ICICI ups interest rates by 50bps
New Delhi: Soon after the Reserve Bank of India hiked rates by 25 basis points ICICI Bank the country's largest private sector lender announced a hike of 0.50 basis points on interest rates.

The revised rates would be applicable from next week, said Chanda Kochar, head (retail business) for ICICI bank.
With this revision, the floating interest rate for home loan has increased to 9.50 per cent from 9 per cent earlier while the fixed interest loan rate has gone up to 10.75 per cent from 10.25 per cent. The hike has also affected the corporate lending rates, which were not revised in June, the last time the bank hiked its rates.

The bank has however not changed the interest rates on deposits.

Kochar said, "Our costs have gone up post-January and the rates did not go down proportionately, which we expected. So, we have not touched the deposit rates."
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Exim Bank pays Rs86.75 crore dividend
New Delhi: The Export-Import Bank of India has paid a dividend of Rs 86.75 crore for 2005-06 to the government. The bank made a post-tax profit of Rs 271 crore last fiscal.

The government owns the entire stake in EXIM Bank, whose principal objective is to finance exports of projects, products and services from India through a variety of financing programmes.
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Yes Bank to act as advisor to Govt
New Delhi: The government has appointed Yes Bank as national consultants for developing a framework for selection of private enterprises to set up modern terminal market complexes for perishables at urban centres.

The Bank said in a statement, "Yes Bank secured the mandate by going through an elaborate three-phase selection process that was adopted by the central committee, set up by the union ministry of agriculture, which included both technical and financial bids evaluation," it said. The private bank signed the memorandum of understanding on May 31, it said.

Yes Bank will assist the committee as advisors in the preparation of the bid document, outline the procedure for the bidding process and develop the framework for the selection of private enterprises. Back to News Review index page  

Corporation Bank to inaugurate office in UAE
Dubai: Corporation Bank plans to open a representative office in Dubai as part of its first overseas foray as it has obtained Reserve Bank's permission for overseas expansion.

The bank will also explore possibilities at Dubai International Financial Centre, said the bank chairman and managing director, B Sambamurthy, who was in the UAE for talks with Central Bank officials.

The bank also signed agreements with UAE-based Al Ansari Exchange and Wall Street Exchange to offer remittance and other services.
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IT form gets reviewed
New Delhi: The union finance ministry, which is under fire for introducing a new form to file income-tax returns, has decided to make the controversial "cash flow" statement optional for taxpayers. The government said a fresh form would be notified for 2007-08, based on the review and feedback for the new form introduced this year, 2 F.

Revenue secretary K M Chandrashekhar said assessees could use either the existing "naya saral" one-page form or the new form, 2F while filing returns until July 31 this year. Subsequently they would have to use form 2 F, but the cash flow statement is no longer mandatory.

The union finance ministry had earlier said that the new form would replace the existing "naya saral" from August 1 this year. As it came under the attack of tax experts and the Congress, the ministry decided to review it for use in 2007-08.
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