Finance Minister Speaks In Parliament

National Savings Schemes

            Presently thirteen National Saving Schemes (NSS) viz Post Office Savings Accounts, Time Deposits (1 year, 2 year, 3 year and 5 years), Monthly Income Scheme, Post Office Recurring Deposit Scheme, National Savings Certificate (VIII Issue), National Savings Certificate (IX Issue) [to be discontinued with effect from 20.12.2015], Kisan Vikas Patra Scheme, Public Provident Fund Scheme, Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme and Senior Citizens Savings Schemes are under operation.

            There has been no reduction in the amount being deposited under the NSS. In fact, the gross collection figures have risen during the last three years as under:

                                                                                                Rs. in crores

Year	Deposits (gross collection)
2012-13	234152.69
2013-14	250421.04
2014-15	304733.82
2015-16 (upto October 2015)	211977.52

            The NSS are available for all Indian Nationals in rural areas as well as urban areas. However, these schemes are mainly operated through Post Offices which have large network in rural areas. At present, the Government has no proposal to bring a new small savings policy for senior citizens and weaker sections.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO)

                          The numbers cases investigated by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) during each of the last three years and the current year are as follows:

Year	No. of companies assigned for investigation	No. of companies where investigations completed
2012-13	45	22
2013-14	83	22
2014-15	71	39
2015-16 (till 30-11-2015)	35	23

            As on 30-11-2015, investigations into the affairs of 127 companies were in progress with SFIO and investigation of one company has been stayed by Court. Further, during the last three years and current year (till 30-11-2015), SFIO has been able to secure convictions in 16 cases through courts and Disciplinary Action Committees of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

            In an effort to identify fraudulent activities at an early stage, Market Research& Analysis Unit (MRAU) of SFIO analyses information in public domain as well as inputs received from various other sources. Such alerts have necessarily to be corroborated through examination of books of account and other records by the field level offices of the Ministry for detection or identification of fraud. Further, forensic lab set up in MRAU assists investigating teams with digital data analysis. No separate fund has been allocated for MRAU. Government has taken a number of measures to check cases of corporate frauds, including:

(i)             'Fraud' as a substantive offence has been introduced in the Companies Act, 2013.

(ii)           Statutory status to the SFIO has been granted under the said Act.

(iii)         Stricter norms of Corporate Governance and their implementation have been granted under the Companies Act, 2013.

(iv)         Increasing application of technology for early/ preliminary identification of cases involving frauds through data analysis and usage of forensic tools, etc.

This was stated by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.

Value of Indian Rupee

The impact and exchange rate appreciation or depreciation of Indian Rupee against the dollar on different sectors of Indian economy depends on a number of factors like elasticity of exports and imports, import intensity of exports, relative prices of domestic and global products etc. The softening of international commodity prices, particularly crude oil prices, notwithstanding the moderate nominal depreciation, will have favourable impact on the value of imports, trade and current account balances as well as macroeconomic stability. While there is a depreciation of the rupee vis-à-vis US dollar in nominal terms, the impact on the economy is best assessed by the real effective exchange rate (REER) which is defined as a weighted geometric average of nominal exchange rates of the home currency in terms of the foreign currencies adjusted for relative price differential. In terms of REER, there has been an appreciation of 3.7% in 2015-16 (April-October) compared to 2014-15 (April-October).

The average annual exchange rate of the rupee depreciated from Rs. 54.4 per US dollar in 2012-13 to Rs. 60.5 in 2013-14 and further to Rs. 61.1 in 2014-15. In the current fiscal 2015-16 (April-November), the average monthly exchange rate of rupee (RBIs reference rate) was Rs. 64.6 per US dollar.

The exchange rate of the rupee is by and large market determined. The Government and the RBI are closely monitoring the emerging external position including exchange rate of the rupee in nominal and real terms and on an on-going basis calibrating policies or regulations to support robust macroeconomic outcome.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Repo Rate and Inflation

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cut the repo rate by 125 basis point since January 2015. The changes in the repo rate by the RBI take time to impact the economy and are aimed at securing a sustainable growth path over the medium term. The cuts in the repo rate since January 2015 are expected to boost investment and consumption and manage inflation within a comfortable band.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.