Answer: No. Remittances under LRS can be made only for permissible current and capital account transactions. All other transactions which are otherwise not permissible under FEMA and those in the nature of remittance for margins or margin calls to overseas exchanges / overseas counterparty are not allowed under the Scheme.

Ans: No.

Ans: Remittances under the Scheme for transfer of funds from India to Nepal can be originated from any of the NEFT-enabled bank-branches in India. List of bank-wise branches participating in the NEFT system is available on the website of RBI at http://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/bs_viewcontent.aspx?Id=2009.

The bank branches originating the Indo-Nepal remittance transactions under the NEFT will process it like any other NEFT transaction, the only difference being that these transactions will subsequently be pooled / collected at the designated branch of State Bank of India (SBI) in India. At the end of the day, the remittance information is conveyed electronically by SBI in a secure mode to NSBL. NSBL then makes arrangements for credit to the bank account of the beneficiary if the beneficiary is an account holder of NSBL. Else, NSBL disburses funds in cash to the beneficiary through the authorised money transfer company (Prabhu Money Transfer). The beneficiary has to approach the local branch of the money transfer company, furnish the UTR number (also called as the Unique Transaction Reference number that uniquely identifies a transaction in the NEFT system that can be obtained from the remitter), and produce a photo identity document (generally Nepal Citizenship Certificate) to prove his identity.

If the beneficiary does not approach the money transfer company within a week from the date of the transaction, the money transfer company would make arrangements for return of the remittance to the originator.

Ans. Each leg of remittance would have only two parties and hence, the AD bank should obtain the LEI accordingly as per the circular.

Banks are allowed to offer overdraft facility to customers against Green Deposits subject to the instructions contained in the Consolidated Circular on Opening of Current Accounts and CC/OD Accounts by Banks dated April 19, 2022, as amended from time to time.

Ans. AD will be guided by the nature of transaction as declared by the remitter in Form A2 and will thereafter certify that the remittance is in conformity with the instructions issued by the Reserve Bank in this regard from time to time. However, the ultimate responsibility is of the remitter to ensure compliance to the extant FEMA rules/regulations.

Ans: A card can be dipped (Chip based card), tapped (Contactless Near Field Communication {NFC} Card) or swiped (Magnetic-Stripe card) at a PoS terminal.

Ans: The insurance charges shall be included in the computation of APR only for the insurance which is linked/integrated in loan products as these charges are intrinsic to the nature of such digital loans.

Ans: The treatment in clause 36 is only to facilitate transfer of loans where due to operational or other constraints, the transferee does not conduct a loan level due diligence. This is without prejudice to the requirement under Clause 46 to apply prudential norms at the individual loan level.

Ans: Answers as given in Q 1 and Q 3.

Ans: No.

Yes, instructions have been issued by RBI to pension disbursing banks to allow withdrawal of pension by following certain procedures which are given below:

Withdrawal of pension by old/ sick/ disabled/ incapacitated pensioners

(i) In order to take care of problems/ difficulties faced by sick and disabled pensioners in withdrawal of pension / family pension from the banks, agency banks may categorise such pensioners as under:

(a) Pensioner who is too ill to sign a cheque / unable to be physically present in the bank.

(b) Pensioner who is not only unable to be physically present in the bank but also not even able to put his/her thumb impression on the cheque/ withdrawal form due to certain physical defect / incapacity.

(ii) With a view to enabling such old/sick/incapacitated pensioners to operate their accounts, banks may follow the procedure as under:

(a) Wherever thumb or toe impression of the old/sick pensioner is obtained, it should be identified by two independent witnesses known to the bank, one of whom should be a responsible bank official.

(b) Where the pensioner cannot even put his/her thumb/ toe impression and also would not be able to be physically present in the bank, a mark can be obtained on the cheque/withdrawal form, which should be identified by two independent witnesses, one of whom should be a responsible bank official.

The responsible bank official has to be from the same bank, preferably from the same branch, where the pensioner is having his/her pension account.

Agency banks have been asked to display the instructions issued in this regard on their notice board at the branches so that sick and disabled pensioners can make full use of these facilities.

Banks have been advised to put in place loan policies governing extension of credit facilities for the MSE sector duly approved by their Board of Directors (Refer circular RPCD.SME & NFS.BC.No.102/06.04.01/2008-09 dated May 4, 2009). Banks have, however, been advised to sanction limits after proper appraisal of the genuine working capital requirements of the borrowers keeping in mind their business cycle and short-term credit requirement. As per Nayak Committee Report, working capital limits to SSI units is computed on the basis of minimum 20% of their estimated turnover up to credit limit of Rs.5 crore.

Ans: It is clarified that the circular covers all equated installment based personal loans, irrespective of whether they are linked to an external benchmark or an internal benchmark.