Half the banks to be privatised
India's debt-to-GDP ratio will shoot up to 87.6 per cent at the end of the current financial year from 72.2 per cent in FY20 on the back of extra borrowing by the government in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, economists at SBI said. Over four percentage points of the increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio is attributable to the fall in growth, which is going to result in GDP contraction during the year, they said.
India is looking to privatise more than half of its state-owned banks to reduce the number of government-owned lenders to just five as part of an overhaul of the banking industry, government and banking sources said.
The first part of the plan would be to sell majority stakes in Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Punjab & Sind Bank, leading to an effective privatisation of these state-owned lenders, a government official said.
"The idea is to have furfive government owned banks," said one senior government official. At present, India has 12 stateowned banks.
The government official said that such a plan would be laid out in a new privatisation proposal the government is currently formulating, and this would be put before the cabinet for approval.
The government is working on a privatisation plan to help to raise money by selling assets in non-core companies and sectors when the country is strapped for funds due to lack of economic growth caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Several government committees and the Reserve Bank of India have recommended that India should have not more than five state-owned banks.
"The government has already said that there will be no more mergers (between state-owned banks) so the only option for them is to divest stakes," a senior official at a state-owned bank said.
Last year, the government had merged ten stateowned banks into four, creating a handful of larger banks.
New Delhi, July 20: The new rules for electronic retailers, including mandatory display of 'country of origin' on their products, will come into force by the end of this week, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Monday.
The 'Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020' will be applicable to all electronic retailers (e-tailers) registered in India or abroad but offering goods and services to Indian consumers, he said.
"Most rules framed under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 have come into force from today (Monday). However, e-commerce rules will get notified by the end of this week, while rules on direct selling will take some more time," the consumer affairs minister told reporters in a virtual press conference.
The e-commerce rules are "mandatory in nature" and violation of these will attract penalties as decided by the consumer protection authority and consumer courts as provided under the Act, he said.
Consumer affairs secretary Leena Nandan said the rules have been finalised after taking inputs from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
As per the rules, the ecommerce players will have to display the total 'price' of goods and services offered for sale along with break-up of other charges.
They are also required to mention the 'expiry date' of goods offered for sale and the 'country of origin' of goods and services.
E-tailers have to display details about return, refund, exchange, warranty and all other information required by consumers to make informed decisions. Sellers have to provide these details to the e-commerce entity.
E-tailers should not impose "cancellation charges" on consumers unless similar charges are also borne by the e-commerce entity if it cancels the purchase order.
They are also not allowed to "manipulate the price" of the goods and services offered on their platforms to gain unreasonable profit and discriminate between consumers of the same class.
That apart, e-tailers are required to display prominently to its users details about the 'sellers', including the name of their business, geographic address, customer care number and the like.
The rules will not permit any inventory e-commerce entity, including single-brand retailers and multi-channel singlebrand retailers, to "falsely represent itself as a consumer and post reviews about goods and services or misrepresent the quality or the features of any goods and services".
Under the rules, no inventory e-commerce entity will be allowed to refuse to take back goods, or withdraw or discontinue services purchased or agreed to be purchased, or refuse to refund consideration, if paid, if such goods or services are defective, deficient spurious, or if the goods or services are not of the features as advertised or as agreed to, or if such goods or services are delivered late from the stated delivery schedule.