-The Hindu In contrast to its pronouncements, the government’s own data suggest the economy is in a deep hole Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day address, spoke triumphantly about how demonetisation drove ?3 lakh crore of unaccounted money into the banking system. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is still counting old notes, and unaccounted money cases are ongoing. Thus, this number is at best a guesstimate, and cannot be...

-PTI New Delhi: The Reserve Bank has asked banks to ensure customers’ lockers remain safe and there is “no negligence” that could render banks liable to claims by locker holders, Parliament was informed today. Besides, banks are being probed by the fair trade regulator CCI for alleged cartelisation in providing locker services to their customers. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said there is no specific...

-Outlook Banks are fleecing customers to shore up their profits and offset the dead weight of bad loans to corporates When the GST era dawned this month, online jokesters quipped that it was the most inscrutable thing ­after Duckworth Lewis. But paradoxically, it may have brought a disquieting clarity to another zone of universal experience. Amid the flurry of news reports detailing what would entail a higher tax of 18 per cent,...

Apart from gross domestic product (GDP) and gross value added (GVA), another indicator which shows whether an economy is thriving or stagnating is the growth in bank credit. Credit is a critical input in the production of goods and services. It is generally the case that during prosperous times, economic actors, who are engaged in different sectors or in various industry, take up bank loans to invest. The provisional data...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For some days now, several service providers — from insurance and banking to telecom and hotels — have been sending emailers to customers warning of a GST-driven increase in prices starting July 1. Alarmed and unconvinced, the revenue department in the finance ministry has roped in other ministries to impress upon industry to adjust input tax credit against possible increase in tax liability. The tax credit...