About 300 fintech firms are under investigation by the ED for allegedly partnering 38 non-banking financial companies for predatory lending practices to charge borrowers high interest rates.
rediffGURU and financial planning expert Colonel Sanjeev Govila (retd) will answer your personal finance-related questions.
The government has amended rules under the anti-money law, making it mandatory for banks and financial institutions to record financial transactions of politically exposed persons (PEP).
'Just the amount of work which is there just to become more and more successful in banking. For this to happen you need to have leaders who understand technology.'
India has moved up in rankings from ninth to the fourth spot this year in the tally of top 20 countries affected by spam calls, owing to a significant increase in sales and telemarketing calls, as per a report by Truecaller. This year, all categories of sales-related calls made up a vast majority (93.5 per cent) of all incoming spam calls. Interestingly, over 202 million spam calls were made by just one spammer in India this year between January to October - which is over 6.64 lakh calls every day and 27,000 calls every hour of every day.
The Income Tax department Saturday issued an advisory that those permanent account numbers (PAN) which are not linked with Aadhaar by the end of March next year will be rendered "inoperative". "What is mandatory, is necessary. Don't delay, link it today!" the department said in a public advisory. "As per Income-tax Act, 1961, it is mandatory for all PAN holders, who do not fall under the exempt category, to link their PAN with Aadhaar before 31.3.2023. From 1.04.2023, the unlinked PAN shall become inoperative," it said.
The data protection bill introduced in Parliament on Thursday enables the government "to call for information" from data protection board, data collecting entities or intermediary, and safeguards the Centre from legal proceedings for "action taken in good faith" under the provisions of the legislation.
To further tighten its control of practising accountants, the Centre has brought within the ambit of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) their "financial transactions" such as operating and managing their client firms and trusts, and buying and selling business entities. The Union finance ministry issued a gazette notification on this on Wednesday. Under the new rule, chartered accountants, company secretaries, and cost and works accountants carrying out such transactions (on behalf of their clients) will now be required to go through the Know Your Company (KYC) process before commencing work.
Commodity investments can help you diversify your portfolio in asset classes other than equity and debt, says Dwaipayan Bose.
"The penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the provisions of section 47 A (1) (c) read with section 46 (4) (i) of the Banking Regulation Act 1949, taking into account the failure of the bank to adhere to the aforesaid direction issued by RBI," said the central bank in a statement. This action is based on the deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers, the RBI added.
The equity cult has grown at a rapid pace in India in the last few years, with retail investors latching on to the stock markets like never before. At 126.6 million, the number of dematerialised (demat) accounts, where investors hold their securities in electronic form for trading purposes, are at record high levels. The growth rate, on an annualised basis, stood at 27 per cent in 2022-2023, up from barely 6 per cent a decade ago.
The Reserve Bank on Monday said it has imposed penalties of about Rs 1 crore each on Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank for deficiencies in regulatory compliance. Besides, the RBI has also imposed penalties on four co-operative banks. A penalty of Rs 1.05 crore has been imposed on Kotak Mahindra Bank for contravention of certain norms related to 'The Depositor Education and Awareness Fund Scheme, 2014' and for non-compliance with the directions on 'Customer Protection - Limiting Liability of Customers in Unauthorised Electronic Banking Transactions', and 'Loans and Advances - Statutory and Other Restrictions', the banking regulator said.
Many people posted screenshots of the alleged MobiKwik user data, which, according to sources, was up for sale for 1.5 bitcoin or about $86,000.
Dwaipayan Bose examines the seven important factors that investors about exchange traded funds must know before they start investing/trading in them.
Markets watchdog Sebi on Tuesday decided to tighten norms for utilisation of IPO proceeds by companies, introduce special situation funds to invest only in stressed assets and amend various regulations, including those on mutual funds and settlement proceedings. The board of Sebi, which met on Tuesday, also gave its nod for amending Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) regulations and introducing a provision for appointment or re-appointment of any person, including as a managing director or a whole time director or a manager, who was earlier rejected by the shareholders at a general meeting. Once the amended norms are in place, such appointments or re-appointments can only be done with the prior approval of the shareholders.
Reserve Bank on Wednesday announced a slew of measures including loan restructuring for individual and small businesses hit hard by fresh COVID-19 wave. To augment supply of goods for COVID care, the central bank opened Rs 50,000 crore on-tap window to ease access to emergency health services to boost provision of immediate liquidity for ramping up COVID-19 related healthcare infrastructure and services in the country. This liquidity window is being opened till March 31, 2022, he said, adding that under the scheme, banks can provide fresh lending support to a wide ranging of entities including vaccine manufacturers, importers and suppliers of vaccine and medical devices, hospitals and dispensaries and suppliers of oxygen and ventilators importers and also patients for treatment.
Concerned over rising incidence of mis-selling, the finance ministry has directed heads of public sector banks to put in place strong mechanisms to avoid unethical practices for selling insurance policies to customers. The Department of Financial Services has received complaints that fraudulent and unethical practices are adopted by banks and life insurance companies for procuring policies from the bank customers, a letter addressed to chairpersons and managing directors of public sector banks said. There have been instances where life insurance policies were sold to customers aged above 75 years in Tier II-III cities.
I stumbled upon shares worth around Rs 300,000 in my late father's name, which are currently with the Investor Education & Protection Fund, points out Harsh Roongta.
For people with disabilities, a mobile application called 'Saksham' has been introduced, which they can login to and choose the option to vote.
India recorded 50,035 cases of cyber crime in 2020, an 11.8 per cent surge in such offences over the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week once again cautioned bank customers of fraud, including those in Know-Your-Customer (KYC) cases. In fact, certain frauds have become more prevalent than others, and being aware of them is the first step towards protect yourself. Mayur Joshi, chief executive officer, Indiaforensic.com, a company engaged in the prevention, detection, and investigation of frauds says, "It is necessary to learn, to read about these scams."
Absolutely for customer investing over Rs 50,000 in any financial products.
Online gaming companies will not be allowed to engage in betting on the outcome of games under the principle laid in draft rules, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday. The minister said that as of now, all permissible online gaming will need to be registered with a self-regulatory organisation that will be accountable to the online gaming rules.
Reserve Bank of India has slapped a penalty of Rs 500,000 on Citi Group for failing to comply with 'Know Your Customer' guidelines by letting fake stamp scam accused Abdul Karim Telgi and associates to open accounts with the foreign bank.\n\n\n\n
Gaming platforms will also be required to display a warning after a certain time of usage to reduce the risk of addiction.
Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates, answers your tax queries.
In big bang reforms, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a relief package for the telecom sector that includes a four-year moratorium on payment of statutory dues by telecom companies as well as allowing 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route. Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said nine structural reforms for the telecom sector were approved. The definition of AGR, which had been a major reason for the stress in the sector, has been rationalised by excluding non-telecom revenue of telecom companies.
This may mean easier access, simplified KYC and documentation requirements, and fewer investment restrictions for a majority of FPIs, especially broad-based funds and pooled vehicles that were earlier part of Category-II.
Aadhaar-based verification and video-based in-person verification for e-KYC have made investing in mutual funds a breeze
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's CEO has warned customers about rising cases of cyber-frauds, citing a recent instance of a fraudster who posed as company executive and under the guise of updating KYC form, tricked a user into revealing bank details to transfer large amount from the bank account. In an email outreach to subscribers, Gopal Vittal, CEO of Airtel urged users to be vigilant against such cases of cyber fraud that are becoming "alarmingly frequent". Vittal spoke of a recent case where a cyber-fraudster posing as company executive called up an Airtel customer on the pretext of updating his Know Your Customer (KYC) form, tricked him into revealing his bank details and transferred a large sum of money from his bank account.
Digital transaction players are hurriedly drawing up a memorandum to be taken to the central bank in hope of having a few of the guidelines -- such as full Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance in 12 months -- overturned, reports Karan Choudhury
If the data breach is found to be genuine, and if the company is found guilty on the grounds of dereliction of duty, or misleading the general public and the RBI about the data breach, actions taken against it will be severe, the person quoted above said.
'Every telecom user wishes to know who is calling. This will help in preventing cyber frauds using telecom services.'
Let's wait for the monetary policy on February 8 -- to see how it complements the fiscal commitments, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The income-tax department may make a permanent account number (PAN) mandatory for cryptocurrency investors, in line with the demat account rules for stock market transactions, according to two people privy to the discussion. At present, disclosure of crypto holdings and related gains is voluntary. If tax authorities go ahead with the PAN mandate, crypto exchanges will have to furnish a statement of financial transactions (SFT) before the income-tax department.
Since the first Aadhaar number was issued in September 2010, more than 1.33 billion Aadhaar cards have been generated till June 2022. With the Aadhaar enrolment of adult Indians nearing 100 per cent, the main objective of the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI), which was to give Unique Identification numbers (UID) to all residents of India, is almost achieved, said a senior government official. "Enrolment will now be much more update-based, because people keep updating their mobile numbers and addresses.
Having a single point KYC that is automatically used across all financial and non-financial entities is a single piece of reform that should be an easy win to achieve, points out Harsh Roongta.
Could it have been more reformist? Of course, but this is an election year Budget, observes Akash Prakash.
The income tax department has sought to prosecute Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani under the Black Money Act for allegedly evading Rs 420 crore in taxes on undisclosed funds worth more than Rs 814 crore held in two Swiss bank accounts.
For re-verification through Aadhaar-based eKYC process, the operator will send a verification code to the mobile number of the subscriber.
