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Food majors deliver Rs 68000 crore MoUs World Food India, spread across India Gate and Vigyan Bhawan, turning Lutyens´ Delhi into a traffic nightmare, started Friday morning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inviting investors to tap the “unlimited opportunities´´ in India´s food sector.Soon after, top executives of global food and retail majors from PepsiCo to CocaCola and Amazon to Metro, along with domestic biggies such as ITC and Patanjali, lined up to ink investment MoUs, totalling Rs 68,000 crore over multiple years. The MoUs, 13 of them, formalised the investments promised earlier by these companies.Others such as Nestle offered to help the government in food safety, while making a reference to the Maggi ban debacle in India two years ago.In investments, PepsiCo led the pack withacommitment worth Rs 13,340 crore, followed by rival CocaCola (Rs 11,000 crore).PepsiCo had earlier announced its plan to invest Rs 35,000 crore in India and the latest commitment is part of the to

Five judge Bench to deal with pleas on depositing scrapped notes  A five judge Constitution Bench, which would decide the validity of the Centre´s November 8, 2016, decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, would also deal with the pleas seeking to deposit the demonetised currency, the Supreme Court said on Friday. ABench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra disposed of as many as 14 petitions, seeking its nod to deposit scrapped currency notes on the ground that they could not be deposited during the window period provided by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) due to compelling reasons. It asked the petitioners to file interlocutory pleas in the pending petition to be dealt with by the Constitution Bench.“We think it appropriate that the writ petitioners shall file interlocutory pleas in the pending writ petition before the Constitution Bench,” the Bench, also comprising AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said. The top court said it has not opined on the merits of the validity of the or

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 exposure of

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