Increase in overall limits- 1. The existing limit of USD 5 billion for investment by foreign Institutional investors (FIIs) in corporate bonds issued by companies in the infrastructure sector with a residual maturity of over five years has been increased by an additional limit of USD 20 billion taking the total limit to USD 25 billion. These investments are now permissible in unlisted instruments. Investments in unlisted bonds- FIIs shall now be eligible to invest in unlisted bonds issued by companies in the infrastructure sector that are generally organised in the form of special purpose vehicles.
Please refer to Circular No. IMD/FII&C/32/2008 dated October 16, 2008 read with Circular No. IMD/FII&C/34/2008 dated October 20, 2008 and Circular No. IMD/FII&C/4/2010 dated June 29, 2010 related to reporting of information pertaining to securities lent by the FIIs to entities abroad. Based on these circulars, FIIs have been submitting weekly reports based on which disclosures have been made available for public dissemination at http://203. 199.12.5 1/SecuritiesLentMain.html every Tuesday. The reports filed by the FIIs have been reviewed and it is noted that as on March 04, 2011 there are no outstanding short positions reported by the FIIs. While the prohibition on the activity of synthetic short continues, the FIIs are no longer required to file these reports, with effect from the date of this circular, as there are no outstanding short positions.
Penal actions for defaults committed under the Companies Act, 1956 are either to be taken against an “officer in default” or a “director(s)” or “persons” as provided in the relevant penal provisions of the Act. Section 5 of the Companies Act, 1956, defines officer in default and the Directors are also liable for compliance of various provisions of the Act.
Addendum to Circular no. Cir/ISD/1/2011 dated March 23, 2011 – Employees should be directed that any market related news received by them either in their official mail/personal mail/blog or in any other manner, should be forwarded only after the same has been seen and approved by the concerned Intermediary’s Compliance Officer. If an employee fails to do so, he/she shall be deemed to have violated the various provisions contained in SEBI Act/Rules/Regulations etc. and shall be liable for action. The Compliance Officer shall also be held liable for breach of duty in this regard.
Further, in various instances, it has been observed that the Intermediaries do not have proper internal controls and do not ensure that proper checks and balances are in place to govern the conduct of their employees. Due to lack of proper internal controls and poor training, employees of such intermediaries are sometimes not aware of the damage which can be caused by circulation of unauthenticated news or rumours. It is a well established fact that market rumours can do considerable damage to the normal functioning and behaviour of the market and distort the price discovery mechanisms.
The stock exchanges may consider shifting the trading in these securities to normal Rolling Settlement subject to the following: a) At least 50% of other than promoter holdings as per clause 35 of Listing Agreement are in dematerialized mode before shifting the trading in the securities of the company from TFTS to normal Rolling Settlement. For this purpose, the listed companies shall obtain a certificate from its Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA) and submit the same to the stock exchange/s. However, if an issuer-company does not have a separate RTA, it may obtain a certificate in this regard from a practicing company Secretary/Chartered Accountant and submit the same to the stock exchange/s.
A reference is invited to your letter, dated 19 January, 2011 addressed to Prime Minister of India regarding disclosure of names of Indians having illegal accounts in Liechtenstein, which were obtained from German Government. In your letter you have stated that a plea has been taken by the Government before the Supreme Court in the Public Interest Litigation that the names of Indians having bank accounts in LGT bank of Lichtenstein received from Germany cannot be made public in view of the confidentiality provision of the DTAA between India and Germany. You have also mentioned that there is no bilateral agreement between India and Germany which contain confidentiality provision and that Law Officers of Government have misled the Supreme Court. In view of the above, a plea was made to make the names public and prosecute t
As and when Customs (CBEC) have conveyed their readiness to implement on-line message exchange between Customs and DGFT, Policy Circulars have been issued from time to time by DGFT indicating the names and Port Codes of such Customs Ports where EDI facility would be available. Such Policy Circulars are listed below:
Circular No. 15 /2011-Customs – Representations have been received from some industry association on behalf of software dealers about difficulties being expressed in the assessment to customs duty of documents of title for IT software or documents that enable the transfer of the right to use such software at the time of its sale. It has been reported that there are frequent imports of such documents without any accompanying software. Such packages do not contain software but consist of paper licenses or PUK (Personal Unlocking Key, usually in the form of a scratch card of paper board or plastic) that are used to convey the right to use such IT software. The software in these cases could be freely downloadable or loaded by the OEM supplier under an arrangement with the software company as pre-loaded trial version of software on the computer system requiring the customer to purchase license or PUK after the trial period. Typically these licenses are used either to authorize additional uses against a sale of IT software that has already taken place in the past or to service transactions where the connected software is downloaded electronically by the customer. It has been pointed out that some of the field formations are insisting on the classification of such documents, even when imported without the packaged software, under CTH 8523 i.e. the heading applicable to IT software. It has also been represented that in certain cases the entire value of the license representing the right to use such IT software is sought to be loaded to the value of past imports of IT software by the importer.
Cir. /IMD/DF/5/2011- March 16, 2011 – The Listing Agreement for securitized debt instruments as set out at Annexure shall come into force with immediate effect for all ‘securitised debt instruments, as defined under regulation 2(1 )(s) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Public Offer and Listing of Securitised Debt Instruments) Regulations, 2008, seeking listing on the Stock Exchange.
