Archives for April 2017

One Day Program On Goods & Services Tax (GST)

NIRC of ICSI is organising One Day Program on "Goods & Services Tax" on Saturday, the 29th April, 2017 from 9:00 AM onwards at Hotel Shangri-La, 19 Ashoka Road, Connaught Place, (Near Patel Chowk Metro Station) New Delhi 110001. The Program shall be inaugurated by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal Ji, Hon’ble Union Minister of State, Ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs. Fee: Rs. 2,250/-per delegate inclusive of service tax; FREE for Corporate Members of NIRC; Program Credit Hours: 06.

MCA

MCA has issued a Circular clarifying the issues relating to the Transfer of shares to IEPF Authority. The due date for transfer of shares by Companies to IEPF is May 31, 2017 pursuant to second proviso to Rule 6 of Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (Accounting, Audit, Transfer and Refund) Amendment Rules, 2017. The IEPF Authority has now decided to open a special demat account with NSDL and all companies shall now transfer such shares, whether held in dematerialised form or physical form to the demat account of IEPF authority. NSDL will prescribe the format and procedure to facilitate such transfer by April 30th 2017 and May 15th 2017 respectively. NSDL will also levy charges as provided in this Circular.

RBI

RBI proposes fresh Regulations under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 for Cross Border Mergers on April 26, 2017 and has Invited comments from stakeholders. The draft guidelines proposed to be issued on cross border merger transactions pursuant to the Rules notified by Ministry of Corporate Affairs through Companies (Compromises, Arrangements and Amalgamation) Amendment Rules, 2017 on April 13, 2017. The Reserve Bank of India has proposed these Regulations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) in order to address the issues that may arise when an Indian company and a foreign company enter into Scheme of merger, demerger, amalgamation, or rearrangement. These Regulations stipulate conditions that should be adhered to by the companies involved in the Scheme. The Regulations shall be named Foreign Exchange Management (Cross Border Merger) Regulations. Members of public, including the stakeholders and experts in the area, are requested to offer their views and comments on the proposed Regulations. The comments may be sent latest by May 9, 2017 to email with the subject “Cross Border Mergers – Comments/Suggestions”.

News from NIRC of ICSI

Registration open for “15 days Crash Course exclusively for Female Members” on different topics for three weeks i.e. from Monday, the 1st May, 2017 to Wednesday, the 17th May, 2017 from 4.00 PM to 6.30 PM at NIRC Auditorium, ICSI-NIRC Building, Plot No. 4, Prasad Nagar Institutional Area, New Delhi -110005. Fee : Fees (inclusive of service tax): Rs.2,250/- for all sessions (including Corporate Members); Program Credit Hours: 02 per day.

CBEC – Service Tax

CBEC has extended the Due Date of filing of Service Tax return upto April 30,2017. The Central Board of Excise & Customs hereby extends the date of submission of the Form ST-3 for the period from 1st October, 2016 to 31st March, 2017, from 25th April, 2017 to 30th April, 2017 because of intermittent difficulties face by assessees in accessing the ACES website on 25th April, 2017. Stakeholders are requested to plan accordingly.

SEBI

The SEBI Board in its last meeting has taken various decisions’ to improve the facilities being offered to the stakeholders. The SEBI Board discussed some major initiatives like Instant Access Facility (IAF) in Mutual Funds and use of e-wallet for investment in Mutual Funds upto Rs. 50,000/- in financial year; Amendments to Securities Contracts (Regulation) (Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations) Regulations, 2012; Inclusion of RBI registered systemically important NBFCs in the category of QIBs; Exemption under SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2009, relating to preferential allotments, to be extended to Scheduled Banks and Financial Institutions; Strengthening the Monitoring of Utilisation of Issue Proceeds; Framework for consolidation and re-issuance of debt securities issued under the SEBI (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations, 2008; Amendment to SEBI (Foreign Portfolio Investor ) Regulations, 2014; Amendments to the SEBI (Debenture Trustee) Regulations, 1993 & Integration of broking activities in Equity Markets and Commodity Derivatives Markets under single entity.

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has released a set of clarifications addressing concerns under the provisions of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017. The release clarifies that the Act is applicable to contractual or consultant women employees, as well as to the women who are already on maternity leave at the time of enforcement of the Amendment Act. Further, the Act is also applicable to all mines, plantations, shops and establishments and factors, whether in organized or unorganized sector. However, the women employees who have already availed 12 weeks of maternity leave before the enforcement of the Act shall not be entitled to avail the extended benefit of a 26 weeks leave. The Act had received the assent of the President on March 27, 2017, and had come into force on April 1, 2017. However, the provision for creche facilities shall be enforced from July 1, 2017.

CBDT

CBDT has extended the date for filing of declaration under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016 (PMGKY) upto 10th May, 2017. The Taxation and Investment Regime for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016 (PMGKY) had commenced on 17th December, 2016 and was open for declarations up to 31st March, 2017. Representations from stakeholders have been received stating that in some cases tax, surcharge and penalty have been paid on or before 31st March, 2017 but the corresponding deposit under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme, 2016 (Deposit Scheme) could not be made by the said date. Accordingly, DEA has extended the date of making deposit under the Deposit Scheme upto 30th April, 2017 in respect of cases where tax, surcharge and penalty under PMGKY has been paid on or before 31st March, 2017. Subsequently, CBDT has extended the date of filing of declaration under PMGKY to 10th May, 2017 in cases where tax, surcharge and penalty under PMGKY has been paid on or before the 31st March, 2017, and deposit under the Deposit Scheme has been made on or before the 30th April, 2017.

News from NIRC of ICSI

NIRC of ICSI is organising Study Session on "Voluntary Liquidation Process & Removal of Names of Companies" on Thursday, the 27th April, 2017 from 5.30 PM onwards at NEW DELHI YMCA Conference Room, 2nd Floor, Library Building 1, Jaisingh Road, New Delhi. PCH : 02; No Participation Fee.

MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT

The Ministry of Labour And Employment with intent to promote the ease of compliance of Labour Laws and Rules by various establishments has notified The Rationalisation of Forms and Reports under Certain Labour Laws Rules, 2017 which shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette i.e 28-03-2017. The intention is to provide for combined and simplified forms and reports is to sub-serve the purposes, electronically or otherwise, of the said labour related laws and the rules made thereunder, wherein provisions have been made for use of such forms and reports. These Rules have reduced the number of forms and reports prescribed under 3 Acts and the Rules made thereunder from 36 to 12. The overall aim of the exercise is to make the forms and reports easy to understand for the users. This will save efforts, costs and lessen the compliance burden of various establishments. The Labour Laws under which these forms are filed include The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970; The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 and The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.

CBEC – Central Excise

CBEC has notified the amendment to the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004. These rules may be called the Cenvat Credit (Second Amendment) Rules, 2017 which shall come into force on the 23rd day of April, 2017. The CBEC seeks to amend CENVAT credit Rules, 2004 to allow the importer of the goods to take Cenvat credit on basis of the challan of payment of service tax by the said importer on the services provided by a foreign shipping line to a foreign charterer w.r.t. goods destined for India.

IBBI

IBBI has published the draft regulations for Fast Track Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process of Corporate Persons. Under the draft regulations, such Corporate Debtors with assets and income below a certain level or such class of creditors or such amount of debt or such categories of Corporate Persons, as may be notified by Central Government, may opt for the resolution process under Fast Track Regulations which shall be completed within a period of 90 days from the insolvency commencement date and can be extended by 45 days with the permission of Adjudicating Authority under certain circumstances. IBBI has also submitted a draft regulation on “Eligible Corporate Persons” on whom these Fast Track Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process regulations shall apply, to be notified by Central Government under section 55 (2) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The drfat are available for public comments on both regulations i.e Fast Track Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate persons and Eligible Corporate Debtor under Fast Track Insolvency Resolution Process. Accordingly, comments on each provision of the draft regulations are invited from Public by 8th May, 2017.

CBDT

Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) has issued a Clarification on removal of Cyprus from the list of notified jurisdictional areas under Section 94A of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Cyprus was specified as a "notified jurisdictional area" (NJA) under section 94A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 vide Notification N0.86/2013 dated 01.11.2013. The said Notification No. 86/2013 was subsequently rescinded vide Notification No. 114 dated 14.12.2016 and Notification No. 1 19 dated 16.12.2016 with effect from the date of issue of the notification. For removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that Notification No. 86/2013 has been rescinded with effect from the date of issue of the said notification, thereby, removing Cyprus as a notified jurisdictional area with retrospective effect from 01.11.2013.

MCA:

challan.iepfa up to 20th May, 2017 only and no further relaxation shall be granted. Further, the submitted data shall be processed by the IEPF Authority and a Front Office service will be made available on IEPF website­ from 5th June, 2017 for a period of 30 days i.e. up to 5th July, 2017 to enable the companies to submit the required data online. An automated generated number will be provided by the MCA21 system on validation of entries and using this automated generated number as SRN, companies may file e-form IEPF-1 online & upload investor details without requirement of filing additional fees.