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The finance ministry on recommendation from the department of posts has relaxed the provisions for account holders of public provident fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA) and recurring deposits (RDs). Other measures have also been taken to make life of the small depositor simpler. Penalty/revival fees have been waived until June 30 for not investing the minimum amount due for the financial year 2019-20 and April 2020 (as the case may be) in various  small savings  schemes. So, in case you were not able to make any deposits in FY 20, there won’t be any default fee for the time being. In case you had to make a payment, say, for an RD on April 20 and because of the lockdown, you haven’t been able to make it, you can do so till June 30 without a penalty. Also, for  PPF  and SSA, you can make a single payment for FY19-20 until June 30. Balwant Jain, a tax consultant, says: “Assuming you are making two  PPF  deposits of Rs 1.5 lakh each, one for...

Seven central ministries and departments have not earmarked funds for tribal welfare schemes in their budget for 2019-20 and 12 have "kept the provision below the level stipulated by the Niti Aayog", officials said Wednesday. Union Budget 2019 In 2017, the Niti Aayog developed new guidelines obligating 41 central ministries and departments to earmark funds for "Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes" (DAPST), earlier known as Tribal Sub-Plan. An official said the guidelines were finalized in January 2019, which means complete adherence cannot be ensured this financial year. "Since the ministries decide their allocations for various schemes by November-December and the guidelines were finalised in January, any corrective action is possible next year only," the official said. The guidelines state that the 41 identified ministries and departments have to earmark at least 4.3 per cent funds for DAPST. Read Complete Article

The finance ministry is expected to initiate the process of consolidation of public sector banks (PSBs) once the first quarter results of the current fiscal have been announced, a senior official has said. There are various things including financial performance which have to be looked at before a merger decision is taken, said the official at the ministry. There are factors like regional balance, geographical reach, financial burden and smooth human resource transition that have to be looked into while taking a merger decision, the official said, adding that there should not be merger of a very weak bank with a strong one as it could pull the latter down. "So, it is going to be a complex exercise. Let the June- quarter numbers of all banks be finalised first, then there could be some action on this front," said the official, who did not want to be identified. The finance ministry had called few banks including Dena Bank some months ago to get a sense fro...

Financial News : Enthused by the success of merger, the Finance Ministry is considering clearing another such proposal in the public sector banking space by this fiscal end with a goal to create 4-5 global sized lenders. Five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) became part of SBI on April 1, 2017, catapulting the country's largest lender to among the top 50 banks in the world. Now, the Finance Ministry is looking to replicate the model in the case of other state-run banks so that they reach critical mass to compete with global peers. "Consolidation is a must...But decision in this regard would be based on commercially prudent parameters. If the NPA situation gets better, there could be one more merger towards the end of this fiscal," a senior official told PTI. Toxic loans of public sector banks rose by over Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 6.06 lakh crore during April-December of 2016-17, the bulk of which came from power, steel, road infrastructure and...