1-India will auction 12.5% of Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd.

on Friday, a senior finance ministry official

said.
2-The Finance Ministry is likely to consider tomorrow the investment proposal of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia
which seeks to enter India through a joint venture with Tata Group and another company.
The investment proposal of AirAsia Investment, Malaysia, has been listed on the agenda of the Foreign Investment
Promotion Board (FIPB) meeting, an official said. AirAsia has applied to FIPB to take 49 per cent in a venture with
Tata Sons Ltd and Arun Bhatia's Telestra Tradeplace Pvt Ltd.If cleared by FIPB, this would be the first entry of a
foreign carrier in the domestic aviation sector after the liberalisation of FDI policy in September last year. The new
policy allows foreign carriers to invest in Indian airlines.
3-Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily has raised serious concerns over the Finance Ministry's proposal of
calculating petroleum subsidy numbers based on the export parity price (EPP) formula. EPP essentially means that
petroleum products are priced at the rate that refineries get in the export market.
4-March 05, 2013-The government on Tuesday said it will begin allocating 17 coal blocks to the public sector firms
by the end of next month.When asked when will the Coal Ministry begin allotting mines to government firms, coal
secretary S K Srivastava said, "It should be by middle of April or end of April."
5-India's record high current account deficit is the country's biggest concern, Finance Ministry's chief economic
adviser Raghuram Rajan said.
6-Finance ministry clarifies on investment through Mauritius route. The Mauritius route is a channel use by foreign
investor to invest in India, Mauritius is the main provider of Foreign direct investment to India and also the
preferred jurisdiction for Indian outward investments into Africa.
7- Situation where a country levies tax on an income that has already been taxed in the same or another country.
For example, corporate profits are taxed when they are earned, and then taxed again as personal income when
distributed to stockholders (shareholders) as dividend or (in case of an owner-manager) as salary. And it is the
levying of tax by two or more jurisdictions on the same declared income.
8-The Home Ministry today got Rs 59,241 crore in the General Budget, a modest 8% increase over last year, with an
emphasis on providing new residential quarters and barracks for central armed police forces personnel.
9-India has increased its budget for the armed forces by five percent. Sanctioning a little over Rs. 200,000 crore for
this fiscal year, Finance Minister P Chidambaram promised Parliament that "constraints will not come in the way of
providing any additional requirement for the security of the nation.
10-Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday announced a sharp increase of Rs. 1.25 lakh crore in agriculture
credit target to Rs. 7 lakh crore for next fiscal year and allocated additional Rs. 10,000 crore in subsidy for
implementing the Food Security Bill.
11-The government today said it has cleared nine FDI proposals, including that of Multi Screen Media and Wire and
Wireless, totalling over Rs. 1,140 crore.
12-After clearing the IKEA's Rs. 10,500 crore FDI proposal, the Finance Ministry today said it has now forwarded
the investment plans of Swedish furniture major to set up single-brand retail stores to the Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) for final approval.
13-India's economy is likely to pick up pace in 2013-14 and could grow at 6.1-6.7 per cent according to the Economic
Survey tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.
14-The six crore subscribers of the central Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will get an increased
rate of interest 8.50 per cent for 2012-13 0.25 per cent more than the 8.25 per cent given during 2011-12.
15-The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue final guidelines on new bank licenses before the current fiscal year
ends in March, local television news channels reported, quoting Deputy Governor Anand Sinha.The guidelines
would pave the way for corporate houses to enter the banking sector. No new Indian bank has been formed since
Yes Bank in 2004.The RBI has completed talks with the Finance Ministry on the new bank license guidelines, Mr
Sinha was quoted as saying by local TV.
16-Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today allowed gold Exchange Traded Funds
(ETFs) to invest in the gold deposit schemes of banks, as part of overall efforts to utilise idle assets of the precious
metal for more productive purposes.

Sebi has allowed gold ETFs of mutual funds to invest in the Gold Deposit Scheme (GDS) of banks, subject to
certain conditions including that the "total investment in GDS will not exceed 20 per cent of the total asset under
management of such schemes".

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) panel has estimated that about 20,000 tonnes of idle gold is lying with the people.
The central bank wants to channelise the idle gold for productive purposes and also check the demand for imports.

As per Sebi guidelines, before investing in the GDS, mutual funds would have to put in place a written policy
related to the investment with due approval from the Board of the Asset Management Company and the Trustees.

"The policy should have provision to make it necessary for the mutual funds to obtain prior approval of their
trustees for each investment proposal in GDS of any Bank," Sebi said in a circular. Further, the policy has to be
reviewed by mutual funds, at least once a year.

"Gold certificates issued by Banks in respect of investments made by Gold ETFs in GDS shall be held by the mutual
funds only in dematerialised form," the circular said.

Last month, the Finance Ministry had announced plans to link gold ETFs of mutual funds with gold deposit
schemes of banks with a view to increase domestic availability of physical gold.

Rising gold imports have been a major concern for the government as it contributes substantially to the widening of
Current Account Deficit (CAD) -- the difference between the inflow and outflow of foreign currency. Gold imports
till December stood at $38 billion. In 2011-12 fiscal year, its import stood at $56.5 billion.
17-The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has ordered a freeze on the assets and bank accounts of two
Sahara group companies, saying they had failed to heed a Supreme Court order to repay investors in a case involving
more than Rs. 24,000 crore.
18-The reserve Bank of India is expected to issue new bank licence guidelines "very soon", deputy governor Anand
Sinha said on Friday.

The RBI will arrive at a mutual decision on banking licence rules with the Finance Ministry, and consultations with
the ministry are nearing an end, he said.
19-"Insurance companies will now be allowed to increase their exposure in equity in a given company from the
present level of 10 per cent to a higher level of 12 per cent and 15 per cent depending upon the size of the Controlled
Fund of any given insurer," the Irda said in a statement. Insurance companies can now hold up to 15 per cent stake
in any company, up from 10 per cent till date, as the sector regulator Irda (Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority) today permitted raising of the investment limit.
20-New Delhi: In order to check the black money and tax evasion, an online data bank is being setup by the
Finance Ministry for effective coordination and dissemination of various inputs pertaining to illegal funds.

The online system, which would act as data bank for financial intelligence sleuths, named 'Virtual Office' will help
in monitoring of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) generated by Financial Intelligence Unit-India, an agency
tasked with receiving, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions to
enforcement agencies and its foreign counterparts.

It will have a representative each from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Directorate General of Revenue
Intelligence (DRI), Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), Directorate General of Central Excise
Intelligence (DGCEI) and FIU-Ind.
20-Senior IAS officer Rajiv Takru today took charge as secretary in the department of financial services,
21-Exim Bank today set yet another benchmark in raising cheap debt from overseas investors by selling $750 million
worth bonds through a European debt sale programme that was overbought by 8.5 times and at a coupon of 4 per
cent.
22-The third installment of the Advance Tax collection recorded a growth of 10.44 per cent to Rs. 78,226 crore,
finance ministry said today.
23-RBI cancels license of Abhinav Sahakari Bank
24-The government and the World Bank have jointly reviewed 19 projects worth USD 4.3 billion including
panchayati raj, rural water and sanitation, irrigation and water resources that are funded by the multilateral lending
agency.
25-The Finance Ministry has declined permission to Iran's Parsian Bank to open a branch in India apparently due to
security concerns and threat of money laundering.Iran had been pressing New Delhi for allowing Parsian Bank to
open a branch to settle oil and other trade with India.
The matter was examined by Reserve Bank of India, and subsequently, based on RBI's report, a decision was taken
by the Finance Ministry not to agree to Parsian Bank's application, sources privy to the development said.
26-Raghuram Rajan to take charge as new chief economic adviser
27-The government will set up 14 more Income Tax Overseas Units (ITOUs) to deal with the menace of
blackmoney and keep a tab on illegal routing of funds from abroad and parking money in foreign countries.The
Finance Ministry has recently sent a detailed proposal in this regard to the Ministry of External Affairs along with
the names of the countries where these ITOUs would be made operational.India has already established ten ITOUs
in its missions at Cyprus, France, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, UAE, UK, USA, Mauritius and Singapore, and the
Finance Ministry and the investigation wing of I-T department has found the experiment successful as "good"
information has been received by Indian financial sleuths in connection with their probes.
28--Government appoints Raghuram Rajan as new CEA
29-Starting this financial year, salaried employees earning up to Rs. 5 lakh a year no longer need to file income tax
returns, the Finance Ministry said today.
30-The ministry said in draft guidelines released last night that GAAR would come into effect from April 1, 2013.



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