Page 18 - Banking Finance July 2023

ROUNDUP

The nonbanking finance company man- sustainability standards, integrating Inviting bids, Sebi said auction of the
ages around half of all consumer credit green solutions and adopting a net- properties will be conducted through
in India in volume terms and has a sig- zero approach. online mode between 11 am and 1
nificant share in the loan volumes for pm. Further, total reserve price has
the purchase of electronic items and Buyers of PSU shares ex- been pegged at Rs 51 crore for the
iPhones. assets and Quikr Realty has been en-
empt from gift tax
Its mortgage book grew 26 per cent in gaged by Sebi to assist in the sale of
The Central Board of Direct Taxes these properties.
the fourth quarter of FY23 and consti-
(CBDT) has exempted buyers from gift
tuted 28 per cent of its total assets Of the total properties to be auc-
tax when they acquire equity shares in
under management of Rs. 2.47lakh tioned, five belong to MPS Group, four
public-sector units (PSUs) through stra-
crore as at Marchend. Its payments relate to Vibgyor, three pertain to
tegic disinvestment.
business is still at a nascent stage and Pailan Group of companies, two belong
is being scaled up. Earlier the exemption was applied only to Tower Infotech and one each to
in the case of sale of a PSU. The change Multipurpose BIOS India Group, Prayag
In a recent interaction at Jefferies In-
in the income-tax law has been made Group and Waris Finance.
dia Forum, Bajaj Finance's Chief Execu-
to make strategic divestment in PSUs
tive Officer Rajeev Jain indicated that
attractive, said experts.
the company is looking at a 45 per cent Tighten GST registration
share in retail loans and a 3 per cent Strategic divestment in IDBI Bank, process: FM
share in the payments segment. Concor, and Shipping Corporation of
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
India is in various stages and is ex-
asked the indirect tax department to
Bajaj Finserv to invest Rs. pected to be concluded this fiscal year.
further strengthen the GST registra-
The government has set a target of Rs
5,000 crore in Maharashtra tion process, using technology to curb
51,000 crore from disinvestment in
fake entities in the ecosystem.
Bajaj Finserv, has pledged a substantial
FY24.
investment of Rs 5,000 crore in The FM, who chaired a review meet-
Maharashtra, which is anticipated to ing with the revenue secretary Sanjay
Regulator to auction as-
result in the creation of 40,000 job Malhotra and the CBIC chairman Vivek
opportunities within the state. sets of 7 groups which ille- Johri, called for a nationwide campaign
to explain the special drive to weed out
A Memorandum of Understanding gally raised Rs. 1,770 crore
fake entities. Sitharaman was told that
(MoU) on the collaboration between
Sebi said it will auction 17 properties
Bajaj Finserv and the Government of 11,140 fake registrations have already
belonging to seven business groups in-
been detected and action has been
Maharashtra was signed recently. The
cluding MPS Group, Tower Infotech,
initiated against them. FM was also
MoU was signed in the presence of
and Vibgyor Group on June 28, with a
Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief min- told about methods being adopted to
total reserve price of Rs 51 crore, in a
ister of Maharashtra, and Sanjiv Bajaj, create fake entities, including identity
bid to recover investors' money.
chairman & managing director of Bajaj theft.
Apart from these, the regulator has put
Finserv. The government has ex- Sitharaman took note of the existing
on block properties of Prayag Group,
pressed its support for the project and measures being undertaken by the fi-
its willingness to provide the necessary Multipurpose BIOS India Group, Waris nance ministry, such as OTP-based veri-
assistance for its successful implemen- Finance International Group and Pailan fication of Aadhaar and pilot of bio-
tation. Group of companies, the Securities and metric based Aadhaar authentication,
Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in
According to Bajaj, the company firmly at the time of registration in high risk
a notice.
believes in sustainable growth that cases. Malhotra and Johri apprised the
does not compromise the environ- The 17 properties being auctioned in- FM about the tools that are being used
ment. In alignment with their environ- clude land parcels, storied buildings, to tackle the issue of fake entities, in-
mental, social, and governance (ESG) flats, and a commercial space situated cluding artificial intelligence and ma-
focus, the project will adhere to global across West Bengal. chine learning.
BANKING FINANCE | JULY | 2023 | 17