The government is redrawing a micro-credit programme to help pull rural households out of poverty. The proposal is to lend up to Rs 1 lakh per family in the next three to five years, with the loans coming collateral-free and with subsidised interest rates.

Bank accounts opened between July 1, 2014 and August 31, 2015 need to submit self-certification by April 30 to comply with FATCA.

India is at least a decade ahead of any other country in terms of using biometrics as an identity.

Accounts opened from July 2014 to August, 2015 will have to submit know your customer (KYC) details and their Aadhaar number to banks.

Dealers said dollar flexing muscles overseas and its increased demand from importers put the squeeze on the rupee. The cup of woes for the rupee seems to be brimming over as it weakened 13 paise more to 64.69 against the dollar in early session today as US rate hike fears come back to haunt participants. … Continue reading “Rupee Falls More, Higher Equities Contain Damage”

Home loan borrowers have had a lot to cheer about lately. Banks have cut lending rates by 1-1.2 percentage points over the past year, reducing the monthly EMI (equated monthly instalment) for borrowers. For the middle-income category, the Centre’s credit-linked interest subsidy scheme brings more good tidings. The scheme, effective from January 1, 2017, offers … Continue reading “New subsidy scheme for home loan borrowers”

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday maintained status quo on policy rate by leaving the repurchase rate (or repo rate) unchanged at 6.25 per cent in its first bimonthly policy of FY18. The central bank also kept the cash reserve ratio unchanged at 4 per cent. However, it raised the reverse repo rate … Continue reading “RBI drift from rate focus, targets cash surplus, health of banks”

Centre is examining a proposal from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to introduce Rs 200 notes to improve the cash situation, top central banking sources.

If you were greeted by empty automatic teller machines (ATMs) over the past few days, it is not because there is cash shortage only in your locality: the whole country is facing cash crunch once again, reminding people of the post-demonetisation days.

Hardening inflation and global developments may prompt the Reserve Bank to opt for status quo at its first bi-monthly monetary policy for 2017-18 on Thursday. Rising interest rate in the U.S. provides sufficient indication that benchmark policy rate of RBI is not going to go down but may increase in the future depending on domestic … Continue reading “RBI likely to maintain status quo on April 6”

The government has lowered interest rates on small saving schemes like PPF, Kisan Vikas Patra and Sukanya Samriddhi scheme by 0.1 per cent for the April-June quarter.

The deadline for depositing and exchanging scrapped Rs 500 and 1000 notes for Indian citizens who were abroad during November-December 2016 will end today, according to guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank India.

The four Bills that would operationalise the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) were tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday amid opposition protests that the Bills were not listed in the day’s agenda before hand.

The Department of Telecommunications on Friday issued a notification, directing all phone service providers to reverify details for all existing subscribers through Aadhaar-based e-KYC (Know Your Customer) process. The move will impact more than 100 crore mobile phone subscribers in the country, 90% of whom are prepaid card users. The process is likely to cost about ₹2,500 crore which will be borne by the service providers, according to industry body COAI.

The government today removed the 1% tax on cash purchases above Rs 2 lakh, after putting a limit on transactions.