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GST Hits Excise-free Zones; Pharma, FMCG Cos Worried Firms petition govt after a new DIPP scheme offers them only 58% CGST reimbursement A new GST reimbursement scheme has left Dabur, Godrej and many other FMCG and pharmaceutical companies worried about their manufacturing operations in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and some northeastern states where they used to enjoy excise duty exemptions.Apprehension has set in after the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) last week unveiled guidelines of a scheme that replaces the erstwhile excise-free zones, offering 58% central GST reimbursement. Companies that outsource manufacturing to job workers in these states have petitioned the government saying the new restrictions may render their businesses unviable. They are also exploring legal options.Many pharma companies including Cipla, Dr Reddy's, Johnson & Johnson and Wockhardt have plants in excise duty-free zones in Himachal Pradesh.TVS Motor, Lloyd Electric, TAFE

DIPP eases mechanism for processing FDI proposals The commerce and industry ministry has eased the mechanism for processing foreign direct investment (FDI) proposalsby doing away with the requirement of sending the applications to the department of revenue. Amending aprovision in the standard operating procedure for processing of FDI proposals, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion on Tuesday said that marking of proposals to the revenue department for their comments has been“discontinued” with immediate effect. The Business Standard, New Delhi,18th October 2017

Temporary disruptive effect of GST Over DEA Secy Economic Affairs Secretary SCGarg said on Tuesday the temporary disruptive effect of the goods and services tax (GST) is over as the manufacturing sector recorded positive growth of 3.1 per cent in August.Commenting on the twin data on industrial output and price situation, he said benign and moderate inflation has become the order of the day.  The Business Standard, New Delhi ,18th October 2017

Sebi’s new rules make MFs see red Front-running is the act of buying or selling a stock ahead of anticipated action by a fund manager. Impact cost is the cost incurred to execute a large buy or sell order.“We will be needed to rebalance our portfolios every six months to add or delete stocks to meet Sebi’s criteria. Daily market cap and portfolio holding data is in the public domain. Savvy traders might do front-running as they will be able to calculate which stocks are going to be added or removed. It will also result in a churn of portfolios and increase the impact cost, as most mid-cap schemes may exit a particular scrip at the same time,” said a chief investment officer with a leading fund house. According to the framework laid down by Sebi, MF industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India, or Amfi, will have to provide a ranking of stocks at the end of June and December, based on their average market cap on both the BSE and the National Stock Exchange. Fund managers wil