Significant Irregularities found at Pakistan’s top bank after US sanction

FATF is due to review whether to downgrade Pakistan a step further, to its blacklist, at a meeting in Paris that starts on Sunday

A West Asian activity of Pakistan’s biggest bank showed “critical abnormalities” in dealings with politically uncovered customers and screening a few exchanges, as per a review by the South Asian country’s national bank that occurred over a year after the loan specialist was closed out of the US money related framework.

The discoveries are contained in a State Bank of Pakistan report, settled in the primary portion of 2019, on Habib Bank’s tasks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The assessment was directed after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a worldwide guard dog for unlawful money related exercises, put Pakistan on its checking list.

FATF is because of survey whether to minimize Pakistan above and beyond, to its boycott, at a gathering in Paris that begins on Sunday. That would have genuine ramifications for the country’s economy and its bailout program with the International Monetary Fund.

FATF in some of Habib Bank’s UAE branches helped certain clients camouflage exchanges by giving compensation arranges in their own names, while holes in chance profiling and observing mirrored an “insufficient consistence capacity and consistence culture,” the national bank said. In a prior draft variant of its investigation report, additionally observed by Bloomberg News, the national bank said UAE staff avoided rules when opening a record for Duduzane Zuma, the child of previous South African President Jacob Zuma.

BCCI nominates MS Dhoni for prestigious Padma Bhushan award

With two World titles (2011 50-over World Cup and 2007 World T20), nearly 10,000 runs, 90 Test matches, there is no one better than him who could have been nominated said a BCCI official

The Indian cricket board has nominated Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the country's third highest civilian award -- the Padma Bhushan -- for his contribution to the game.

A senior BCCI official confirmed that the Board has only sent one name for the Padma awards this year and it was a unanimous decision to nominate India's most successful captain.

"Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been nominated by the BCCI for the Padma Bhushan award. There was no doubt among the members that Dhoni has impeccable credentials. Two World titles (2011 50-over World Cup and 2007 World T20), nearly 10,000 runs, 90 Test matches. There is no one better than him, who could have been nominated," a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

The BCCI has not sent any other nominations for the Padma awards this year.

The 36-year-old has scored 9737 runs in 302 ODIs besides 4876 runs in 90 Test matches. He has also played 78 T20 Internationals, notching up 1212 runs.

He has 16 international hundreds (6 in Tests and 10 in ODIs) along with 100 international half-centuries.

As a wicketkeeper, Dhoni has held 584 catches across formats (256 in Tests, 285 in ODIs and 43 in T20 Internationals). He has also effected 163 stumpings.

Dhoni is already a recipient of the prestigious Arjuna, Rajeev Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Padma Shri award.

If Dhoni is conferred with Padma Bhushan, he will become the 11th Indian cricketer to get the third highest civilian honour.

Some of the notable international cricketers, who have been the recipients of Padma Bhushan award are Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Chandu Borde, Prof DB Deodhar, Col CK Nayudu, and Lala Amarnath.

The lesser known names include Raja Bhalindra Singh of Patiala, who played 13 first-class matches, and Vijaya Anand -- the Maharaja of Vizianagram, who was India's captain during their 1936 tour to England.

 

Demonetisation: RBI will give junked notes' figure after counting, says FM

Arun Jaitley says final figures will come out once the fake notes were weeded out

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Tuesday said the RBI is in the process of counting scrapped currency notes and will come out with the final figures once the fake notes were weeded out.
Answering oft-repeated questions over the issue, he said in the Lok Sabha that the Reserve Bank had received the last tranche of scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 only in July and the central bank would take time in counting the billions of notes.

Economy News policy

On November 8 last year, the government had scrapped high denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 which amounted to around 86 per cent of the currency in circulation.
Replying to a discussion on supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said one of the major benefits of demonetisation was squeezing of funds for terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and naxalites in Chhattisgarh.

On questions regarding the amount of scrapped currency deposited back in the banks, the finance minister said, "Today they (RBI) have to count every currency note. They have to take the fake currency out...That exercise the RBI is taken to a very advanced level."

The minister said since March demands were being raised for disclosure of the amount of scrapped currency deposited in the banks but it can not be done over night.

"...I am hearing that argument 'tell us the currency'. Please study the subject closely. And therefore as soon as they (RBI) complete this exercise, the figure will be placed by them before the country along with the figure of fake currency," he added.....(READ MORE)

Benami property: Aadhaar-PAN link opposed in name of privacy, says Jaitley

Arun Jaitley said, 'People should voluntarily made disclosures and come within the tax net'

Economy news : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Monday said example needs to be set to create a deterrent ag the inst use of anonymous people to hide ill-gotten wealth, amid some politicians and their family members coming under the scanner for alleged benami deals.

Referring to opposition of PAN-Aadhaar linkage, he said it is an "effective anti-evasion measure" and will get rid of multiple PAN cards and mismatch in income and expenditure, but it is being opposed "in the name of privacy".

He also said that the government is using technology to reduce the interface between a tax department official and the taxpayer to not just cut compliance cost but also corruption and harassment.

Addressing tax officers at the Income Tax Day event here, he said that tax rates have to become more reasonable but for that to happen, the tax base has to be widened by including more people in the net.

"These days we are finding political leaders also resorted to (benami dealings)," he said, without naming anyone. "Therefore (we are) unearthing them."

He said the government has taken steps under the stringent Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 that provides for confiscating properties of those who use name of other people to convert unaccounted wealth into white.

"Unless we can set some examples, we set down right deterrent against such kind of practices" can this practice of benami properties end, he said.

Raids were conducted in recent weeks at various places including Delhi and Haryana over alleged Rs 1,000 crore benami land deals involving the RJD chief and his family.

Jaitley said that the situation where the compliant tax payer has to actually pay twice over -- once his own share of taxes and the second time a higher share to compensate the non-compliant, cannot be allowed.

"Our vision is: we will use technology, we will ensure that our procedure is simple, we will ensure that there is almost negligent interface between (tax) department and assessee, (and) we would like our rates to become even more reasonable, but to enable us to that we need to expand our base," he said.

People should voluntarily made disclosures and come within the tax net, he said.

India, on the one hand, boasts of being the fastest growing major economy in the world but on the other hand lacks in some of the essential expenditure, he said.

"A more empowered country will need to be a country which is empowered by honest and compliant taxpayers. The faster we can do it, the greater it will be in the larger interest of the country," he said. 

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Harassed at workplace? Govt launches 'SHe-box' portal for sexual assaults

The sexual harassment electronic box will be made as 'interactive' as possible

 

The Women and Child Development ministry Monday launched an online platform to enable women employees of the central government to file complaints related to sexual harassment at the workplace.

"We are also going to soon conduct a national survey to assess the nature and magnitude of sexual harassment at the workplace," Union minister Maneka Gandhi said after launching the portal at her office here.

The WCD minister also instructed officials to make the 'SHe-box' (sexual harassment electronic box) as "interactive" as possible.

"To begin with, central government women employees can file complaints, but we are going to widen the ambit to include the private sector as well," she said.

"We just need to make a few changes in our online interface. Once it is done, employees from private companies would also be able to lodge complaints," Gandhi added.

The decision to host an online platform for sexual harassment cases was taken by the WCD ministry last October after the minister received complaints from women employees in various ministries.

Congress demands roll back of 5% GST on LPG cylinder

LPG has been put in 5% GST slab, earlier a 2 to 4% VAT was imposed on LPG in some states

 

The Congress on Tuesday demanded that the five per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) levied on domestic LPG cylinder be removed as it was burdening the poor.

"The price of domestic LPG cylinder has gone up by Rs 32 in parts of the country after the GST became effective. This is affecting common people, the poor especially. We demand that the GST on domestic LPG cylinder be removed immediately," senior AICC spokesperson Ajay Maken told reporters here.

LPG has been put in the five per cent GST slab. Earlier a two to four per cent VAT was imposed on LPG in some states.(Economy news)

Maken accused the government of not passing on the benefits of drop in global crude oil prices to people of the country.

"The government is making profits to the tune of Rs 3 lakh crore every year by not slashing prices of fuel here. On the one hand, it is making profits and on the other, it is burdening the poor by imposing GST on the LPG cylinder," Maken added.

He claimed food and beverages, helmets, hair oil, tooth paste, tea, coffee, butter, curd, cement and mineral water are some of the items prices of which have shot up, notwithstanding the government's assurance that their rates will drop once the GST is in force.

Maken also described the GST as 'Gayi Savings Tumhari' (your savings have vanished).

The GST came into force on July 1.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Soon, travel in Railways' new 'Economy AC' coaches at fares lower than 3AC

Passengers will not require blankets as the temperature will be around 24-25 degrees

Economy news: Train passengers will soon have the option of travelling in a new class of 'Economy AC coaches' with fares less than normal 3AC tariff.

The proposed fully AC train will have three-tier Economy AC coaches besides AC-3, AC-2 and AC-1 classes as part of the transformation exercise. An added feature would be automatic doors.

However, the passengers will not require blankets in the Economy AC class like other AC coaches as the temperature will be around 24-25 degrees.

Currently, Mail and Express trains have Sleeper, Third AC, Second AC and First AC classes while Rajdhani, Shatabdi and recently introduced Humsafar and Tejas trains are fully air- conditioned.

Economy policy:The Railways is exploring an idea to introduce fully AC trains in select routes, aiming to provide comfort by facilitating AC travel for maximum passengers.

An exercise has been undertaken for a transformation in service by upgrading existing facilities in trains and stations and a separate cell has been created by the Railways for this.

"There will not be any chilling effect like in other AC classes and the temperature will be fixed around 24-25 degrees. The aim is to make the passengers comfortable and not make them feel the outside heat," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

The recently launched Humsafar Express, comprising 3-AC coaches only, has become very popular.

The fully AC train with more Economy  AC coaches is expected to cater to more passengers.

However, the details of the Economy AC class are to be worked out before deciding for manufacturing such coaches, said the official.

7-year-jail to Chhota Rajan, 3 others in fake passport case

Other persons who have been convicted are 3 retired government servants

A special court on Tuesday awarded seven-year jail term to gangster Chhota Rajan and three retired public servants in a fake passport case.

Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal awarded the sentence to Rajan and others for offences including forgery of valuable security under the IPC which entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

Besides him, the other persons who have been convicted are three retired government servants — Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan.

Rajan is lodged in Tihar Jail here. The other three persons, who were out on bail, were taken into custody on Monday after the verdict was announced.

The court had on March 28 reserved its judgement in the case in which Rajan allegedly procured a fake passport in the name of Mohan Kumar with the help of the three government officials.

Lakshmanan had approached the high court to transfer to Bengaluru her trial in the case but the petition was rejected on January 9 on the ground that a district court here could also hear the matter.

During pendency of the plea, the high court had ordered a stay on pronouncement of verdict in the case by trial court. However, the high court later rejected the plea.| READ MORE

 

Airtel, Idea, Vodafone in tug-of-war with Jio for customers with big bucks

Jio arrived in India as a disruptive player, bringing free calls, data, scrapping roaming charges

Reliance Jio arrived in India as a disruptive player, bringing free voice calls, data, scrapping roaming charges, etc. Along with flaunting its cheap offers, Jio has been sinisterly targetting users of its rival operators. This, in turn, has compelled other telecom firms to focus on high-paying customers.

Telecom operators' effort to battle with Jio

Recently, responding to Jio's launch of Prime subscription, under which the firm aims to retain its 100 million user base after its free services end on 31 March, Bharti Airtel introduced a Rs 145 and Rs 349 plan. The cheaper plan offers 14 GB data per month with a 500MB cap per day and unlimited calls to Airtel numbers. The Rs 349 plan has unlimited calls to all networks. Vodafone India is now offering 15 GB of data for the first three months at the same price and 6 GB thereafter, according to Livemint. 

Reportedly, a person aware of Airtel’s plans said these plans are meant for customers who reach out to them proactively to move out of the network.

However aggressive the pricing war may be, it is the necessity of the hour, essentially as the telecom industry has lost about 20% of revenue due to Reliance Jio’s free services.

During Bharti Airtel’s earnings call with investors for the quarter ended 31 December, chief executive officer Gopal Vittal said the challenge for the firm, which has a stratified average revenue per user (Arpu) table across the market with different customers at different levels of Arpu, is that there could be some users who will move to a cheaper plan.

“But that is, unfortunately, the competitive dynamic that we are living in today, and that is something that we believe makes a lot of sense for us because that will drive more high-Arpu customers into our network,” Vittal had said.

“In the context of playing an Arpu game, we believe that bundled packs make a lot of sense to lock in Arpu, deliver value,” he added.

Airtel is, in fact, is urging its sales partners to push these plans to customers and its channel partners are being given special commissions on these plans—double the 2.5-3% that they get on other plans. | READ MORE | 

ALSO READ: Telecom industry lost 20% revenue due to Reliance Jio giveaways: Ind-Ra

 

 

Nokia 3310 makes a comeback with 22 hours of battery life, dual sim

Price in India, other countries can fluctuate a little bit because of taxation and cost factors

Finnish mobile device player Nokia is in reboot mode as it gets ready to bring to India its 17-year-old iconic Nokia 3310 handset for about Rs 3,500, along with its Android smartphones, next quarter.

"All the products that we have announced Nokia 3310, Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 will be available in the second quarter of this year in India. Average global selling price for Nokia 3310 is 49 euros," HMD Global Oy Chief Marketing Officer Pekka Rantala said.

HMD Global has licence to design and sell Nokia branded phones globally as well as use technologies developed by Nokia Corporation.

"Now, we are celebrating the new era of Nokia brand that is the reason we are with HMD Global. Let me also be very clear that we would not license the Nokia brand to just anybody. It means too much to us. We chose carefully. We looked at the market. We looked at Google to be our brand licensing partner which could do this for a long time," Nokia President and CEO Rajeev Suri said.

HMD Global also unveiled Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 smartphones for 189 euros and 139 euros built on Google's Android platform. The company has already been selling Nokia 6 in China. One model of Nokia 6 with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB internal storage will be retailed at around 229 euros and the other one with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal memory with support for external memory card will be available for around 299 euros.

Nokia 6 has 5.5-inch screen size, 8 MP front camera and 16 MP rear camera.

Nokia 3 and 5 have 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal storage and support memory card of up to 128 GB.

The Nokia 3 smartphone sports 5-inch screen size, 8 megapixel camera in the front and back. Nokia 5 has a 5.2-inch screen, 8 MP front and 13 MP back cameras.

Rantala said the price in India and other countries can fluctuate a little bit because of taxation and other cost factors associated with individual countries.

Nokia 3310, known for its robustness, was the most widely used feature phone globally in 2000-05. It is estimated to have sold 126 million units globally when there were only a few countries with mobile networks.

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