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IT clients in US cautious of Donald Trump’s new tax regime
US clients of India’s $150-billion information technology services industry are inserting new caveats and exit clauses into outsourcing contracts on fears that the Donald Trump administration may bring in a new tax regime that would make offshoring more expensive, experts say. “The worry for several companies that are outsourcing work is that, going ahead, they may face additional taxes of around 20% if they are offshoring their business under new laws that may be introduced within a year or so,” said Girish Vanvari, national head, tax, at KPMG India.
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NBFC cash loan against gold restricted to Rs 25,000
Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) cannot lend more than Rs 25,000 in cash against gold, the Reserve Bank said today. The earlier provision for NBFC was that high value loans against gold of Rs 1 lakh and above must only be disbursed by cheque. RBI reduced the amount to Rs 25,000 from the earlier Rs 1 lakh in line with the provisions of the Income Tax Act. “…the relevant threshold under the Income Tax Act, 1961 is Rupees Twenty thousand,” the central bank said, while amending the provisions for disbursal of loan amount in cash by NBFCs. This assumes significance in the backdrop of government’s focus on less cash economy and promoting digital payments.
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Let Govt staff’s pension funds to invest 50% in equities: PFRDA
Pensions fund regulator PFRDA wants the government to more than treble investment levels in equity markets by government subscribers under the National Pension System (NPS) up to 50 per cent from 15 per cent now, said a PTI report. The regulator has sent a proposal to the government seeking to allow government subscribers (state and Central government employees) invest up to 50 per cent in equities under the NPS, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority chairman Hemanth Contractor said today.
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Government releases draft rules for smart card, m-wallets
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued draft guidelines for transactions made through prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) like mobile wallets, smart cards and paper vouchers and has comments on the draft by March 20. The draft has been formulated for security of prepaid payment instruments under provisions of IT Act 2000, under the draft IT (Security of Prepaid Payment Instruments) Rules 2017. “With the government promoting cashless economy and boost being given to various digital payment systems, a need is felt to develop a framework for security of various PPIs operating in the country,” it said.It has proposed that PPIs should ensure end-to-end encryption of the data exchanged and emphasised that e-PPI issuers assist customers to secure use of PPIs to operated simple language.
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With FM Arun Jaitley set to meet RBI Governor Urjit Patel today, data shows bank NPAs jump 60% to Rs 7 lakh cr
Finance minister Arun Jaitley will hold a meeting with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials on Friday on the vexing issue of non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks, especially the public-sector ones, sources said. Financial services secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal will also be a part of the meeting. In the Economic Survey 2016-17, CEA Arvind Subramanian had suggested a centralised Public-sector Asset Rehabilitation Agency to address the issue. However, RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya recently pitched for an efficient structure for handling the stressed loan crisis: a private asset management company and a national asset management company.
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HC quashes Jindals’ 2 coal block bids
In a setback to Naveen Jindal-controlled Jindal Power (JPL), the Delhi High Court (HC) on Thursday declared the company as the unsuccessful bidder for two coal blocks. The order has come as a legal endorsement of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s auctioning of coal mining rights. There were two other breakthrough orders associated with the coal block e-auction held in 2015-16. The first case pertained to the two coal blocks — Tara in West Bengal and Gare Palma IV/2&3 in Jharkhand. Though JPL emerged the winning bidder, the coal ministry did not approve the bids received for these coal blocks, citing reasons of “comparatively low bids”. JPL moved the Delhi HC in March 2015.
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Reliance Industries’ over 10% shares exchange hands via block deal
Reliance Industries’ (RIL) nearly 396 million equity shares representing 12.58% equity of total paid up capital changed hands on BSE through block deal in early morning trade.RIL on March 2, 2017 had informed the stock exchanges that entities forming part of the promoter group of the company intend to acquire from other promoter group entities by way of ‘inter-se’ transfer aggregating up to 1,190 million shares of RIL.
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India and Belgium sign Protocol to amend DTAA
India and Belgium on Thursday signed a Protocol to amend the existing Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between the two countries. This Protocol was signed by Sushil Chandra, Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on behalf of India and Jan Luykx, Ambassador of Belgium to India, on behalf of Belgium. The Protocol seeks to broaden the scope of the existing framework of exchange of tax related information. This in turn will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance between the two countries and will also enable mutual assistance in collection of taxes, an official release said.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
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IFMR Capital, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking ink pact
IFMR Capital, a non-banking finance company, has signed an agreement with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation of Japan to facilitate priority sector investments in India. Under the agreement, Sumitomo Mitsui will use IFMR Capital’s relationships, product structuring capability, risk management and credit underwriting processes to acquire priority sector assets. The partnership, according to an IFMR Capital press release, will help in developing interest among Japanese and other investors from the Asia-Pacific region in financially excluded sectors in the country.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
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RBI opposes $1.17 bn Tata-DoCoMo settlement
The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday opposed the $1.17 billion deal pact between Tata Sons Ltd and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo in connection with the termination of a joint venture in the country. The two companies that had made a joint application in the Delhi High Court to resolve the matter had the hearing yesterday. Steady with its earlier decisions in February 2015 and July 2016, RBI told the court that Tata Sons cannot pay DoCoMo despite the arbitration in a London court in June 2016.
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Delhi High Court Bars Cipla From Selling Novartis’ Respiratory Drug
The Delhi High Court on Thursday barred Cipla Ltd. from manufacturing and selling a generic version of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG’s respiratory drug Onbrez in India. In doing so, the 2-judge bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdev upheld an earlier order of the high court in January 2015 that restrained Cipla from making and selling Indacaterol – the generic name of Onbrez – until Cipla got compulsory licence for it. Cipla challenged the order before the 2-judge bench, saying permission to make and sell the drug was in larger public interest as Novartis’ drug was too expensive and made available only to government hospitals because of which is was not easily available to the public.
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SC asks Mallya whether he truthfully disclosed his assets
The Supreme Court on Thursday put forth searching questions to businessman Vijay Mallya on the disclosure of his assets to the court. A bench, comprising Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit, asked Mr. Mallya if he was truthful after a consortium of banks led by the SBI alleged that $40 million was transferred by him to his three children in complete violation of the Karnataka High Court order. Moreover, the fact that $40 million was received by Mr. Mallya from the United Kingdom-based Diageo PLC was not disclosed before the court here, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the banks, alleged.
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Avenue Supermarts Ltd. IPO Oversubscribed by 5.71 times on Day 2
The maiden initial public offering (“IPO”) of Avenue Supermarts Ltd., was oversubscribed by 5.71 times on Day 2. As per data available at National Stock Exchange (NSE) on March 9, 2017 at 1700 hours, the issue is subscribed by 5.71 times. The total bids received stand at 25,31,79,750 while total bids received at cut off price stand at 7,51,75,000. The IPO issue consists of allocation of 50% to QIBs, 15% to HNIs and 35% to retail investors.
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China warns of ‘trade war’ if WTO is ignored by US
China warned on Thursday (March 9) that the United States ignoring World Trade Organisation rulings could trigger a “trade war” after President Donald Trump’s administration said it was not bound by the body’s decisions. Last week, a letter sent from the United States Trade Representative to Congress outlining Trump policy reviewed the terms under which the United States joined the WTO when it was founded in 1995. According to the Trump administration’s interpretation, “Congress had made clear that Americans are not directly subject to WTO rulings”, said the document.
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Huge potential exists to boost trade with Africa: Nirmala Sitharaman
Tapping the potential in renewable energy, pharma and healthcare can boost economic ties between India and Africa, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today. She said the two-way trade between India and Africa increased to $56.69 billion in 2015-16 from $51.67 billion in 2010-11. There was a “good increase in trade but opportunities do exist. The newer sectors in which we can have greater interaction, engagement and productive relationship are renewable energy, pharmaceuticals and healthcare,” the Commerce and Industry Minister said. She added that both sides can collaborate for joint research in order to combat pandemics such as HIV AIDS. Sitharaman said currently the global trade scenario is dim but it also throws big opportunities for businesses of India and Africa.
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Google acquires Kaggle in boost to data play
Technology giant Google has announced the acquisition of Kaggle, a start—up that hosts a number of data scientists, for an undisclosed amount at the Cloud Next 2017 conference. “Kaggle is going to maintain independent brand for a while… what Kaggle has contributed to the community is democratisation of data, developer community… partnership with Kaggle is going to be very positive for us,” said Chief Scientist Google Cloud (artificial intelligence and machine learning) Fei Fei Li here.
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DeMo has reinforced faith in gold: WGC
Demonetisation has tested people’s faith in fiat currencies and in turn reinforced their faith in gold, finds World Gold Council. Fiat currencies are those not backed by a physical commodity, like gold. All currencies are now fiat currencies, including the rupee and the dollar. WGC had conducted a consumer research in Q1 2016 in which 63 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement “I trust gold more than the currencies of countries”. Seventy-three per cent of respondents had agreed that gold makes them feel secure for the long-term.
Source: My Digital Financial Chronicle
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