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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to allow resident importers to raise trade credit in rupees, with riders. It can be raised after entering into a loan agreement with a foreign lender. “Trade credit can be raised for import of all items, except gold, permissible under the extant Foreign Trade Policy,” said the regulator on Thursday. The credit period for import of non- capital goods can be up to a year from the date of shipment or up to the operating cycle, whichever is lower. RBI says the trade credit period for import of capital goods can be up to five years from the date of shipment. No roll- over or extension can be permitted by a bank beyond the permissible period. Banks can permit trade credit up to $ 20 million equivalent per import transaction. They may give a guarantee, letter of undertaking or letter of comfort in respect of trade credit for a maximum period of three years from the date of shipment. RBI said the all- in- cost of such rupee- denominated tra...

The service tax issue has returned to upset the 90,000strong mutual fund ( MF) distributor community. In a note sent on Tuesday, the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) asked fund houses to continue the current practice in collection and payment of service tax, and continue deducting the 14 per cent tax from the commission paid to distributors. Last month, the Central Board of Excise & Customs ( CBEC) had put out advertisements that asset management companies ( AMCs) would have to bear the service tax burden. Distributors took this to mean they would be exempt from paying the tax from their own pockets. However, in a recent meeting between Amfi and CBEC, the latter clarified it was not concerned about who bore the tax, as long as it was collected. “ The loading of service tax in the commission amount is a subject matter of commercials between two parties and service tax authorities have nothing to do with it,” it said. In a note to its members, Amfi asked fund hou...

Special economic zone developers and units on Thursday asked the government to remove minimum alternate tax, saying the levy was hurting investment in the zones. The issue was raised during a stakeholders meeting convened by the commerce ministry here. The meeting was chaired by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia. Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th Sept. 2015

Taking forward its efforts to ensure healthy competition in the market place, the Competition Commission of India has come out with guidelines for competition assessment of economic legislations and bills. The watchdog would soon set up a panel of five to seven institutions to carry out an initial competition assessment of economic legislations. Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th Sept. 2015

The government on Thursday indicated that it was reworking the goods and services tax ( GST) rollout deadline to October 1, 2016, and might advance the winter session of Parliament to achieve this objective. A day after the government dropped plans to call an extended monsoon session of Parliament to pass the GST Constitution amendment, NITI Aayog ViceChairman Arvind Panagariya told abusiness news channel that he was still hopeful of the GST rollout by middle of the financial year of 2016- 17, that is by October 1, if not the proposed deadline of April 1, 2016. On whether the April deadline can still be achieved, Panagariya said: “ In politics you can never say anything is over. Things can change, turn around. I would not rule out that as a possibility,” Panagariya said. He, however, added: “ On the other hand, if it delays… it’s okay. It is a process. It started 10 years ago. If not in April, may be six months later it can be rolled out,” he said. Parliamentary Affairs Ministe...

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has asked insurers to maintain all records of policies and claims in electronic form for easy retrieval and compliance with various regulations. “Every insurer shall maintain a record of every policy issued and a record of every claim made... in electronic form irrespective of maintenance in any other form,” IRDA said in a notification. Notifying the Irdai (Maintenance of Insurance Records) Regulations, 2015, the regulator said the system of maintenance in electronic format should have necessary security features. To ensure safety of data, it said, the records including those held in electronic mode, pertaining to all the policies issued and all claims made in India shall be held in data centres located and maintained in India only. “Every insurer should ensure that the records held are organised in such a manner as may be required for business use and easy retrieval so as to support policyholder service and ...