Banking Awareness of 18, 19 and 20 October 2023

Topic: Awards and Prizes

1. Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has won UN award.

• It has won award for its contribution to sustainability reporting. Its Sustainability Initiative got the highest score among 70 initiatives from around the world.
• UNCTAD working group on International Standards for Accounting and Reporting has awarded the ISAR Honours 2023 to ICAI for its initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards Board.
• During the 8th World Investment Forum at Abu Dhabi on October 17, the winners of 6th edition of ISAR Honours were announced by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).
• ICAI has set up the Sustainability Reporting Standards Board in 2020 to formulate standards that are in sync with Indian economy.
• ISAR Honours are aimed at raising awareness and facilitating dissemination of national and international best practices on sustainability and SDG reporting.
• Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI):
  • It was established on 01 July 1949 as a statutory body by the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.
  • It regulates the Chartered Accountancy profession in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. Aniket Sunil Talati is its president.

Topic: Taxation

2. Supreme Court held DTAA cannot be given effect unless notified under Section 90 of Income Tax Act.

• A Division Bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta said this recently while disposing 11 petitions clubbed with Nestle SA as the respondent in main petition.
• The bench ruled in favour of the Income Tax Department. Supreme Court set aside order by Delhi High Court.
• The ruling on Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) could result in additional tax revenue for government.
• Section 90 of the Income Tax Act prescribes tax relief under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA).
• It makes sure that no company or individual pays income tax twice while working in a foreign country or for a foreign company.
• A Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) is a tax treaty signed between two or more countries to avoid tax-payers in these countries from being taxed twice for the same income.

Topic: Taxation

3. Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has found overall GST evasion of ₹1.36 lakh crore in FY24.

• Fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) is also included in this.
• More than 6,000 fraudulent ITC cases totalling more than 57,000 crore in GST evasion have been found between April 2020 and September 2023.
• Following the start of an investigation into tax evasion, more than 14,000 crore in voluntary payments have been made.
• DGGI has detected tax frauds of more than Rs 1 lakh crore during the Financial Year 2022-23 and recovered more than Rs 20 thousand crore of such evaded tax.
• Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI):
  • It is part of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Custom (CBIC) under Finance Ministry.
  • It is responsible for intelligence and investigation in GST related matter.   

Topic: Reports and Indices

4. India will contribute to major portion of refinery runs in Asia Pacific (APAC) by 2045 according to the OPEC.

• According to OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2023, India will add 56.6 million tonnes per annum of crude oil refining capacity in the next 7 years.
• Out of this, 84% will come from brownfield expansion. India is the world’s fourth largest crude oil refiner.
• Estimated long-term refining capacity increments in other Asia-Pacific (excluding China) stand at 7.1 million barrels per day (mb/d).
• According to OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2023, India is the single largest contributor to capacity additions in this region.
• Runs are defined as the amount of crude oil that a refinery processes during a certain period of time.
• As per the report, refinery runs in Asia-Pacific (excluding China) are projected to grow by nearly 4.5 mb/d from 16.5 mb/d in 2022 to just above 21 mb/d in 2045.
• India’s target is to reach 9 mb/d of refining capacity by 2030.
• In World Oil Outlook 2023, OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) expects world demand to grow to 116 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2045.

Topic: Indian Economy/Financial Market

5. India’s infrastructure spending will double in the next seven years according to the CRISIL Market Intelligence & Analytics (MI&A).

• India’s infrastructure spending will increase from ₹ 66.7 lakh crore in the last seven years to ₹ 142.9 lakh crore in the next seven years (FY24 to FY30).
• Within the infrastructure, largest component will be spending towards energy (39.1%).
• Spending towards energy will be followed by spending towards road (37.3%), railways (25.6%), urban infra (18.9%), other infra (15%) and surface transport (7%).
• In areas like transportation, rail, urban infrastructure, and other infrastructure, government spending will be predominant.
• The electricity and manufacturing sectors will see a significant increase in private spending.
• A 5-fold increase will be seen in green investments in power segment to ₹ 30.3 lakh crore in the next seven years.
• A 10.5 times increase will be seen in green investments in the surface transport segment to ₹ 6.3 lakh crore in the next seven years.
• In the coming seven years, debt will contribute ₹ 27.4 lakh crore (75%) in green financing.
• In power segment, green investments in next seven years will be highest in the non-fossil fuel sub-segment.
• In the surface transport segment, green investments in the next seven years will be the maximum in the infrastructure relating to battery manufacturing and charging stations.

Topic: Banking System

6. Federal Bank launched the ‘Mookkannoor Mission’.

• It is an initiative under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which has been launched by Federal Bank on the 106th birth anniversary of its Founder KP Hormis.
• Mookannoor is a village in Ernakulam district. It is the birthplace of the Founder of Federal Bank.
• Federal Bank adopted a comprehensive plan of digitizing the entire village.
• It also adopted a plan of cleanliness drive involving waste management, tree plantation, community development, renewable energy projects, etc.
• Shyam Srinivasan, MD & CEO, launched the Mookkannoor Mission at Sacred Heart English Medium School, Mookkannoor.
• The project is designed to be implemented in three phases over three years.

Topic: RBI

7. A penalty has been imposed by RBI on ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank for violation of norms.

• On October 17, the Reserve Bank imposed a penalty of ₹12.19 crore on ICICI Bank and ₹3.95 crore on Kotak Mahindra Bank for non-compliance with certain regulatory norms.
• The penalty has been imposed on ICICI Bank for violation of norms relating to 'Loans and Advances-Statutory and Other Restrictions' and 'Fraud Classification and Reporting by Commercial Banks and Select FLS'.
• The penalty has been imposed on Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited for contravention of directions related to "Managing Risks and Code of Conduct in Outsourcing of Financial Services by Banks", and "Recovery Agents engaged by Banks".
• It also includes violations of "Customer Service in Banks", and "Loans and Advances – Statutory and Other Restrictions".
• In both cases, the RBI said the penalty was based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance.
• It is not intended to affect the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by banks with their customers.

Topic: Reports and Indices

8. India’s rank on the Global Pension Index 2023 declines to 45^th position out of 47 countries.

• In 2022, India was ranked at 41st position out of 44 countries. In 2021, India was ranked at 40th out of 43 countries.
• India’s score improved slightly from 44.4 in 2022 to 45.9 in 2023.
• The report says India’s score improved mainly due to an improvement in the adequacy and sustainability sub-indices.
• Globally, the Netherlands is ranked at the first place. It is followed by Iceland and Denmark. Argentina is ranked last on the index.
• Mercer and CFA Institute have released the 15th annual Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index (MCGPI).
• The Netherlands had the highest overall index value (85.0). Iceland had an overall index value of 83.5.
• Denmark had an overall index value of 81.3. Argentina had the lowest index value (42.3).
• Global Pension Index 2023 compares 47 retirement income systems. It covers 64% of the world's population.
• It includes three new retirement income systems. They are Botswana, Croatia, and Kazakhstan.
• It uses the weighted average of the sub-indices of adequacy, sustainability, and integrity and measures each retirement system against more than 50 indicators.

Topic: Regulatory Bodies/Financial Institutions

9. CCI gave approval for the merger of IDFC with IDFC First Bank.

• The Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for its merger with IDFC First Bank.
• The merger had received approval from the board of directors of IDFC and IDFC First Bank on July 3.
• The proposed merger will come into effect after approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
• As of 30 June 2023, IDFC holds a stake of 30.93 per cent in IDFC First Bank through its non-financial holding company.
• After the merger, shareholders of IDFC will get 155 shares of IDFC First Bank for every 100 shares.
• IDFC First Bank is an Indian private-sector bank. It was founded in 2015. It is headquartered in Mumbai.
• Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC):
  • It is a finance company under the Department of Financial Services, Government of India.
  • It was founded in 1997. It is headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Topic: Miscellaneous

10. A four percent increase in the dearness allowance of central government employees announced on October 18.

• The government has increased Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for central government employees and pensioners by four percentage points from 42% to 46%.
• Approval has been given to release an additional installment of DA to Central Government employees and DR to pensioners from July 1, 2023.
• This decision will benefit 48 lakh 67 thousand central government employees and 68 lakh pensioners.
• This increase is based on the accepted 7th Pay Commission recommendations.
• Including both dearness allowance and dearness relief, there will be an annual impact of Rs 12 thousand 857 crore on the government treasury.

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 18, 19 and 20 October 2023