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Market Regulator Plans To Cut Post-IPO Listing To 4 Days Sebi chairman U K Sinha said on Friday the market watchdog may further tighten rules governing Participatory Notes (P-Notes), which are a financial derivative product used by foreign investors to bypass the regulatory system when entering the Indian market. He also said the regulator is working to cut down the time taken for companies to list their shares on the exchanges post public offerings to four days from six days now. P-Notes had been identified by a special investigation team (SIT) -looking into the menace of black money under orders from the Supreme Court -as one of the probable routes that facilitate generation and use of unaccounted funds. “SIT is constantly monitoring the P-Note data and is not very comfortable with the current process of issue and administration of the same. Further tightening of norms governing P-notes could happen to address the concerns of SIT,“ Sinha said. He was delivering the inaugural sp

Govt notification comes after irregularities were found in several co-op banks during demonetisation The government has barred cooperative banks from accepting deposits under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme (PMGKDS). There have been irregularities discovered in cooperative banks during the demonetisation process that the income tax department is investigating. “It is clarified that co-operative banks are not authorised banks to accept deposits under PMGKDS, 2016,“ a finance ministry statement said on Friday. The deposit scheme is part of the Taxation and Investment Regime for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016 under which a declarant has to deposit 25% of the declared undisclosed income in an authorised bank as notified by the government. They have to also pay 50% of the amount declared in tax and penalty. “Application for the deposit in the form of Bonds Ledger Account shall be received by any banking company, other than Co-operative Banks, to which the Ba

Key benefits given to Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) under amended tax treaties with Singapore, Cyprus and Mauritius may be negated by the implementation of General Anti-Avoidance Rules (Gaar). Domestic anti-avoidance law will prevail over treaty benefits in the event of a dispute under the Singapore and Mauriti us treaties. This could threaten the lower tax rate for FPIs in the two years between April 1, 2017, and March 31, 2019. Under the amended treaties, short term capital gains tax for FPIs is 15%. However, dur ing the transition window cited above, this will be 7.5%, subsequently dou bling to 15%. The tax trea ties with these countries were amended last year. Many FPIs are also worried that benefits under the amended treaties for derivatives and debt instruments may be questioned under Gaar. Tax officials confirmed that Gaar will take effect on April 1 and that the government is not looking at issuing any additional regulations before March 31 at a meeting held recent

Market regulator Sebi has issued eligibility criteria for allowing, retaining and reintroduction of commodities for trading in the futures market. For any commodity to continue to be eligible for futures trading on a commodity exchange, it should have an annual turnover of over . 500 crore across all national com` modity derivatives exchanges in at least one of the last three finan cial years. For validating this criteria, a gestation period of three years is provided for commodities from the launch date relaunch date, as applicable. Once a commodity becomes ineligible for derivatives trading due to not satisfying the retention criteria, the exchanges shall not reconsider such commodity for relaunching contract for a minimum period of one year. Further, a commodity which is discontinued suspended by an exchange on its platform, it shall not be reconsidered by the concerned exchange for relaunching of derivatives contract at least for a minimum period of one year. Issues such as s

panel tasked with recommending a future fiscal roadmap,and whose recommendations are likely tobe incorporated in the coming Union Budget 2017-18,might present its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday.The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) committee is chaired by NKSingh,a former member of Parliament and andan ex-revenue and expenditure secretary.The report was to have been or iginally give non October30.That was postponed more than once,after,in turn,being told to consider some recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission,seek the opinion of the Reserve Bank and study the impact of demonetisation Apaneltaskedwithrecommendingafuture fiscalroadmap,and whoserecommendationsare likelytobeincorporatedinthe comingUnionBudget2017-18, mightpresentitsreportto FinanceMinisterArunJaitley onMonday. TheFiscalResponsibility and Budget Management(FRBM) committeeischaired byNKSingh,aformer memberofParliament andandanex-revenueand expenditure secretary. The reportwas

Leading lenders told to provide easier loans on priority to labour-intensive sectors The government has asked leading banks to assess credit offtake in some of the most labour intensive sectors in the wake of demonetisation and push for easier loans on a priority basis, a move that comes amid concerns over potential negative impact of the cash crunch. Sectors including textile, leather, footwear, gems and jewellery, and construction are under the scanner, government officials said. The industry department along with the financial services department plans to hold a meeting with the banks, ministries concerned and industry representatives in the coming week to further discuss the matter. “We want to push all such sectors which employ a large number of people, especially since many have suffered losses during the demonetisation exercise,“ said a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified. The government will assess credit offtake in these sectors and ask the ba

Double counting, segregation of banned notes from others may have forced silence Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel earned the ire of parliamentarians on Wednesday when he declined to disclose the amount of demonetised notes that have been deposited with banks. But there may have been a strong reason for the governor's reticence. The sheer magnitude of the money-counting exercise and the possibility of double counting may have forced the central bank to be cautious in its assessment, experts and economists said. There is also an issue of segregating the demonetised Rs. 1,000 Rs.500 and ` currency from deposits of notes which are legal tender. Although December 30 was the final day for depositing old notes in banks, bankers say government entities such as utilities, hospitals, post offices and even district cooperative banks may not have completed the exercise. Nearly 17.165 billion pieces ofRs. 500 denomination and 6.858 billion pieces of Rs.1,000 denomination amounti