Income tax dept. to clear refund backlog
New Delhi: Tax commissioners in charge of the salary division have been asked to concentrate on refunds to salaried employees in the four metropolitian cities – Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta.

They have also been asked not to take up any new cases for scrutiny during the financial year 1999-2000. But, the commissioners have been asked to be more careful as regards tax deduction at source. The huge backlog at the tax department has forced the Central Board of Direct Taxes to take such steps.

The suspension of new cases does not apply to search and seizure, surveys, assessments that have been re-opened, CVC and CBI cases.
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Canara Bank will not go public this fiscal
Bangalore: Canara Bank will not come out with its maiden public float during financial year 1999-2000. It is most likely to go public the next year. This is because the bank has a comfortable capital adequacy ratio of 10.96 per cent as of year ended 1998-1999.

Ms. Ranjana Kumar, acting chairman and managing director of the bank, said that Canara Bank’s capital adequacy ratio will be higher than the 9 per cent stipulated by the Reserve Bank of India. She also feels that the boom in the stock markets has not been accompanied by a good response to capital issues made by banks. In the last quarter of 1998-99, the bank raised its tier-II capital through private placement of a Rs.500-crore redeemable unsecured bond issue.
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Solomon Smith Barney plans to end operations in India
New Delhi: Solomon Smith Barney, an investment bank, is winding up its New Delhi office. The company plans to cut down its activity because it has not found much business in India in the recent past.

However, Andrew Butcher, a senior Solomon Smith Barney representative for Asia, said the investment bank was temporarily locating itself in the premises of Citibank, which has merged with Travellers group globally. Solomon Smith Barney is a subsidiary of Travellers Group.
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SADF’s initial capital to be $50 million
Mumbai: The South Asian Development Fund, headed by G P Gupta, chairman of the Industrial Development Bank of India, has planned to have an initial capital base of $50 million.

The SADF’s fifth board meeting in Mumbai was attended by officials from the ministry of external affairs and the financial institutions of countries that are part of the South Asian Association of Regional Corporation (SAARC).

The institutions include the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh, Bhutan Development Finance Corporation, Nepal’s National Industrial Development Corporation, Pakistan’s National Development Finance Corporation and Sri Lanka’s National Development Bank. Maldives had sent an official from its ministry of finance and treasury.
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Dresdner, BNP may merge
Frankfurt: The German Dresdner Bank and the French BNP, two of the largest European banks, are thinking of entering into a tie-up which may culminate in a full scale merger.

Michel Pebereau and Bernhard Walter, chairmen of BNP and Dresdner respectively, met to talk about the possible ways in which the two banks could tie up. Dresdner and BNP have a one per sent stake in each other's equity.

BNP’s failed bid for Societe Generale and successful bid for Paribas has kept the bank on its toes. Allianz, an insurance company, which holds a 22 per cent stake in Dresdner Bank, may ask for the bank’s merger with Hypoveriens Bank, the second largest German bank, instead of BNP. Dresdner’s retail business is not doing well, which has forced it to talk to Deutsche Bank for a possible tie-up.
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