The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2015 notified

MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE

(Legislative Department)

New Delhi, the 29th December, 2015

The following Act of Parliament received the assent of the President on the 26th December, 2015, and is hereby published for general information:—

THE NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2015

NO. 26 OF 2015

[26th December, 2015.]

  An Act further to amend the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-sixth Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

Short title and commencement.

1.    (1) This Act may be called the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2015.

(2) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 15th day of June, 2015.

Amendment of section 6.

2.   In the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), in section 6,—

(i) in Explanation I, for clause (a), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:—

(a) “a cheque in the electronic form” means a cheque drawn in electronic form by using any computer resource and signed in a secure system with digital signature (with or without biometrics signature) and asymmetric crypto system or with electronic signature, as the case may be;’;

(ii) after Explanation II, the following Explanation shall be inserted, namely:—

‘Explanation III.—For the purposes of this section, the expressions “asymmetric crypto system”, “computer resource”, “digital signature”, “electronic form” and “electronic signature” shall have the same meanings respectively assigned to them in the Information Technology Act, 2000.’.    

Amendment of section 142.

3. In the principal Act, section 142 shall be numbered as sub-section (1) thereof and after sub-section (1) as so numbered, the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely:—

“(2) The offence under section 138 shall be inquired into and tried only by a court within whose local jurisdiction,

(a)    if the cheque is delivered for collection through an account, the branch of the bank where the payee or holder in due course, as the case may be, maintains the account, is situated; or

(b)   if the cheque is presented for payment by the payee or holder in due course, otherwise through an account, the branch of the drawee bank where the drawer maintains the account, is situated.

Explanation — For the purposes of clause (a), where a cheque is delivered for collection at any branch of the bank of the payee or holder in due course, then, the cheque shall be deemed to have been delivered to the branch of the bank in which the payee or holder in due course, as the case may be, maintains the account.”.

Insertion of new section 142A.

(Validation for transfer of pending cases.)

4. In the principal Act, after section 142, the following section shall be inserted, namely:—

“142A. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 or any judgment, decree, order or direction of any court, all cases transferred to the court having jurisdiction under sub-section (2) of section 142, as amended by the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, shall be deemed to have been transferred under this Act, as if that sub-section had been in force at all material times.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2) of section 142 or sub-section (1), where the payee or the holder in due course, as the case may be, has filed a complaint against the drawer of a cheque in the court having jurisdiction under sub-section (2) of section 142 or the case has been transferred to that court under sub-section (1) and such complaint is pending in that court, all subsequent complaints arising out of section 138 against the same drawer shall be filed before the same court irrespective of whether those cheques were delivered for collection or presented for payment within the territorial jurisdiction of that court.

(3)   If, on the date of the commencement of the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2015, more than one prosecution filed by the same payee or holder in due course, as the case may be, against the same drawer of cheques is pending before different courts, upon the said fact having been brought to the notice of the court, such court shall transfer the case to the court having jurisdiction under sub-section (2) of section 142, as amended by the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, before which the first case was filed and is pending, as if that sub-section had been in force at all material times.

Repeal and savings.

5. (1) The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Second Ordinance, 2015, is hereby repealed.

(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or any action taken under the principal Act, as amended by the said Ordinance, shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding provisions of the principal Act, as amended by this Act.

                                                           ** * ***

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.

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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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