Page 13 - BF Cover February 2019

ROUNDUP

Corporate affairs ministry to collect KYC details of New ECB norms limit re-

Companies, Professionals financing options: Fitch
The Corporate Affairs Ministry is planning to collect KYC details of companies, The recent Reserve Bank guidelines
chartered accountants, cost accountants and com-
pany secretaries. A senior ministry official said the
exercise would help in having a "sanitised list" of com-
panies and professionals. Last year, the ministry car-
ried out the Know Your Customer (KYC) initiative for
directors to ascertain their identities as part of larger
efforts to clamp down on entities that are suspected to be conduits for illicit
fund flows. simplifying external commercial bor-
rowings will "curb" refinancing op-
Against 33 lakh individuals who had Director Identification Numbers (DINs),
little over 16 lakh have complied with the KYC requirement. Srinivas said the tions for companies, says a report.
ministry would be doing the KYC process for companies, which would be a But the system-wide impact of this
major step wherein the MCA21 system would not register the companies in will be limited, as there were masala
case they are non-compliant with certain parameters. bonds and foreign currency debt is-
suances recently with a minimum
"If you are defaulting in payment of deposits, system will not let you regis- average maturity of 10 years, global
ter. If you are having non-compliant directors who have not done KYC, the rating agency Fitch said.
system will not let you enter. "So the company will be forced to either re- The report said the RBI's intention
move the director or make the director compliant and then get into the sys- behind the new rules is to rationalise
tem," Srinivas told.
multiple regulations and make it
Govt considering NITI Aayog's area-based package for easier for corporates to borrow from
overseas markets. Eligible borrowers
distressed farmers will now be allowed to raise up to
The NITI Aayog has come up with a proposal to give relief to distressed farm- USD 750 million per financial year
ers which, among other suggestions, is being considered without approval, with previous sec-
by the government. The proposal will have a minimum tor limits removed, as per the noti-
impact on the exchequer and will be the least 'market- fication issued recently.
distortionary', say NITI Aayog officials.
Nepal bank announces
The area-based income compensation (ABIC) scheme says ban of Indian notes
that farmers should be paid the difference between the above Rs 100
actual price they get and the state-mandated minimum
support price (MSP). The compensation, according to this Nepal's central bank has announced
model, will be determined on a per acre basis by using district-level estimates the ban of Indian currency notes
with denominations above Rs 100.
of marketable surplus and prices in the harvest season. The payout under this
proposal will be different for each district and could be implemented easily as The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) issued
the price data is reported on a daily basis from over 3,000mandis across the a circular for the institutions licensed
country in the government's ownagmarket.nic.in portal. by it notifying them about the ban.
ISRO India no less than china in space technology Nepal's cabinet in December had
decided to ban the use of these cur-
India is nowhere less than China in the arena of space, and after the success rency notes. The decision to ban
of human space mission project 'Gaganyaan', it will be equal to its neighbour these notes has come a time when
in all aspects related to the field, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said on Friday. the NRB has requested the Reserve
This month, Chang'e 4, the first Chinese mission to land on and explore the Bank of India (RBI) to allow Nepal to
Moon's far side facing away from Earth, carried instruments to analyse the use currency notes with all denomi-
region's geology. nations.

BANKING FINANCE | FEBRUARY | 2019 | 13