Imphal, May 07 2011 : A four member team of officials of Reserve Bank of India, Foreign Exchange Department headed by DGM A Bhaskara Rao would visit Moreh tomorrow. The RBI team would convene a meeting of traders, importers and exporters of Moreh on May 9 at the Moreh Trade Centre. Later in the evening, another meeting of traders, exporters and importers of Manipur would be held at Classic Hotel here. The RBI team is expected to be accompanied by officials of other public and private sector banks. United Bank of India is coordinating the programme with the help of Government of Manipur. A team of UBI officials headed by Chief Manager Ananda Kumar would also visit Moreh along with the RBI team. The RBI team would take stock of logistics and infrastructure at Moreh and also visit UBI Moreh Branch, which is a B category authorised dealer of foreign exchange. This UBI branch is authorised for monitoring barter trade in the Moreh border for import and export of goods of value above $ 1000 to $ 20,000. Besides barter trade, other normal trade is also allowed through Moreh Land Customs Station but so far no normal trade except the barter trade through banking channel is materialised. The RBI officials would analyse the bottlenecks of formal trading through Moreh border and would take stock of the weaknesses of the banking channel, if any, conveyed a press release issued by the United Bank of India.
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Sunday, May 8, 2011
RBI dissolves board of Pawar-run co-op bank
MUMBAI: A day after the Reserve Bank of India dissolved the NCP-controlled Rs 20,000 crore Maharashtra state cooperative bank board for dismal performance, the Congress and the NCP seem to be on a collision course. Political analysts view the RBI's decision as a personal setback to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and his nephew, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar who were controlling the bank for over 15 years. On the recommendation of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development ( NABARD), the RBI asked the Maharashtra government to forthwith dissolve the board of directors and appoint bank administrator. Chavan on Saturday appointed agriculture secretary Sudhirkumar Goel and planning secretary Sudhir Srivastava as administrators. They have already taken charge. Sharad Pawar was also in Satara. He took strong objection over the way administrators were appointed. "There was no corruption in the bank, there were certain irregularities, which could have been rectified after discussion, there was no need for dissolving the board of directors and appoint administrators on the bank," Pawar said. The cooperative bank chairman Manikrao Patil, a senior NCP leader, called it unfortunate since the bank had taken several corrective steps to restore its financial situation.
Sharad Pawar sore, others welcome change in Maharashtra bank
Mumbai, May 7 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) move to recommend supersession of the board of directors of the Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank Saturday evoked mixed reactions from state politicians. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar expressed displeasure over the RBI move, saying it should have consulted the bank authorities before superseding the bank’s board of directors. ‘The RBI should have discussed the issue with the bank board before taking any steps,’ Pawar told reporters in Pune, some 160 km from here. To a question, Pawar denied that there were any financial irregularities in the MSC Bank. His nephew and state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is on the board of directors. On the other hand, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan assured the peiople that strict action would be taken against anybody found guilty of irregularities in the bank. The bank had been served several warnings before the action was initiated and the depositors need not worry about their deposits with the bank, Chavan said Saturday afternoon in Satara, some 250 km from here. He said that the bank’s position would improve after the new developments and dismissed contentions that there was politics behind the move to supersede the board. Swabhimani Paksha MP from Hatkanangle in Kolhapur Raju Shetti welcomed the RBI move to supersede the bank board. Shetty alleged that the bank was exploited by various political parties to further their own interests over the past many years. Despite many complaints about the irregularities plaguing the bank, the state government failed to take any action, he said. ‘The government should probe the bank’s affairs and bring out a white paper on its finances. Those found guilty should be put behind bars,’ Shetti demanded.The MSC Bank’s board comprises leaders and legislators from different parties including Ajit Pawar, Diliprao Deshmukh, Anandrao Adsul, Diliprao Sopal, Minakshi Patil, Rajni A. Patil, Pandurang Phundkar, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, Rajan Telli, Vijay N. Vadettiwar, Yashwantrao Gadakh and others.
Pawar irked at RBI's call on Maha state co-op bank
PUNE: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday expressed his displeasure over the Reserve Bank of India's decision to dissolve the board of directors of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank Ltd (MSCB). Pawar said, "If an institution is performing well, it should be given some time to recover from the financial crisis." Pawar was speaking at the 60th foundation day of city-based Pune People's Cooperative Bank Ltd. The RBI on Friday evening dissolved the board of directors of the MSCB after finding deficiencies in the working of the bank. Dinesh Oulkar, temporarily holding the charge of cooperation commissioner and registrar, appointed Sudhir Kumar Goel, principal secretary (agriculture) and Sudhir Shrivastava, principal secretary (planning) as the members of the board of administrators on the MSC bank. Pawar said, "There have been allegations that the bank has not recovered outstanding loans worth Rs 1,000 crore. The recovery was slow but happening. For many loans, the state government is the guarantor, which means the loans are recoverable, but the RBI authorities ignored it." MSC bank, working as an apex bank for cooperative societies, sugar factories and other cooperative institutions in the state, has been a prominent political establishment. The bank, being a major source of funds for the cooperative establishments, has attracted political intervention in its functioning. There have been allegations against opposition parties as well as state leaders of Congress party for using the bank and network to make political gains. Based on the audit report of 2009-10 and statutory inspection of the bank, conducted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, the cooperation department found adverse features and irregularities and violations of guidelines and laws. According to the corporation department's finding, as on March 31, 2d010, the net worth of paid up capital and reserve was estimated at Rs 144.22 crore and capital adequacy ratio was estimated at -1.5% in the report. The non-performing assets were at 13.12%, the report stated. Nabard's findings were also similar with the audit reports where progressive deterioration in the financial position was attributed to the sanctioning of loans without obtaining credit authorization for financing infrastructure projects. The letter has also claimed that some loans have been sanctioned contrary to recommendations made by the department. The decision was taken on a requisition sent by V K Sharma, Executive Director of RBI by a letter composed on May 4.
RBI doing its best to contain inflation
MANGALORE: Inflation is a major cause for worry. Liquidity management is a challenge for the Reserve Bank of India, which is doing its utmost to contain runaway inflation. In its latest monetary policy, the RBI has increased repo rate and reverse repo rate. It has also raised the savings bank rate from 3.5% to 4% thereby, bringing marginal relief to small savers. Moderation in CD ratio is being stressed in view of the mismatch between the two. Making this observation during regional heads review conference of city-based Karnataka Bank held at banks head office here on Saturday to review the performance of the regions for the quarter ended March 2011, P Jayaram Bhat, managing director of the bank said RBI is emphasizing the need for banks to reduce spread between deposit and lending rates. Under this emerging situation, the bank should look for low\no cost deposits, Bhat said. Further, the quality of assets is of vital importance. Non-performing advances should be curtailed, he said, calling upon the regional heads to understand their role well and guide the branches to achieve the desired results by improving operational efficiency and increasing fee based income as well. General manager P Jairama Hande welcomed the members and briefed them about the implications of monetary policy statement announced by the RBI.
Steroid Deficiency
Will the RBI’s balancing act revive flagging investment sentiments? More often than not, clarity emerges at times of immediate distress. Over the past year or so, we have been witness to a game of ping-pong between the government and the Reserve Bank of India over “spiralling” inflation. From the prime minister and finance minister onwards, the government has been claiming that high inflation is a corollary of high growth and has put the ball in the RBI’s court. RBI governor D. Subbarao’s recent statement and raising of rates for the ninth time in 14 months has reinforced that “there is no tradeoff at our levels of inflation” for high growth. That means two things. Despite repeated claims, the government has failed to control inflation, which still shows signs of reverting to double digits and remaining there for the next six months. And the RBI’s big rate hike reflects how inflation is now hurting the growth story. Scaling down the GDP growth forecast to 8 per cent—a percentage lower than the 9 per cent projected by the finance minister in the 2011-12 budget — Subbarao stated: “If inflation comes down to 6 per cent (by March 2012), then we can get on to a higher growth trajectory.” Defending the 9 per cent projection, “which was based on January data”, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia stresses: “It is reasonable, in light of the subsequent data, to scale it down slightly to 8.25-8.5 per cent.” He, however, adds that growth projections are constantly changing. As such, he states: “We could have a better assessment in September.”
CBI has 10,000 pending cases: Director
Ghaziabad: About 10,000 criminal cases are pending with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) due to severe shortage of staff, the probe agency's chief said here Saturday. CBI Director A.P. Singh said: 'We are short of officers. At least 30 percent of the posts within the CBI are vacant. The central and state governments are also not meeting our requirement through deputation of additional officers. We are loaded with the fresh cases from states, the union government and from the courts.' The director was the chief guest at the investiture ceremony of sub-inspectors at the CBI Academy here. He said that it had become the Herculean task for the agency to deal with the finance related crimes. 'We had requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to provide us some skilled officers to deal with the financial crimes. But the RBI also had shown its inability to provide such skilled staff. Hence about 10,000 criminal cases are still pending,' the officer said. He said the agency is hopeful of early disposal of its cases as 71 new special CBI courts are being set up across the country.
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