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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to allow resident importers to raise trade credit in rupees, with riders. It can be raised after entering into a loan agreement with a foreign lender. “Trade credit can be raised for import of all items, except gold, permissible under the extant Foreign Trade Policy,” said the regulator on Thursday. The credit period for import of non- capital goods can be up to a year from the date of shipment or up to the operating cycle, whichever is lower. RBI says the trade credit period for import of capital goods can be up to five years from the date of shipment. No roll- over or extension can be permitted by a bank beyond the permissible period. Banks can permit trade credit up to $ 20 million equivalent per import transaction. They may give a guarantee, letter of undertaking or letter of comfort in respect of trade credit for a maximum period of three years from the date of shipment. RBI said the all- in- cost of such rupee- denominated tra...

The service tax issue has returned to upset the 90,000strong mutual fund ( MF) distributor community. In a note sent on Tuesday, the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) asked fund houses to continue the current practice in collection and payment of service tax, and continue deducting the 14 per cent tax from the commission paid to distributors. Last month, the Central Board of Excise & Customs ( CBEC) had put out advertisements that asset management companies ( AMCs) would have to bear the service tax burden. Distributors took this to mean they would be exempt from paying the tax from their own pockets. However, in a recent meeting between Amfi and CBEC, the latter clarified it was not concerned about who bore the tax, as long as it was collected. “ The loading of service tax in the commission amount is a subject matter of commercials between two parties and service tax authorities have nothing to do with it,” it said. In a note to its members, Amfi asked fund hou...

Special economic zone developers and units on Thursday asked the government to remove minimum alternate tax, saying the levy was hurting investment in the zones. The issue was raised during a stakeholders meeting convened by the commerce ministry here. The meeting was chaired by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia. Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th Sept. 2015

Taking forward its efforts to ensure healthy competition in the market place, the Competition Commission of India has come out with guidelines for competition assessment of economic legislations and bills. The watchdog would soon set up a panel of five to seven institutions to carry out an initial competition assessment of economic legislations. Business Standard, New Delhi, 11th Sept. 2015

The government on Thursday indicated that it was reworking the goods and services tax ( GST) rollout deadline to October 1, 2016, and might advance the winter session of Parliament to achieve this objective. A day after the government dropped plans to call an extended monsoon session of Parliament to pass the GST Constitution amendment, NITI Aayog ViceChairman Arvind Panagariya told abusiness news channel that he was still hopeful of the GST rollout by middle of the financial year of 2016- 17, that is by October 1, if not the proposed deadline of April 1, 2016. On whether the April deadline can still be achieved, Panagariya said: “ In politics you can never say anything is over. Things can change, turn around. I would not rule out that as a possibility,” Panagariya said. He, however, added: “ On the other hand, if it delays… it’s okay. It is a process. It started 10 years ago. If not in April, may be six months later it can be rolled out,” he said. Parliamentary Affairs Ministe...

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has asked insurers to maintain all records of policies and claims in electronic form for easy retrieval and compliance with various regulations. “Every insurer shall maintain a record of every policy issued and a record of every claim made... in electronic form irrespective of maintenance in any other form,” IRDA said in a notification. Notifying the Irdai (Maintenance of Insurance Records) Regulations, 2015, the regulator said the system of maintenance in electronic format should have necessary security features. To ensure safety of data, it said, the records including those held in electronic mode, pertaining to all the policies issued and all claims made in India shall be held in data centres located and maintained in India only. “Every insurer should ensure that the records held are organised in such a manner as may be required for business use and easy retrieval so as to support policyholder service and ...

1. SEBI issues a circular under regulation 101(2) of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 in relation to regulation 30 which deals with "Continuous Disclosure Requirements for Listed Entities" - http://www.sebi.gov.in/…/sebi_…/attachdocs/1441799529193.pdf Annexure-I of this circular indicates the details that need to be provided while disclosing events given in Para A and Para B of Schedule III. The guidance on when an event / information can be said to have occurred is placed at Annexure II. 2.  I-T dept to file court case if illegal foreign assets detected Delhi : Taking a tough stance against black money, the CBDT has directed the Income Tax department to mandatorily launch court cases against people found to be holding stash funds and tainted assets abroad and consider "compounding" of such offences only at a later stage.The apex policy-making body of the tax department has recently issued a directive in this regard to ...

Scheme will allow govt to tap into 20,000 tonnes of yellow metal lying in Indian households Indians looking to INVEST IN GOLD  bonds may be able to enjoy exemption from capital gains tax as the proposal is expected to be taken up in the next budget, the government said after it unveiled the details of the proposed gold bond and gold monetisation schemes. “The department of revenue has said that they will consider indexation benefit if bond is transferred before maturity and complete capital gains tax exemption at the time of redemption,“ Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters, after the Cabinet approved the twin schemes that seek to reduce the country's massive GOLD IMPORTS . Indexation benefit refers to paying tax only on real gains after adjusting for inflation. The gold monetisation scheme will allow the government to tap into an estimated 20,000 tonnes of yellow metal lying in Indian households and bring into the banking system, boosting domestic supply...

The government on Wednesday said the last date for filing Income-tax returns for cer tain categories of assessees viz companies, firms and individuals engaged in proprietary business due by September 30, 2015 will not be extended. “After consideration of all facts, it has been decided that the last date for filing of returns due by September 30, 2015 will not be extended. Taxpayers are advised to file their returns well in time to avoid last minute rush,“ the finance ministry said . The government has received representations seeking extension of date for filing of returns and tax audit reports beyond September 30. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 10th Sept. 2015

Hopes of commodities market for FPI investment after coming under Sebi's ambit later this month has been dashed by RBI, which has told the markets regulator to keep any such decision on hold till a policy review is done by the government in this regard. While the government has issued notifications for merger of commodities markets regulator FMC with capital markets watchdog Sebi with effect from September 28, the revised norms for exchanges and various market participants were notified last month to pave way for the combined regulatory regime. The Economic Times, New Delhi, 10th Sept. 2015

Temporary step, which is WTO-compatible, a bid to protect domestic industry from the sudden rise in imports The Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) under the finance ministry has suggested imposing a 20% safeguard duty on select steel products for a period of 200 days to curb cheap imports. Such a duty is a temporary step and is imposed for a timeframe to protect the domestic industry from the sudden rise in imports. The duty is WTO-compatible, too. “There exist critical circumstances, where any delay in application for provisional safeguard measures would cause damage which it would be difficult to repair, necessitating immediate application of provisional safeguard duty,” the directorate said in a notification on Wednesday. The duty has been recommended for hot-rolled flat products which has seen a significant rise in imports from countries like China, Korea and Japan. Domestic steel companies have been struggling to stay profitable due to a pricing pressure from the ch...