The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 3 crore on the private sector lender.
The penalty, imposed under section of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, has been levied for shifting certain investments from HTM category to AFS category in May 2017.
The bank had transferred two separate categories of securities on two different dates from HTM to AFS in April and May of 2017, which it believed was permissible as per Master Circular on Prudential Norms for Classification, Valuation and Operation of Investment Portfolio by Banks dated 1 July 2015.
RBI has held that the shifting of securities the second time in May 2017 without explicit permission was in contravention of RBI directions.
The Ministry of Finance, Government of India has decided to provide an additional amount of upto Rs 15,000 crore to States as interest free 50 year loan for spending on capital projects. The Department of Expenditure has issued fresh guidelines in this regard on the Scheme of Financial Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure for the financial year 2021-22.The Finance Minister had in her budget speech announced that the Centre would take measures to nudge States to spend more on infrastructure and to incentivize disinvestment of their public sector enterprises.
Capital expenditure creates employment, especially for the poor and unskilled, has a high multiplier effect, enhances the future productive capacity of the economy, and results in a higher rate of economic growth. Therefore, despite the adverse financial position of the Central Government, it was decided last year to launch a Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has demanded restoration of MSME status taken away in 2017 from 8 crore retail and wholesale traders who are part of the service industry. The government in June 2017 removed retail and wholesale traders from the MSME category forcing the players either borrow at a higher rate or from informal financial sources, CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told PTI. According to banking sources, about Rs 3 lakh crore loans given to them are at the risk of losing a tag of MSMEloan at the end of March when banks do their annual closure. As a result, many banks will face the problem of meeting priority sector lending (PSL) target and the shortfall may have to be parked with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) or Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA).
Read more about Govt proposes to hike in LIC s authorised capital to Rs 25,000 cr on Business Standard. The government has proposed to significantly increase the authorised capital of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)