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The Centre has warned employees of disciplinary action if they indulge in criticism of the government or its policies. The move comes after officers of Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) and All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers, among others, suggested changes in Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), a private company tasked with creating information technology infrastructure for the goods and services tax (GST), and composition of Revenue Secretary-led GST council secretariat. “Of late, it has been noticed that some associations or federations have commented adversely on the government and its policies. It may be brought to the notice of all associations or federations that if anyone indulges in criticism of the government and its policies, appropriate action (including disciplinary action) shall be taken,” an order issued recently by finance ministry said. It cited service rules that bar any government servant from making any a

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 proposes to set up new institutional pillars to support the insolvency resolution and liquidation processes. One such pillar is the industry of insolvency professionals. Insolvency professionals (IP) are expected to play a critical role in the timely and efficient insolvency resolution of firms and individuals. Two specific provisions pertaining to IPs in the new law have gone largely unnoticed: (i) not just individuals but firms can also get licensed as IPs (ii) those residing outside India can practise as IPs on Indian corporate and individual insolvencyrelated matters. Both these provisions can have important implications for the regulatory structure of the IP industry once the law is implemented. The regulation of professions in India has been a failure. Self-regulatory organisations in professions such as medicine (Medical Council of India), law (Bar Council of India) and accountancy (The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Indi

The Commerce Ministry has suggested to its finance counterpart that the exemptions given to exporters should continue under the new indirect tax regime, GST. The proposed procedure of paying taxes and then claiming the refunds by exporters under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would cause hardships for them, said an official. Hindustan Times New Delhi,10th October 2016

Raj Kumar Kohli, 61, a Delhibased government servant, has purchased multiple insurance policies over his lifetime. For some of his policies he still gets communications from the insurer, and he has managed to keep track of those. But, he suspects that he could have lost track of a few policies that he had purchased decades ago, and whose policy documents he has misplaced. Help is now at hand for policyholders like Kohli. From October 1, opening an e-insurance account has become compulsory for buyers of new policies. The insurer whom you are buying the policy from will facilitate the process of opening this account. Existing policyholders will have to initiate the process themselves. One advantage of opening this account will be convenience. After fulfilling KYC (know your customer) requirements, you will be able to store multiple insurance policies across segments at one place. Retrieving the policy at the time of lodging a claim will become easier. “Today, more than ~5,000 cro

Foreign investors are facing compliance difficulties in moving from the foreign institutional investor (FII) to foreign portfolio investor (FPI) regime. The deadline to obtain an FPI licence ends in March 2017. Existing FIIs are required to submit documents and undertakings to obtain the licence. Also, there are issues regarding taxation under the new regime, say industry experts. These are forcing certain FPIs to rethink about remaining invested in India, experts add. “There are many inconsistencies yet and they (government) haven’t clarified issues that need to be addressed,” said Shardul Shroff, executive chairman, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas. Foreign investors are finding it difficult to complete the paperwork, which includes submitting constitutional documents, identity proofs, among others. The lengthy process of certification of original papers and the frequency of accepting documents by the Indian authorities is said to be asource of discomfort for foreign investors. Legal ex

The commerce ministry on Thursday said the website www.copyright.in does not represent the copyright registration office of India. It was inviting applications for protection of various worksliterary, artistic, dramatic, musical, sound recordings - the ministry said. Business Standard New Delhi,07th October 2016

The Controller General of Accounts has instructed its officials to examine if revised salaries of government employees are in line with the award of the Seventh Pay Commission and recover any excess amount paid. The government has paid about Rs.56,000 crore as wage arrears. Business Standard New Delhi,07th October 2016