PAN card must be submitted for cash transactions beyond a certain limit

To check generation of domestic black money, the government will soon make it mandatory to furnish PAN card details for cash transactions beyond a certain threshold, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

“The government is at an advanced stage in considering the requirement of furnishing PAN card details if cash transactions beyond a certain limit are undertaken,” Mr. Jaitley said in a Facebook post.

He said the monitoring regime of the income tax department has been strengthened and its capacity to access information and apply technology driven analytical tools to expose evasion, has been enhanced.

“Its ability to detect large cash withdrawals, or large cash transactions which enter the system, is being strengthened. GST regime once introduced will also be a landmark step in this direction. Thus for commodities like gold where the initial purchase by the exporter is after the payment of custom duty, the subsequent transactions which are mostly in cash, can easily be found out,” Mr. Jaitley said.

In 2015-16 Budget, the Finance Minister had proposed making quoting of Permanent Account Number (PAN) mandatory for all sale and purchase of over Rs. 1 lakh.

“Quoting of PAN is being made mandatory for any purchase or sale exceeding the value of Rs. 1 lakh. The third party reporting entities would be required to furnish information about foreign currency sales and cross border transactions,” Mr. Jaitley had said.

Thereafter, the government had received representations from various persons, including MPs, MLAs, trade and industry associations among others, against the proposed mandatory quoting of PAN for sale or purchase in excess of Rs. 1 lakh.

Stressing that bulk of black money is still within India, Mr. Jaitley said there was a need to change the national attitude so that plastic currency becomes the norm and cash an exception and the government is working with various authorities to incentivise this change.

Air Ticket for LTC

This Department's O.M. No. 31011/4/2014-Estt.(A-IV) dated 19th June, 2014 which lays down that the Government employees are required to book the air tickets directly from the airlines (Booking counters, website of airlines) or by utilizing the service of Authorized Travel Agents viz. 'M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company', 'M/s Ashok Travels & Tours' and 'IRCTC' (to the extent IRCTC is authorized as per DoPT O.M. No. 31011/6/2002-Est(A) dated 02.12.2009) while undertaking LTC journey(s). vide DoPT's O.M. 31011/5/2014-Estt.(A-IV) dated 24.09.2014, the web-portal of these authorized travel agents will also be treated as an acceptable mode for purchase of air tickets on LTC subject to the conditions stated vide Department of Expenditure's O.M. No. 19024/1/2012-E-IV dated 5th September, 2014. 

EARLY RETIREMENT FOR SHODDY JOB, VARIABLE PAY

GOVERNMENT STAFF SHOCKED - EARLY RETIREMENT FOR SHODDY JOB, VARIABLE PAY

NEW DELHI: Five to six per cent annual pay hike of Central Government employees is likely to be linked to tangible performance criterion. Under-performers are likely to be retired by 55 or 30 years of service, according to the Seventh Pay Commission report to be submitted soon.

The overall hike being recommended by former Justice A K Mathur-headed 7th Pay Commission is around 30 per cent. The Central Government employees are scheduled to get salary hikes on the basis of the recommendations by January 1, 2016. According to sources, the house rent allowance too would see an increase by 20 per cent. But the most significant recommendation is that 5 to 6 per cent of the annual increment would be performance-based. There is also likely to be a provision of retiring underperforming employees by the age of 55 or 30 years of service, whichever is more. “The Commission has spoken to all stake-holders and the recommendations are ready. We are expecting to submit the report any time soon,” sources said.

Set up by the erstwhile UPA government in February 2014, the Seventh Pay Commission was given a four-month extension by the NDA Government. Its term is till December 31. The commission may also raise salary-levels of PSU employees. The Sixth Pay Commission led to a six percentage point increase in dearness allowance for Central government employees from 16 to 22 per cent. The commission’s recommendations are usually accepted by the government with minor adjustments.

SOURCE - newindianexpress

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POST BANK OF INDIA

THE GOVERNMENT IS LIKELY TO REGISTER THE POSTAL BANK BY THE END OF THE YEAR

The Government Is Likely To Register The Postal Bank By The End Of The Year While A Pilot For Payment Services Will Be Launched Around January 2017

The government is likely to register the postal bank by the end of the year while a pilot for payment services will be launched around January 2017.

Postal Bank

According to sources, as per the timeline for setting up postal bank, approval from NITI Aayog will be secured by mid-October followed by public investment board's nod by October-end and Cabinet approval in November.

"The registration for postal bank is planned be done in December and a pilot will be launched in January 2017," said an official in the Communications and IT Ministry.

He said the bank will be an independent company with initial corpus of Rs 300 crore and the new entity will enter into revenue sharing model with the Department of Posts (DoP).

The Reserve Bank had granted in-principle approval to 11 applicants, including DoP, in August to set up payments banks.

As per RBI guidelines, payments banks would offer a limited range of products such as demand deposits and remittances. They will not be allowed to undertake lending activities and will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer.

They will be allowed to issue ATM or debit cards as also other prepaid payment instruments, but not credit cards. 

National Joint Council of Action decided to defer the Indefinite Strike from 23rd November 2015

National Joint Council of Action decided to defer the Indefinite Strike from 23rd November 2015

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Rate cut: Government to take a fresh look at small savings interest

Rate cut: Government to take a fresh look at small savings interest

The government has decided to review the small savings rates, which remain sticky at 8.4-8.5%, limiting banks' ability to lower deposit rates and slowing down the transmission of Reserve Bank of India's softer monetary policy decisions.

"It has been decided that with regard to the transmission of the rates, the government will undertake a review of the small savings rate also," economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said."Small savings is a decision the government has taken in response to the policy rate announced by the RBI," he said.

The decision to cut small savings rates is a tricky one since no ruling party wishes to become unpopular to the vote bank they depend upon. However, lowering of the small savings rates is directly linked to the rates at which companies borrow from banks. "There is no time limit. We will do it in due course," finance minister Arun Jaitley said. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan surprised all by a 50 basis points repo rate reduction but doubts prevail on how banks across the spectrum transmit the easy policy rate into lowering of lending rates unless they manage to soften deposit rates. RBI has reduced repo rates by 125 bps since January, yet the transmission of the rate cuts into the real economy has been relatively weak.

Rajan indicated that there would be a shift in focus from policy rates to greater transmission of these rates. Banks reduced deposit rates aggressively over the last three quarters with some lowering term deposit rates by 50-75 bps but matching cuts in lending rates come with a lag. But they have time and again whined that high interest rates on small savings such as public provident fund or post office monthly income schemes are stopping them from lowering deposit rates beyond a point and this inability prevents them from making loans cheaper.

Senior citizens get 9.3% from post offices, 100-130 bps higher than what they get from most state-run banks. "A major part of small savings comes from the risk averse segments and for them it is the means of subsistence. It (lowering small savings rate) is easier said than done," said India Ratings managing director Ananda Bhowmik. "So, the transmission of policy rate will continue to be an issue. Historically, monetary transmission remains limited to 25-40% of policy rate cuts. It may increase a bit but not beyond 50% due to the structural bottlenecks," he said. The country's largest bank, State Bank of India, cut deposit rates by 25 bps across maturities effective from October 5.

Its medium-term deposit rate is 7.75% at present while small savers enjoy 8.4% rate for deposits below five years from post offices and for the popular monthly income scheme. Public provident fund offers 8.7% rate a year.

Source : The Economic Times

Pradhan Mantri JeevanJyoti Bima Yojna(PMJJBY) : Incentive Structure

COLLECTION OF FORMS FROM POSB CUSTOMERS

 Incentive structure (per form collected) for PMJJBY PMJJBY :- 

GDS/Postman/Counter PA- Rs.20.00 

GDS BPM:- Rs.1.00 (additional work as BPM) 

Counter PA (additional work in Finacle)- Rs.3.00 

Counter Supervisor/SPM (For verification)- Rs.1.50 HO 

Special Monitoring Cell Officials- Rs.1.50 

Accounts branch of HO:- Rs.0.75 

Divisional Office Monitoring Cell:- Rs.0.75 

Ro/Co Monitoring Cell:- Rs.0.50 

Directorate Monitoring Cell.:- Rs.0.50 

DAP Monitoring Cell:- Rs.0.25 

Directorate Monitoring Cell (PAF)- Rs.0.25