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NITI Aayog has prepared a Cabinet note that proposes if arbitration awards favour infrastructure companies, the government should pay up. If the award is unanimous, no appeal should be made, it adds. It has also suggested infrastructure ministries ease arbitration norms and release stalled payments. “This will de- bottleneck project development and will avert loss of time and blockage of capital,” said Kameswara Rao, partner (grid), PwC. Rao said it was not uncommon for infrastructure projects to face local implementation challenges and executing agencies should be empowered to accept reasonable variations. “Agencies must not fear subsequent challenges to their decisions,” he added. Bank executives said the proposal in the Cabinet note would help improve the financial health of companies. Companies facing payment delays could start repaying interest and principal on outstanding loans, they added. Niti Aayog’s proposal comes at a time when ? 1.65 lakh crore of banks’ ? 3

With banks facing shortage of experienced staff for internal audits, the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) on Thursday allowed them to hire their retired officials for up to three years for assistance in conducting “Risk Based Supervision ( RBS)”. RBI has also prescribed certain conditions for such hirings in the notification. Each bank, it said, should formulate, with the approval of their Board of Directors, a policy to engage the services of its retired personnel for a maximum tenure not exceeding three years in the areas where it does not have enough expertise. “The policy should inter alia include the terms of engagement, review of performance, termination of services...,” it said. Further, banks need to ensure that the retired personnel so engaged work under the close supervision of the management of the bank and the final sign- off of the audit reports would be the responsibility of the serving bank officials. Business Standard New Delhi,26th August 2016

In a bid to keep the nation’s tax laws in conformity with changing times, the Income Tax ( I- T) Department has created a permanent mechanism for seeking inputs from its officers for changes required in the direct tax regulations. To begin with, the I- T department has asked officials to provide suggestions for legislative changes in the direct tax laws. For receiving suggestions, it has created an exclusive email ID and instructed officials of the department to provide inputs through the year without waiting for beginning of the annual Budget exercise. Business Standard New Delhi,26th August 2016

The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said corporate loans beyond the limit set by it would cost more from financial year 2017- 18, as banks have to maintain additional provisions and high capital for such exposures. In keeping with the corporate bond reforms, RBI also prescribed restrictions on banks taking incremental exposure on a single party, mostly corporate groups, beyond normal limits. The norms aim to curb concentration risks and enhance credit supply for large borrowers through markets. The banking system ordinarily keeps future incremental exposures to specified borrowers within the Normally Permitted Lending Limit (NPLL), RBI said. Exposures beyond NPLL will be deemed to carry higher risk. These will attract additional provisioning and higher risk weights, RBI said. Banks will have to keep an additional three per cent over and above the applicable provision on incremental exposures for excess NPLL. This will be distributed in proportion to each bank’sfunded exposu

www.caonline.in News... 1. RBI permits banks to appoint retired officials for internal audit. 2. Under the IT Act 1961, all income arising (directly or indirectly) through the transfer of a capital asset situated in India, is deemed to accrue or arise in India and therefore, taxable in India. 3. Cost of amenities paid under unregistered agreement forms part of cost of acquisition of flat. 4. Under GST Valuation Rules to be applied even in case of supplies to Employee as he is deemed to be related to Employer u/s 2(82). 5. India to get taxation rights on investment routed via Cyprus Cabinet approves revision of DTAA with Cyprus.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday directed senior officials of the ministries of finance and corporate affairs to take steps, including setting up of a board, for the implementation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016 in a time bound manner. “Implementation in a time bound manner is very crucial in order achieve the desired goals of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016,“ Jaitley told senior officials of both the ministries here. An immediate action is needed on key requirements for implementation of the IBC including setting up of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), notifying Rules and Regulations relating to Insolvency Professionals (IPs), he added. The Economics Times New Delhi,24th August 2016

The insurance regulator has tightened equity investment norms by prescribing a dividend track record of 10% for the last two years instead of the earlier 4% in the last eight out of the nine years. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has said that insurance companies can invest in equity shares of any listed company where at least 10% dividend has been paid for at least two consecutive years under the approved investment category . Under the unit-linked insurance plans, which are a mix of investment and protection, companies can invest 75% in approved securities and 25% in other than approved securities. Approved securities are those stocks that have dividend paying record and are liquid. As per the liquidity criteria, in a month 50,000 shares, or a value of Rs.5 lakh crore, should be traded.Traditional funds invest primarily in government securities -50% -both state and central, 15% in infrastructure, and the remaining 35% in corporate bonds, equities and