Use of funds allocated under the UPA government’s flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act could end up being audited by local chartered accountants. This is part of an endeavour by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) that is interacting with the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) of India to promote end use audit in government schemes.
Shri R. Bandyopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs reviewed the progress of investor education initiatives of the Ministry. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs had decided to upscale its investor education initiatives for the current year and increased the number of investor awareness programmes by ten times from the 300 programmes organized last year.
The special court for trying Satyam Computer Services Ltd financial fraud case will hear the arguments again on framing of charges on August 24. Mr B.V. Ln Chakravarti, the XXIII Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate has posted the case for next hearing on Tuesday.
The Public Sector General Insurance Companies have been incurring health insurance claims in excess of premium received and after factoring in acquisition costs, which are around 10%, and the management expenses which are over 25%, the Combined Ratio i.e. the total expenses for health portfolio exceed 140% of the premium income.
Peeved that Indian corporate have to face tough norms in global government purchase orders totalling an estimated $3 trillion, the Commerce Ministry has suggested that the industry too should root for similar norms back home. “I (India) have given my market to everbody in the globe, …(but) I do not get access in their (Western) government purchase, what do I do?” Additional Secretary in Commerce Ministry D K Mittal said at a Ficci function here.
Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) has reported that banks have been permitted by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to allow free cash withdrawal at their ATMs by customers from other banks upto five times in a month free of charge. Banks are generally complying with the guidelines issued by RBI in this regards from time to time.
A day after the Supreme Court suggested that SFIO could help banks in recovering bad loans, the government on Thursday said it would look into the possibility of engaging the corporate fraud probing body to deal with the menace of non-performing assets.
The finance ministry has asked market regulator Sebi and insurance watchdog IRDA to deposit their surplus funds with the government, a move that may be resisted by these bodies citing regulatory autonomy. The directive follows repeated suggestions by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, the government’s statutory auditor, which says this will improve the regulators’ accountability to the exchequer.
A few months ago, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi walked up to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and said: “Gujarat is awaiting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) eagerly.” On Tuesday, at a meeting of state finance ministers where it was decided that a decision on GST would be deferred by a month, possibly leading to an indefinite postponement in its rollout, BJP-ruled Gujarat was at the forefront in opposing the tax in its present form.
The financial year 2011-12 is going to be more vibrant, especially for the accounting professionals, with the implementation of Direct Taxes Code (DTC) and the convergence of Indian accounting standards with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), according to Mr G. Ramaswamy, Vice-President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
