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Insolvency rules for corporate guarantors firms soon The insolvency rules for corporate guarantors and individual firms under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) are likely to be notified by December.“It will come in a phased manner.At this point, we are trying to cover corporate guarantors.That is our main issue In the first phase, we are dealing with corporate guarantors and individuals having businesses like proprietorship firms,” Ranjita Dubey, deputy general manager, Insolvency &Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), said. Dubey was speaking on the sidelines ofaround table on draft insolvency regulations on individuals and firms, organised by the IBBI in association with ICSI Insolvency Professional Agency and Merchants´ Chamber of Commerce &Industry (MCCI). Mamta Binani, chairperson, standing committee on corporate law and governance, MCCI, said so far the rules were only in respect of the corporate insolvency resolution process and the rules concerning individual...

Hallmarking to become mandatory for gold jewellery by January Under the proposed rules, hallmark will also mention the carat of gold used in the jewellery The government is planning to make hallmarking along with carat count mandatory for gold jewellery sold in the country, food and consumers affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Friday.“At present people don’t get to know quality of gold jewellery that they buy. We are planning to make hallmark for gold jewellery mandatory. It should be done by January,” Paswan told reporters at an event organised by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). He said BIS mark is used on some jewellery but that does not sufficiently convey quality of jewellery to consumers. Under the proposed rules hallmark will also mention the carat of gold used in the jewellery, Paswan said. “It will be done for jewellery in three categories — 14 carat, 18 carat and 22 carat,” he said. The Mint, New Delhi, 04th November 2017

CBDT signs 7 more unilateral APAs with taxpayers The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed seven more advance pricing agreements (APAs) with Indian taxpayers, as it looks to reduce litigation by providing certainty in transfer pricing.The seven APAs signed over the last month pertain to sectors like FMCG, semiconductor, information technology, travel and leisure, office furniture, and engineering.“The CBDT has entered into 7 more APAs during October 2017.All these agreements are unilateral,” the CBDT said inastatement. With the signing of these pacts, the total APAs entered into by the CBDT has gone up to 184, which includes 171 unilateral and 13 bilateral APAs. The Business standard, New Delhi, 03rd November 2017

No credit to corporates without identification number RBI The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said corporate borrowers who do not obtain the legal entity identifier (LEI) number from banks won´t be given credit. However, the schedule for getting the LEI number is spread out till December 2019 and depends on the exposure.The 20 digit unique code will be used to maintain a  credit database with the RBI´s Central Repository of Information on Large Credits to facilitate assessment of aggregate borrowing by corporate groups, and monitoring of the financial profile of an entity or group. The central bank had announced introducing the LEI number inaphased manner in its October policy.According to RBI norms, any corporate with exposure of more than Rs 5 crore has to obtain an LEI number.“Borrowers who do not obtain LEI as per the schedule are not to be granted renewal enhancement of credit facilities,” the central bank said in a statement on its website. For total exposur...

MRP should include GST Sushil Modi Bihar deputy chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also heads a five member panel on Goods and Services Tax Network, on Thursday suggested that the maximum retail price (MRP) ofaproduct should always be inclusive of tax for the convenience of the consumers. The deputy CM was interacting with businessmen at a function organised by Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Industries in association with a leading Hindi daily ´Hindustan´. "We (GoM) have suggested the inclusion of GST in maximum retail price.It has been seen across the globe that consumers react when they have to pay tax in addition toaproduct´s price but they usually do not mind paying the MRP when it is inclusive of tax," he said. Sharing his experiences abroad, he said the situation was no different in Canada, Australia and Singapore."Even in Canada, Australia and Singapore, consumers´ perception changed when they had to pay tax in addition toaproduct´s price. The same consumers...

Sebi plans automated disclosure system The planned system would capture and disclose changes in shareholding in a listed company Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is working on a concept of system-driven disclosures that would capture and disclose changes in shareholding in a listed company, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.“The system being worked out will automatically gather and integrate the change in shareholding information from stock exchanges, depositories and registrar and transfer agents (RTAs) in a timely and accurate manner,” said one of the two people cited above, both of whom declined to be named. The move is aimed at ease of doing business through system driven disclosure and this would remove additional reporting requirements, this person added.In the latest edition of ease of doing business rankings released on Tuesday by World Bank, India jumped 30 positions to the 100th place among 190 countries.According to an E...

Do not pay workers the old-age pension until they turn 70 PEOPLE should not get the State pension until they reach the age of 70, the country’s leading economic think-tank says. Moving the statutory retirement age to 70 would counter a fall in the workforce and the rise in the number of pensioners, the Economic and Social Research Institute says.Reform that increases the current statutory retirement age by five years would roughly correspond to the projected increase in life expectancy.Raising the pension age, the study finds, could more than offset the impact of demographic change on the State budgets. It comes after reports this week that Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty has been warned of a pensions “time-bomb” that has seen the State’s bill spiralling by €1bn every five years due to our ageing population.The Government has said it hopes to be able to give a rise in the State pension that exceeds the rate of inflation in this year’s Budget, while Fianna Fáil is also...

India adopts reporting rules to crack aggressive corporate tax planning The final country by country reporting rules notified by the CBDT is part of a global reporting regime that more than 100 countries have agreed to implementIndia on Wednesday notified final rules for multinational group companies (MNCs) in India to report specifics of their global parents’ operations as part of a global initiative to end instances of aggressive corporate tax planning. Details filed by the multinational company’s local arm in India, together with the finer details of the parent’s operations in every market which Indian authorities can source from the group’s home country under tax treaties, will help the government know how businesses manage flow of funds across borders to keep tax outgo low. The final country by country reporting rules notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is part of a global reporting regime that more than 100 countries have agreed to implement.The framework...

GST will further boost India’s ranking in ease of doing business, say bankers Bankers and experts express hope that implementation of the GST will strengthen India’s ease of doing business position in the future With the improvement in India’s ranking in the World Bank’s ‘ease of doing business’ report to 100th position, bankers and experts on Tuesday expressed hope that implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) will strengthen the country’s position in the future. “Going forward, GST’s incorporation in next year’s assessment will provide another significant leap in doing- business rankings for India,” Yes Bank managing director Rana Kapoor said in a statement.It is to be noted that the latest ease of doing business report by the World Bank released Tuesday did not take into consideration the implementation of GST from 1 July. Passage of the GST Bill was clearly a watershed moment for the economy but even otherwise there has been a sustained effort to simplify licencin...

Doing business is easier  says India Inc Top CEOs have cheered India´s improved position in the World Bank´s ranking of countries on ease of doing business, and said the situation on the ground has improved considerably in the past few years andasuccessful rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) will help the country further improve its rankings in the coming years. In a survey of 20 CEOs from across the nation on Wednesday, 80 per cent of them were of the view that due to a series of reforms undertaken by the Narendra Modi government, it had become easier to do business.According to the World Bank report, India improved its rankings in six of the 10 subcategories used by the institution to judge the business climate. In some categories such as paying taxes, resolving insolvency, getting credit, and protecting minority shareholders, the ranking jumped significantly.India´s overall rank in ease of doing business jumped from 130 last year to 100 this year.Seventy five per...

Govt owned enterprises may soon face the IBC heat For first time, 9 PSBs have taken a state owned enterprise to task Till now, private corporate debtors have been at the receiving end of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.That may soon change with the first state owned enterprise going through the insolvency process.This may set the ball rolling for similar instances of defaulting government owned enterprises being taken to task by financial and operational creditors, said experts. In a case testing the statutory powers vested with creditors under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), insolvency resolution proceedings were initiated against West Bengal Essential Commodities Supply Corporation (WBECSC),a state government undertaking that is in the business of procuring and distributing food grains and essential commodities, in May this year.This case is close to getting resolved, with the state enterprise settling its dues with the consortium of creditors (nine public sector...