QBiz: 94% Old Notes Back With Banks; FDI up 27% in April-October

The Quint brings you the top business news from dailies across the country.

Demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. (Photo: AP)

1. 94% of Demonetised Notes Deposited Back in Banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may have received Rs 14.5 lakh crore of the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as on 30 December, Business Standard reported.

This is around 94 percent of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore put out of circulation on 8 November.

Any eventual one-time windfall gain accrued to the central bank will be closer to Rs 90,000 crore as on the date, much less than the RBI and the Centre’s initial estimates of Rs 3 lakh crore. 30 December was the last date for depositing old notes in banks.

(Source: Business Standard)

2. GST Panel Fails to Arrive at Consensus on Dual Control, Compensation

The Centre and the states failed to arrive at a consensus on the issue of dual control by the end of the eighth GST Council meeting on Wednesday, said Kerala Finance Minister, Thomas Isaac.

The states maintained their demand for exclusive control over assesses with a turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore, but the Centre refused to concede.

The issue of higher compensation for states, in light of the government’s decision to demonetise high-value currencies was discussed yet again but there was no consensus on structure which could fund the additional amount required now, Issac told reporters at the end of the Council meeting.

(Source: BloombergQuint)

3. FDI up 27% at $27.82 Billion in April-October this Fiscal

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country grew by over 27 percent to $27.82 billion during April-October this fiscal.

The FDI stood at $21.87 billion in April-October 2015-2016, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

The main sectors which have attracted the foreign inflows include services, telecom, trading, computer hardware and software and automobile.

India receives maximum FDI from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Japan. The inflows increased by 23 percent to $55.6 billion in the last financial year.

(Source: Times of India)

4. IndiGo, SpiceJet Raise Red Flag Over FDI Norms in Aviation

IndiGo and SpiceJet have raised “security” concerns over the government's decision to allow 100 percent foreign ownership by non-airline players in the Indian carriers.

SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh and IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh recently raised this issue during their meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

During the meeting, the two airlines said aviation is a “sensitive sector” and the FDI policy relaxation would have “security implications”, according to sources.

(Source: Times of India)

5. Tata Sons’ Final EGM To Oust Mistry in February

The Tatas are drawing the battle lines for the last of the Extraordinary General Meetings (EGM) planned to oust Cyrus Mistry from the group.

The last EGM in this regard is slated for early February, just about a month before his term ends as a board member of the holding company.

This would be more challenging than the EGMs of the group companies as Shapoorji Pallonji, a company promoted by Mistry’s family, is the single largest shareholder of Tata Sons with a 18.4 percent stake, sources pointed out.

Tata Sons board members on Wednesday approved calling an EGM to remove Cyrus Mistry as a director, a source said.

(Source: Business Standard)

6. Removal of Cash Withdrawal Limit After RBI Assessment: Jaitley

The RBI will remove restrictions on cash withdrawals after assessing the market situation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday even as he ruled out interfering with the conditions barring anyone other than NRIs and Indians returning from abroad from depositing the junked notes in select central bank branches.

“The RBI will decide by assessing market situation. Many a time, actions are taken in phases, so relaxations are also done in phases,” he said when asked about when restrictions on cash withdrawals are expected to be removed.

Currently, an account holder is allowed to withdraw Rs 24,000 per week from the counters and Rs 4,500 per day from ATM.

(Source: Livemint)

7. HDFC, Canara Bank Cut Lending Rates

HDFC Bank, the second largest private sector lender of the country, has decided to reduce its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) by 75 to 90 bps across various loan tenures.

Accordingly, its one-year MCLR rate will be 8.15 percent as compared with 8.9 percent while its six-month MCLR will be 8 percent as against 8.85 percent earlier. The new rates come into effect from 7 January.

Public sector lender Canara Bank has also reduced its MCLR by about 70 percent and its one year MCLR is fixed at 8.45 percent.

(Source: The Hindu)

8. Singh Brothers in Talks With KKR for Fortis Sale

Global private equity fund KKR & Co Lp is in talks with the Singh brothers to acquire a controlling stake in hospital chain Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL), sources said.

The talks are in a preliminary stage, the sources added, asking not to be identified.

While a KKR spokesperson declined to comment, a spokesperson for Fortis Healthcare said the company had already shared information about its fund-raising plans.

Last month, Fortis informed the BSE that its board had approved enabling fund raising options of up to Rs 5,000 crore, including but not limited to a qualified institutional placement and sale of foreign currency convertible bonds, and recommended them to shareholders for their approval.

(Source: Livemint)

9. S Padmanabhan Is Tata Power’s New Chairman

Tata Power Co has appointed S Padmanabhan as its chairman, in place of Cyrus Mistry who resigned last month.

In December, Tata Power brought back S Padmanabhan, who was the executive director of operations at the company until 2014, as an additional director on the board.

He is also the executive chairman of the Tata Business Excellence Group and has recently been appointed as Tata Sons’ group head for human resources.

(Source: Economic Times)