March 31, 2016

Expected DA Slabs for the month of May'16 to July'16 - updated on 31.03.16 on announcements of Consumer Price Index for the month of Feb'16

Expected DA Slabs for the month of May'16 to July'16 - updated on 31.03.16 on announcements of Consumer Price Index for the month of Feb'16 as under

Today i.e. on 31.03.2016, CPI for the month Feb'16 announced as 6094.51. Earlier on 29.02.2016 CPI data for the month of Jan'16 announced as 6140.17. On assumptions that CPI data would remain as avergae of Jan & Feb 2016 for the next month Mar'16 in that situation the expected (tentatively) change in DA Slabs comes to decrease of 7 slabs for the month of May'16 - Jul'16, the expected DA payable in terms of percentage is as under : (However if we assume that CPI would remain sam as on Feb'16 in that situation the tentatively decrease is of 9 DA slabs, the expected DA calculator is revised on expectation of reduction of 7 slabs on assumption of average CPI of Jan & FEb for the month of March'16 )

( Reduction in expected DA raises a question in every one's mind that which item they find becomed cheaper. Are these the "achhe din" for Bankers and "achhe din" for pensioners by reduction in Interest rates on depsosits. )

January 13, 2016

No clear info with RBI on Re 1's different title: RTI reply

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not have a clear guideline regarding the printing of different titles on the currency note of Re 1 and that of other denominations, reply to an RTI query has revealed.

The Re 1 note bears the title 'Government of India', while other currency notes bear the title 'Guarantee by the Central Government'.

Activist Manoranjan Roy had filed an RTI query with the RBI recently seeking gazette copy or any other legal document with respect to the two different titles printed on Re 1 note and other notes.

In its reply, RBI's Central Public Information Officer Uma Shankar said, "The information sought is not available with us."

Notes of Re 1 bear the signature of Secretary, Ministry of Finance, while currency notes of all denominations carry signature of the Governor of RBI.

Roy said that the discrepancy in the title is ambiguous and, moreover, it seems like the RBI was doing its job "without clear-cut guidelines".

The activist also said the RBI Governor's signature on the currency notes, which are in both Hindi and English, should only be in one language. "These are definitely not part of security features on a currency note but definitely creates unnecessary ambiguity. It is time that the Finance Ministry take a note of it."

Banking governance will see reform: FM Arun Jaitley

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday met representatives of banks, financial institutions and social sector groups as part of pre-budget consultative meetings with various stakeholders. He said focus would continue on governance reforms in banking and there was considerable improvement in opening of basic savings bank deposit accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.

The finance ministry quoted Jaitley as saying that as part of governance reforms in public sector banks, Bank Board Bureau will replace the appointment board for appointment of whole time directors as well as non-executive chairmen to formulate appropriate growth and development strategies. Jaitley, in his meeting with social sector groups, said inclusive growth is high on the agenda and adequate measures can be expected to ensure social security for children, women and senior citizens.

Banks and FIs sought raising tax exemption limit to Rs 2.5 lakh, bringing down maturity period for taxfree term deposit to one year to promote domestic savings among other exemptions and putting affordable housing in the priority sector. HDFC Bank managing director Aditya Puri said certain tax-specific suggestions were made so as to encourage domestic savings. "Everybody was of consensus that public expenditure is necessary and if that is necessary then a balance will have to be done between fiscal deficit and expenditure, and may be it has to be delayed," he said.

Yes Bank managing director Rana Kapoor said the major point of the interaction was that overall savings in the country needs to be increased through a series of action to ensure domestic savings to create capital formation. "It was also suggested to bring down lock-in period on tax-free fixed deposits to one year from five years so that more depositors come into the system."

Social sector groups asked for doubling of allocation towards the health sector and higher rate of sin tax on tobacco products and alcohol in the budget. They sought allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) be increased by Rs 5,000 crore and spending of 10% of GDP on the education sector. Other suggestions included insurance to farmers as a major initiative to address the distress in the agriculture sector and for achieving higher agriculture growth, and adequate provisioning towards a comprehensive and universal crop insurance scheme.