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Devesh K Pandey, NEW DELHI,  APRIL 15, 2018 21:53 IST To comply with FATF norms, money laundering must be a standalone offence India will have to make money laundering an explicitly standalone offence to upgrade its compliance ahead of the on-site mutual evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is due in November-December 2020. Among the key recommendations of the FATF, an international body that sets global standards for fighting illicit finance, is that money laundering be made a standalone offence. Despite several amendments, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) remains a predicate-offence-oriented law. This means a case under the Act depends on the fate of cases pursued by primary agencies such as the CBI, the Income Tax Department or the police. The latest instances are the verdicts in the 2G spectrum and Aircel-Maxis cases by the CBI courts, in which the money laundering angle probed by the Enforcement Directorate fell apart. ...

PTI Updated:April 15, 2018, 2:15 PM IST Pakistan should become a "trading nation rather than a warrior nation" while ensuring it does not turn into China's pawn, Islamabad's former envoy to the US, Husain Haqqani, has said. In an interview to PTI, Haqqani said Pakistan also needs to take a call on what is more important — supporting terror suspect Hafiz Saeed or gaining international credibility and respect. Amid the consolidation of the already robust Sino-Pak ties, Haqqani, who served as ambassador to the US from 2008 to 2011, stressed Pakistan should not go from being dependent on the US to relying on China and must refrain from becoming a "Chinese pawn". Pakistan needs to build a self-sustaining economy, he said, warning Islamabad of the pitfalls of aligning with a major power. Haqqani, who was in India last week for the launch of his new book Reimagining Pakistan: Transforming a Dysfunctional Nuclear State, said the country needs t...

Written by P Chidambaram | Updated: April 15, 2018 7:30:49 am As I had feared last week, the fire that was lit by the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the XV Finance Commission (FC) has spread. No effort has been made to douse the fire. Under Article 280, it is the constitutional right of the states, together, to get the states’ share of taxes; it is also the constitutional right of each state to get its fair share out of the total states’ share. The FC is no one’s servant; its master is the Constitution alone. The current share of the states (as per the XIV FC) is 42 per cent. No one expects that number will be reduced by the XV FC. Another duty is cast upon the FC by Article 280(3)(b), to recommend “the principles which should govern the grants-in-aid of the revenues of the states out of the Consolidated Fund of India”. This provision has to be read with Article 275, which enables Parliament to provide each year “grants-in-aid of the revenues” of such states that are in need of ...

AMITI SEN, NEW DELHI, APRIL 13 The White House will take a final call on India’s request for a rollback of higher import tariffs on steel and aluminium imposed by the US. “The US Trade Representative’s office has forwarded to the White House all arguments made by India on why it should not be saddled with higher import duties. It is the US President’s office which would now have to decide the matter,” a government official, privy to the recent India-US Trade Policy Forum dialogue, told BusinessLine. The US imposed a 25 per cent levy on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium on a handful of countries, including India and China, in March, ostensibly to protect US national security and economic interests. India wants the US to revoke the levy as was done in the case of the EU, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Canada and Mexico. “Our main argument against the duty increase is that India has actually taken steps over the past year to reduce the trade deficit with...

K.R.SRIVATS, NEW DELHI, AUG 3 The Lok Sabha on Thursday gave its nod for a Bill to replace the NPA Ordinance promulgated on May 7 this year. The Bill – The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2017 – sought to amend the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, for this purpose. Proactive RBI  Replying to the discussion on the Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said already in the first round, the RBI had referred 12 cases to the banks to be taken up for insolvency proceedings. “In all the 12 cases, the insolvency process has been initiated. Shortly, we expect to see the process of resolution in these 12 cases,” Jaitley said. He also indicated that the RBI is expected to refer more cases to the banks, for them to be taken up for the insolvency process. It may be recalled that the NPA Ordinance had conferred powers on the Centre for authorising the Reserve Bank of India to issue directions to banks to initiate the insolvency resolution process in respect of a defau...

TV JAYAN, NEW DELHI, APRIL 13 Giving direct income support (DIS) to farmers — similar to what Telangana recently launched — may be a better option than the price deficiency payment (PDP) scheme or higher minimum support price (MSP) to address farm distress, according to a new study. Paying higher MSP based on cost-plus pricing would lead to market distortion. PDP schemes such as Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY), which was in force in Madhya Pradesh till March 2018, had only a limited impact as it covered less than a quarter of the produce, said a working paper authored by noted agricultural economist Ashok Gulati and his colleagues at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). Positives of DIS DIS is easier to implement, more transparent, equitable and crop-neutral. China also implements a sort of DIS, which it calls comprehensive input subsidy scheme that gives an aggregate input support to the farmer on a per acre basis, said the aut...

Written by Bashaarat Masood , Arun Sharma | Srinagar | Updated: April 15, 2018 8:04:36 am While settling doubts over the future of her coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir following the resignation of two BJP ministers, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday warned that the Valley was headed for “chaos” if measures were not taken to contain the anger and discontent of its youth. Speaking at a meeting with her PDP leaders, ministers and legislators here, lasting over three hours, Mehbooba said, “The youth here have given enough indication of their anger and discontent over the past several years, even while they gave a chance for democracy to play itself out. But unfortunately, signals were ignored, with the country’s political leadership having either run out of ideas or having reached a dead end. The democratic polity of India must respond to this challenge before the political and humanitarian crisis in Kashmir degenerates into bigger chaos.” At the same time, t...

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: April 14, 2018 6:28:11 pm The CBI on Saturday booked former Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of UCO bank Arun Kaul and others for an alleged fraud to the tune of Rs 621 crore and conducted searches in at least 10 places, eight of which are in Delhi and two others in Mumbai, news agency PTI reported. Kaul served as CMD of UCO bank from September 1, 2010 to August 31, 2015. It was alleged that the accused persons in pursuance of criminal conspiracy defrauded the UCO Bank to the tune of Rs. 621 crore (approx)by diversion and syphoning off the bank loans, the agency said. Besides Kaul, others booked by the CBI are Era Engineering Infra India Ltd. (M/s EEIL), its CMD Hem Singh Bharana, two chartered accountants Pankaj Jain and Vandna Sharda of Pawan Bansal of M/s Altius Finserve Pvt. Ltd. The revelations come just days after the investigating agency had registered a case amounting to Rs 19.03 crore sanctioned by the bank to 18 fa...

Updated: Apr 15, 2018, 09.46 PM IST China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road, has hit a roadblock in seven countries, according to a recent report.  The Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan province is the venue of the USD 63 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). China is developing Pakistan's power plants, airports, highways and other infrastructure under the project. Also, Beijing aims to link its landlocked western region to Gwadar.  Despite this, some analysts have expressed concerns such as rising trade deficit of Pakistan with China. There are also doubts on how Islamabad will repay off its debt to Beijing if the former is unable to do so. Also, there are worries that the price of such investment can be a huge debt burden, according to the report by Nikkei Asian Review.  "The China-Pakistan corridor...

Aarati Krishnan UPDATED: APRIL 15, 2018 21:59 IST It has sharply lifted tax buoyancy and ushered many new return filers into the income tax net The argument about whether demonetisation was good or bad for the economy refuses to die down even a year after the event. Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan took potshots at it in a recent speech. While one can endlessly debate, with very little data, on whether the ban on high-value currency notes dealt a body blow to terrorism, corruption and counterfeiting, one area in which its impact can be quantified with data is tax compliance. In the last sixteen months, there has been a lot of premature analysis on India’s tax compliance metrics based on sporadic data points cited by the Finance Minister and tax officials. But with the deadline for FY17 return filings ending on March 31, official data on direct tax collections for FY17 and FY18 is available. This makes an objective analysis possible on what demonetisation did to In...

April 15, 2018 19:45 IST The peaceful resolution of India-Pakistan disputes, including the core issue of Kashmir, can be found through comprehensive and meaningful dialogue, Pakistan's Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has said. Bajwa's remarks came during his speech at the passing-out parade of cadets at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul on Saturday, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the country's armed forces. "It is our sincere belief that the route to peaceful resolution of Pak-India disputes -- including the core issue of Kashmir -- runs through comprehensive and meaningful dialogue. "While such dialogue is no favour to any party, it remains the inevitable precursor to peace across the region. Pakistan remains committed to such a dialogue, but only on the basis of sovereign equality, dignity and honour," he said. Addressing the cadets, Bajwa, 57, said Pakistan is a peace loving co...

Nivedita Rao, 14/APR/2018 The Union Cabinet recently approved the launch of the National Health Protection Mission which was announced during Budget 2018-19. The Mission aims to provide a cover of five lakh rupees per family per year to about 10.7 crore families belonging to poor and vulnerable populations. The insurance coverage is targeted for hospitalisation at the secondary and tertiary health care levels. This post explains the healthcare financing scenario in India, which is distributed across the centre, states, and individuals. Indian health spending compared to other countries The public health expenditure in India (total of centre and state governments) has remained constant at approximately 1.3% of the GDP between 2008 and 2015, and increased marginally to 1.4% in 2016-17. This is less than the world average of 6%. Note that the National Health Policy, 2017 proposes to increase this to 2.5% of GDP by 2025. Including the private sector, the total health expe...