Non-food bank credit growth shows slowdown with divergent sectoral trends, industry contraction and sustained personal loan expansion.
Non-food bank credit growth slowed year-on-year to 4.8 per cent as on March 3, 2017 from 11.1 per cent a year earlier. Select-bank outstanding credit data (covering about 95 per cent of non-food credit) shows Agriculture & Allied Activities remaining positive, Industry moving into negative growth, Services expanding, and Personal Loans sustaining strong growth.

Income tax enforcement uncovers widespread undisclosed income, triggering assessments, penalties, compounding and prosecutions.
The income-tax department conducted searches on about 2,534 groups, leading to admissions of undisclosed income of Rs. 45,622 crore and seizure of undisclosed assets worth about Rs. 3,625 crore; investigating officers shared recovered material with assessing officers, who completed assessments, raised tax demands, levied penalties, pursued recoveries and filed prosecution complaints.

Tax collection at source removed: TCS on high-value cash purchases eliminated after cash-transaction cap and amendment.
The government repealed the tax collection at source expansion that required sellers to collect TCS on cash sales exceeding the cash-transaction threshold, removing the seller's TCS collection obligation on such high-value cash purchases and aligning TCS rules with the statutory prohibition on large cash dealings.

Source-based taxation of share capital gains introduced; transitional relief and MAP access for transfer pricing provided.
The Third Protocol amends the India-Singapore DTAA to shift taxation of capital gains on company shares to the source jurisdiction from 1 April 2017, grandfathering pre existing investments subject to the Limitation of Benefits clause and providing a two year transitional reduced tax rate; it also inserts Article 9(2) to allow MAP relief in transfer pricing cases and permits application of domestic anti avoidance measures.

Timely payment of CGEGIS Savings Fund: service verification allows disbursement of accumulations with interest on retirement.
Timely payment of accumulations under the Savings Fund component of the Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme will be made where the service of the retiring employee has been verified, without awaiting confirmation of each monthly subscription, enabling disbursement of the Savings Fund balance with interest on retirement, cessation, or to nominees on death in service.

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code strengthens bank recovery framework alongside amended SARFAESI and debt resolution tools.
Resolution of stressed assets by banks relies on RBI debt resolution tools-Corporate Debt Restructuring, Joint Lenders' Forums, 5/25 flexible structuring, Strategic Debt Restructuring, and S4A-to enable workout, restructuring and recovery, supported by enactment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and amendments to SARFAESI and the RDDBFI Act along with expanded Debt Recovery Tribunal capacity.

Integration of spot and derivatives markets proposed to boost commodities trading, including new participants, options and market integration.
Reforms prioritize phased admission of new participants, authorization of new instruments such as options, and market integration across commodity, equity and currency derivatives; an expert committee is proposed to develop an operational and legal framework to integrate spot and derivatives markets for commodities with e-NAM as a core component. SEBI applies risk-based supervision to various intermediaries but has not finalized introducing such a system for commodity derivatives brokers.

Automatic exchange of Country-by-Country reports enhances tax transparency and targets transfer pricing risk under BEPS.
India has executed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) to enable automatic exchange of Country-by-Country Reports filed by Multinational Enterprises under the OECD/G 20 BEPS framework, providing tax authorities with consolidated information to identify transfer pricing and profit shifting risks and to prioritise audits; India signed the MCAA in May 2016 and will begin exchanges from 2018.

Social security enrollment shows broad coverage with significant claims settled under central life, accidental and rural insurance schemes.
Reports disclose policyholder counts for central social security schemes-PMJJBY 309.05 lakh, PMSBY 992.20 lakh, AABY 651.00 lakh, APY 45.70 lakh-and claims settled and amounts paid for PMJJBY (55,825 claims; 1,116.50 crores), PMSBY (8,998 claims; 178.85 crores) and AABY (111,369 claims; 356.14 crores), with a total payout of 1,651.49 crores, presented in a parliamentary written reply.

Income-tax refund processing efficiency increased; most refunds issued promptly under statutory one-year processing requirement and backlog addressed.
Processing and issuance of income-tax refunds have been prioritised under a statutory requirement to process returns within one year of the end of the financial year in which they are filed. Administrative measures-automation, streamlined e-filing, and proactive monitoring-have shortened processing times so that a high proportion of refunds are issued within 30 and 60 days; priority is given to small taxpayers and specific instructions address clearing small non-scrutiny backlog refunds without adjustment against outstanding demands.

Counterfeit detection measures require banks to machine-check high-denomination notes and report multi-note detections to police.
Banks and cash-replenishment agencies must ensure notes of specified denominations are authenticated and fitness-checked by machines before re-issuance or loading into ATMs; Sponsor Banks are responsible for cash quality at White Label ATMs and dispensation of counterfeit notes through ATMs will be construed as an attempt to circulate such notes by the bank concerned. A directive under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 reinforces these requirements. Reporting rules require consolidated monthly reports for small detections and FIRs for larger detections, and failure to impound or report may attract penal measures.

Bank licensing for small finance and payments banks expands access while imposing capital and prudential compliance.
RBI guidelines establish licensing and regulation for small finance banks and payments banks: small finance banks must be promoted by eligible persons, focus on deposit-taking and lending to unserved and underserved sectors, meet a minimum paid-up equity capital requirement, and comply with prudential norms including CRR and SLR; payments banks may be promoted by specified non-bank entities, accept capped demand deposits per customer, offer payment and remittance services and payment instruments, maintain CRR on outside liabilities, and invest a prescribed share of demand deposits in SLR-eligible government securities. Both are licensed under the Banking Regulation Act and subject to calibrated commercial-bank supervisory frameworks.

Plastic banknote trial initiated to test polymer currency durability, with measures to protect note integrity and manage circulation.
Approval was conveyed for a field trial of plastic banknotes using procured plastic substrate and printing of ten-denomination notes to evaluate their longer lifespan compared with cotton-based notes. Complementary measures include prohibitions on inscription in security areas, requirements for banks to provide note-exchange facilities and organize exchange campaigns to remove soiled or mutilated notes, public advisories against scribbling, and constitution of a Standing Committee on Cyber Security to assess technology-related threats and policy responses.

Bank merger expands customer access to unified global network and centralises credit oversight for improved risk management.
The merger created a single operating bank by integrating five subsidiary banks, unifying branch networks and systems to achieve economies of scale, operational efficiency, improved supervision and compliance, and enhanced productivity and customer service. Credit exposures are centralised under one entity to enable focused oversight of the aggregated credit portfolio and stressed assets, while customers of the merged subsidiaries obtain access to the unified bank's global network.

Cybersecurity audits for banks required; CERT In audits, patch and vulnerability management, and rapid incident reporting mandated.
Banks and PPI issuers must undergo priority audits by CERT-In empanelled auditors focusing on application security lifecycle, patch, vulnerability and change management, and adherence to approved process flows; banks must remedy audit findings, maintain a cyber-security policy and crisis management plan, monitor cyber risk indicators, mitigate phishing and emergent threats, report unusual incidents within short timelines, and follow guidance from the Reserve Bank's Cyber Security and IT Examination cell and Cyber Crisis Management Group.

Regulatory assessment of insurers enforces ongoing offsite and onsite monitoring and statutory reporting, enabling penalties and prosecution.
Assessment of private insurance companies is conducted through a structured compliance and performance monitoring regime comprising analysis of financial statements, corporate governance reports, expense and commission statements, unclaimed policyholder amounts, statutory auditor returns, and periodic review of solvency returns; continuous offsite monitoring covers returns across reporting cycles and insurer performance metrics, while periodical onsite inspections verify compliance and trigger corrective or regulatory action when deviations are found.

Rollback provision in bilateral APA requests under India-Korea tax treaty permitted; subject to Income Tax rollback rules and Korean regulations.
Clarification concerns availability and processing of the rollback provision in bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements under the revised India-Korea DTAA. Taxpayers may submit bilateral APA applications including rollback requests for international transactions with associated enterprises in Korea; such requests will be processed under the Income Tax Act rollback provision and applicable Income Tax rules, and inclusion of rollback is subject to Korea's regulations.

Exchange rate determination for customs: notified rates for specified foreign currencies for import and export conversion.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs, under section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, notifies specific rate of exchange conversions for listed foreign currencies to be used for imported and export goods valuation, superseding the prior notification and declaring the rates in two schedules (per unit and per 100 units) effective from 17 March 2017.

Special assistance funding for Andhra Pradesh: repayment of EAP loans and full central funding for Polavaram irrigation component.
Special assistance comprises repayment of principal and interest on Externally Aided Projects signed and disbursed by Andhra Pradesh during 2015-16 to 2019-20 to compensate for an effective 90:10 CSS funding equivalence, and 100% central funding of the remaining cost of the irrigation component of the Polavaram Project from 01.04.2014, with the State executing works and the Polavaram Project Authority overseeing coordination, design, monitoring, clearances and cost assessment in consultation with the Department of Expenditure.

Dearness Allowance increase implemented under 7th Pay Commission formula, extending enhanced instalment to employees and pensioners.
Approval of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance for Central Government employees and Dearness Relief for pensioners effective 1 January 2017, increasing the rate by two percentage points over the existing rate pursuant to the accepted formula based on the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations. The decision directs release of the enhanced instalment and quantifies its fiscal impact for annual budgeting and the fourteen-month 2017-18 accounting period, identifying the affected population of employees and pensioners.