19 July 2016 Current Affairs
Govt allocates Rs 22,915 cr capital to 13 PSU banks for FY17
The Narendra Modi government has allocated Rs 22,915 crore capital to meet the capitalization needs of 13 Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in the current fiscal. This is in line with its Indradhanush initiative, aimed at restoring banking sector health. The maximum capital infusion will be for State Bank of India (SBI) at Rs 7,575 crore and the least for Allahabad Bank at Rs 44 crore. Government has undertaken an exercise to assess the capitalization needs of Public Sector Banks in line with the announcements made under the Union Budget.
Malcolm Turnbull sworn in as Prime Minister of Australia
“Malcolm Turnbull was sworn as Prime Minister of Australia for second term after a narrow victory in the federal election. He became the 29th Prime Minister of the country. He was administered oath to the office by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative in Australia. In the 2016 Australian federal election, Liberal/National Coalition led by Malcolm Turnbull had won a one-seat majority of 76 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. While the opposition Labor Party won 69 seats. The 2016 federal election was a double dissolution election to elect members of the 45th Parliament of Australia.”
Guruprasad Mohapatra appointed as Chairman of Airports Authority of India
Senior IAS officer Guruprasad Mohapatra was appointed as Chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI). Prior to this appointment he was working as Joint Secretary in Union Ministry of Commerce from the past two years. He is a 1986 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer. He is the youngest son of noted litterateur late Mohapatra Nilamani Sahoo from Odisha. He also had served as a Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and as the Commissioner of Transport in Gujarat. AAI is statutory body under the aegis of Union Ministry of Civil Aviation. It is responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing civil aviation infrastructure in India. AAI manages around 125 airports in India, which include 18 International Airport, 07 Customs Airports, 78 Domestic Airports and 26 Civil Enclaves at Defence airfields.
CBDT inks 7 Advance Pricing Agreements to cut tax litigation
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed seven unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) with Indian taxpayers to reduce tax litigation. With this, CBDT has so far entered into 77 APAs. This includes three bilateral APAs and 74 unilateral APAs. These 7 APAs signed pertain to various sectors like banking, information technology and automotives. Some of these APAs have rollback provisions. APA usually is signed between a taxpayer and the central tax authority (in case of India it is CBDT) on an appropriating transfer pricing methodology for determining the value of assets and taxes on intra-group overseas transactions. It provides certainty to taxpayers regarding transfer pricing that aim to avoid disputes between taxpayer and tax regulator.