Standard Research Bureau showed that

Displeased with the performance of public sector banks ( PSBs) in recovering dues during 201516, the government has asked lenders to “ seriously” speed up efforts to get back money from defaulting borrowers. Recovery efforts have not matched the exponential growth in gross non- performing assets ( gross NPAs). Most recovery is coming from writtenoff accounts, which are increasing every year. The total recovery by all PSBs was flat at Rs.1.28 lakh crore in 2015- 16 against Rs.1.27 lakh crore in 2014- 15, according to the finance ministry’s communication to the chiefs of state- owned banks. Within these recovered amounts, the share of writtenoff accounts has increased from 41 per cent in 2014- 15 to 46 per cent in 2015- 16. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is slated to review the performance of PSBs next Monday. Bank executives said PSBs, which had over 70 per cent share of the outstanding loans of the system, had accorded priority to recovering dues from defaulters, espec

The Income Tax department notified four new forms for those who wish to declare their untaxed funds and properties under the one-time domestic black money compliance window. The forms- 1, 2, 3 and 4 can be used both for e-filing or manual filing of the black money assets by a declarant under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS). "In Form 1 the details of assets to be declared under the IDS is to be provided, Form 2 is the acknowledgement for the same that will be issued by the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner of Income Tax to such a person. Form 3 and 4 pertain to payment of taxes and penalty on these funds," a senior IT official said. Business Standard New Delhi, 03 June 2016

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