Elections are underway in five crucial states, inflation is rising, and the country facing the second wave of the pandemic that has hurt incomes and livelihoods. A crucial policy decision on cutting the administered interest rate on small savings ought to have been thought through well.
From March 30, fixed deposits of 33-month duration will fetch 6.2% annualised returns. For 66-month deposits, the rate would be 6.6% and 6.65% for 99-month deposits. Senior citizens would get 25 basis points more. Distributors said this is the first time after October 2018 that HDFC Ltd has raised deposit rates.
The Board added that representations were received from taxpayers that the last date for intimating the Aadhaar number may further be extended in the wake of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The last date prior to extension was March 31, 2021.
This is the second time the government has cut interest rates on small savings schemes in the past one year
This extension will come as a relief for those who still have not linked their PAN with their Aadhaar as of yet.
"The offer thus aims to extend significant flexibility and cost savings to all its passengers in these unprecedented times...Fare difference will be applicable for flight changes and shall be payable by the customer," the release noted.
The delay in implementation of labour codes is a breather for India Inc as resurgence of Covid-19 cases in major industrial states have raised apprehensions that economic recovery seen so far could be stalled or even reversed if the cases continue to go up.
Staffing companies and HR professionals say that the new salary regime will cause changes to most pay structures in the country. Currently, for an overwhelming number of employers, the basic pay component is significantly lower than 50%.
As per section 139AA of the Income-tax Act, every individual who has been allotted a PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar number has to link his/her PAN with Aadhaar before the expiry of the notified due date.
Under the new norms, banks will be required to inform customers in advance about recurring payment due and transaction would be carried following nod from the customer. So the transaction would not be automatic but would be done after authentication from the customer.
The past chairmen and managing directors of the development financial institution wrote the letter a month back but there was no progress on the matter. They said that Nabard has Rs 5750 crore in its pension fund as of March 2020 and sufficient surplus is generated every year from the returns on investment of pension funds.
It could not be immediately determined what caused the problem, but an HDFC Bank spokesperson said it was not widespread.
As per the provisions, if aggregate cash withdrawal by an investor exceeds Rs 20 lakh but does not exceed Rs 1 crore during a financial year and he is a non-ITR filer, then TDS at the rate of 2 per cent will be deducted from the amount exceeding Rs 20 lakh.
RBI refuses more time to comply with a new rule that requires banks to send a notification to customers five days before the payment is slated to be deducted and allow the debit only after an okay from the customer.
Gold reversed its weakness and remained flat during the past week because of a signal by the US Fed to keep the interest rates close to zero till 2023. However, silver fell by 4% due increase in covid spread.
In September 2019, the RBI had superseded the board of PMC and placed it under regulatory restrictions, including cap on withdrawals by customers, after detection of certain financial irregularities and misreporting of loans given to real estate developer HDIL.
The KBL Smart Trade arrangement will boost user additions at IIFL Securities, which stands to add 10 million of Karnataka Bank’s users on its platform.
In an advisory to states, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said it is extending the validity of fitness, permit, driving licence, registration and other documents whose extension of validity could not be granted due to lockdown and which had expired since February 1, 2020, or would expire by March 31, 2021.
Represented by Harish Salve, Abhishek Singhvi, and Nalin Talwar, the UAE-based businessman belonging to the Kuber group, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday, challenging the decision of tax authorities which gave no relief to NRIs --- particularly those from zero-tax countries --- who were forced to extend their stay in India in the wake of COVID19.
Niyo had had last year announced the acquisition of Goalwise, an MF distribution platform. The company already distributes insurance policies, has a presence in wealth management through an acquisition and also offers stock buying.
In June 2020, the insurance watchdog had issued guidelines for insurance companies to roll out standard Covid-19 policies by July 10, 2020, for those between 18-65 years of age. Insurers were permitted to offer these policies till March 31, 2021. However, now insurers will be able offer and renew these short-term Covid-19 specific health policies up to September 30, 2021.
Despite a huge surge in the market in the last one year, many active mutual fund schemes have underperformed their benchmarks, suggests a report by MorningStar India.
Sends notices asking for information on payouts and redemptions during FY14 to FY20 period
Customers can purchase gadgets or pay for their insurance premium or school fees in easy EMIs from their savings account using the internet banking platform, bank said.
As per the newly inserted law, the government will specify the amount of penalty that will be levied on not linking PAN with Aadhaar, where the penal amount will not exceed Rs 1,000.
The new rates will be applicable on tickets issued from April 1, 2021. In the last 1.5 months, airfare bands for domestic flights have been hiked upto 30% due to spiralling jet fuel prices and with ASF also increasing, flying is set to cost more.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Tuesday, said that she would be glad to discuss the issue of bringing fuel prices under the ambit of GST in the next GST Council meeting.
Tuesday marked exactly one year since the biggest sensex crash of 3,935 points to 25,981 points by close of trade on March 23, 2020. The next day, the sensex sank further to an intraday low of 25,639 points.
Sebi on Monday eased the norms for valuation of perpetual bonds by mutual funds after the finance ministry’s intervention to ease the concerns of the bond market and the asset managers over the rules.
Furthermore, life insurers have been given extensions to obtain the customer’s e-signature for policies till 30 September 2021. The facility was earlier slated to expire this month.
In her Budget presented to Parliament on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had provided that interest on employee contributions to provident fund over Rs 2.5 lakh per annum would be taxed from April 1, 2021.
The court said the Policy shall be placed before it and the petitioners shall make a representation to the Committee for further processes in terms of the directions and listed the matter for further hearing on April 19.
100% returns in one year? Can a mutual fund scheme actually deliver such eye-popping returns? In the past one year, the stock market has gone through a massive fall and then touched historical peaks recently.
The SC said no direction can be issued to the govt or RBI to announce any particular financial packages or reliefs, and held that it cannot issue directions to provide relief to particular sectors over and above others.
Data from IIFL Alternative Research showed net stock futures open interest of clients, which includes HNI and retail investors, is at 6,14,000 contracts as against 6,22,000 contracts on January 31, 2020. Open Interest is the outstanding positions in derivatives market.
These schemes collectively manage Rs 2,800 crore as of February.
Sebi has also directed NSE to implement within 90 days the functionality of updating the collaterals at the 'slave system' of NCL (NSE Clearing Ltd) placed at data center of BSE and MSEI.
One week after the Finance Ministry intervened in the matter, the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Monday amended valuation rule of perpetual bonds.
"All the insurers shall ensure putting in place systems to enable policyholders track the status of cashless requests/claims filed with the insurer/TPA through the website/portal/app or any other authorised electronic means on an ongoing basis. "The status shall cover from the time of receipt of request to the time of disposal of the claim along with the decision thereon," said the regulator.
Though strengthening of the US dollar and bond yields pressurised gold, it ended the week with a gain of 1% due to dovish stance by the US Fed. Volatility was more in silver and it ended the week with a gain of 2%.
“In the insurance sector, there is an opportunity in the retirals space. Changes in our societal structure are leading to a massive gap in retirement savings.”
As per the National Accounts Statistics (NAS) 2021, the private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) on health, education and restaurants increased almost 9% each last fiscal, making overall PFCE rise 5.61% to Rs 83.72 lakh crore in FY20 from Rs 79.27 lakh crore in FY19.
Prices of essential medicines including painkillers, antiinfectives, cardiac and antibiotics could go up marginally from April, with the government allowing drug makers an increase in line with the change in the annual Wholesale Price Index (WPI). The annual change in WPI notified by the government works out to 0.5% for 2020, the drug prices regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority said on Friday.
The insurance regulator has made it mandatory for insurers to offer a sum insured between Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh under the Arogya Sanjeevani policy as against the previous range of Rs 1 -5 lakh.
Preliminary estimates show household financial savings rate sequentially fell to to 10.4 per cent of GDP in Q2'2020-21 from the high of 21.0 per cent in the preceding quarter.
The government's national programme for vaccination against COVID-19 for 60 years old and above and those above 45 years of age with comorbidities started on March 1, 2021.
Commercial banks and non-bank lenders may have to rejig their policies in this segment because of the fall in gold prices, said experts.