Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 27, 28 and 29 June 2020

1. India is among top three nations exchanging information on tax matters

• As per the study by Global Forum of OECD, India is among top three nations exchanging information on tax matters.
• The study finds that India is among top three nations getting information from Switzerland on entities formed by their residents in Switzerland.
• The Global Forum has rated Switzerland and India as largely compliant.
• Other two topmost nations exchanging information with Switzerland on tax matters are France and Germany.
• Global Forum of OECD assesses standards of information exchange on request by nations all over the world and their compliance.

2. Exemptions to employees choosing for lower personal income tax regime notified  

• Exemptions to employees choosing for lower personal income tax regime have been notified by Central Board of Direct Taxes.
• The new lower personal tax regime was announced by Finance Minister in February and it will be effective from Assessment Year 2021-22 onwards.
• The notification is for Income-tax (13^th Amendment) Rules, 2020 and has added new sub-section in rule 2BB to give employees certain exemptions.
• Some exemptions belong to transport allowance given to blind, deaf, dumb, handicapped and disabled employee. The exemptions have a limit of Rs 3,200 per month.

3. CSB bank plans to open new branches to focus on CASA deposits and gold loans

• The CSB Bank (Catholic Syrian Bank) has plans to open new branches to focus on CASA (current account, savings account) deposits and gold loans.
• The CSB Bank was listed on stock exchange December 2019 and its CASA ratio has increased from 27.84% in FY 19 to 29.17% in FY20.
• The CSB bank is headquartered in Thrissur (Kerala). Its 90% branches are located in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

4. Yes Bank acquires stake in Jhabua Power and Avantha Realty

• Yes Bank has acquired stake in Jhabua Power and Avantha Realty by invoking their pledged shares.
• The bank has acquired 12.63 crore equity shares, which make up 8.74% of Jhabua Power's paid-up share capital.
• The bank has also acquired 10.08 lakh equity shares, which make up 30% of Avantha Realty's paid-up share capital.
• Jhabua power is a power generation company. It is based at Seoni in Madhya Pradesh. It is Avantha Power and Infrastructure Limited's subsidiary.
• Avantha Realty is Avantha Group's land holding company.

5. Smart Stores launched by Amazon Pay

• Smart Stores have been launched by Amazon Pay to allow customers to explore available products in store by scanning QR code of the store.
• The customers will use Amazon Pay app to buy product and convert a transaction into EMI.
• Amazon Pay provides online payments processing service. Amazon owns it. It was started in 2007.

6. RBI extends increased borrowing limit of scheduled banks

• RBI has extended increased borrowing limit of scheduled banks from June 30 to September 30.
• The borrowing limit was increased from 2% to 3% of banks Net Demand and Time Liabilities from March 27, 2020 till June 30, 2020.
• The RBI's decision is aimed at helping banks in meeting liquidity shortages till September 30.

7. Chinese telecom equipments not banned till now

• Department of Telecommunications has not banned Chinese telecom equipments till now.
• Chinese telecom equipments are mainly used by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
• Reliance Jio Infocomm uses South Korean equipments made by Samsung.
• If Chinese telecom equipments are banned hurriedly, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea both will be affected.
• The share of Chinese telecom gear vendors in India's total domestic market is 25%.
• Chinese telecom vendors such as ZTE and Huawei are banned, the prices could rise by 30%.
• There had been demands for banning Chinese items due to India China conflict in Galwan valley.
• Department of Telecommunications comes under Ministry of Communications. It was formed in 1985.

Read Banking Awareness PDF - 27, 28 and 29 June 2020