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Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill to cover wide-ranging white-collar crimes   The provisions of the fugitives bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday, will apply to those involved in loan defaults, bank frauds, tax evasion, black money, benamy transactions and corruption   The government on Monday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha seeking punitive powers to target fugitives who have committed white-collar crimes. Significantly, the brief of the proposed legislation is much wider than the initial draft that had been put out by the government last year.   The provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018 will extend to not only loan defaulters and fraudsters but also to those individuals who violate laws governing taxes, black money, benami properties, financial sector and corruption. Earlier this month, the cabinet had cleared a bill that seeks to give the government powers to attach assets of offenders who are outside the country and do not ret...

Growth engine gets twin boost from IIP, CPI data  India’s industrial growth accelerated in January while inflation eased for the second month running in February, providing a twin boost to the economy and suggesting overall economic growth could accelerate further from the five-quarter high recorded in the October-December period.  Industrial production growth rose higher than expected to 7.5% in January from 7.1% in the previous month, data released by the government showed, on the back of strong manufacturing. The simultaneously released Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed a further decline in retail inflation to 4.44% in February from 5.1% in the previous month.  “This looks like an early sign of industrial revival,” said Devendra Kumar Pant, chief economist at India Ratings, a Fitch Group company. “It looks like post demonetisation and goods and services tax (GST) implementation, finally the industrial sector is gaining traction.” India reclaimed the title of fa...

 Ease lender approval norms for resolution plans: Govt panel    In a move aimed at ensuring that small creditors do not disrupt the resolution process under the bankruptcy law, a governmentappointed panel has suggested that a revival plan can be approved if two-thirds of the creditors endorse it against the current requirement of three-fourths.    This is one of the key recommendations proposed by the 14-member panel looking at fine-tuning the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), two senior officials aware of the deliberations told ET.  Currently, the resolution professional needs the consent from 75 per cent of the creditors to act upon anything — from day-to-day operations to strategic decisions such as approving or rejecting a resolution plan.    The reduced approver threshold of 66 per cent of the lenders by loan value would apply, the proposal says, to key resolutions such  as appointing, replacing or dismissing a resoluti...

SEBI may impose restrictions on algo trade  The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is planning to impose restrictions on algorithmic trading by introducing a congestion charge for a prescribed slab that will be levied on traders. The move is aimed at ensuring that algorithmic trading doesn’t give market participants an unfair advantage over those with no access to such technology.  The proposal was discussed last week by the regulator’s Secondary Market Advisory Committee. If the curbs are implemented, Sebi will be the among the first to do so globally.  In 2016, the regulator had proposed the introduction of maximum order message-to-trade ratio requirements among several other proposals.  A maximum order-to-trade ratio requires a market participant to execute at least one trade for a set number of order messages sent to a trading venue. The mechanism is expected to increase the likelihood of a viewed quote being available to trade and reduce hyper...

SEBI seeks relaxed rules for municipal bodies eyeing bond market SEBI has approached the government to allow municipal corporations and municipalities to access the bond market through pooled finance The capital markets regulator has approached the government to allow municipal corporations and municipalities to access the bond market through pooled finance, two people aware of the development said. Many civic bodies do not sell bonds because lower-rated securities have few takers. In pooled finance, several civic bodies jointly float a trust, which issues the bonds. Investors are seen as more open to buying bonds which can be serviced by different revenue streams. Trusts are currently not allowed to sell bonds. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) was previously considering a proposal to allow small municipal bodies to come together “The feedback Sebi gathered is that good-rated municipalities are not willing to be pooled with low-rated ones. It has also given a...

 Reforms in health, education & banking will benefit India: IMF Indian economy now seems to be on its way to recovering from disruptions caused by demonetisation and roll-out of GST, the IMF said on Sunday.  At the same time, the IMF has underscored the significance of reforms in other key sectors like education, health and improving the efficiency of the banking and financial systems. “India's economy has expanded strongly in recent years, thanks to macroeconomic policies the emphasise stability and efforts to tackle supply-side bottlenecks and structural reforms. Disruptions from demonetisation and the rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) did slow growth,“ Tao Zhang, deputy managing director of IMF, told PTI in an interview.  “However, with the economy expanding by 7.2% in the latest quarter, India has regained the title of the fastest-growing major economy.” Calling this development a “welcome change”, Zhang said the growth prospects remain posi...

Define'shell companies' in companies act, panel asks govt At present, the term 'shell company' is not defined under the Companies Act, which is implemented by the corporate affairs ministry A Parliamentary panel has asked the government to define "shell company" in the Companies Act and ensure distinction between those guilty of fraud and those irregular with filings. The recommendation assumes significance at a time when the government is cracking down on companies that have not been carrying out business activities for long as well as those entities being allegedly used for illicit fund flows. As part of larger efforts to curb the black money menace, the corporate affairs ministry has already struck off the names of more than 226,000 companies from the official records besides disqualifying a large number of directors associated with such entities. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, headed by senior Congress leader and former Corporat...

 E-way relief, for now, to e-commerce, courier firms sending small orders The requirement for such bills in intra-state movement would be implemented in a phased manner Small orders that are part of a large consignment of multiple deliveries will not require generation of an electronic-way bill from April 1. A relief to e-commerce, courier companies and the like. Only, this relaxation might be temporary. At its meeting on Saturday, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council decided to make it mandatory for inter-state movement of goods worth over Rs 50,000 to have e-way bills from April 1. The requirement for such bills in intra-state movement would be implemented in a phased manner. Giving details of the decision, the finance ministry said, "At present (from April 1), there is no requirement to generate an e-way bill where an individual consignment value is less than Rs 50,000, even if the transporter is carrying goods worth than Rs 50,000 in a single conveyance. This ess...

Manufacturing outlook positive for January-March quarter: FICCI Manufacturers in the country have a positive outlook for the sector in the January-March quarter on the back of higher production, a report by industry body FICCI today said. "the percentage of respondents reporting higher production in fourth quarter has increased significantly vis-à-vis previous quarter of 2017-18. The proportion of respondents reporting higher output growth during the Q4 2017-18 has increased significantly to 55 per cent from 47 per cent in Q3," FICCI said in its latest quarterly survey on manufacturing. Also, the percentage of respondents reporting low production has come down to 11 per cent in the fourth quarter from 15 per cent in the preceding quarter, it added. In terms of order books, 51 per cent of the respondents said they are expecting higher number of orders as against 42 per cent in the previous quarter, which is "a sign of revival", the industry body said. The s...

Variance between GST paid and claims made The goods and service tax (GST) Council was told that there is a major variance between various set of claims made and taxes paid. According to the data set provided by the Central Board of excise and customs (CBEC) and GST network, there isa variance between the amount of integrated GSt and compensation cess paid by importers at custom ports and input tax credit of the ame claimed in GSTR-3B, the summary form for input-output.The data also evaled that there are majore data gaps between self-declared liability in the form GSTR-1, the form for suppliers, and form GSTR-3B. The council said the data will be further analysed and adequate actions will be taken accordingly.  The Business Standard, New Delhi, 12th March 2018

 ICAI issues advisory on joint auditors' work allocation in bank audits   The allocation of work should be in agreement with the management of the bank, said ICAI  Chartered accountants should ensure that allocation of work during joint audits at banks should be done in agreement with respective managements, the ICAI has said following certain issues flagged by the RBI.    The ICAI's latest advisory to the members came after it received information from the RBI that there have been "certain issues between the banks' joint auditors and the banks' management regarding the allocation of work among the joint auditors". The move, though unrelated, also comes at a time when the role of auditors have come under the lens in the wake of the nearly Rs 127 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, the biggest in the Indian banking sector.   The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the apex body of chartered accountants, has the Standard on ...