1. Panel on Cards to Find out Banks for Mergers: ET
A 10-member committee is being set up by the government to identify suitable candidates as it seeks to push consolidation among state-run banks, which has 27, including five subsidiaries of State Bank of India.
The proposed committee will have senior executives along with representation from the Reserve Bank of India, a finance ministry official was quoted saying, the idea is to identify candidates for both mergers and acquisitions.The Economic Times Report
The latest M&A transaction in public sector banks was the takeover of State Bank of Indore by State Bank of India in 2010. SBI took over State Bank of Saurashtra in 2008.
2. RBI Proposes P2P Lending Regulations: Livemint
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated steps to regulate the nascent and hitherto unregulated peer-to-peer (P2P) lending business, reports Livemint.
The RBI has proposed registering P2P lending platforms as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and put out a discussion paper, to that effect, on its website on Thursday.
Online P2P lending companies work as marketplaces that bring individual borrowers and lenders together for loan transactions without the intervention of traditional financial institutions such as banks and NBFCs.Livemint Report
RBI said it would be “prudent” to regulate the business because of “the impact it can have on traditional banking channels” and NBFCs and its “potential to disrupt the financial sector and throw up surprises”.
3. Amazon Profit Crushes Estimates as Cloud-service Revenue Soars
Amazon.com reported profit and revenue that blew past analysts’ expectations, sending its shares soaring in after-hours trading and demonstrating the growing market power of its core retail business and new cloud services division.
The results draw a sharp contrast to the disappointing fourth quarter Amazon reported in January, which renewed worries among some shareholders about the company’s comparatively thin profit margins. Shares of the world’s biggest online retailer jumped nearly 13 percent to $679 in extended trading on Thursday.
The company also offered a bright outlook, with revenue guidance for the current quarter of $28 billion to $30.5 billion, compared to the $28.33 billion analysts had expected.
Amazon’s performance also assuaged concerns about a broader slowdown among tech and internet companies after Apple, Microsoft and Intel all reported disappointing earnings.
Read more here.
4. CVC Tightens Screws on Loan Verification: ET
The rising number of bad loans in public sector banks, amplified by the Vijay Mallya case, has prompted the Central Vigilance Commission ( CVC) to ask these banks to draw up a second layer of verification of valuation reports and such documents submitted by a potential borrower, reports The Economic Times.
The anti-corruption watchdog has also advised the state-run banks to rework their protocols for faster identification of “stressed loans”.
The move comes amid attempts by lenders to recover dues of Rs 9,000 crore on loans made to the Mallya-founded Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya left for the UK on 2 March, triggering action by CBI and ED.
5. IKEA Asks for Easier Customs Norms in India: BS
Swedish furniture maker IKEA has asked the government for a faster Customs clearance mechanism for smooth business operations as it is gets ready to open its first store in India, reports Business Standard.
The finance ministry has assured the company, which is making the largest foreign direct investment so far in the single-brand retail space, of speedier clearance of cargo at ports to help it save time and cost. The first store is set to be opened in Hyderabad in 2017.
6. Rajan Lobbies for Quick IMF Assistance to Countries in Financial Stress: ET
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has been quoted saying in the The Economic Times that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should trim down its bureaucracy and act quickly in sanctioning financial assistance in the form of liquidity during financial crisis as it is the backstop for countries in trouble.
The most critical aspect of any crisis is liquidity that countries need for which they depend on IMF, the global multilateral institution which is tasked with the idea of guarding global monetary stability.
We have to see what we need to do to take the backstop in to a fast acting source of liquidity in a very short run. And how we deal with situations where a liquidity problem turns into a solvency problem.Rajan at IMF’s spring meet
7. CBDT Publishes Direct Taxes Related Data for First Time: FE
In a first, CBDT has made public a host of hard data on the total number of taxpayers in the country, income disclosed in income tax returns by various category of taxpayers and number of PAN holders in the country for a chosen period of time, reports Financial Express.
The department said the objective of publishing these statistics was to encourage “wider use and analysis of Income Tax data by departmental personnel and academicians.”
Under the ‘time series’ data, between 2000-01 to 2014-15 financial years, discloses the actual direct taxes collection made by the department, direct tax to GDP ratio, the cost of collecting the revenue for the government kitty, number of effective assesses and workload and disposal of IT cases.Financial Express Report
8. FDI Rules May Help Flipkart, Snapdeal Against Amazon: Livemint
The new foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations that prohibit online marketplaces from offering discounts may inadvertently help e-commerce firms Flipkart and Snapdeal, which are scrambling to conserve cash and cut costs, by slowing Amazon’s advance in India, albeit temporarily.
While the three companies continue to fund discounts purportedly given by third-party sellers on their sites, they have cancelled planned sale events and accompanying advertisements until the start of the festive season to avoid potential punishment from regulators.
A special Livemint report says the cancellation will hit Amazon more than its local rivals.
9. Companies Will Have Unique ID Numner To Carry out Biz: ET
Companies will soon have one unique identification number to carry out all business transactions, reports The Economic Times.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the ministry of corporate affairs are integrating their back-end operations to provide one simple identity to companies, doing away with the multiplicity of numbers currently being used by them, a senior government official was quoted in the report.
While the MCA is trying to expedite the exercise, various government departments involved in the process including directorate general foreign trade, labour department are trying to reach a consensus on the most acceptable identification number.
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