New Delhi, July 22: Remittances of advertisement revenue and cable subscriptions, collected by Indian agents of foreign TV channels, are allowed as per present guidelines, Rajya Sabha was informed today. "The remittances of advertisment revenue and cable subscriptions, collected by the Indian agents of foreign TV channels, being in the nature of current account transactions, are allowed by authorised dealers under section five of FEMA after verification of documentary evidence in support of the remittance," Minister of State for Finance Anandrao V Adsul said in a written reply to a question.

"The present arrangement does not provide for reporting the data/transactions to the RBI," he added.

In reply to another question, finance minister Jaswant Singh said of the 185 companies identified as "vanishing", the total monetary exposure involved is about Rs 1150 crore.

Singh said that at present, posts of the chairman and MD in Allahabad Bank and Bank of India were lying vacant, adding that anticipated vacancies till March 31, 2004 include CMDs of Andhra Bank, Dena Bank and United Bank of India.
On unclaimed dividends, Singh said that 33 companies have been found to have allegedly violated the companies act in this regard.

On the recent share scam, Adsul said that SEBI has conducted a preliminary enquiry into the volatility in banking stocks seen recently but no person has been found guilty in the interim report.

Bureau Report