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MSCI slams move by Indian exchanges Ending data feed pacts with global counterparts´ anticompletive´, could cause disruption and lead to a cut inIndia´sweighton global indices, says MSCI Global index provider MSCI has slammed Indian exchanges´ decision to terminate licensing and datafeed agreements with their global counterparts.MSCI has said the concerted announcement by the three domestic exchanges was “anticompletive” and would restrict access to the Indian market. It has urged Indian regulators and exchanges to reconsider the move as it could lead to disruption in trading, which could force MSCI to cut India´s weight in its global indices.On February 9, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE —India´s two main exchanges —said inajoint release that they were discontinuing their datafeed tieups with foreign exchanges to prevent offshore trading in domestic securities. The move would come into effect after the contractual notice periods expire in August.“It isaclearly n...

CBEC decides not to file review appeals in 63 cases To reduce litigation, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) on Friday decided not to file any review appeals in 63 cases where Supreme Court, high courts and CESTAT have ruled against the department. The CBEC has compiledalist of 63 orders so that cases pending in the field can be expeditiously decided, if the questions of law or facts involved are identical, an official statement said. In 14 of these orders, high courts have decided various questions of law. In the rest 49 cases, the high courts have delivered judgments on the basis of some settled case law or have decided points of facts or have dismissed the appeal on monetary grounds. All the orders have been accepted by the department and against them no special leave petitions in India has been preferred in the Supreme Court, it added. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 17th February 2018

Sebi relaxes access norms for FPIs The Securities and Exchange Board of India( Se bi) has eased the norms for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), doing away with the prior-approval requirement in case of change in local custodian. The due diligence requirements at the time of change of custodian for FPI shave also been relaxed. After consultations with stakeholders, Sebi has decided to make changes in ext ant regulatory provisions" to ease the access norms for investment by FPIs", acircular issued on Thursday said. The need for seeking prior approval in case of change in local custodian or Designated Depository Participant( D DP) has been discontinued for FP Is. "Atthattime, taking specific request letter from each FPI regarding change of local custodian may create operational and logistical challenges," Sebi said as it relaxed the norms. With respect to the process of change of local custodian or DDP by an FPI, the circular said the new entity can rely on t...

Govt may raise import duties on edible oils and chana may go up The duties might be pushed up to 300 per cent in case of palm and other edible oils and 100 per cent in chana. The Centre would not hesitate to raise import duties on edible oils and chana up to their “bound rates” applicable under the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules to protect farmers, senior government officials said. The duties might be pushed up to 300 per cent in case of palm and other edible oils and 100 per cent in chana. The import duty on crude edible oils now is 25-30 per cent. In the case of refined oils, it is 35-40 per cent. For chana, it is 40 per cent. If the proposal goes through, there could be a massive hike in import duty (over 200 per cent in case of edible oils), while it could go up by 60 per cent in chana. The bound rate for soybean oil is 45 per cent and the existing is 30 per cent. Bound rates are the maximum permissible ones under WTO agreements. The thinking within a section of the...

TRAI sets non-predatory tariff rules for old tel cos Orders Rs 5 mn penalty per circle for any violation Defining the concept of non-discrimination and nonpredation, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday said it would impose a penalty to the tune of ~5 million per circle on any telecom operator found to be involved in offering predatory tariffs. Trai’s new rules suggest a tariff can be considered predatory if a significant market player (SMP) offers services at a price which is below the average variable cost in a “relevant market” with a view to reducing competition or eliminate competitors. SMP is a service provider holding a share of at least 30 per cent in a relevant market, which should be defined based on any of the two parameters — subscriber base and gross revenue. It would mean incumbent operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular cannot offer tariffs below their average variable cost as they are SMPs in many markets, Trai sources s...

 Retail investors in IPOs to get compensation: Sebi Sebi said there should be a uniform policy for calculation of the minimum compensation payable to investors Market regulator Sebi on Thursday said retail investors applying for shares in IPOs would need to be compensated if bankers fail to make the allotment despite their eligibility. Besides, the public issue banker would need to pay an interest amount of 15 per cent to the investors for failing to resolve the grievance within 15 days, while they may also face Sebi’s action for such failures. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday said retail investors applying for shares in initial public offerings would need to be compensated if bankers fail to make the allotment despite their eligibility. The public issue banker would also need to pay an interest of 15 per cent to the investors for failing to resolve the grievance within 15 days, while they may also face Sebi’s action for su...

Base year for GDP, IIP to be changed to 2017-18 The government will change the base year to 2017-18 for the calculation of gross domestic production (GDP) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers.  For retail inflation, the year will be revised to 2018, Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda said on Thursday. “During 2018-19, the ministry is proposing to initiate steps to revise the base years of GDP, IIP and Consumer Price Index (CPI) to accommodate and factor in  the changes that take place in the economic scenario of the country,” the statistics and programme implementation minister said at a conference on Budget provisions. Gowda said the ministry will undertake various steps in the next financial year that will improve the statistical system and help meet the data requirements in the emerging socio- economic scenario. The Business Standard, New Delhi, 16th February, 2018  ......

 Export growth rate dips to 9.07% in Jan Trade deficit balloons to nearly five-year high at $16.3 billion. Growth in exports reduced in January to 9.07 per cent, from 12.03 per cent in December. With exports of $24.38 billion, the growth rate in January dipped to a single digit for the first time in three months. The rate in December more than halved  to 12.4 per cent, from November’s 30.5 per cent. “More than 6 per cent of the growth has been contributed by petroleum products. More importantly, labour-intensive sectors like garments, carpets, handicrafts,  and man-made textiles are exhibiting negative growth, primarily due to liquidity crunch because of funds getting blocked under the goods and services tax  regime,” Ganesh Kumar Gupta, president of the Federation of Indian Exports Organisations, said. Of the 30 major product groups, 20 were in positive territory  in January, against 21 in December. On the other hand, the figures made clear that Ind...

 RBI asks banks to accept coins of all denominations from public  Banks should not refuse to accept coins of all denominations from customers and any non-compliance may result into penal action, the Reserve Bank said today.  Despite advisory that none of the bank branches should refuse to accept small denomination notes or coins tendered at their counters, complaints keep coming about non-acceptance of coins by bank branches, RBI said.  The Economic Times, New Delhi, 16th February, 2018  ......

Tax collection assumptions in India's budget ambitious: IMF  The IMF today said the tax collection assumptions in India's budget is ambitious but there is a need to look into the fiscal implications of some of the initiatives that are presently unfunded.  Referring to some of the implementations relating to the goods and services tax (GST) in 2017, IMF Director of Communications Department Gerry Rice said if  these issues persist, tax revenue collection could fall short on the budget.  We think the budget assumes the tax revenue will rise faster than the volume of transactions in the economy. So, its ambitious. It assumes the government would be able to climb higher tax revenue from the same amount of consumption and income,a Rice told reporters at his fortnightly news conference.  There are also some initiatives in the budget that are presently unfunded and fiscal implications of these need to look at a little bit more closely as more d...

LTCG tax will not impact NPS, says PFRDA chairman The LTCG tax proposal in the Budget 2018 will not have much impact on the National Pension Scheme (NPS), says Hemant Contractor, chairman of PFRDA The proposal of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax will not have much impact on the National Pension Scheme (NPS), a top Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) official has said.“It will not have much impact on us. The investments in the National Pension System are made by our trust (NPS Trust) which is a tax-exempted body. As far as pension investments are concerned, LTCG will not have an impact,” PFRDA chairman Hemant Contractor said here on Tuesday. However, it will have an impact on tier II accounts also known as non-pension account, he said on the sidelines of a conference on the NPS in association with Stock Holding Corp.NPS manages two types of accounts—tier I and tier II. “Tier II has no tax benefits. Tier II account would be impacted but investments corpus ...