At the inter-bank foreign exchange market, the rupee sank 81 paise, to a over 32-month closing low of 52.15 against the dollar. The rupee fell on sustained dollar demand, and as domestic equities tumbled. The rupee has lost over 4 percent against the dollar in the last six trading sessions.
Notification No. 504/2011 – Income Tax Information on tax matters is being sought by field officers of the Income Tax Department from countries/jurisdictions with which India has Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) or Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) under the relevant ‘Exchange of Information’ Article of DTAA/TIEA through the office of competent authority viz. the Joint Secretary in the Foreign Tax & Tax Division, CBDT. Presently the above information is being sought obtained in a prescribed checklist/ proforma (copy enclosed as Annexure-A). Further in the case of U.K, for obtaining banking information, a separate proforma has been prescribed by U.K tax authorities (copy enclosed as Annexure-B).
Punjab Government has promuglated a new ordinance so as to amend the Punjab Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas Act, 2000. By this ordinance word ‘Goods’ in the said Act has been defined, section 3-A and section 4 of the said Act has also been amended.
It has also been decided to amend para 3.2.6 of Master Circular DBS. FrMC. BC. No. 1/23.04.001/2011-12 dated July 01, 2011 on ‘Frauds – Classification and Reporting’ and henceforth banks need not forward a copy of circular on modus operandi of frauds occurred issued to their branches to Reserve Bank of India, Fraud Monitoring Cell , Department of Banking Supervision, Central office. In place, banks may place the copy of the circular on modus-operandi of fraud issued to their branches before the audit committee of board in its periodical meetings.
In terms of the Comprehensive Marine Fishing Policy, the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, issues Letter of Permission (LOP) to wholly owned Indian Enterprises for acquisition of resource-specific fishing Vessels and regulates the operation of these Vessels. Since deep sea fishing involves continuous sailing outside the territorial limit, trans-shipment of catches takes place in the high sea leading to procedural constraints in regulatory reporting requirement viz. the Declaration of Export in terms of Notification No.FEMA.23/2000/RB dated May 3, 2000.
A bank acting as sponsor of IDF–NBFC shall contribute a minimum equity of 30 per cent and maximum equity of 49 per cent of the IDF-NBFC. Since in terms of Section 19 (2) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, a bank cannot hold shares in excess of 30 per cent of the paid up share capital of a company, unless it is a subsidiary, Reserve Bank would, based on merits, recommend to the Government to grant exemption from the provisions of Section 19(2) of the Act, ( i.e. under Section 53 of the Act ibid) for investment in excess of 30 per cent and upto 49 per cent in the equity of the IDF-NBFC.
The Finance Minister had in his budget speech for the year 2011-2012 announced the setting up of Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDFs), to facilitate the flow of long-term debt into infrastructure projects. The IDF will be set up either as a trust or as a company. A trust based IDF would normally be a Mutual Fund (MF) while a company based IDF would normally be a NBFC. IDF- NBFC would raise resources through issue of either Rupee or Dollar denominated bonds of minimum 5 year maturity. The investors would be primarily domestic and off-shore institutional investors, especially insurance and pension funds which would have long term resources. IDF-MF would be regulated by SEBI while IDF-NBFC would be regulated by the Reserve Bank.
