This circular is issued in exercise of powers conferred under Section 11 (1) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, to protect the interests of investors in securities and to promote the development of, and to regulate the securities market.
In order to simplify the existing form used for declaration of exports of Goods/Softwares, a common form called Export Declaration Form (EDF) has been devised to declare all types of export of goods from Non-EDI ports and a common SOFTEX Form to declare single as well as bulk software exports.
It has been decided to revise the definition of the term ‘control’ as under; – ‘Control’ shall include the right to appoint a majority of the directors or to control the management or policy decisions including by virtue of their shareholding or management rights or shareholders agreements or voting agreements.
With an objective to develop debt markets and encourage transition of trading in debt instruments from OTC markets to stock exchanges, SEBI issued Guidelines for providing dedicated Debt Segment on Stock Exchanges vide circular no CIR/MRD/DP/03/2013 dated January 24, 2013.
Eligible foreign investors investing under Portfolio Investment Scheme (‘PIS’) route shall be classified as Category I, II and III as provided in Annexure A. The intermediary shall follow risk based Know Your Client norms. Accordingly, certain clarifications are hereby issued, as given in Annexure B, based on the category of these investors.
For the purpose of downstream investment, the Indian companies making the downstream investments would have to bring in requisite funds from abroad and not use funds borrowed in the domestic market. This would, however, not preclude downstream operating companies, from raising debt in the domestic market. Downstream investments through internal accruals are permissible by an Indian company, subject to the provisions of clause 6(i) and as also elaborated below:
Further, it has also been decided that issue of corporate guarantee on behalf of second generation or subsequent level step down operating subsidiaries will be considered under the Approval Route, provided the Indian Party indirectly holds 51 per cent or more stake in the overseas subsidiary for which such guarantee is intended to be issued.
On submission of the proof of current address, the account would be treated as a normal NRO account, and will be operated in terms of instructions contained in RBI’s Master Circular on Non-Resident Ordinary Rupee (NRO) Account No. RBI/2013-14/2 Master Circular No.2/2013-14 dated July 1, 2013 issued by our Foreign Exchange Department, Central Office and the provisions of Schedule 3 of FEMA Notification 5/2000 RB dated May 3, 2000may also be kept in view.
On a review of the policy, it has been decided to enhance the ceiling on loans to individuals for carrying out repairs / additions / alterations to their dwelling units to ` 2 lakh in rural and semi-urban areas and ` 5 lakh in urban areas.
In view of the prevailing market conditions, it has further been decided that AD Category I banks, at their option, can enter into a swap transaction with RBI in respect of the borrowings raised after the date of this circular.
