Banking Awareness 4th February 2017 | Financial Affairs 4th February 2017.

1. With GST roll-out, we are cautious of indirect tax forecast for FY18’

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said the reason for projecting low growth rate in the indirect tax collections for fiscal 2017-18 are three fold transformational change to Goods & Services Tax (GST), sharing of Central cesses with States, and uncertainty over compliance level in the first year of GST.

2. World Bank Expert Mr. Iyer To Lead Swachh Bharat Mission

• The government has appointed World Bank’s water and sanitation specialist, Parameshwaran Iyer, as the new Secretary of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department.
• Iyer, World Bank’s Practice Manager for Water for the South Asian region , has been given the post by PM Modi for two years to steer the Swachh Bharat Mission.

3. Jaitley introduces Bill in LS to make holding of scrapped notes punishable

• A war of words broke out between Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy and Finance Minister Jaitley on 3 Feb 17, as the latter got up to introduce, the Specified Bank Notes Bill that makes holding the demonetised 1,000/500 notes a punishable offence.
• Opposing the Bill’s introduction and accusing the government for taking a “disruptive step for the economy” affecting lakhs of livelihoods.

4. Reserve Bank of India Allows NRIs access to ETCD market

• Currently Non-Residents Indians (NRIs) are permitted to hedge their Rupee currency risk through OTC transactions with AD banks.
• “With a view to enable additional hedging products for NRIs to hedge their investments in India, it has been decided to allow them access to the exchange traded currency derivatives market to hedge the currency risk arising out of their investments in India under FEMA, 1999.”

5. India and Italy Sign an MOU in Rail Sector for Technical Cooperation

• The cooperation areas identified in this MoU includes safety audit of Indian Railways and measures required for enhancing safety in train operation, Assessment and certification of advanced technology based safety products and systems to Safety Integrity Level (SIL4).
• Training and competency development with focus of safety, Modern trends in Maintenance and diagnostic etc.

6. DJ Pandian appointed Vice President of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

• Former chief secretary of Gujarat DJ Pandian was appointed vice-president and chief investment officer of the newly-created Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on 3 February 2016.
• His appointment as vice-president and chief investment officer was approved by AIIB.

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