Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Important News For Bankers From Parliament

08-March-2016 16:50 IST
Paternity Leave to Bank Employees
Grant of Paternity Leave to bank employees has been accepted under the 10th Wage Negotiation Settlement signed between Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and the Unions/Associations of employees.

Male employees with less than two surviving children shall be eligible for 15 days paternity leave during his wife’s confinement and may be availed upto 15 days before or upto 6 months from the date of delivery of the child.

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.
08-March-2016 17:45 IST
Investigation of Corporate Frauds by SFIO


To investigate corporate frauds of serious and complex nature the Government has set up a Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). The SFIO established vide Government of India’s Resolution No. 45011/16/2003-Admn-I dated 02-07-2003, has been notified under sub-section (1) of Section 211 of the Companies Act, 2013, vide Government of India, Gazette Notification S.O. 2005(E) dated 21.07.2015.

            Details of investigations completed and prosecutions/petitions in Company Law Board filed (including in respect of investigations completed in earlier years) by SFIO during the period of last three years and the current year (up to 31-12-2015), are as under:

Year
Number of investigations completed
Prosecutions filed
2012-13
22
45
2013-14
22
89
2014-15
39
61
2015-16
(up to 31-12-2015)
39
44
The nature of frauds detected involve:-

(i)         Falsification of financial statements through inflated sales, overstatement of assets and understatement of liabilities;
(ii)        Collection of deposits by companies under the guise of real estate, chit fund, etc. by alluring small investors with astronomical returns within short time without meeting the promises;
(iii)       Fraudulent transactions;
(iv)       Manipulation through related party transactions;
(v)        Siphoning off and diversion of funds generated through various sources.

Government has taken a number of measures to curb and prevent corporate frauds, which include;

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

(ii)         Statutory status to the Serious Fraud Investigation Office has been granted under the Companies Act, 2013.

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

(iv)       Increasing application of technology for early detection of frauds through data analysis, surveillance 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 Rajya Sabha today.

08-March-2016 17:43 IST
Carry Forward of Unspent CSR Funds
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs in its circular dated 12th January 2016, has clarified that, the Board of the Company is free to decide whether any unspent amount from out of the minimum required CSR expenditure is to be carried forward to the next year. This provision is uniformly applicable to all CSR eligible companies including Public Sector Undertaking (PSUs).

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

08-March-2016 16:51 IST
ATM Transactions

            As per present guidelines of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), from November 1, 2014, banks are mandated to offer minimum five free transactions per month in own bank ATMs and three in other bank ATMs in six metro centres (Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad). In non-metro centres, minimum five free transactions per month in own bank ATMs and five in other bank ATMs are mandated. Banks are free to offer free transactions above the mandated limit specified by RBI.

            As on 24th February, 2016, Department of Posts (DoP) has installed 550 ATMs out of a target of 1000 ATMs in various parts of the country.

            As on 31.12.2015, Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) have 193434 ATMs across the country, out of which 33249 ATMs are in Rural Centres and 51925 in semi-urban centres. In order to expand the reach of ATMs in Tier III centres (population between 20,000 to 49,999) to Tier VI centre (population less than 5000), RBI has permitted non-bank entities incorporated in India. Three different schemes are available to such While Label ATM operators for setting of While Label ATMs (WLAs), which incentivize setting up of WLAs in Tier III to Tier VI centres, details of which are available in RBI Circular No. DPSS.CO.PD.No. 2298. 10.002.2011-2012 dated 20.6.2012 available on RBI’s website (https://rbi.org.in). as on 31.2.2015, 11706 WLAs have been set up.

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.

08-March-2016 16:49 IST
Online Selling of Products by Public Sector Insurance Companies
As per the information furnished by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the price of insurance products sold online through the Insurance Company’s website, without any intervention of agent or intermediary, is lower in comparison to the offline version because no commission is payable in such cases. The cost of online products sold by the insurers gets reduced by the amount of savings due to non-payment of commission on such products. However, any system establishment expenses, expenses related to call centre to assist online customers etc., get added to the price of such products. Hence, the prices may vary when the products are sold through online and offline.

The online payment system of insurance companies are functioning properly and regularly and no instances have come to the notice of the Authority

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.

08-March-2016 17:32 IST
Unclaimed Investment Funds
The details of assessment made by the Government regarding quantum of unclaimed investment funds at the end of the financial year 2015-16 can be assessed only after filing of financial statements ending 31.03.2016 by companies with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). In accordance with the provisions of section 137 of the Companies Act, 2013, such financial statement as at 31.3.2016 is required to be filed by company duly adopted at their Annual General Meeting (AGM), with RoC within thirty days of the holding the AGM. Such AGMs have to be held latest by 30th September, 2016 and such financial statements have to be filed by 30th October, 2016. Therefore, this information is not available with the Ministry.

As per provisions of Section 205A(5) of the Companies Act, 1956, the unpaid dividend accounts of the companies which remain unclaimed/unpaid for a period of 7 years are mandatorily required to be transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF). Failure to do so will attract penalties as provided in Section 205A(8) of the Companies Act, 1956. The corresponding provision of Section 124 (7) of the Companies Act, 2013 which lays down the penal provisions for non-compliance of transfer of unpaid/unclaimed dividend on expiry of 7 years to IEPF, is yet to be notified.

Unclaimed and unpaid amount of Rs. 1273.66 Crore (approx.) has been transferred to IEPF after the expiry of the mandatory period of seven years, for the period from 2001-02 to 2015-16 (upto 26.02.2016).

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

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