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Govt considering exemptions sought by Apple: DIPP secretary The Indian government is considering exemptions sought by Apple Inc. for setting up a unit to assemble iPhones, Ramesh Abhishek, department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) secretary, said on Thursday. Apple has asked federal government officials for a range of tax and policy changes to help build out its iPhone assembly work in India. The Mint, New Delhi, 06th October 2017

Sebi panel for more curbs on royalty, info sharing The corporate governance panel of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has recommended more checks and balances on royalty and brand payments, related party transactions and sharing of information between the management and entities not part of the board.Among the key recommendations by the committee is one on the aspect of exchange of price sensitive information between companies and a  promoter no longer a part of the board or management The committee said a company could exchange unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) with its promoters or persons only after the entity enters in an agreement of information sharing with the designated person.These agreements would last at least one year and the company would reserve the right to terminate them. According to current norms, such information can be shared only between the board members.The information can be shared with any other person only ona “need to kno

GST COUNCIL MEETS TODAY The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, in its upcoming meeting on Friday, is likely to giveamajor relief to exporters as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).These segments have been affected the most by the new indirect tax regime, which has depressed the economic growth numbers in the first quarter of the current financial year because of destocking on account of uncertainties before the GST was introduced on July 1. The meeting comes after three most powerful persons in the current political dispensation —Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley —huddled together to discuss economic and political issues.Shah cut short his visit to Kerala to attend the meeting.Jaitley also skipped a World Economic Forum event in Delhi to attend the meeting. Growth declined to 5.7 per cent, the lowest in any quarter since the BJP came to power three years ago.The Council is likely to make

EPFO may Give Part Payout in MF-Like Units Dividend on equity investments may also be distributed among its 45 million subscribers Subscribers to the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) may soon get part of their retirement payout in the form of units proportionate to the money the state-run pension fund invests in equities, a senior official said. EPFO invests up to 15% of its annual incremental corpus -pegged at ` . 1.4 lakh crore -in stocks through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to take advantage of higher returns from equities. The rest of the money is invested in government securities and other forms of debt. However, on retirement, the subscriber gets a consolidated sum based on interest rate decided by the EPFO's central board of trustees (CBT). If the proposal cited above is adopted, then part of this payout will be in the form of units, similar to that of a mutual fund, that can be encashed at time of exit. This would also mean that the dividend earned

DIPP approves three FDI proposals, including Wockhardt’s The commerce and industry ministry on Wednesday said it has approved three foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals, including that of Wockhardt Ltd and Coastal Local Area Bank. The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), under the commerce ministry, has also approved KPB Holdings’ proposal to issue shares to non-resident Indians (NRIs). While Coastal Local Area Bank got nod for issuance of shares to NRIs, Wockhardt Ltd got approval for issuance of employee stock option plan to NRIs. The Mint, New Delhi, 5th October 2017

Loan pricing via external benchmark likely soon Move will help consumers compare loans fairly The Reserve Bank of India pulled up lenders for keeping interest rates on loans at a higher level and said it would make another system to fix rates for such loans.The banking regulator expressed concern over base rate and marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) and said these internal benchmarks have not improved monetary transmission. A new system using external benchmarks to price loans would be introduced, the RBI said. In its report, an internal RBI study group to review the working of the MCLR system has suggested switching over to the new system in a time-bound manner, so that better rates are available to borrowers. The report said banks should use three benchmarks — Treasury bill rate, certificate of deposit rate and RBI’s policy repo rate – for pricing loans. Against the current system of annual reset of interest rates, the panel recommended quarterly reset. All bo

RBI Cuts growth forecast REPO RATES STAYS AT 6%, SLR REDUCED BY 50 BPS NO SPACE LEFT FOR FISCAL STIMULUS,SAYS GOVERNOR The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its policy rates unchanged on Wednesday, revised its inflation forecast for the second half of the fiscal year, and lowered the growth forecast sharply, while asking the government not to be too ambitious with its fiscal stimulus package. Five members of the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, voted for a pause. Ravindra Dholakia voted for a 25 basis point cut. Following the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy, the repo rate remained at 6 per cent. While continuing with its glide path of bringing down banks’ mandatory bond holdings, the central bank reduced the statutory liquidity ratio by 50 basis points to 19.5 per cent of the deposit base. The policy stance remained ‘neutral’. One basis point is 0.01 per cent.Patel said in an interaction with the media that between the states