Reduction in the turnover fees levied on stock brokers
- Securities market regulator SEBI on 14 January 2017 announced 25% reduction in the turnover fees levied on stock brokers, thus it is expected to result in reduction of overall cost of transactions and will benefit the investors and promote the development of securities market.
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) reduced the turnover fees levied on the stock brokers by 25% to Rs. 15 per crore of turnover from the current Rs. 20 per crore of turnover. This was announced in its board meeting at Jaipur held on 14 January 2017.
- Fee will be charged for open offer/takeover has been increased from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs 5. lakh.
- SEBI also decided to align the fees payable for buy back of securities with the fees payable for an open offer.
India’s 1st international stock exchange
- Prime Minister Modi inaugurated India’s first international exchange ‘India INX’ at International Financial Services Centre in GIFT in Gandhinagar.
- INX, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the BSE will trade in equity derivatives, currency derivatives, commodity derivatives including Index and Stocks.
- The exchange will create new standards in quality of service and speed of transactions in different time zones.
- V. Balasubramanian was on 9 January 2017 deputed by BSE Ltd., Asia’s oldest stock exchange, to head India INX as its first Managing Director (MD) and Chief Operations Officer (COO).
- He was till now the Chief Business Officer (CBO) in the BSE.
No Merchant Discount Rate​ Charges For Small Merchants
- Country’s largest lender SBI has waived Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on debit card transactions for all small merchants with annual turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh for one year.
- The discount rate is a commission paid by a merchant to a bank on every transaction done on the point-of-sale machine set up by the bank.
GAAR To Kick In From April 2017
- The General Anti-Avoidance Rule GAAR, will kick in from April 1, 2017 as implementation was repeatedly postponed till now.
- GAAR was part of the 2012-13 Budget speech of the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to check tax evasion and avoidance and during the 2015 Budget presentation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that its implementation will be delayed by 2 years.
EPFO makes Aadhaar Mandatory
- Retirement fund body EPFO has made it mandatory for its subscribers to provide Aadhaar.
- The pensioners as well as members would have to provide Aadhaar or enrolment slips by January 31, 2017.
- Central government contributes 1.16 per cent of the basic wages as subsidy to every members Employees Pension Scheme Account and is in addition to 8.33 per cent deposited by their employers every month.
SBI and Bharatiya Mahila Bank Merger pushed to Next Fiscal
- State Bank hinted that the mega merger of its five associate banks & Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) could be pushed to the next financial year that would make SBI a global-sized bank & would be amongst the top 50 lenders in the world.
- It will have an asset base of Rs 37 trillion or over $555 billion,with 22500 branches more than 50 crore customers.
Consumers have the discretion to not pay service charges added the bill by any hotel/restaurant
- The Consumer Affairs Department of the Union Government on 2 January 2017 came out with a statement pertaining to payment of service charges in the hotels/restaurants in which Consumers have the discretion to not pay service charges added the bill by any hotel/restaurant
- The state governments to advise the hotels/restaurants to prominently display that “the service charges are discretionary / voluntary and a consumer dissatisfied with the services can have it waived off.”
- This statement was issued following several complaints from consumers that hotels and restaurants are seeking ‘service charge’ in the range of 5-20%, in lieu of tips, which a consumer is forced to pay irrespective of the kind of service provided to him/her.
Government Permit 12 Banks to Raise Rs 3,000cr
- The government has allowed 12 lenders to raise nearly Rs 3,000 crore via preferential shares that is over and above the Rs 22,915 crore capital support committed to them in July last year.
- The government had already infused a sum of Rs 25,000 crore in 19 PSBs during FY 2015-16 as the budgetary provision of Rs 25,000 crore has been made for 2016-17.
First-ever non-banking financial entity to takeover Catholic Syrian Bank
- RBI’s has given in-principle approval to pick up a 51% stake in Kerala based Catholic Syrian Bank by Fairfax Financial Holdings. Thus Fairfax Financial Holdings, became the first-ever non-banking financial entity to takeover an Indian bank.
- The last takeover of a private sector lender by a foreign bank happened when ING picked up majority stake in Vysya Bank in 2002-03.
Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Ordinance, 2016
- President of India on 30 December 2016 approved the promulgation of the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Ordinance, 2016
- The main objectives of the Ordinance are (i) to provide clarity and finality to the liability of the Reserve Bank of India and the Government of India for the SBNs;
- To provide an opportunity to those persons who were unable to deposit the SBNs within the time provided.
- To declare holding, transferring or receiving SBNs as illegal, with provisions for penalty for contravention of any of the provisions of the Ordinance.
