Government lines up over Rs 17k crore to support rooftop solar projects

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The government has lined up almost $2.5 billion (about Rs 16,800 crore) for providing low cost finance to achieve the target of installing 40 GW grid-connected solar rooftop systems.

“The ministry is in negotiations with the KfW Development Bank to secure soft loans of 1 billion euro. They have already provided $100 million funding,” The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Secretary Upendra Tripathy told reporters here.

The World Bank has committed a loan of $620 million, with the Asian Development Bank and the New Development Bank pledging $500 million and $250 million, respectively, he added.

“This will enable participating commercial banks such as SBI, PNB and Canara Bank to extend loan at or near base rates,” Tripathy said.

The secretary further said in the current fiscal, MNRE is trying to arrange an investment of Rs 6,000 crore for rooftop solar projects.

“The government is committed to encourage rooftop solar projects and Power and MNRE Minister Piyush Goyal will inaugurate a national workshop on Roof Top Solar Power on June 7,” he said.

This workshop will have presentations and discussions on various topics including best practices, innovative projects and major policy initiatives on projects, he added.

Besides senior government officials from the centre and states, the conference will also see participation from solar power project developers, channel partners as well as international agencies such as GIZ, KfW and USAID.

The power generated from solar rooftop plants installed even today is almost at par with the commercial tariff for consumers in many states. The cost of solar power is declining, while that of electricity from fossil fuels is rising.

Today, it is possible to generate solar power from rooftop systems at about Rs 6.5 per kilo watt hour, which is cheaper than power generated from diesel gensets and also cheaper than the cost at which most discoms make power available to industries and high-end domestic consumers.

On the issue of storage of solar power generated from rooftop systems, Tripathy said the government is working on providing some kind of subsidy for such projects.

Also there are plans for installing 15 minutes of storage in two projects in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

 

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/govt-lines-up-over-rs-17k-crore-to-support-rooftop-solar-projects-116060301277_1.html

Willful defaults a third of Punjab National Bank NPAs

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Of Rs 10,869 crore, top 10 defaulters together owe the bank Rs 3,554 crore

Close to a third of Punjab National Bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of Rs 34,338 crore have resulted from willful defaults, the lender has said. Of this amount of Rs 10,869 crore, the top 10 willful defaulters together owe the New Delhi-headquartered bank Rs 3,554 crore.

As at the end December last year, PNB had identified 904 companies as being willful defaulters and filed cases against some of them. The number at the end of September 2015 was 764 companies and the value of unpaid loans then was Rs 9,204 crore.

Following a speedy clean-up of its portfolio in the wake of a directive from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), PNB reported slippages of Rs 17,655 crore in Q3FY16 and a pre-tax loss of Rs 858 crore. The slippages left the public sector bank’s impaired loans at 17.4%, comprising 8.5% gross NPAs and 8.9% standard restructured loans.

PNB has made loan loss provisions of Rs 18,758 crore in the three years 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.

In the current year provisions are expected to be of the order of Rs 9,800 crore; in the nine months to December the amount provided was Rs 7,089 crore. Between FY11 and FY15, the government infused Rs 3,457 crore of capital.

The PNB stock’s market value has been eroded by approximately Rs 12,000 crore since the start of September. The stock closed at Rs 75.65 on the BSE on Monday, down 0.66% over Friday’s close. The stock is trading at a price to book value (P/BV) of 0.29 times for estimated FY17 book value.

PNB’s top 10 wilful defaulters include names like Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery (Rs 900.37 crore), Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds, Zoom Developers (Rs 747.98 crore), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India or Nafed (Rs 224.26 crore) and S Kumar Nationwide (Rs 146.82 crore). While the bank did not comment on the classification of these exposures, all the accounts are understood to have been classified as NPAs and provided for.

Last year in June, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached 1,280 acres of Zoom Developers’ land in the US worth Rs 1,000 crore. According to reports, Zoom has allegedly diverted funds borrowed from banks to 350-odd subsidiaries, related parties based in India and abroad, and to purchase jewellery for the wife of its promoter, Vijay Chaudhary. In a separate case, several PNB board members were questioned about loans to Winsome Diamonds and its subsidiaries.

Interestingly, the list as on December 31, 2015, does not include Kingfisher Airlines, which PNB recently said has been declared willful defaulter. “The company is in consultation with its legal counsels to challenge the decision by taking appropriate legal action that may be required in this regard,” UB (Holdings) had said in a stock exchange filing.

According to RBI guidelines, a borrower is termed a willful defaulter if he has defaulted in meeting the repayment obligations to the lender even when he has the capacity to repay, or has not utilised the money from the lender for the specific purposes for which finance was availed and has diverted the funds for other purposes.

KC Chakrabarty was chairman and MD of the bank between 2007 and 2009 and KR Kamath was CMD between 2009 and 2014.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/article/economy/wilful-defaults-a-third-of-pnb-npas/214853/

 

RBI asks income tax assessees to pay dues in advance, 29 banks authorized to accept payments

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The Reserve Bank appealed to income tax assessees to pay dues in advance of the due date as well use alternate channels of authorized banks to avoid the rush during end of March.

“Pay I-T dues in advance at RBI or at authorized bank branches. Appeal to income tax assessees to remit their income tax dues sufficiently in advance of the due date,” RBI said in a release.

“It is observed that the rush for remitting Income-Tax dues through the RBI has been far too heavy towards the end of March every year and it becomes difficult for the RBI to cope with the pressure of issuing receipts although additional counters to the maximum extent possible are provided for the purpose”, it said.

RBI said assessees can use alternate channels like select branches of agency banks or the facility of online payment of taxes offered by these banks.

A total of 29 agency banks have been authorized to accept payments of Income-Tax dues. The authorised banks include SBI and its five associates, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis, Bank, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank.

Among others are Corporation Bank, Dena Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Syndicate Bank and others.
RBI said by remitting dues at the designated banks will obviate the I-T assessess’ inconvenience in standing in long queues at the RBI offices.

 

Source: http://www.firstpost.com/business/rbi-asks-income-tax-assessees-to-pay-dues-in-advance-29-banks-authorized-to-accept-payments-2628134.html?utm_source=FP_CAT_LATEST_NEWS