Notification No. 24/2012-Income Tax Section 90 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 – Double Taxation Agreement – Agreement for Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of fiscal evasion with foreign countries – Norway. Whereas an Agreement between the Republic of India and the Kingdom of Norway for the avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital was signed at New Delhi on the 2nd day of February, 2011;
RPCD.CO.RRB.BC.No. 88/03.05.33/2011-12 In view of the timelines attached to the implementation of EBT for routing MGNREGA wages and social security benefits including proposed cash transfers in respect of subsidies on Kerosene, LPG and Fertilisers, you are requested to ensure opening of Aadhaar Enabled Bank Accounts (AEBA) of all the beneficiaries including those residing in villages with less than 2000 population.
State Level Bankers’ Committees (SLBCs) are now mandated to prepare a roadmap covering all unbanked villages of population less than 2000 and notionally allot these villages to banks for providing banking services, in a time-bound manner. The notional allotment is only intended to ensure that all villages are provided with at least one banking outlet for providing banking services and does not deny or bar any other bank from operating in these areas based on the available business potential.
Please refer to the paragraphs 121-123 of the Monetary Policy Statement 2012-13, wherein we have emphasized the importance of implementing IT and IS Governance structure in banks. It is expected that all banks adopt appropriate frameworks for both IT and IS Governance and put in place the proper structure and systems. Accordingly, we request you to take up suitable steps at your end in this regard and ensure that the issues relating to governance, information security and business continuity get adequate attention at the Board level. In this regard, the document prepared by IDRBT on the ‘Organizational Structure for IT in the Indian Banking Sector’ can serve as a reference manual.
With a view to enhancing the credit flow to the export sector, it has been decided to enhance the eligible limit of the ECR facility for scheduled banks (excluding RRBs) from 15 per cent of the outstanding export credit eligible for refinance to 50 per cent, effective fortnight beginning June 30, 2012. This will provide additional liquidity support to banks of over `300 billion. The rate of interest charged on the ECR facility will continue to be the prevailing repo rate under the LAF, which is currently 8.0 per cent.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The issue of semi-closed prepaid payment instrument upto Rs 10,000 without separate KYC being conducted by the issuer, for payment of utility bills/ essential services/ air and train travel under Para 6.4 (iii) was permitted on the premise that full KYC of the customer is already being done by the provider of such services. The control exercised by the issuer has been on the acceptance side, ie. utility of the card for the specific purpose at the specific merchant. Based on this rationale, it has been decided to redefine the merchant categories under Para 6.4 (iii). Accordingly Para 6.4(iii) of the guidelines dated April 27, 2009 (as amended by circular dated November 4, 2010) may now be read as:
