RBI ALLOWS FOREIGN INVESTORS TO BUY DEFAULTED BONDS

The Reserve Bank (“RBI”) allowed foreign investors to buy bonds that are either fully or partially under default in repayment and raised the maturity period of such NCDs/bonds to three years and more.

As per the earlier rules, investments by Foreign Portfolio Investors (“FPI”) in NCDs/bonds were required to be made in securities with a minimum residual maturity of 3 years. The revised maturity period of such NCDs/bonds, restructured based on negotiations with the issuing Indian company, should be 3 years or more.  The proposed move is expected to provide relief into the country's distressed debt market.

Further, RBI Claried that the FPI which propose to acquire such NCDs/bonds under default should disclose to the Debenture Trustees the terms of their offer to the existing debenture holders/beneficial owners from whom they are acquiring.

Such investment should be within the overall limit prescribed for corporate debt from time to time, which is at Rs 2.44 lakh crore currently.

SEBI ISSUES TIMELINE FOR COMPLIANCE NORMS BY COMMODITY BOURSES

Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) announced detailed timeline for compliance to various regulations by the commodities derivatives exchanges.

The move comes following the merger of commodity markets regulator Forward Markets Commission (“FMC”) with Sebi in late September.  To ensure non-disruptive transition, Sebi has prescribed specific timeline for aligning different provisions of the Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations (“SECC”) Regulations.

In a circular, SEBI clarified corporatisation and demutualisation of regional commodity derivatives exchanges would need to be done within three years.  In this regard, regional commodity exchanges will have to submit a scheme for SEBI's approval within a period of two years. For availing services of a clearing corporation also, Sebi has set a timeline of three years. Till then, clearing may continue with the current arrangement.

For net-worth, Sebi Clarified that national commodity bourses will have to achieve a minimum net-worth of 100 crore by May 5, 2017, while the same is three years for regional ones. The commodity exchanges will have to submit audited net-worth certificate from the statutory auditor on an yearly basis by September 30 every year for the preceding financial year, while net-worth certificate for the financial year ended March 31, will be submitted by December 31.

For shareholding, the deadline of May 5, 2019, would be applicable for national exchanges, while three-year time period has been given to regional exchanges. The governing board norms would need to be complied within one year from the date of merger for national exchanges and within three years for regional exchanges.

Commodity exchanges will have to segregate their regulatory departments from other departments within 6 months.  The national commodity exchanges will credit all settlement related penalties to their settlement guarantee fund (“SGF”) and other fines to Investor Protection Fund (“IPF”), while regional bourses will credit all fines to their SGF and after the creation of IPF, regional ones will credit penalties other than settlement related to their IPF.

EXTENSION OF LAST DATE OF FILING OF ANNUAL FORMS TILL 30TH DECEMBER, 2015

Good news for all the Stakeholders,

Ministry of Corporate Affairs ("MCA") vide circular General Circular No. 15/2015 dated November 30, 2015 has again extended the last date of filing of Annual forms i.e., MGT-7 (Annual Return) and AOC-4 (Financial Statement) till December, 2015.

This is in continuation of the Ministry's General Circular 14/2015 dated October 28, 2015 where MCA extended the last date to November 30, 2015.

According to me, this decision is being taken due to the heavy traffic resulting crashing of payment gateways on the portal MCA.

e-Form includes AOC 4, AOC 4(CFS), AOC 4 XBRL and e-Form MGT-7.

Download Attachment

INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT LAUNCHES PAN-BASED LITIGATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Now the Taxman can access case in their jurisdiction on a single click

Focusing on reducing lengthy proceedings and time taken in litigation, the Income Tax Department has activated a PAN-based online system which enables the taxman to access cases in their jurisdiction on a click, amongst a building database of over 5 lakh appeals and 1.50 lakh judgements.

The new facility is part of the National Judicial Reference System (“NJRS”), an electronic repository of cases under the direct taxes category or income tax pending in legal forums like the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (“ITAT”), Authority for Advanced Ruling (“AAR”), various High Courts and the Supreme Court.

“A new link has been activated recently in the NJRS which enables the Assessing Officer (“AO”) and his superiors to view appeals pertaining to their jurisdiction based on the Permanent Account Number (“PAN”). It is essential that the PAN number for each case is fed in the appeal to allow the system help the taxman.

The tax Department is on a spree to ensure more and more number of people and taxpayers in the country use the PAN card. It has recently launched business application software which uses PAN to track all the transactions and financial records of an individual and entity across the country.

A Central Processing Centre (“CPC”) for the NJRS has been established at Nashik in Maharashtra by the Department. The system is the first of its kind in the country for comprehensive litigation management in any government Department. The facility will be maintained by the National Securities Depository Limited.

EPFO launches Online Registration of Establishments with Digital Signature

Union Minister for Labour and Employment, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya launches Digital Signature based Online Registration of Establishments 

Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister for Labour & Employment (Independent Charge) today (24.11.15) launched the Digital Signatures based Online Registration of Establishments (OLRE) in a function held in Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, Head Office.

Explaining the process in detail, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya informed that the online registration will be done once the applicant employer registers himself on the OLRE Portal. Subsequent to creation of User ID and password the employer will have to register his/her digital signature (class II or III). Thereafter, the PAN number of the employer would be verified online. On successful verification of PAN the employer will be able to apply online for code number which would require the employer to upload the relevant documents after digitally authenticating the same. On completion of this process the name of the applicant employer would be auto populated in the application in owner details field. All details related to the Code Number shall be available for the applicant employer on the login. The Code Number to the applicant employer shall be allotted immediately on successful submission of the application which would mean that the process is successfully completed.

Shri Bandaru Dattatreya further informed that this facility will not only reduce the workload of the employer, but will also reduce the paperwork for both employer as well as the EPFO. It will be a quick and hassle free process. The process of applying for a branch code by any employer already having the PF Code will remain unchanged and will be available through the ECR login. The validation of only one code number can be done through this facility for a given PAN number and for any subsequent code for any branch or establishments under same PAN number the application will be through the ECR Portal. As a result of this facility, the employer would have a digital signature at the time of application itself and this can be used by employer for other areas such as the Online Transfer Claim Portal and authentication of KYC details of members joining the establishment. The use of paperwork would be reduced significantly and the filing of documents would be as per the convenience of the employer.

Shri Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary, Labour & Employment also applauded the efforts made by EPFO in introducing user free services in recent past and stated that this software which is being launched today would especially be a big leap forward in fulfilling the mandate of the Government in ensuring the ease of doing business in the country which is one of the prime areas of concern for the administration today. He further encouraged EPFO to introduce more such ventures in the days to come.

Shri K.K. Jalan, Central PF Commissioner stated that EPFO is committed to strengthen the e-governance system and to provide better services to its stakeholders. EPFO has already launched a number of e-governance initiatives such as Electronic Challan-cum-Return, Member e-passbook SMS governance, payment through National Electronic Fund Transfer, electronic return to collect the missing details of members etc. This process is not going to stop and EPFO would continue its efforts to make the working more transparent and convenient for all stakeholders.

Shri Bandaru Dattatreya also honoured a few officers/officials of the Organisation for their efficiency and diligence.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment (Independent Charge), Shri Bandaru Dattatreya at the 209th meeting of the Central Board, in New Delhi on November 24, 2015. The Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Shri Shankar Aggarwal and other dignitaries are also seen.

EXPORTERS OF SERVICES TO GET REFUND OF UNUTILISED CENVAT CREDIT WITHIN A WEEK: CBEC

Seeking to fast-track refund to exporters of services, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (“CBEC”) has fixed a scale of 80 per cent payment of the total amount claimed as refund.

CBEC vide Circular No. 187/6/2015-Service Tax dated November 10, 2015 clarified that once the refund application alongwith the necessary documents is received, the jurisdictional Deputy/Assistant Commissioner will make a provisional payment of 80% (eighty per cent) of the amount claimed as refund within 5 working days (Public holidays are excluded while calculating the days) from the date of receipt of the refund application along with all the necessary documents.

After making the provisional payment, the jurisdictional Deputy/Assistant Commissioner shall undertake checking the correctness of the refund claim in terms of the relevant notification and show cause notice (“SCN“) will be issued by him if in his view the amount is inadmissible.

However, prior to the issuance of such a SCN, the claimant may be intimated about the inadmissible amount so that he has an opportunity to avail of the provisions of section 73(3) of the Finance Act, 1994.

The move will speed up sanction of the refund accumulated CENVAT credit to exporters of the services. It is also clarified that the decision to grant provisional payment is an administrative order and not a quasi-judicial order and should not be subjected to review.

Further, this payment of 80 per cent of the refund shall be purely provisional based on the relevant documents submitted by the claimant and without prejudice to the department's right to check the correctness of the claim in terms of the relevant notification.

It is pertinent to mention here that this is only applicable to service tax refund claims filed under Rule 5 of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 (CENVAT Rules) on or before March 31, 2015 and which have not been disposed of as on date of the issue of this circular.

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WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DIWALI 2015 FROM PRAVEEN SINGH

Diwali ek khusiyon ka taivhaar hai,
Andhere se ujaale ki aur barkaraar hai,
Har koi andhere ko ujaala karne ke liye taiyaar hai,
Lekin jo saavdhani rakhe, wahi samajhdaar hai.
Koi waqt ka toh koi khusiyon kaa talabgaar hai.
Nazre bhicha kar baitha hai, bas aane ka intezaar hai
Aa jaaye toh paalo isse,

Govt. issues common form for registering under ESIC, EPFO and other Labour Laws

Very good news for all employers of various industries as from now, only a single form is required to be filed for registration under different Labour Laws. Govt. issues a common form for 'ESIC, EPFO, BOCW, CLA, and ISMW' services and the same is then routed to the respective department for processing

While applying for these services, eBiz reference number is generated which is used by the applicant for further tracking of his application.

Once Common application form is sent to Chief Labour Commission of respective Department. Department reviews the same and approves/rejects the application or asks for resubmission. If application gets approved, Department issues a 'Registration Letter' and sends to Business user via eBiz portal. Department also shares 'Registration Letter' physical copy with the Applicant.

Further, Data from common application form for EPFO and ESIC registration is extracted and sent to respective Department. Thereafter, the Department scrutinizes the application to check correctness of PAN. If PAN details are found to be correct then department issues an 'Establishment Registration number', Acknowledgement letter/ Registration Certificate, TIC numbers in case of EPFO registration and communicates the same to Business user via eBiz portal. Business user can download it for future reference.

Following are the necessary documents required for registration under respective Department:-

• Details of the Factory/Establishment
• Identifiers provided by other Government agencies where applicable
• Power connection details
• Proof of address
• Details of licenses obtained.
• Details about Principal Employer.
• Office location details
• Ownership details
• Details of manager / occupier
• Details of work / location of work
• Particulars of contractors
• Details of lease if any
• Brief abstract of workers' data
• Wage details for ESIC
• Insured persons' particulars for ESIC
• Bank details of employees
• Bank details for unit
• Copy of PAN of the factory / establishment if applying for EPFO
• Copy of agreement if applying for EPFO
• Copy of disability certificate if applying for ESIC
• Scanned image of cheque if applying for EPFO

DETAILS REGARDING PAYMENT OF FEES:-

The payments collected through the eBiz Portal will include the Department fee as applicable and ebiz service charge. The departmental fees against number of workmen are shown as below:

FEES TO BE PAID FOR REGISTRATION UNDER CONTRACT LABOUR ACT-

If the number of workmen proposed to be employed on contract on any day-

1              is 20(should not be less than 20)            Rs.60

2              exceeds 20 but does not exceed 50        Rs.150

3              exceeds 50 but does not exceed 100      Rs.300

4              exceeds 100 but does not exceed 200    Rs.600

5              exceeds 200 but does not exceed 400    Rs.1200

6              exceeds 400                                           Rs.1500

FEES TO BE PAID UNDER BUILDING & OTHER CONSTRUCTION, RULES, 1998

If the number of workers proposed to be employed as building workers, for a building or other construction work on any day-

1              exceeds 9 but does not exceed 100        Rs. 100

2              exceeds 100 but does not exceed 500    Rs. 500

3              exceeds 500       Rs. 1000

INTER-STATE MIGRANT WORKERS ACT

The fees to be paid for the grant of certificate of registration of an establishment under Section 7, shall be as specified below:-

If the Number of migrant workmen proposed to be employed in the establishment on any day-

1              exceeds 4 but does not exceed 20          Rs.60 

2              exceeds 20 but does not exceed 50        Rs.150

3              exceeds 50 but does not exceed 100      Rs.300

4              exceeds 100 but does not exceed 200    Rs.600

5              exceeds 200 but does not exceed 400    Rs.1200

6              exceeds 400                                           Rs.1500

No fee is to be charged for ESIC and EPFO services. Applicant is asked to pay only nominal eBiz transaction fee while submitting application form on eBiz portal.

(Source: www.ebiz.gov.in)

Information provide above is subject to change in case of any amendment/Notification/circular/order issued by the respective department.