Banks set to raise lending rates, pre-empting RBI
India’s struggling economy is facing a new challenge: banks are raising interest rates even though the central bank is leaving its rates unchanged, as risks such as surging bond yields and more provisioning requirements erode their profit. HDFC Bank, India’s second-biggest bank by assets, on Wednesday became the latest to raise some rates by 10 basis points. The same day, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its policy rate unchanged, to “carefully” nurture economic growth.
CCI imposes Rs 135.86 crore penalty on Google for search bias
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a Rs. 136-crore fine on Google for “search bias” and abusing its “dominant position”. The Indian competition regulator’s ruling comes after similar setbacks in the European Union and Russia for the world’s most popular search engine. In a 190-page order, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said Google abused its dominant position on three counts that largely relate to search, while no foul play was seen in case of advertising.
Resolution professionals can be replaced: NCLAT
While the Indian Bankruptcy Code has vested significant powers in the hands of the resolution professional (RP), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has ruled that these are not without limits. It has clarified that the bankruptcy court has the powers to replace an RP if it is not satisfied with the functioning. It was hearing an appeal by Devendra Padamchand Jain, the RP for VNR Infrastructures, against his removal by the Hyderabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
PAN may soon become Aadhaar of your business
The government has been in discussions to turn the Permanent Account Number (PAN) into the enterprise unique ID, a feature which was announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Union Budget. Though the idea was first mooted a couple of years ago, the recent discussions suggest that among the plethora of IDs which are held by enterprises, making PAN the unique ID will be the most conducive option. This will mean that even the non-tax paying entities such as not- for profits, trusts or societies will have to now apply for a PAN number. It has also been suggested that this PAN number or the unique identity can be linked with the Aadhaar number at the backend.
Separate route on anvil for individual insolvency cases
The corporate affairs ministry has asked debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) to provide a separate route for resolving individual insolvency cases so that such applications can be expedited. The government is expected to announce the framework for notification for individual insolvency. So far, it has only notified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for corporate persons.”We want to take the DRT on board to assure us that they will give a separate route and not put individual insolvency cases in existing queue… We are also trying to understand their own pendency of cases,” said a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified.
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