Attention is invited to paragraphs 81 to 83 of the Monetary Policy Statement 2012-13 announced on April 17, 2012 with regard to home loans on floating interest rates. The Committee on Customer Service in Banks (Chairman: M. Damodaran) had observed that foreclosure charges levied by banks on prepayment of home loans are resented upon by home loan borrowers across the board especially since banks were found to be hesitant in passing on the benefits of lower interest rates to the existing borrowers in a falling interest rate scenario. As such, foreclosure charges are seen as a restrictive practice deterring the borrowers from switching over to cheaper available source.
Uploading of BRC data by banks can be done at any time and it should be electronically transmitted on a daily basis. Electronic issuance of BRC has started with effect from 05.06.2012. Physical submission of BRC would continue concurrently for one month from 05.06.2012. BRCs which have been issued manually after 01.04.2012 shall be converted in the digital (XML) format by the banks and uploaded on DGFT server.
Safeguards, conditions and limitations.- Refund of CENVAT Credit under rule 5 of the said rules, shall be subjected to the following safeguards, conditions and limitations, namely:-
The complaints received by SEBI against SEs and Depositories shall be electronically sent through SCORES. You are advised to view the pending complaints at http://scores.gov.in/admin and submit the Action Taken Report (ATR) along with supporting documents electronically in SCORES. Please note that updation of action taken shall not be possible with physical ATRs. Hence, submission of physical ATR shall not be accepted for complaints lodged in SCORES.
The removal of foreclosure charges/prepayment penalty on home loans will lead to reduction in the discrimination between existing and new borrowers and competition among banks will result in finer pricing of the floating rate home loans. Though many banks have in the recent past voluntarily abolished pre-payment penalties on floating rate home loans, there is a need to ensure uniformity across the banking system. It has, therefore, been decided that banks will not be permitted to charge foreclosure charges/pre-payment penalties on home loans on floating interest rate basis, with immediate effect.
‘Orphan life insurance policies’for the purpose of these Guidelines, means the policies initially effected by an individual insurance agent whose services were subsequently terminated or removed or deleted from the rolls of the insurer excluding those policies to which the effecting agent is entitled to renewal commission under provisions of Section 44 of the Insurance Act. The policies that are considered eligible under section 40(2A) of Insurance Act also do not fall under the purview of this definition.
Notification No. 23/2012-Income Tax In exercise of the powers conferred by the clause (22B) of section 10 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Government hereby specifies the The Press Trust of India Limited, New Delhi as a news agency set up in India solely for collection and distribution of news, for the purpose of the said clause for two assessment years 2012-2013 to 2013-2014.
Notification No. 51/2012-Customs (N.T.) In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 75 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962), sub-sections (2) and (2A) of section 37 of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (1 of 1944), and section 93A read with sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 94 of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994), read with rules 3, 4 and 5 of the Customs, Central Excise Duties and Service Tax Drawback Rules, 1995, the Central Government, hereby makes the following amendments in the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No.68/2011-Customs(N.T.), dated the 22nd September, 2011 published vide number G.S.R. 712 (E) dated the 22nd September, 2011, namely:-
Notification No. 50/2012-CUSTOMS (N. T.) Gold, in any form, in respect of which the benefit of entries at serial number 321 and 323 of the Notification No. 12/2012- Customs dated 17.03.2012 is availed .
In order to rationalize and simplify the process of settlement and also to curb the return/rejection ratio of the received claims, it is decided that henceforth amount of Provident Fund accumulation/ withdrawal benefit may also be credited in the joint bank account of the member, if member opts for the same. However, this is to clarify that the joint bank account shall be acceptable for the purpose only in case when the bank account is maintained with his/her spouse.
