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Falling exports likely to get a leg-up as CCEA clears Interest Equalisation Scheme on preand postshipment rupee export credit with effect from April 1 India's falling exports got a booster shot on Wednesday with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approving a scheme to provide cheaper credit to exporters for five years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-headed CCEA approved the Interest Equalisation Scheme (earlier called Interest Subvention Scheme) on preand postshipment rupee export credit with effect from April 1, 2015, for five years. The scheme will be evaluated after three years. This is the third major announcement for exports in the last fortnight. On October 30, the government expanded support to various products under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), followed by a revision of the duty drawback rates for exporters two days ago. “The rate of interest equalisation would be 3%. The scheme would be available to all exports of MSME and 416 tar...

"The govt has held one preliminary meeting to explore terms of reference of such a conciliation" The government and Vodafone are getting closer to settling their eight- year tax spat over the 2007 Hutch- Vodafone crossborder deal. The British telecom major, which had sought arbitration under the Indo- UK bilateral investment protection treaty in June, has formally approached the finance ministry for conciliation. In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Revenue Secretary Hashmukh Adia said “ Vodafone has in a written communication expressed its desire to go for conciliation for its tax disputes with India” and the government held a preliminary meeting to explore theterms ofreferenceofsuchconciliation on October 10. He, however, was quick to add that more follow- up meetings would be held for finalisation of the terms. Sources familiar with the developments said in their meeting with Vodafone’s global chief executive Vittorio Colao last month, finance ministry officials had...

The Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the sale of a 10 per cent stake in Coal India, restored interest subvention for merchandise exports, directed compensation for stalled road projects, empowered the ministry concerned to clear road projects up to a cap on costing and for the first time gave production subsidy directly to sugar farmers. The slew of measures would revive market sentiments, investments and economic growth. The government had also liberalised the foreign investment regime last week to boost the market. The Cabinet also gave a nod to a marketing margin of Rs.150- 200 per standard cubic metre charged by gas retailers like Reliance Industries and GAIL ( India) for urea and liquefied petroleum gas plants. This was based on recommendations of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board. The government is expected to mop up Rs.20,000 crore from the Coal India disinvestment, power minister Piyush Goyal said at a press briefing. At current prices, the 10 per cent stake sa...

Updates Of the Day 1.DVAT has extended the last date of filing of online / hard copy of return for II Quarter ended 30.09.2015 for the FY 2015-2016, in Form DVAT-16, DVAT-17 and DVAT-48 to 20.11.2015. 2.High Court of Delhi confirms penalty on custom official for clearance of consignment without proper verification. [S.N. Ojha vs. Commisioner of Customs] 3.MCA has revised the versions of Annual Filing Forms, MGT - 7 (Form for filing annual return by a company) w.e.f 17th November, 2015. 4.Adjudicating Authority can reject transaction value if assessee fails to prove that relationship had not influenced price. [The CESTAT Chennai: Ansaldo STS Transportation Systems India Pvt. Ltd vs. Commissioner of Customs] 5.CBEC vide circular 187/6/2015-ST dated 10.11.2015 has issued a scheme for fast track sanctioning of refund of accumulated cenvat credit to Exporters of Service for payment of 80% (eighty percent) of the amount claimed as refund. 6.Depreciation is allowed while calculating ex...