1. Finance Minister Piyush Goyal To Meet Heads Of State-Owned Banks Today
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will meet heads of public sectors banks based out of western and southern regions on Friday, 8 June, to resolve various issues concerning them.
The meeting is being organised by State Bank of India and will be chaired by Goyal in Mumbai, people familiar with the matter told PTI. In all, 15 CEO of state-owned lenders from the two regions will participate in the meeting to discuss the way forward for the Indian Banking system, they said.
This is the first meeting with the heads of PSU banks after their annual financial result for 2017-18. Most banks posted losses in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal.
(Source: PTI)
2. After Failing to Attract Bidders, Air India Seeks Rs 1000-cr Loan
State-run Air India, which has failed to pay salaries to its over 11,000 employees on time for the third month in a row, has sought proposals for short-term loans worth Rs 1,000 crore to meet "urgent" working capital requirements.
The Rs 1,000 crore loan will be drawn in June in one or more tranches, according to the bid document. The airline has requested banks to submit their financial bids by 13 June, as per the document.
"Air India is inviting bids for short-term loans (STL) totalling to Rs 1,000-crore to meet its urgent working capital requirement," the bid document said. The tenure of the loan will be one year (renewable) from the date of availing STL, it said.
(Source: PTI)
3. RBI Survey: 48% Respondents Say Economic Situation Worse Than Last Year
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest monetary policy statement was more sanguine about the state of economy than many analysts viewed it — while keeping GDP growth for FY19 at 7.4% with risks evenly balanced, it expected both rural and urban consumption to remain healthy and predicted strong investment activity.
But the central bank’s own consumer confidence survey, the latest edition of which came out on Wednesday, 7 June, doesn’t quite corroborate the optimism.
On all parameters — general economic situation, income, spending, employment and price level — the current perceptions and expectations of the households surveyed worsened from a year ago.
The survey, which records views of the citizens in six metropolitan cities, said 48 percent felt the general economic situation in May 2018 was worse than a year ago and 31.9 percent perceived an improvement.
(Source: Financial Express)
4. RIL Aims to Bring Reliance Jio, Reliance Retail on Par with Energy
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) wants its consumer businesses — Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Reliance Retail Ltd — to contribute on par with its energy and materials businesses over the next decade, RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said in his letter to shareholders.
“Our aim is to have the consumer businesses contribute on par with the energy and materials businesses over the next decade, when we celebrate our golden jubilee,” Ambani said in the company’s annual report 2017-18.
During the year, RIL’s consumer businesses attained a threshold from which they will start contributing meaningfully to consolidated profits, Ambani said.
(Source: Livemint)
5. Ola’s Revenue Surges 70% to Rs 1,286 Crore in 2016-17
India’s largest cab-hailing service Ola reported a 70 percent jump in revenue during the year ended March 2017, according to latest regulatory filings.
Ola posted a revenue of Rs 1,286 crore in the 2016-17 financial year, compared with Rs 758.23 crore in the year-ago period, according to filings with the ministry of corporate affairs.
Ola, which is run by ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, did not immediately disclose its profit or loss figures, but in the 2015-16 financial year, the cab-hailing start-up had generated losses of roughly Rs 2,313 crore. Cab-hailing services such as Ola and Uber Technologies generate revenues from the commission that they charge drivers.
(Source: Livemint)
6. No Impact on NPAs Due to Farm Loan Waivers by States: Urjit Patel
There are no implications on non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks because of farm loan waivers provided by various states, RBI Governor Urjit Patel. Many states have waived agriculture loans, latest being Rajasthan which has launched Rs 8,500 crore waiver scheme last week.
“Farm loan waiver has been given through Budget of individual state governments so far. Therefore, implications on the banks’ NPA directly are not there,” he said after unveiling second bi-monthly monetary policy review for the current fiscal.
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has also announced farm loan waiver. In his meeting with leaders of farmers’ organisations on May 30, the new CM said the government intends to waive loans borrowed after 1 April 2009. Uttar Pradesh was the first state last year to announce Rs 36,359 crore farm debt waiver for small and marginal farmers. It was followed by Maharashtra and Punjab.
(Source: PTI)
7. Government To Pursue Air India Stake Sale This Fiscal, Revised Bidding Norms Likely Soon
The government will continue to pursue disinvestment of debt-laden Air India and revised bidding norms are likely to be finalised soon, officials said, even as the stake sale proposal elicited muted response from the investors.
After no bidders put in their expressions of interest for the strategic disinvestment of Air India and its two subsidiaries last month, the civil aviation ministry is now gathering inputs from transaction advisor to understand the reasons on the failure to attract bidders.
"We had not envisaged a situation when there would be no bids. Disinvestment of Air India is very much on the table," a government official said.
(Source: PTI)
8. RBI Amends Gold Monetisation Scheme to Make It More Attractive
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made changes in the Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) to make it more attractive.
The revamping of the scheme is aimed at enabling people to open a hassle-free gold deposit account. The short-term deposits should be treated as bank's on-balance sheet liability, the RBI said in a notification.
"These deposits will be made with the designated banks for a short period of 1-3 years (with a facility of roll over). Deposits can also be allowed for broken periods (eg: 1 year 3 months; 2 years 4 months 5 days, etc)," it said.
"These deposits will be made with the designated banks for a short period of 1-3 years (with a facility of roll over). Deposits can also be allowed for broken periods (eg: 1 year 3 months, 2 years 4 months 5 days, etc)," it said.
(Source: PTI)
9. PSBS Recapitalisation Plan Insufficient to Support Credit Growth, Says Moody’s
Global ratings agency Moody’s on Thursday, 7 June, said the government’s recapitalisation plan for 21 state-run banks will help them in meeting regulatory capital needs, but will be insufficient to support credit growth.
In October 2017, the government had announced a bank recapitalisation plan of Rs 2.11 lakh crore over two fiscals, 2017-18 and 2018-19. In the this fiscal, the government has budgeted a capital infusion of Rs 65,000 crore.
“The recapitalisation plan will still broadly resolve the regulatory capital needs of the country’s 21 public sector banks (PSBs) and help augment the banks’ loan-loss buffers, but will be insufficient to support credit growth,” the agency’s vice president and senior credit officer, Alka Anbarasu, told reporters on Thursday, 7 June.
(Source: PTI)
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