With the objective to provide relief to small and medium dealers under various laws implemented by the State Tax Department prior to the implementation of the GST, an amnesty scheme under the ‘Maharashtra Settlement of Arrears of Tax, Interest, Penalty or Late Fee Act, 2023’ has been announced. The scheme will be operative from 1 May 2023 to 31 October 2023.
On 8 February 2023, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India (MCA), proposed amendments to the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (CAB22), which was tabled in the Indian Parliament in August 2022 to bring progressive improvements to the Competition Act, 2002 (Competition Act). The key features of CAB22 are discussed here. CAB22 was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (Standing Committee) which carried out detailed consultation with various stakeholders and suggested amendments (discussed here).
The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has initiated an anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) originating in or exported from China and Hong Kong, by a notification dated 30 December 2022 (Notification).
The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (Bill) was tabled before Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament on 5 August 2022. The Bill, which intends to introduce some wide-ranging changes to the Competition Act, 2002 (Competition Act), was sent to the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (Committee), seeking a report within 3 months.
In early August 2022, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) withdrew the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 (2019 Bill), which was reworked on by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), promising that they would release a more comprehensive data protection framework to take into account the recommendations of the JPC.
Continuing its focus on advocacy, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on 14 October 2022, published its second market study in two months. The focus of the latest market study was the film distribution chain in India (Market Study). The Market Study was undertaken in order to assess the state of competition in the film industry in light of the dynamic effects of digitisation, and to highlight the potential self-corrective measures that can be adopted to mitigate the prevalent competition law related issues in the industry.
The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) issued ‘Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022’ (Bill) on 21 September 2022. The Bill seeks to override three legislations (i.e., the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and the Telegraph Wires (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1950). The public consultation for the Bill is open till 20 October 2022.
Overseas Investments by Indian party(ies) were hitherto governed by the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Any Foreign Security) Regulations, 2004 (Foreign Security Regulations) and the Foreign Exchange Management (Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property Outside India) Regulations, 2015 (Property Regulations) (collectively Erstwhile Regulations).
