Direct Tax
CBDT constitutes a committee to simplify tax provisions; Taxmann’s author Mukesh Patel included in the committee
The
Government of India has constituted a Committee with a view to simplify
the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, with the following
composition: The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Committee shall be as
follows: i) To study and identify the provisions/phrases in the
Act which are leading to litigation due to different interpretations;
ii) To study and identify the provisions which are impacting the
ease of doing business; iii) To study and identify the areas and
[….] Read more at:
FM Lanuches e-Sahyog project of Income-tax Department
The
Income-tax Department is committed to the ‘Digital India’ initiative of
the Government of India. The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley
launched here today an “e-Sahyog” pilot project which furthers the
Department’s commitment to work in an e-environment and reduces the need
for the taxpayer to physically appear before tax authorities. The
“e-Sahyog” project launched on a pilot basis is aimed at reducing
compliance cost, especially for small taxpayers. The objective of
[….] Read more at:
Roadmap for reduction of corporate tax soon: Revenue Secretary
The
government will "shortly" unveil the roadmap for phased reduction of
corporate tax rate to 25 per cent from 30 per cent at present, Revenue
Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said today. "Roadmap for reducing corporate tax
will be announced shortly," he told reporters here. The Finance Ministry
would come out with a list of exemptions which it intends to phase out.
Over the next four years, corporate tax will come down by 5 per cent
and a lot of exemptions will get phased out. Finance Minister [….]
Read more at:
Companies Act
Six expert panels to review Companies Act 2013
The
government is setting the ground for another overhaul of the Companies
Act 2013 to make it easier for corporates to do business in the country,
a senior government official said. The corporate affairs ministry has
formed six expert panels to work on more amendments to the Act on top of
16 amendments that parliament cleared earlier this year as India Inc
still considers the legislature 'too harsh', the official said on
condition of anonymity. "Groups consisting of sectoral experts have
[….] Read more at:
SEBI
Sebi to vet rating agencies' processes, issue new guidelines
The
processes followed by rating agencies while rating papers are under the
radar of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). "Why in certain
cases the rating is suddenly suspended has to be explained. We have
explained our concerns to rating agencies. There are also concerns of
conflict of interest," said UK Sinha, at the FICCI, capital markets
summit. Sebi plans to issue new guidelines for process followed by
rating agencies in coming months. Regulator is also watchful of [….] Read more at:
Sebi turns up the heat on hoarders
The
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) says it is likely to act
against entities violating the Essential Commodities Act, if they were
present in the commodity futures markets. The Act empowers the central
and state governments to control production, supply, and distribution of
certain commodities, in view of rising prices. “The authorities in
various states have conducted raids and have seized some stocks. Sebi is
looking into the matter. If any of those have violated the (EC) Act o
[….] Read more at:
Be careful on corporate debt investments: Sebi to MFs
Concerned
over mutual fund investors' exposure to distressed corporate bonds,
markets regulator Sebi has asked fund houses to be careful about such
investments and said it has launched a wider scrutiny of the risks posed
by such investment decisions. Securities and Exchange Board of India
chairman U K Sinha also said that Sebi may soon issue additional
guidelines for credit rating agencies with respect to rating procedures
on such corporate bonds. The issue assumes significan [….] Read more
at:
RBI
The Reserve Bank of India has allowed foreign investors to raise their stake up to 74 per cent in DEN Networks
“Foreign
Institutional Investors (FIIs)/Registered Foreign Portfolios Investors
(RFPIs) can now invest up to 74 per cent of the paid up capital of DEN
Networks Limited under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS),” the RBI
said in a notification. The central bank said the decision came after
the company passed resolutions at its board of directors level and a
special resolution by the shareholders, agreeing for enhancing the limit
for the purchase of its equity shares and convertible debentures by FI
[….] Read more at:
Short-term corp bonds: RBI hints at re-looking at ban on FIIs
RBI Deputy Governor H R Khan on Tuesday
said the central bank could "take a bit of a chance" by allowing
foreign investors to buy corporate debt of under-three-year residual
maturity as its works towards deepening the nascent corporate debt
market. "The present curb is only on residual majority (of short term
corporate bonds) and we will look at whether some of the areas we can
see because corporate debt is slightly different from G-secs, so we can
take a little bit of chance and see which are [….] Read more at:
RBI to notify sovereign gold bond scheme soon
The
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon notify a sovereign gold bond
scheme. This follows the notification of a gold monetisation scheme last
week. The government will launch three new schemes: Apart from bonds,
the others pertain to gold monetisation and selling of gold coins. The
launch would be “on or before November 9,”
Saurabh Garg, joint secretary in the Union finance ministry, said while
addressing a workshop organised by the Indian Institute of
Management-Ahmedabad’s gold [….] Read more at:
Miscellaneous Laws
Delhi High Court Amendment Act, 2015 enacted wef Oct 26, 2015
In
exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the
Delhi High Court (Amendment) Act, 2015 (23 of 2015), the Central
Government hereby appoints the 26th day of October, 2015 as the date on
which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force. [….] Read
more at:
Investment Board to Consider 7 FDI Proposals on October 30
The
Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will consider foreign
investment proposals by seven companies, including IIFL Holdings,
Volkswagen Finance Pvt Ltd and Sharekhan Ltd, on October 30. The inter-ministerial body, headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, will meet on Friday
to take up seven FDI proposals listed on the agenda, the Finance
Ministry said.Among others, proposals of Monsoon Capital LLC, SeQuent
Scientific Ltd, Agile Electric Sub Assembly [….] Read more at:
Economy & News
Not impossible for India to be in top 100 of ease of doing biz index: World Bank
It
is not impossible for India to be in top 100 ranking of ease of doing
business report next year if it continues with its set of planned
economic reforms, including the crucial GST and cuts down on the
bureaucratic cost of doing business, a top World Bank economist has
said. "If the changes that we saw thus far can be kept up and
strengthened a little, it is not impossible for India to be in top 100
(ranking of the ease of doing business report) by next year," the World
Bank Chief Econo [….] Read more at:
WTO says trade facilitation can push global merchandise exports by $1 tn per annum
Implementation
of the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) has the potential to increase
global merchandise exports by up to $1 trillion per annum, with
developing countries expected to capture more than half of these gains,
World Trade Organization said. "Global merchandise exports estimated to
increase by between $750 billion and $1 trillion per annum...developing
countries' exports estimated to increase by between $170 billion and
$730 billion per annum," the WTO said in its [….] Read more at:
FinMin to soon clarify on withholding tax on masala bonds
Amid
confusion over the applicability of withholding tax on the
rupee-denominated overseas bonds, a senior Finance Ministry official
today said a clarification will be issued soon. "We will shortly clarify
(on withholding tax)," Manoj Joshi, Joint Secretary at the Department
of Economic Affairs told reporters on the sidelines of a capital markers
event here this evening. Asked whether it is going to be 5 per cent, he
did not give a direct answer. It can be noted that mortgage lender
HDFC, which [….] Read more at:
Government moots pilot project to sell urea after farmers' verification
In
a bid to check diversion of urea, the government is working on a
proposal that will allow selling the fertiliser only to farmers after
verification, Minister of State for Fertilisers Hansraj Gangaram
Ahirsaid today. The Minister said a pilot project, where urea will be
sold to farmers only, in this regard will also be started. "Urea is
highly subsidised so that it could be provided to farmers at cheap rates
and used for agriculture purposes only, but today anyone can purchase
urea, whether he is [….] Read more at:
Government to award 100 highway projects on PPP next year
After
a rough patch, highways building through PPP mode is set to take a leap
with government planning to launch 100 such projects next year, Union
Minister Nitin Gadkari said today. Asking investors to change their
perception about public-private-partnership (PPP), the Road Transport
and Highways Minister said all problems pertaining to the mode have been
addressed and this year seven projects worth Rs 11,500 crore have
already been awarded in contrast to a nil last year [….] Read more at:
Thnkas & Regards,
Meetesh Shiroya
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