The Reserve Bank has missed the deadline to issue the much-awaited guidelines for giving new banking licences. “I am sure we are not issuing it (licence) today,” RBI Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty told PTI. In the Budget 2011-12, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said the RBI plans to issue guidelines for the grant of new banking licences before the close of this financial year.
The government has capped service tax on foreign exchange transactions at Rs 5,000, which is seen as a bid to pacify market players, who feared a significant drop in the country’s forex volumes due to high levies on such transactions. As per a notification, tax for foreign exchange transactions will be calculated “at the rate of 0.1 per cent of the gross amount of currency exchanged for an amount up to Rs 1,00,000, subject to the minimum amount of Rs 25”.
Pune-based stud-farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, accused of money-laundering and stashing away huge amounts in foreign banks, on Thursday approached the Supreme Court challenging a lower court’s order allowing the ED to interrogate him in its office while being in judicial custody.
Investors had lost around Rs 250 crore after their money was invested by Citibank fraudster Shivraj Puri in Nifty options, said a police chargesheet filed in the Rs 400 crore scam. As per the chargesheet filed in the Civil Senior Division Court here on Tuesday, a sum of Rs 292.68 crore, fraudulently obtained from investors, was invested by Puri in Religare Security Ltd, Bonanza Portfolio Ltd and India Infoline Trader Terminal, out of which around Rs 250 crore were lost, Gurgaon Police Commissioner S S Deswal said.
An Indian businessman has been sentenced to prison in California on charges he fraudulently tried to get H-1B work visas for workers from India to fill non-existent jobs in the US. Srinivasa Chennupati has been sentenced to six months in prison and three years of supervised release for making false statements on 11 applications for the high-technology worker visas, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
EXPORTS (including re-exports) : Exports during February, 2011 were valued at US $ 23597 million (Rs. 107215 crore) which was 49.7 per cent higher in Dollar terms (46.9 per cent higher in Rupee terms) than the level of US $ 15758 million (Rs. 73002 crore) during February, 2010. Cumulative value of exports for the period April-February 2010 -11 was US $ 208229 million (Rs 949278 crore) as against US $ 158497 million (Rs. 753384 crore) registering a growth of 31.4 per cent in Dollar terms and 26.0 per cent in Rupee terms over the same period last year.
With India’s sugar production set to exceed domestic demand, the government is likely to re-impose 60 per cent import duty on sugar from tomorrow. “The duty free notification lapses on today and from April 1 it automatically reverts back to the old duty structure,” the official source said.
Investment in infrastructure holds the key to India’s economic growth. It has been projected that India’s investment requirement in the 12th Five Year Plan is over a trillion USD of which half is expected to come from the private sector. To encourage greater private sector participation in the development of infrastructure in the country, the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee during his budget speech of 2011-12 announced the decision of the government to further liberalise the policy relating to the investment in corporate bond market.
The Central Registry has become operational with effect from today i.e.31st March,2011.In his Budget speech for 2011-12, the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee had announced that the Central Registry would be operationalised by March 31, 2011. The objective of setting-up the Central Registry is to prevent frauds in loan cases involving multiple lending from different banks on the same immovable property. The Central Registry Of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction And Security Interest Of India, a Government Company, licensed under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 has been incorporated for the purpose of operating and maintaining the Central Registry under the provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act 2002).
The Union Cabinet today approved creation of seven posts of Indirect Tax Ombudsman to be located at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Lucknow in the HAG + scale of Rs.75,500-80,000/- and the supporting staff. The Indirect Tax Ombudsman Guidelines, 2011 has also been approved.
