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Updates Of the Day 1.Central Board of Excise and Customs issued Notification No. 135/2015-CUSTOMS (N. T.) Dated 30.11.2015. 2.RBI has reviewed the guidelines for Investment by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) in Corporate Bonds and has decided to permit FPI to acquire NCDs/bonds, which are under default. 3.RBI keeps repo rate unchanged at 6.75% in monetary policy review. 4.SEBI approves proposal to initiate public consultation process for exit opportunity to dissenting shareholders if variation in terms of contracts of prospectus. 5.Service tax not applicable on distributors of lottery tickets issued by state government and charge created by Finance Act, 2015 is unconstitutional. [Sikkim High Court in the case of Future Gaming and Hotel Services Private Limited]. 6.Re-opening u/s 148 based on of revisiting of existing material is bad in law. [In Mohan Jhangiani vs ACIT, Kolkata Tribunal]. 7.Receipts on account of acquisition and processing of seismic data shall be taxed u/s. 4...

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday began the consultation process to provide an exit option to dissenting shareholders in case of changes to the objectives of listed firms for which they had raised money from public. The Sebi board approved the new norms on Monday. The move is aimed at helping shareholders make an exit if they feel dissatisfied with any change in the business plan of the company concerned after fund-raising. Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 2nd Dec. 2015

The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) has proposed aframework for public issuance and trading of convertible securities by both listed and unlisted companies. Such securities are debt instruments that can be converted into equity at a later date. Investors get paid interest from the issuer till these are converted into equity. Indian companies are allowed to raise capital through convertible securities, but the lack of a detailed framework has prevented these from being as popular as Initial Public Offerings ( IPOs) of shares or a rights issue. Following the Sebi board approval on Monday, the regulator issued a consultation paper on Tuesday. Based on feedback from investment bankers, Sebi has proposed an issue of convertible securities, with a maximum tenure of five years. Currently, there is no specific provision on this, except for financing of a group company, where the maximum tenure can be 18 months. Sebi has sought feedback on whether to allow pricing of su...

Moving a step closer to online settlement of provident fund (PF) withdrawal claims, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation ( EPFO) on Tuesday allowed its subscribers to apply directly to the body without employers attestation. At present, subscribers submit their claims regarding PF withdrawals manually through their present or former employer. The attestation of forms was mandatory. This facility will be available to all those subscribers whose Universal ( or portable PF) Account Number is activated and seeded with the know your customer details like bank account and Aadhar number. Business Standard, New Delhi, 2nd Dec. 2015

A Bill to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, to enhance the penalty for graft to a maximum of seven years, among other things, was moved for consideration in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The bill was moved by Union minister Jitendra Singh. Business Standard, New Delhi, 2nd Dec. 2015

The Reserve Bank of India said on Tuesday it was not changing any of its key policy rates. That said, it believes banks have room to reduce their own lending rates, noting less than half of the cumulative policy rate reduction of 125 basis points ( bps) since January has been transmitted by the latter —the median base lending rate has come down only by 60- odd bps. “I think if you look at onethree years’ deposits, banks have already cut significantly more than they have transmitted via the base rate. So, in that case, there is room building up for the banks to transmit more,” said Raghuram Rajan, the RBI Governor. A cut in lending rates is preceded by one in the deposit rates, to ensure the margins are protected. Rajan added: “ We are working with banks on a new methodology to determine the base rate, which will be on marginal cost, and it should be put out sometime this week. What the marginal cost of pricing does is make the costs flow through into lending rates faster. So, t...