CA Online

Move will help defunct exchanges to apply for voluntary exits The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will soon spell out exit route for commodity exchanges.The move will pave the way for closure of defunct ones to apply for voluntary exits. At present, there are 12 commodities exchanges, of which six are nationalised,while the rest is regional. If an exchange is not working for a year or has annual trading turnover on its platform of less than Rs.1,000 crore will be asked to wind-up,sources said. Some exchanges is learnt to have asked Sebi for voluntary exit. Former commodities market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) had also suggested some names to the government as it did not have the power to derecognise any exchange. The regulator is likely to ask commodities exchanges to give back members' money and return margin amount. Of the six national electronic commodity exchanges, three have suspended trading so far. The oldest of the three functioning

Govt would drastically prune the list of exemptions The government would soon roll out a final draft of the goods and services tax (GST) bill and drastically prune central exemptions, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday. "The government will roll out the final GST draft paper in the public domain very soon," said Rashmi Verma, special secretary in the department of revenue, at a conference organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce. Verma added the government would drastically prune the list of exemptions, now being enjoyed by business. The Centre's excise duty exemption list of around 300 items will be reduced to 90 items, in line with exemptions allowed by states from value-added tax. States exempt unprocessed goods and those consumed by the poor like fruit, vegetables, salt, grain and coarse fabric. The list of services exempt from levy will be reduced to include only essential services like health and education. Reduction in exemptions wo

Banks to compute lending rates under new rules to pass on RBI rate cut benefits to borrowers In a bid to force lenders to effectively pass on policy rate cuts, the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) on Thursday said from April 1, 2016, banks must review their lending rates frequently, and reflect changes in their cost of borrowing. But customers taking loans at any given point cannot reset the terms before a specified period agreed upon at the time of the contract, usually a quarter or a year. The new lending rates, named Marginal Cost of Funds- based Lending Rate ( MCLR), will be computed based on banks’ marginal cost of borrowing, or incremental cost of funds, rather than the average cost of funds that banks have used so far. This means, that if a bank’s cost of borrowing is eight per cent now but tomorrow the incremental cost of funds becomes 7.5 per cent, the marginal cost of borrowing for the computation purpose will be 7.5 per cent, rather than the average of the two. The r

After SAT rap, Sebi to provide clarity on requirement under takeover code regulations The Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) would soon need to provide clarity on the disclosure requirement under the takeover code regulations. Specifically, if the yearly disclosure requirement is of the individual promoter or the promoter group. This is a fallout of a Securities and Appellate Tribunal ( SAT) ruling which opted for the latter view. It was critical of the Sebi stance in a number of cases. SAT said Sebi's was an inconsistent approach : In some cases, it had ruled one way on this issue and then the other. SAT had clubbed around 15 appeals against Sebi rulings in these matters. "Since there is no uniformity among the ( Officers) of Sebi in determining the obligation to make yearly disclosure under the regulations in question, we call upon counsel for Sebi to inform us accordingly," it stated last month. Adding: "It is the duty of Sebi to ensure con

Six companies don’t have a woman director, five of these are from public sector Thirty- two of the Nifty 50 companies did not spend their prescribed amount for corporate social responsibility ( CSR) in 2015, a survey on Indias secretarial practices said on Wednesday. The top 50 companies, which include blue- chip stocks such as ACC, Adani, Bank of Baroda, and Infosys collectively spent Rs.3,989 crore on CSR, 79 per cent of the prescribed amount of Rs. 5,046 crore. Bengaluru- based CimplyFive Corporate Secretarial Services, which offers research and technology- based solutions for companies to comply with the Companies Act, surveyed the companies to look at compliance of secretarial practices for the first time in the country. “The Companies Act, 2013 is a new legislation with unique concepts like secretarial audit and mandated CSR activities being introduced for the first time in any country across the world. This report compiles and compares various ways corporates have dealt

A meeting in this regard was held in the Aayog on Wednesday, attended by secretaries of major ministries and departments NITI Aayog plans to seek some allocation in the 2016-17 Union Budget for incentivising reforms in states and for backward regions. Officials said as part of its outreach to states, the Aayog plans to try and get the former to align their schemes, programmes and objectives with the 14th Finance Commission recommendations and with the Shivraj Singh Chouhan panel recommendations on restructuring of centrally sponsored schemes (CSS).  A meeting in this regard was held in the Aayog on Wednesday, attended by secretaries of major ministries and departments. Officials said the Aayog plans to work with state governments to improve their budgetary process and rationalising of schemes in line with the Shivraj recommendations. The latter have been accepted by the government. It had favoured lowering the number of CSS to 30 from the current 72, in three major categories

Updates Of the Day 1.NICASA of NIRC of ICAI is organising seminar on Forensic Audit and ERM for CA Students on 20.12.2015 at ICAI Bhawan, Vishwas Nagar, Delhi from 10AM- 5PM, with Lunch, No Fee. 2.Modified versions of LLP Form 4 and Form 27 to be available w.e.f 18.12.2015. 3.Delhi VAT- Filling of reconciliation return for year 2014-15- Date extended to 15.01.2016. Circular No. 32 of 2015-2016 In partial modification to this department Circular No.28 of 2015-2016. 4.Discount on ESOP being in the nature of employee cost, allowed u/s 37 subject to adjustment for lapsed /unvested options. [ACIT vs. People Interactive India Private Ltd. (ITAT Mumbai)]. 5.PAN mandatorily to be quoted on transactions exceeding Rs.2 Lakh w.e.f. 01.01.2016 regardless of the mode of payment. CBDT press release of 15.12.2015. 6.CBDT notifies forms for reporting by investment funds u/s. 115UB(7). Notification no. 92/2015 statement under sub-section (7) of section 115UB. 12CB. For more News Like us on http