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The Cabinet is likely to approve on Wednesday a new Consumer Protection Bill 2015, that seeks to replace the existing law and proposes setting up a regulatory authority to curb unfair trade practices. "The Cabinet is scheduled to meet on Wednesday. The Consumer Protection Bill, 2015, is on the agenda," sources said. After the Cabinet approval, the Consumer Affairs Ministry is aiming to introduce the bill in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament. The new bill, which will repeal the 29-year-old Consumer Protection Act, seeks to create a Consumer Protection Authority on the lines of the US and European countries for fast-tracking redressal of consumer grievances. Business Standard, New Delhi, 29th July 2015

Commodity brokers want lower registration and transaction fees The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) has proposed treating brokers of commodity exchanges on a par with their counterparts in equity exchanges in terms of registration and transaction fees. At present, commodity brokers are not under direct regulation of the Forward Markets Commission. The FMC is merging with the Sebi. In a recent meeting with representatives of commodity brokers, the Sebi said they should be treated on a par with equity brokers and, therefore, they must pay the uniform registration fee of Rs.50,000 per member. There were 3,399 members of three active commodity exchanges in March. Some may be common to more than one exchange. The Sebi also said there should be uniformity in fees, 0.02 per cent of the transaction, or Rs.200 for every Rs.1 crore of transaction on the futures platform. The Sebi is in the process of framing guidelines for commodity brokers’ registration ahead of its merg...

Constantly evolving rules and anomalies over tax treatment have constrained corporate programmes in the first year that the government’s Corporate Social Responsibility mandate has been in force On the face of it, Maneka Gandhi’s admonition to big business at an Assocham meeting earlier this month that it was “ non- serious” about corporate social responsibility (CSR) is valid. By one reckoning, corporate India has spent only 30 to 40 per cent of the amount that was expected to flow in once Section 135 and Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013 were notified with effect from April 1, 2014, and the voluntary sector says corporate interest is still tepid. Had Gandhi examined the issue a little more deeply, however, she may have discovered reasons for this underperformance that go beyond general disinterest from corporate houses. CSR spending has been constrained by the nature of the law, the fact that the rules are still evolving — there have been more than a dozen amendments sin...

In the third bi- monthly monetary policy review to be announced next month, the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) might announce liquidity tightening steps like longer tenure term reverse repos as the central bank had always wanted call money rates to hug the repo rate, while in recent times on certain occasions it has fallen much below the repo rate. The repo rate or the rate at which banks borrow from the central bank currently stands at 7.25 per cent while call money rates had on certain days moved even below the 7per cent mark. For example on July 21, the weighted average call money rate had dived to 6.84 per cent. “I would expect RBI to reiterate that they would like to see overnight rates closer to the repo rate. RBI will continue to do more of term reverse repos and in the monetary policy they may announce that they would decide to do term reverse repos of longer tenure,” said S Prabhu, head of fixed income at IDBI Federal Life Insurance. Prabhu added the central bank might als...

The country’s import cover in foreign exchange reserves increased to 8.9 months as of March- end, compared with 8.1 months as of end- September, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday in its half- yearly report on foreign exchange reserves. Import cover dipped below seven per cent during the currency crisis of 2013, with total reserves hitting around $ 274 billion in early September 2013. The currency crisis prompted the central bank and the government to announce several steps to attract inflows and curb imports of non- essential items which stabilised the rupee and foreign exchange reserves started swelling. As of end- March 2015, reserves were at $ 341.64 billion and then further went up to$ 353 billion, for the week ended July 17, latest data from RBI showed. Total foreign exchange reserves were at an all- time high of $ 355.46 billion for the week ended June 19, before coming down marginally. The report also highlighted that the ratio of short- term debt to foreig...

The Central Board of Excise and Customs has extended the anti- dumping duty on compact fluorescent lamps manufactured in, or imported in China, for a period of further five more years, an official notification stated on Tuesday Business Standard, New Delhi, 29th July 2015

माइक्रोसॉफ्ट ने अाज विश्व स्तर पर अपने लोकप्रिय ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम विंडोज का नया वर्जन 'विंडोज-10' लांच कर दिया। इस दिग्गज टेक्नोलॉजी कंपनी के सीईओ सत्य नडेला ने दावा किया है कि नया ऑपरेटिंग सॉफ्टवेयर कंप्यूटर प्रणाली इस्तेमाल के तरीके में क्रांतिकारी बदलाव लाएगा। विंडोज-10 को पूरे धूम-धड़ाके के साथ लांच कर दिया गया। साथ ही इसके लिए नया वैश्विक प्रचार अभियान शुरू कर दिया गया है। भारत माइक्रोसॉफ्ट के लिए महत्वपूर्ण बाजार है। माइक्रोसॉफ्ट ने भारत समेत 13 अन्य देशों में इस ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम को एक साथ लांच किया। भारतीय मूल के नडेला के फरवरी 2014 में माइक्रोसॉफ्ट का सीईओ बनने के बाद से विंडोज-10 पहला प्रमुख उत्पाद है। इसे पेश करने के लिए नई दिल्ली के साथ सिडनी, टोक्यो, सिंगापुर, बीजिंग, दुबई, नैरोबी, बर्लिन, जोहानिसबर्ग, मैड्रिड, लंदन, साओ पाउलो और न्यूयॉर्क में कार्यक्रमों का आयोजन किया गया। 'विंडोज 10' फ्री में होगा डाउनलोड विंडोज 7 या 8 या 8.1 कंप्यूटर, टैबलेट और स्मार्टफोन पर विंडोज 10 फ्री में अपग्रेड होगा। विंडोज 10 को लेकर कंपनी की काफी बड़ी योजना है, लेकिन कंपनी पह...

1.  CMII of ICAI Invitation for Nomination for the ICAI Awards, 2015. For filing nominations, kindly visit  www.corporateforum.icai.org 2.  Electronic filing of form-6 under The Black Money Act has been enabled under the menu “E-FILE” after Login. Taxpayers are requested to e-file form-6 during the compliance window which ends on 30th September, 2015. 3.  CBDT Notification Dated 27-07-2015 :Extension from 31-07-2015 to 31-08-2015 of last date to file Wealth tax return for A.Y. 2015-16. 4.  Rule 25 of Haryana VAT Rules 2003, amended so as to exclude the cost of land in case of valuation of builder/developer. [Punjab and Haryana High Court in CHD Developers vs. State of Haryana & Ors] 5.  Extension to 04-08-2015 of Last date to file D-VAT return for Q1 of 2015-16 in Forms DVAT-16, DVAT-17 and DVAT-48[Circular no.16 of 2015-16 dated 27-07-15 ] 6.  The refund of cenvat credit is allowed if input services were used in relation to export and t...

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has cancelled Sahara Asset Management Company's license today, saying it is not fit to carry out the business of mutual fund. Sahara's fund management license would reportedly stand cancelled two months from the date of the order. As per reports, the market regulator has directed Sahara AMC not to take any new subscription from the investors including existing investors in systematic investment plans. It has also asked them not to levy any penalties on the investors for not depositing the installments. (Business Standard).