Under the extant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy, 100% FDI is permitted under the automatic route in Single Brand Retail Trading (SBRT) entities, subject to their compliance with the local sourcing requirements, whereby an SBRT entity having FDI of more than 51% must ensure that 30% of t
On 21 February 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a list of ‘jurisdictions under increased monitoring’, popularly known as the ‘grey list’ and to the dismay of several foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), Mauritius ended up featuring in this list alongside 17 other jurisdictions, for the first time.
While presenting the Government’s Budget for financial year 2020-21, Hon’ble Finance Minister of India (Hon’ble FM) in her budget speech had announced that government will come out with a tax dispute resolution scheme (Vivad Se Vishwas) wherein taxpayers will get complete waiver of interest and penalty by paying only the disputed taxes within prescribed time. To that effect, the government has introduced ‘The Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill, 2020’ (Scheme) in the Parliament on 5 February 2020.
CUSTOMS LAW
Proposed legislative changes in the Customs Act, 1962
Power to prohibit import and export of goods under Section 11 is proposed to be expanded to all goods, the uncontrolled import or export of which, can cause injury to the economy of India. Hitherto this was limited to gold and silver only.
The tax rates and income slabs under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (IT Act) remain the same, other than the following proposed changes.
The GST Council (Council) met on 18 December 2019 for the 38th time since the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Amidst concerns of rate hikes and introduction of cesses for increasing revenue collections, the Council restricted the changes only to procedural changes and a few tweaks in the rate structure. This was also the first time that the members of the Council (after its constitution) had to call for a vote to effect certain rate changes. The relevant notifications to effect the changes shall be issued in due course.
On 5 December 2017, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) published a set of guidelines to regulate private equity investment in Insurance companies -the IRDAI (Investment by Private Equity Funds in Indian Insurance Companies) Guidelines 2018.
After a gap of over 15 months, the final draft of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 (Bill) has finally been tabled before the lower house of Parliament. The Bill, which is a culmination of process over more than two-years, seeks to significantly transform the existing legal and regulatory landscape relating to data protection in India.
On 11 December 2019, the Government of India introduced the Code on Social Security, 2019 (Code) in the Lok Sabha. The Code proposes to consolidate the law on social security in India and replace the following extant statutes:
The Central Government, vide notification dated 17 October 2019 had notified the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 (NDI Rules) in supersession of the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer and Issue of Security by a Person Resident outside India) Regulations, 2017 (Old FEMA 20) and the Foreign Exchange Management (Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property in India) Regulations, 2018. Our earlier update on the NDI Rules is available here.
