Bank’s lending to the Micro, Small and Medium enterprises as under is eligible to be reckoned for priority sector advances:

(i) The definition of MSMEs will be as per Government of India, Gazette Notification S.O. 2119 (E) dated June 26, 2020 read with circulars FIDD.MSME & NFS.BC.No.3/06.02.31/2020-21 dated July 2, 2020, FIDD.MSME & NFS. BC. No.4/06.02.31/2020-21 dated August 21, 2020, FIDD.MSME & NFS.BC.No.13/06.02.31/2021-22 dated July 07, 2021 and updated from time to time.

(ii) Further, such MSMEs should be engaged in the manufacture or production of goods, in any manner, pertaining to any industry specified in the First Schedule to the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 or engaged in providing or rendering of any service or services. All bank loans to MSMEs conforming to the above guidelines qualify for classification under priority sector lending.

Detailed guidelines on lending to the Micro, Small and Medium enterprises are available in our Master Direction FIDD.MSME & NFS.12/06.02.31/2017-18 dated July 24, 2017. The instructions issued by RBI, to banks, on various matters are available on our website www.rbi.org.in.

An application can be any application, addressed to any department of RBI, through which members of the public can apply (except such applications for which specific instructions have been given regarding mode of submission, etc.)

To further enhance the access of such Gilt Account Holders (herein after referred to as GAHs) to NDS-OM, an internet based web application is provided to such clients who can now have direct access to NDS –OM, the system owned by RBI. The internet based utility permits GAH to directly trade (buying and selling) in Government Securities (G-Sec) in the secondary market. The access is however, subject to controls by respective Primary Member (PM) with whom GAHs have gilt account and current account.

Ans : Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDFs), can be set up either as a Trust or as a Company. A trust based IDF would normally be a Mutual Fund (MF), regulated by SEBI, while a company based IDF would normally be a NBFC regulated by the Reserve Bank.

If cheques are lost in transit or in the clearing process or at the paying bank's branch under physical instrument delivery clearing, the bank should immediately bring the same to the notice of the presenting customer (beneficiary)’s notice so that the customer can inform the drawer to record stop payment and can also take care that other cheques issued anticipating the credit arising out of the lost cheque are not dishonoured due to non-credit of the amount of the lost cheques / instruments.

It may however be noted that the probability of losing the physical instrument in the hands of paying bank is remote in the locations covered by CTS as clearing is undertaken on the basis of images. If the instrument is lost after lodging with the collecting bank but before truncating the same for sending through image-based clearing, the presenting bank should follow the procedure indicated above.

The customer is entitled to be reimbursed by banks for related expenses for obtaining duplicate instruments and interest for reasonable delays in obtaining the same.

Ans: NEFT offers the following advantages for funds transfer or receipt:

• Round the clock availability on all days of the year.

• Near-real-time funds transfer to the beneficiary account and settlement in a secure manner.

• Pan-India coverage through large network of branches of all types of banks.

• The beneficiary need not visit a bank branch for depositing the paper instruments. Remitter can initiate the remittances from his / her home / place of work using internet banking, if his / her bank offers such service.

• Positive confirmation to the remitter by SMS / e-mail on credit to beneficiary account.

• Penal interest provision for delay in credit or return of transactions.

• No levy of charges by RBI from banks.

• No charges to savings bank account customers for online NEFT transactions.

• The transaction charges have been capped by RBI.

• Besides funds transfer, NEFT system can be used for a variety of transactions including payment of credit card dues to the card issuing banks, payment of loan EMI, inward foreign exchange remittances, etc.

• The transaction has legal backing.

• Available for one-way funds transfers from India to Nepal.

Answer: A Foreign Currency Account is an account held or maintained in currency other than the currency of India or Nepal or Bhutan.

Ans The EFT system presently covers all the branches of the 27 public sector banks and 55 scheduled commercial banks at the 15 centres (viz., Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubneshwar, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Patna and Thiruvananthpuram). Funds transfer is possible from any branch of these banks at these centres to other branch of any bank at these centres both inter-city and intra-city.

• The DICGC insures all deposits such as savings, fixed, current, recurring, etc. deposits except the following types of deposits

• Deposits of foreign Governments;

• Deposits of Central/State Governments;

• Inter-bank deposits;

• Deposits of the State Land Development Banks with the State co-operative bank;

• Any amount due on account of and deposit received outside India

• Any amount, which has been specifically exempted by the corporation with the previous approval of Reserve Bank of India

Ans. The Central Banks and the Monetary Authorities of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are currently the members of the ACU.