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EPFO may Give Part Payout in MF-Like Units Dividend on equity investments may also be distributed among its 45 million subscribers Subscribers to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) may soon get part of their retirement payout in the form of units proportionate to the money the state-run pension fund invests in equities, a senior official said. EPFO invests up to 15% of its annual incremental corpus -pegged at ` . 1.4 lakh crore -in stocks through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to take advantage of higher returns from equities. The rest of the money is invested in government securities and other forms of debt. However, on retirement, the subscriber gets a consolidated sum based on interest rate decided by the EPFO's central board of trustees (CBT). If the proposal cited above is adopted, then part of this payout will be in the form of units, similar to that of a mutual fund, that can be encashed at time of exit. This would also mean that the dividend earned

DIPP approves three FDI proposals, including Wockhardt’s The commerce and industry ministry on Wednesday said it has approved three foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of Wockhardt Ltd and Coastal Local Area Bank. The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), under the commerce ministry, has also approved KPB Holdings’ proposal to issue shares to non-resident Indians (NRIs). While Coastal Local Area Bank got nod for issuance of shares to NRIs, Wockhardt Ltd got approval for issuance of employee stock option plan to NRIs. The Mint, New Delhi, 5th October 2017

Loan pricing via external benchmark likely soon Move will help consumers compare loans fairly The Reserve Bank of India pulled up lenders for keeping interest rates on loans at a higher level and said it would make another system to fix rates for such loans.The banking regulator expressed concern over base rate and marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) and said these internal benchmarks have not improved monetary transmission. A new system using external benchmarks to price loans would be introduced, the RBI said. In its report, an internal RBI study group to review the working of the MCLR system has suggested switching over to the new system in a time-bound manner, so that better rates are available to borrowers. The report said banks should use three benchmarks — Treasury bill rate, certificate of deposit rate and RBI’s policy repo rate – for pricing loans. Against the current system of annual reset of interest rates, the panel recommended quarterly reset. All bo

RBI Cuts growth forecast REPO RATES STAYS AT 6%, SLR REDUCED BY 50 BPS NO SPACE LEFT FOR FISCAL STIMULUS,SAYS GOVERNOR The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its policy rates unchanged on Wednesday, revised its inflation forecast for the second half of the fiscal year, and lowered the growth forecast sharply, while asking the government not to be too ambitious with its fiscal stimulus package. Five members of the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, voted for a pause. Ravindra Dholakia voted for a 25 basis point cut. Following the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy, the repo rate remained at 6 per cent. While continuing with its glide path of bringing down banks’ mandatory bond holdings, the central bank reduced the statutory liquidity ratio by 50 basis points to 19.5 per cent of the deposit base. The policy stance remained ‘neutral’. One basis point is 0.01 per cent.Patel said in an interaction with the media that between the states

Economy on right track: PM Modi Slams UPA, says it's not first time growth has fallen to 5.7% in a quarter Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lambasted the critics of his government´s economic policies and expressed commitment to carrying out further reforms to reverse the trend of declining GDP (gross domestic product) growth. Modi compared the “achievements” of the three years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by him against the “failures” of the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, arguing this was not the first time that the economic growth had fallen to 5.7 per cent in a quarter. The UPA regime´s record was much worse, he added. He said the current government had made a paradigm shift from policy paralysis of the previous government to policy implementation. Modi assured the companies coming into the formal economy, that they would not be hounded and their old records would not be examined. He said demonetisation had le

Advance Authority for Rulings in Demand to Clear Doubts on GST Fight for Forum Cos, associations approaching courts in absence of advance ruling mechanism A few senior tax officials and corporates have requested the government to start Advance Authority for Rulings as early as possible to clear doubts on goods and services tax (GST), as this will prevent companies and associations from approaching courts for clarity . Advance Authority for Rulings (AAR) is a forum companies customarily approach to get clarity on certain tax issues to determine their future liability. Absence of such an authority is leading to many companies and associations dragging the GST Council and government to court, say industry trackers. At the last count, about 10 writ petitions were filed, challenging some aspect of GST. About half a dozen more writs would be filed in the next fortnight alone. The trigger may have been some prominent companies, associations and multinational banks having either moved co

Disqualified Directors Seek Reprieve from Ministry Disqualified directors have started knocking on the doors of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) seeking reprieve from the debarment ordered by the government last month, with several of them explaining to the government that they have been wrongly disqualified and that they were not associated with the struck-off companies. The government could consider coming up with some solution for the aggrieved directors since no recourse is currently available under the Companies Act 2013. While companies can approach the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), directors have no such option. “The directors have got disqualified by the operation of law. We had sent notices to the companies before we struck off their names. We are seeing what can be done now...discussions will start soon,“ a senior official told ET. Chartered accountants and company secretaries have also met government officials over the disqualification of directors. Many C