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Aims to clear products within a month; advisory panels constituted for promoting e- commerce The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) plans to make the approval process for online products simpler and faster. With a separate process for filing applications on these, it says it is trying to ensure they do not undergo the same rigorous process as offline products to get approved, and are approved within 30- 40 days. An insurance product first goes to the regulator, which approves the features and pricing, after which it can be brought to the market for sale. “Offline products take at least four to six months to be approved. The same process might not be viable for an online insurance market, where customers look for new products and riders on a regular basis. Hence, the portfolio requires to be updated every few months,” said the head of products in a mid- size life insurance company. For customers, too, the proposal form would get simpler, with few...

The government appears resigned to the fact that it will not be able to push through labour reforms critical to generating millions of jobs in the remaining five days of the Parliament session. “I am hopeful of tabling the child labour bill only,” labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya said. “I don’t think anything else is possible.” Several opposition parties led by the Congress stayed away from the Lok Sabha for the third day on Thursday after their demands that a central minister and two chief ministers resign ended in the suspension of 25 Congress members on 3 August. The logjam in Parliament has set back one of the top priorities of the government: reforming India’s archaic labour laws to create a better business environment that encourages hiring and improves employment prospects for about 12 million youngsters entering the job market every year. “Employment generation is a priority and our government believes in boosting job creation for country’s youth,” Dattatreya said, ...

1.  Today 07.08.2015 is last day for payment of TDS/TCS deducted/collected in the month of July. 2.  Penalty u/s 271(1)(C) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 cannot be levied merely because the claim of the assessee is found to be incorrect unless it is confirmed that the assessee had any mala fide intention. [CIT vs. Dalmia Dyechem Industries, High Court of Bombay]. 3.  Input credit not reversible in case of remission of duty on destroyed goods. [Joy Foam Pvt. Ltd. vs. CCE, Madras High Court] 4.  CLB allowed petition u/s 74(2) of Companies Act 2013 in CP No. 76/ 2015 in the case of Billcare Limited Pune granting deferment of payment of Public Deposit of Rs 168 Crores by 15 Month. 5.  Today is last extended date of filing of online / hard copy of first quarter return for the financial year 2015-16, in Form DVAT-16, DVAT-17 and DVAT-48 along with required annexure / enclosures.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) on Wednesday asked listed companies and their promoters to make more disclosures about pledging of shares, including the purpose of the encumbrance, and also disclose name of the lender. So far, companies and their promoters were only disclosing the names of trustees holding the pledged shares, rather than making the disclosure about the real lender. Under the revised disclosure requirements, which Sebi said are aimed at helping investors take " an informed decision" about the state of affairs at the concerned company, the listed firm and its promoters would need to specifically disclose “ the purpose of collateral for loans taken by the company, personal borrowing, third party pledge, etc.” Business Standard, New Delhi,6th August 2015

MOVE TO ENABLE smooth transition to new accounting standards (Ind-AS) The Securities and Exchange Board of India may relax disclosure rules for companies planning to go for initial public offering in order to enable a smooth transition to the new accounting standards (Ind-AS), which will kick in next financial year. The market regulator has recently written to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) seeking its views on the matter. ICAI and audit firms are holding discussions with the regulator on the implications of the new standards, said a person familiar with the matter. The new standards are in line with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Current Sebi rules mandate firms to disclose the previous five years' financial statements in IPO document. There is no clarity under the new standards whether a company needs to restate its accounts for the previous years if it goes in for IPOs immediately after the new rules come into effect. Because ...

All central government ministries have been asked to ensure employees Aadhaar numbers are recorded in their service books. An action taken report has been sought from ministries in this regard, a senior official in the Department of Personnel and Training said. Business Standard, New Delhi, 6th August 2015

The Lok Sabha passed the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2014 on Tuesday, replacing the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Ordinance, 2014. The Bill aims to prohibit the commission of certain offences against members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SCs and STs) and establishes special courts for the trial of such offences and rehabilitation of victims. The move came on a day when most opposition parties boycotted the House, after Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday suspended 25 Congress MPs for five days for repeatedly causing “grave disorder” in the House. Several parties, including Janata Dal (United), Left parties, Aam Aadmi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party expressed solidarity with the Congress and decided not to attend the Lok Sabha proceedings for the next five days. “Several steps have been taken by the National Democratic Alliance government in...

1.   Non-deduction of TDS on reimbursement expenses would not lead to disallowance of such reimbursement expenditure.[CIT vs. DLF Commercial Project Corporation, High Court of Delhi] 2.  Penalty u/s 78 is leviable if tax recovered not paid and information of unpaid taxes not furnished in service tax returns. [ IWI Cryogenic Vaporization System India vs.CCE, Vadodra (CESTAT Ahmedabad)] 3.  Input credit not reversible in case of remission of duty on destroyed goods.[ Honorable Madras High Court in Joy Foam Pvt. Ltd.] 4.  ESIC has decided to extend the ESI Scheme to the construction site workers deployed in the implemented areas w.e.f 01.08.2015. 5.  Parliament passes bill to increase pecuniary limit to Rs 2 crore from present Rs 2 lakhs for suits before Delhi High court. Parliament passes Delhi High Court (Amendment) Bill. 6.  Format of regulation 31 of SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 amended.

The government is likely to notify provisions concerning the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and its appellate body (NCLAT) in phases. The timeline for such notifications, however, has not yet been decided, but experts said these might not come too soon. Till date, around 60 per cent of the Companies Act, 2013 — which has a total of 470 sections and seven schedules — has been notified and enforced. Most of the remaining provisions of the Act are related to NCLT, a body which would replace the existing Company Law Board (CLB), the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) and assume the high court’s power on clearing mergers and acquisition (M&As) and amalgamation. On May 14, the Supreme Court, in a case filed by the Madras Bar Association, upheld the constitutional validity of NCLT and NCLAT under the Companies Act, 2013. The court, however, deemed the selection process of the members of NCLT and NCLAT under the applicable provisions of the new Companies...

Composition of committee different from that proposed in revised IFC; finance secy says IFC not the work of FSLRC The finance ministry has reached an agreement with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on the contours of the monetary policy committee under the framework unveiled in the Budget, an official said, as the government sought to quell the controversy over the recently issued draft Indian Financial Code (IFC). The composition of the committee is different from that proposed in the revised IFC, which had put government nominees at a majority four out of seven with no veto for the RBI governor. “It has been worked out... It is different from what is proposed in the IFC,“ said the finance ministry official cited above, indicating that operative parts of the draft may have been rendered irrelevant. Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi confirmed that there had been progress independent of the IFC. “We are in discussions with RBI governor on the form and manner of the MPC (monetary p...

Govt agrees to drop key amendments, including those doing away with consent clause, social impact assessment In a major climbdown, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Monday agreed to drop key amendments, including those doing away with the so-called consent clause and social impact assessment in the controversial 2015 land acquisition bill. The unexpected move by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA to meet the opposition more than halfway sets the stage for striking consensus on passage of the legislation, designed to address impediments to expanding manufacturing capacity in the country. Politically, however, this is a big setback to the BJP, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, since the government had, despite opposition from within and outside the party, stuck to its stand to dilute the land acquisition provisions in the existing land law. This disrupted most of the budget session of Parliament and eventually forced the government to refer the bill to a ...