Economy & Business 9Saturday�March 3, 2018

THE ECHO OF INDIA�KOLKATA

Quotation for the under men-tioned work is invited by the un-dersigned details of which maybe had during the office hoursfrom the office of the under-signed or at http://wbpwd.inWorks in brief(NIQ No- WBPWD/EE/PED/NIQ41 /2017-18)1. Supply _ Installation ofPower back up _Inverter System_ at different PHC, CHC Non-Bedded Hospital in the Districtof PuruliaLast date of Bid Submission(On line):-16.03.2018 up to6.00 pm

NOTICE INVITINGQUOTATION

Executive Engineer,Purulia Electrical Division,

PWD.

Sealed Tenders are invited by the undersignedfrom the experienced bonafide and resource-ful contractors for the PCR works inCoochbehar District against NIT no. 95, 99 &100/ Ser/ PCR/ COOB/ 2017-18Last date & time : 23.03.2018 up to 3.00 PM. AtHead Qtrs, Kolkata. For details of the abovetenders please visit : seriwbgov.org & Noticeboard of this Directorate.

Executive Engineer,Directorate of Textiles

(Sericulture),West Bengal

ICA-T 1604(2)/2018

WBPWD/ ROADS/ NH/ EE/ NHD-1/e-NIT-04/ 2017-18Tender ID :2018_WBPWD_157728_1 &2018_WBPWD_157728_2Online e-tender under 2 (two) bidssystem is invited for the works of (i)Emergent repairing of potholes bentKmp. 133.00 & Kmp. 135.00 of NH-117 in stretches under NH Division-Iduring the year 2017-18.(ii) Emergent repairing of potholesbent Kmp. 136.00 & Kmp 137.684 ofNH-117 in stretches under NH Divi-sion-I during the year 2017-18.Closing date of submission tender(online)- 10.03.18 other details of e-NIT may be seen in the office of the u/s on any working day during officehours and through website :www.wbpwd.gov.in

EE/ NHD-I/ PW(R) Dte.Bhabani Bhaban Kolkata

ICA-T 1603(3)/2018

The Executive Engineer, NorthernMechanical Division, P.H.E. Dte,Sukanta Sarani, Pareshnagar, Siligurion behalf of the Governor of WestBengal invites e-Auction vide NIEA /03 & 04/ EE/ NMD/ PHED/ 2017-18,2nd call, dt. 28.02.18 for the followingworks : “ Engagement of externalagency for Carrying, Forwarding andSelling of Packaged Drinking Waternamed Pran Dhara manufactured byGovt. of WB at Fulbari WTP Com-plex, in the dist. of Jalpaiguri” &Chakchaka Bottling Plant Complexunder PHED, in the dist. ofCoochbehar through their capacity &capabilities respectively. DocumentSubmission from 06.03.18 at 5.00 PMto 27.03.18 upto 4.00 PM., Docu-ments Approval from 05.04.18 at2.00 PM to 09.05.18 upto 6.00 PM.Physical verification of material from08.03.18 to 02.04.18 on working daysduring working hours. Auction startfor NIEA/ 03 is 18.04.18 at 11.00 AMto 18.04.18 upto 4.00 PM & for NIEA/04 is 19.04.18 at 11.00 AM to 19.04.18upto 4.00 PM. Documents collection& submission to be made onlinethrough the website “http//eauction.gov.in” Auction ID :2018_WB_833 & 2018_WB_834 re-spectively.

PHED NIEA

Sd/-Executive Engineer

Northern Mechanical DivisionP.H.E. Dte.

The Executive Engineer, NorthernMechanical Division, P.H.E. Dte,Sukanta Sarani, Pareshnagar, Siligurion behalf of the Governor of WestBengal invites e-Tender vide NIeTNo. 127 & 128 of 2017-18, dt.28.02.18 for the following works :“Production of packaged drinking wa-ter from R.O. based fully automaticdrinking water bottling plant with anhourly Production capacity 3600bottles of 1000 ml/ 500 ml capacity atChakchaka, dist Cooch Behar and atFulbari WTP Complex, dist-Jalpaiguri, P.H.E. Dte. respectively”.Document collection & submissionfrom 03.03.18 at 10.00 AM to26.03.18 upto 2.30 PM. can be madeonline through the website “https://wbtenders.gov.in” Tender ID-2018_PHED_160105_1 &2018_PHED_160107_1 respec-tively.

PHED NIeT

Sd/-Executive Engineer

Northern Mechanical DivisionP.H.E. Dte.

Secretary, Ministry of Power Ajay Kumar Bhalla and the Chairman, Airports Authority of India Guruprasad Mohapatra at the signing ceremonyof an MoU for installing energy-efficient LED lights at airports, buildings and facilities owned by AAI, in New Delhi---PIB

MUMBAI, MARCH 2 /--/Two state-run lenders StateBank of India and PunjabNational Bank today raisedtheir lending rates by up to20 basis points, a move thatwill increase the interestrates on existing as well ashome, auto loans andpersonal loans.

While the nation's largestlender SBI raised its one yearMCLR (marginal cost offund-based lending rate) by20 basis points (bps) to 8.15per cent, PNB increased itsloan prices by 15 bps to 8.30per cent. The lending ratehike by these lenders comeeven as the Reserve Bankhas been in anaccommodative/neutralstance since January 2015.The present RBI rate or reporate is 5.75 per cent now.Even in the last policyreview early last month, thecentral bank had soundedmore accommodative thanhawkish even though itincreased its inflationforecast. Defending the hikethat will hurt all borrowers,especially the individualborrowers the most, SBI said"in the past one month,liquidity situation, whichused to be in surplus hasbecome neutral or maybe ina minor deficit mode.

"Also bond yields havegone up by around 125-150basis points over the past fewmonths. Given the liquiditysituation, some alignmentwas required and it has beendone today," SBI managingdirector and head of retail

Home, auto loan EMIsto go up as SBI, PNBhike lending rates

and digital banking PKGupta said. The lending ratehike also comes in the wakeof banks as a whole seeingpick-up in credit demand.After many years of lowsingle-digit credit growth, thequarterly loan demandcrossed the double-digitmark at close to 11 per centin the three months toDecember 2017. Gupta saideven after this increase, SBI'slending rate is marginallylower than what other banksare offering.

"Earlier, the wholemarket was in a downwardcycle but now the feeling isthat the risk for inflation ison the upside only. We thinkthat the downward cycle isover and the rate shouldprobably remain stablearound the current rates forsome time," Gupta of SBIsaid. The State Bank raisedits six-month MCLR by 10bps to 8 per cent, while itsthree-year loan pricing goesup by 25 bps to 8.35 per cent.

The Delhi-based PNB,which is firefighting thelargest financial fraud in thecountry and staring at apossible loss of around Rs13,000 crore, has alsofollowed its larger per hikedits one year MCLR rate by 15bps to 8.30 per cent. PNB,which is the second largestpublic sector lender, alsoraised the overnight, one-month, three-month and six-month rates by 15 bps to 7.80per cent, 7.95 per cent, 8.10per cent and 8.25 per cent,respectively. (PTI)

PNB fraud maylead totightening ofnorms forraising capital:PHDCCINEW DELHI, MARCH 2 /--/ Industry body PHDCCIpresident Anil Khaitan onThursday expressedconcern over the crisistriggered in the bankingindustry post PNB episodeand said the currentsituation may lead tounnecessary tightening ofnorms and procedures inraising capital from banks.Khaitan further said he issurprised how the banksinternal audit system failedto detect anomalies intransactions leading to thealleged fraudulent loansgiven out to the borrowers.

"The current situation isworrying for Indianindustry since it may lead tounnecessary tightening ofnorms and procedures inraising capital from banks."This will in turn hurt thepositive sentimentgenerated in ease of doingbusiness and canpotentially gravelly impactthe policy," he told reportershere. Khaitan also said thatinstead of making changesin the loan seekingmechanism, stringent stepsshould be taken by theCentral Bank to strengthenthe banks internal auditprocedures. (PTI)

Tata Groupreorganisesrealty infraverticalsMUMBAI, MARCH 2 /--/Taking ahead its agenda ofreviewing and integratingits varied businessverticals, Tata Sons hasrevamped its realty andinfrastructure businesses tosimplify operationalstructure, leveragesynergies and achieve scalerapidly.

In a statement, Tata SonsThursday announced anoperational reorganisationof Tata Realty and TataHousing, wherein SanjayUbale, the current managingdirector and chiefexecutive of Tata Realtywill head the infrastructuredevelopment andconcessions business, whileSanjay Dutt has been ropedinto oversea the real estatevertical. Ubale has beenappointed as head ofinfrastructure and urbansolutions, and will report toBanmali Agrawala,president of infrastructure,aerospace and defenceverticals. In addition, Ubalewill also work closely withgroup chairman NChandrasekaran on state-related policy matters, therelease said. Under the newscheme, the groups realtybusiness will now includecommercial real estate andhousing businesses and willbe run as a joint business.Dutt, who currently headsthe India operations andprivate funds of Ascendas-Singbridge, has been ropedin as the new managingdirector of Tata Realty &Infrastructure and will alsooversee the operations ofTata Housing DevelopmentCompany. Dutt will takecharge from April 1. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, MARCH 2 /--/ The state-owned bankshave closed down 35overseas branches andrepresentative offices aspart of the clean andresponsible bankinginitiative.

As per the bankingsector agenda approved atthe PSB Manthan inNovember last year, publicsector banks (PSBs) have toexamine all 216 overseasoperations. Therationalisation of overseasoperations of banks issignificant as jewellerydesigner Nirav Modiallegedly cheated PunjabNational Bank (PNB) of Rs

PSBs shut 35 overseas branches,representative offices

12,700 crore in connivancewith PNB staff and officialsof overseas branches ofother state-owned banks.According to sources, Bankof India, Andhra Bank,IDBI Bank and IndianOverseas Bank have closeddown Dubai operations,while Punjab NationalBank, Canara Bank andUnion Bank of India haveshut Shanghai offices.

Bank of India has alsoclosed down operations inYangoon and Bostwana,while Bank of Baroda andIndian Overseas Bank haveshut Hong Kong branch. Inaddition, PSBs have alsoclosed down various

representative offices. Ason January 31, 2018, publicsector banks had about 165overseas branches, besidessubsidiaries, joint venturesand representative offices.State Bank of India has thelargest number of overseasbranches (52) followed byBank of Baroda (50) andBank of India (29). Thestate-owned banks havelargest number of branchesin United Kingdom (32)followed by Hong Kong andUAE (13 each) andSingapore (12).

"PSBs to consolidate 35overseas operations withoutaffecting internationalpresence of PSBs in these

countries; 69 ops identifiedfor further examination.Move towards costefficiencies and synergiesin overseas mkt," FinancialServices Secretary RajivKumar said in a tweet.Expressing governmentscommitment to clean andresponsible banking, thetweet said the overseasoperations of the state-owned banks will berationalised.

As part of therationalisation of overseasoperations, the graphic thataccompanied the tweet said,"PSBs to consolidate 35operations. 69 operationsidentified for possibleconsolidation. Includesbank branches, remittancecentres and representativeoffices". It further said: "All216 PSB operations to beexamined. Non-viable

operations in overseasmarket to be closed for costefficiency and synergy.Operations in somegeography to beconsolidated. Consolidateequity stake in jointventures having multiplePSB partners". (PTI)

NSE to auction Rs 10,789crresidual corp debt on Monday

Civil accounts dept has sanctityattached; can't afford to err: FM

NEW DELHI, MARCH 2 /--/ Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on Thursdaysaid the civil accountdepartment of thegovernment cannot afford toerr as it informs about thestate of public finances tothe nation and there is anelement to sanctity attachedto it. The finance ministerinaugurated the centralisedGPF module of PublicFinancial ManagementSystem (PFMS) for allcentral governmentemployees and ePPO moduleof PFMS for complete end-to-end electronic processing ofpension cases. Speaking atthe occasion, Jaitley said,"There is a certain amount ofsanctity which must remainattached to the governmentaccounting system."

"While there aregovernment departmentsthat can function with afairly high amount ofaccuracy, the Civil AccountsDepartment is one thatcannot afford to err becausea small error can lay a hugefoot prints," Jaitely said atthe 42nd Civil Accounts Dayhere. The governmentaccounts need to be error freeas the government informsthe nation on the state ofpublic finances and thereforethe sanctity of work isimportant and involves highlevel of efficiency which

adds to the integrity of thegovernment, he said. Notingthat sanctity and credibilityof the accounting system ofthe government has beenmaintained over the years,there is a certain amount ofsanctity which must remainattached to the governmentaccounting system, Jaitleysaid who also holds theportfolio of Corporate AffairsMinistry. Lauding the IndianCivil Accounts Service(ICAS) professionals, he saidthe effective use oftechnology ensures thatevery rupee of thegovernment is accounted forand can be tracked whichadds up to the overallefficiency of thegovernment. It also leads toeffective utilisation ofgovernment money, he said,adding the full integration ofgovernment accountingsystem with the GSTNetwork, RBI and bankswhich has been instrumentalin providing timely and

reconciled reports oncollections of CGST, SGSTand IGST among others. Theminister inaugurated thecentralized GPF module ofPublic FinancialManagement System(PFMS) for all centralgovernment employees andePPO module of PFMS forcomplete end to endelectronic processing ofpension cases. Thecentralised GeneralProvident Fund (GPF)module meets a longstanding demand of thecentral governmentemployees for a mapping ofGPF accounts with theunique employee ID that willfacilitate online applicationfor GPF advances andwithdrawals with onlineaccess to the employee scurrent GPF balances, theController General ofAccounts (CGA) said in astatement. The module willstreamline GPF accountingand transfer of balances.

The ePPO function willinclude integration of theBHAVISHYA application ofthe Department of Pension &Pensioners Welfare and thePARAS application of CPAOwith PFMS for seamlessprocessing of pension casesand eliminate delays anderrors involved in manualprocessing. (PTI)

Note-ban has led to

5-fold rise in fintech

deals in '17: ReportMUMBAI, MARCH 2 /--/The note-ban decisionupped investor interest inthe country's fintechindustry that led to a five-fold increase in dealactivity in 2017, a reportsaid on Wednesday. Ventureinvesting in the country'sfintech sector shot up fivetimes to USD 2.4 billionduring the year and was amajor factor driving thesurge in investments intosuch new- age companiesglobally, it said. At theglobal level, heightenedactivity in India, along withthe UK and US led to a 18 percent rise in fintechfinancing at USD 27.4billion in 2017, the reportsaid. The report by globaltech major Accentureattributed the surge in dealsto the controversialdemonetisation decision ofthe government.

"India s boom was drivenby strong demand forcashless services followingthe country s'demonetisation' events,"senior managing director inits financial servicespractice Julian Skan said.

Maharashtrarelaxes normsfor bad debtrecovery by UCBsMUMBAI, MARCH 2 /--/In a bid to aid urbancooperative banks (UCBs)recover the over Rs10,000 crore in bad debt,the Maharashtragovernment hasliberalised norms oninterest repayments forgetting money back incase of impaired loans.

Under the revisednorms, banks will be ableto charge lower interestrate than the contractedamount in order torecover money from thenon-performing assets(NPAs), a cooperativesdepartment official toldPTI here. A floor of 8 percent per annum for threeyears from the date of aloan turning into an NPAhas been set to push therecovery efforts, theofficial said. Earlier, theUCBs were not allowed totake a hit on interestrepayments even whiledealing with stressedborrowers, whichimpeded the recoveryefforts.

Lending by the UCBshappens at interest ratesof 12 to 14 per cent. Thereare over 500 UCBs in thestate, which areregulated jointly by thebanking watchdogReserve Bank and thestate governments. It canbe noted that commerciallenders give up oninterest repayments andalso take a hit onprincipal amounts whiledealing with stressedborrowers. Thegovernment has alsorestricted the period forcharging the interest tothree years from the dateof loan turning NPA, theofficial said.

"Earlier, the interestused to be charged formore than three yearsmaking it more difficultfor the borrower to repay.Now, the interest beyondthree years will be waivedoff," he said. TheM a h a r a s h t r agovernment has now alsoallowed attaching of thesalary account of aborrower whose loanturned bad, the officialsaid. (PTI)

MUMBAI, MARCH 2 /--/Leading stock exchangeNSE will auction theresidual corporate bondsfor foreign investors(investment limits) worthRs 10,789 crore onMonday.

The auction will beconducted on NSEs e-bidplatform from 3.30 pm to5.30 pm after the close ofmarket hours, theexchange said in acircular today. Theauction quota givesforeign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) the rightto invest in corporate

debt up to the stipulatedlimit.

As per the latest data,total investment incorporate debt category(auction) reached Rs2,14,534 crore, which is95.21 per cent of the totalpermitted limit of Rs2,25,323 crore. Thisimplies that Rs 10,789crore remainsu n p u r c h a s e d ."Consequently, theexchange shall conductan auction for theallocation of unutiliseddebt limits on March 5,"the NSE said. (PTI)

MUMBAI, MARCH 2 /--/Even as governmentpolicies give huge thrust toaffordable housing, datareveals elevated risks in thesegment for lenders becauseof a higher propensityamong the borrowers todefault.

As against 1.96 per centof overall home loans notrepaid for over 90 days, thesame for loans under Rs 25lakh, classified asaffordable housing, was 2.33per cent as of November2017, a report by domesticrating agency CrifHighmark said onWednesday. In case of homeloans under Rs 10 lakh,where the average ticketsize is Rs 8 lakh, the 90-dayoverdue loan repaymentsstand at 4 per cent, twicethat of the industry average,it added. At Rs 7.79 lakhcrore, affordable housingaccounts for 50 per cent ofthe overall home loans ofRs 15.8 lakh crore. As morebanks take refuge in thesector considered moreresilient in times of pilingnon-performing assets, thebanking system's homeloans outstanding hasincreased 13.6 per centsince April alone.

As the governmentseeks to meet its target ofhousing for all by 2022, aslew of sops have been given

Low-cost home loansface higher risk ofdefaults: Report

to the affordable housingsector, including inclusionin the mandatory prioritysector lending by giving thesector an infrastructurestatus, introduction of taxbenefits under section 80-IAof the Income-Tax Act,concessions on long-termcapital gains tax provisions,etc. Foreign banks are themost affected in the sub-Rs-10- lakh category with badloans of 16.20 per cent. Eventhough MNC lendersaccount for a small portionof the overall outstanding,they have the highest stressamong all on the housingfinance side at 8.42 per cent,it said. The 90-day overduefor the overall housingfinance segment stood at1.36 per cent for March 2016,and has been rising sincethen, at 1.89 per cent in June2017, and at 1.96 per cent inSeptember 2017.

New Delhi, UttarPradesh and Tamil Nadu arethe pockets with higheststress in the housingfinance sector, while theaffordable housing stress ishigher in the Kolkata,Chennai and Ghaziabadmarkets, it said.

The largest housing loanmarket is Maharashtra,accounting for 23 per cent ofthe overall Rs 15.78 trillionoutstanding, the agencysaid. (PTI)

Peter MacKenzie, Managing Director, Named Harley-Davidson India, launching new varients of Harle-Devidson motorcycles in New Delhi