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GST Hits Excise-free Zones; Pharma, FMCG Cos Worried Firms petition govt after a new DIPP scheme offers them only 58% CGST reimbursement A new GST reimbursement scheme has left Dabur, Godrej and many other FMCG and pharmaceutical companies worried about their manufacturing operations in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and some northeastern states where they used to enjoy excise duty exemptions.Apprehension has set in after the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) last week unveiled guidelines of a scheme that replaces the erstwhile excise-free zones, offering 58% central GST reimbursement. Companies that outsource manufacturing to job workers in these states have petitioned the government saying the new restrictions may render their businesses unviable. They are also exploring legal options.Many pharma companies including Cipla, Dr Reddy's, Johnson & Johnson and Wockhardt have plants in excise duty-free zones in Himachal Pradesh.TVS Motor, Lloyd Electric, TAFE

DIPP eases mechanism for processing FDI proposals The commerce and industry ministry has eased the mechanism for processing foreign direct investment (FDI) proposalsby doing away with the requirement of sending the applications to the department of revenue. Amending aprovision in the standard operating procedure for processing of FDI proposals, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion on Tuesday said that marking of proposals to the revenue department for their comments has been“discontinued” with immediate effect. The Business Standard, New Delhi,18th October 2017

Temporary disruptive effect of GST Over DEA Secy Economic Affairs Secretary SCGarg said on Tuesday the temporary disruptive effect of the goods and services tax (GST) is over as the manufacturing sector recorded positive growth of 3.1 per cent in August.Commenting on the twin data on industrial output and price situation, he said benign and moderate inflation has become the order of the day.  The Business Standard, New Delhi ,18th October 2017

Sebi’s new rules make MFs see red Front-running is the act of buying or selling a stock ahead of anticipated action by a fund manager. Impact cost is the cost incurred to execute a large buy or sell order.“We will be needed to rebalance our portfolios every six months to add or delete stocks to meet Sebi’s criteria. Daily market cap and portfolio holding data is in the public domain. Savvy traders might do front-running as they will be able to calculate which stocks are going to be added or removed. It will also result in a churn of portfolios and increase the impact cost, as most mid-cap schemes may exit a particular scrip at the same time,” said a chief investment officer with a leading fund house. According to the framework laid down by Sebi, MF industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India, or Amfi, will have to provide a ranking of stocks at the end of June and December, based on their average market cap on both the BSE and the National Stock Exchange. Fund managers wil

The Government has been Very Supportive on e-Pharmacies The online pharmacy sector expects regulations to be streamlined by the end of this year, Prashant Tandon, CEO of 1mg and president of the India Internet Pharmacy Association, said in an interview. Edited excerpts: How has regulation been a pain for e-pharmacy startups? In the last two years, many epharmacies had to shut because they were harassed by the local players. When a drug inspector comes to a vendor he knows only the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. We need to see it in light of the IT Act, which supersedes all other acts in terms of applicability. What we have been asking is that since the IT Act supersedes all other Acts in terms of applicability, all of that needs to be harmonised and communicated though one notification. On that, the government has taken a very positive stance on that but hasn’t yet introduced any notification. We have been assured that work is in progress towards that. But the local harassment has re

GST panel to consult MSMEs in October end to ease tax rigour Five-member ministerial panel set up by GST Council to meet MSME representatives on 29 October to seek views on how to make compliance under GST easierA five-member ministerial panel set up by the federal indirect tax body, the goods and services tax (GST) Council, will meet representatives of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) at its second meeting on 29 October to seek views on how to make compliance in the GST regime easier for them. The panel tasked with suggesting ways of making the quarterly tax payment scheme for small businesses more attractive wants to consult SMEs to make its recommendations as broad based as possible before they are placed before the Council to take a decision at its meeting on 9 November. The GST Council had at its last meeting on 6 October allowed firms with up to Rs1 crore annual sales to sign up for the quarterly payment scheme, up from the earlier Rs75 lakh and exempted inter-state

Sebi norms for settlement in commodity derivatives Reliable benchmark price of the commodity should be used as reference for settlement price The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) asked on Monday asked asked exchanges to prefer physical settlement system for commodity derivatives contracts, a move that is expected to help hedgers manage risk better as well as curb excessive manipulation."The first preference of settlement type shall always be by the way of physical delivery," Sebi said in a circular. However, any exemption from physical settlement would be considered in certain scenarios with a proper justification. The cash settlement route would be considered in case physical delivery is difficult to implement due to any reason, including the commodity is intangible; difficult to store due to low shelf life or inadequate storage infrastructure; and difficult to physically handle and transport the commodity because of inadequate logistics and transport infr