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PF body proposes decreasing administrative charges for employers The central board of trustees (CBT) of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will discuss a proposal to decrease the administrative charges for employers in a bid to boost social security coverage for the workers later this month. The EPFO has proposed to decrease the administrative charges to 0.50 per cent from 0.65 per cent of the worker’s monthly income that goes as employer’s share. This is the third year in a row that the EPFO has proposed decreasing the administrative charges for employers. “It is recommended that the administrative charges may further be reduced to 0.50 per cent of pay to ensure that the benefits of efficiency and savings are passed on to employers. The reduced liability on establishment can provide incentive to the employers to extend social security coverage to more employees or workers,” the agenda item of the CBT meeting, to be held on February 21, said. The EPFO meets the e

‘Revised RBI norms to clean up NPAs in one go’ Expressing the government’s firm commitment to deal with the problem of non-performing assets (NPAs), Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) revised guidelines would help clean up the bad loan mess in one go within a strict timeframe. “It is a wake up call to defaulters. Government is determined to clean up things in one go and not defer it. Resolution now will happen within a timeframe,” he said. Resolution Now Will Happen  Within a Timeframe The revised framework has specified norms for “early identification” of stressed assets, timelines for implementation of resolution plans, and a penalty on banks for failing to adhere to the prescribed timelines.The latest notification issued by the RBI on Monday has also withdrawn the existing mechanism. The Joint Lenders’ Forum as an institutional mechanism for resolution of stressed accounts also stands discontinued, it said, adding

Sebi to meet rating agencies on faster access to default data Capital market regulator Sebi will meet credit rating agencies this week to explore ways to have quicker access to information on loan defaults by corporates. With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) having so far refused to share the sensitive information beyond the banking industry, Sebi is keen that all rating agencies take membership of credit information companies (CICs) to obtain default data that banks have to report to CICs. Many corporates as well as banks are reluctant to share default information with rating agencies. The only agency that receives the data on a daily basis is Central Repository of Information on Large Credit (CRILC), a RBI controlled entity, which only gives banks (but not other lenders and market participants like NBFCs) access to the data. Compared to this, CICs typically come to know about defaults after a month or a fortnight."The regulator may discuss ways to improve the quality of d

IIP GROWTH, RETAIL INFLATION DIP The economy continued to witness high growth in industrial production in December and retail price inflation in January, despite both declining from their 17-month highs seen in the previous month. Despite persisting double-digit growth in capital goods and fast-moving consumer goods, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) expanded at a slower pace of 7.4 per cent in December, from the upward revised 8.8 per cent in November. Provisional estimates had put the November growth at 8.4 per cent. Infrastructure and construction grew 6.7 per cent, against 13.89 per cent in November. The numbers were bolstered by manufacturing and a low growth of 2.4 per cent a year ago due to demonetisation. INDIVJAL DHASMANA & ISHAN BAKSHI write. The economy continued to witness high growth in industrial production in December and retail price inflation in January, despite both declining from their 17-month highs seen in the previous month.Despite persisting do

EAC-PM discusses ways to rollout of mega healthcare scheme The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) today discussed possible modalities for implementing the world's largest health protection scheme announced in the Union Budget, said an official release. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget Speech on February 1, had announced that the government would launch a flagship 'National Health Protection Scheme' to cover over 10 crore households (about 50 crore people) by providing annual coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. "Keeping in view the national health scheme announced by the government in the Budget for the year 2018-19 presented in Parliament on February 1, 2018, the EAC-PM discussed the possible modalities of implementing the scheme," said a release.The mega scheme is likely to be launched either on August 15 or October 2. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 13th February 20

With IBC the Default Tool, RBI Retires Debt Rejig Processes Puts strict time limits on resolution of defaults, warns lenders of penalties on violations The Reserve Bank of India has scrapped a number of loan-restructuring programmes that banks were using to recast debt, with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) having become the main tool to deal with defaulters. It also put strict time limits on the resolution of defaults in a notification issued late on Monday. T he central bank warned lenders of monetary penalties and higher provisions if they are found to have violated the rules or ‘evergreening’ accounts to escape the stringent new norms on CDR, JLF frameworks from March 2018 stressed asset resolution framework in view of enactment of IBC all stressed cases of over 2,000 cr must be completed within 180 days then account to be referred to IBC in 15 days outside IBC, account should not be in default with an exposure of more than 5 crore have to be reported on a weekly ba

EPFO sells a portion of equity to maintain 8.65% interest rate EPFO has encashed its first tranche of equity investments it made in 2015 and made capital gain, including dividends, of Rs1,053.75 crore India’s retirement fund manager, the Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO), has booked a profit of over Rs1,000 crore by selling some of its equity investments to maintain interest rate at the same level as last fiscal, said two officials in the know.The move, which comes ahead of its annual interest rate declaration, may help EPFO offset relatively low returns from debt investments this year, two officials aware of the matter said. If EPFO pays 8.65% this year, the same as last fiscal, it will be considered a net positive for subscribers in the current market situation, especially when other PF and small saving rates including Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Government Provident Fund (GPF) rates are going down.PPF and GPF earned 7.6% rate in the current quarter. “The org