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Monday,
October
20, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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PNB embarks on core banking solutions
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| ‘Mandi’
for HP growers New Delhi, October 19 Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has said her government plans to set up a 'mandi' in the Capital for fruit and vegetable growers of Himachal Pradesh where they can sell their produce without involvement of middlemen.
L&T,
M&M good for long term
You’re senior citizen at 65
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PNB embarks on core banking solutions
New Delhi, October 19 “Deregulation in the industry has led to competition and with the entry of foreign and private banks, it has further gained momentum. The emphasis of gaining market share and acquisition of customers has led to proliferation of innovative products and value addition”, Chairman and Managing Director of PNB S.S. Kohli told The Tribune in an exclusive interview. For PNB the most important initiative towards value-addition is the implementation of “core banking solutions (CBS)”. The initiative is aimed at providing connectivity among important branches and facilitate “anytime-anywhere” banking, Mr Kohli emphasised. “With the full implementation of CBS, the bank will be able to gain full overview of the customer and take up implementation of the customer relationship management (CRM) programme through use of data warehousing and datamining.” Mr Kohli did anticipate some consolidation in the Indian public sector banking industry in the future. The Standing Committee of Parliament is at present discussing the Bank Privatisation Bill. The PNB CMD said the proposed norms aim at linking risk with capital standards and the emphasis is more on credit and operational risks. “It is envisaged that once the capital standards are operationalised, the capital requirements of the banks will increase warranting resources to be raised from the market.” Mr Kohli expressed concern over the cut-throat competition among banks in the declining interest rate regime.” Fuelled by increasing personal disposable income, the growth of the retail segment has been the fastest and this has led to stiff competition between banks. The competition pressure has been so strong that some players have offered low rates of interest, some cases even below their cost of funds. The RBI has already shown its concern over such practices which are sustainable”, he said. He disagreed that the banks have shied away from offering lower interest rates to the farm sector even as the housing and automobile sectors have reaped the maximum benefits after commercial banks were allowed the flexibility of fixing the sub-PLR rates. In fact for the agriculture sector, the government had to eventually intervene to bring down the lending rates to single digit rates. “With reductions in PLR, banks have consistently reduced the interest rate for agricultural loans. PNB’s credit to agricultural sector has been consistently increasing and at the end of September, 2003, the outstanding amount has been provisionally placed at Rs 7,330 crore compared to Rs 5,723 crore, which is an year-on-year growth of 28 per cent”. The small-scale sector has continuously maintained that it is charged very high rates of interest for loans, which reduces their cost-effectiveness. Mr Kohli said in a deregulated environment “where market forces are operating, the risk-reward principle comes into play. Thus the pricing of credit is based on the risk perception of the borrower.” He said “progress has already been made in recovering NPAs” under the Securitisation Act as “it has created legal as well as moral pressures on defaulting borrowers”. “The banks have already issued notices and in some cases moved for taking over the assets of such
borrowers. The experience so far has been satisfactory”, Mr Kohli said. On PNB’s acquisition of Nedungadi Bank, he said the merger has “helped the bank its geographical spread in the southern part of the country. This has provided us an opportunity to improve our franchise value and overall business”. Mr Kohli felt that the "bancassurance" (banks directly engaging in insurance business) is a new phenomenon and the banks are still on the learning curve. Except the SBI, public sector banks have so far participated as corporate agents in the insurance sector. Regarding the prospects of the macro-economy, Mr Kohli said the revival in 2003-04 “certainly gives rise to optimism about economic performance”. “Consequent to good monsoon, the prospects for agricultural growth is good; the industrial sector, particularly the manufacturing sector, has shown improved performance. Besides, there has been a revival in the capital goods sector which portends to brighter growth prospects for industry”, he added.
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Take off from Cancun, says WTO Director Bangkok, October 19 It is now time to craft a concrete trade pact to benefit both the rich and the poor, Executive Director of the WTO Supachai Panitchpakdi today told a meeting of CEO’s being held on the sidelines of the annual APEC summit.“What we need is to translate the political will into terms of action,” he told over 500 executives of the top world corporations that have paid $ 3,000 per head to attend the APEC CEO conference. The two-day summit of world leaders begins here tomorrow. “I call it flexibility, compromise or give and take. We need an approach of give and take to take this round to an end.” Supachai said all criticism over failure of the Cancun talks in September had overshadowed what was accomplished in the negotiations launched in 2001 which included a deal to provides essential medicines to the poor nations. The WTO chief has been excluded from the APEC leaders’ summit but is lobbying on the sidelines trying to rally leaders and commerce ministers to push for a successful conclusion of world trade talks by January, 2005. “The Nation” newspaper here had said yesterday that it is the first time that the Director General of WTO had not been invited to the APEC’s annual summit.
— PTI |
‘Mandi’
for HP growers New Delhi, October 19 Speaking at a function organised by the Himachal Social Bodies Federation at Himachal Bhavan here yesterday, she said one of the proposed eight new mandis in the Capital will be for farmers and orchardists of Himachal Pradesh. She said the Congress Government will build these wholesale markets according to a time-frame if it was voted back to power. She said the state government was encouraging computerisation of apple transactions in the Azadpur mandi to prevent exploitation of orchardists by middlemen. |
You’re senior citizen at 65
Q. At what actual age a person is treated senior citizen for income tax purpose. What is the standard deduction for salaried persons. What is the exact amount of income, which is relaxed for senior citizen for financial year, 2003-04, and up to what amount of income tax is exempted. Up to what amount of dividend and interest on savings of bank & post office is exempted. V.M Bakshi, Parwanoo Ans: For the purpose of income tax law a person who completes 65 years of age during the financial year is treated as a senior citizen. The standard deduction for salaried employees as well as for pensioners for the financial year 2003-04 is Rs. 30,000 if the salary income is up to Rs. 5 lakh and the same is Rs. 25,000 if the salary is in excess of Rs. 5 lakh. Tax rebate under Section 88 of Rs. 20,000 is permissible to a senior citizen for the financial year 2003-04. Thus, for the financial year 2003-04 relevant to the assessment year 2004-05 a senior citizen is not required to pay any income tax if the net taxable income is Rs. 1,53,300. No income tax is payable on the dividend earned during the financial year 2003-04. The maximum interest exempted in respect of Savings Bank Account is Rs. 12,000 per annum while the bank interest received from post office savings account is fully exempted from income tax.
Loan to son Q. I am a senior citizen and file returns regularly. My total income for 2003-04 F.Y. is around Rs. 1,74,967 (Pension-Rs. 87351 + other sources -87616). After deducting standard deduction, rebates U/S 80L and for senior citizen, income-tax payable is nil. Whether I can submit the Form H-15 for not deducting TDS on the interest earned in banks or not? Income tax officers says that you should pay the tax at source and then apply for the refund. I want to give Rs. 3,50,000 as loan without interest to my younger son for the purchase of plot at Phagwara. Please advise me the procedure to be adopted. Income from the P.O. monthly income scheme and L.I.C Varisht Pension Bima Yojana for aged persons is taxable or exempted? Registration fee for the purchase of a plot is rebatable or not? - R.K. Bhatia, Phagwara Ans: For the financial year 2003-04, you can submit Form No. 15H so that no tax is deducted at source by your bank. For giving interest-free loan to your younger son, no special formalities are required. You may just issue “account payee” Cheque towards loan in the name of your son. You may also write a small letter to your son to say the loan is given to him which is without interest. The income received from post office monthly income scheme as also the pension amount received under the LIC’s Varisht Pension Bima Yojana is taxable. The registration fee paid by you to purchase plot is eligible to tax rebate under Section 88 of the Income-tax 1961.
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New Delhi, October 19
