The IRDA, vide Circular, dated 10-2-2011, had issued guidelines on portability of health insurance policies which was to be introduced from 1-7-2011. Subsequently, on 24-6-2011, it was felt necessary to put in place a system to enable collection of data on the history of health insurance and monitoring the transfer of records of the porting policyholder. In that context, it was decided that the implementation of portability of health insurance policies would be mandated to commence no later than 1-10-2011. In continuation of the above guidelines, the detailed procedure on health insurance portability shall be as set out in these guidelines.
Circular No. 44 /2011- Customs Consequent to the judgement of Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 18.02.2011, in Civil Appeals Nos. 4294-4295 of 2002 and Nos. 4603-4604 of 2005 (commonly referred to as Sayed Ali case), Board issued an Instruction F.No.437/143/2009-Cus.IV(pt) dated 15.04.2011 directing the field formations to examine pending Show Cause Notices and wherever these are not hit by time limitation to get these issued afresh by the jurisdictional Commissionerates.
On a review of the extant ECB policy, it has been decided, in consultation with the Government of India, to further rationalise and liberalize the ECB guidelines as under:- (i) Enhancement of ECB limit under the automatic route (a) Eligible borrowers in real sector-industrial sector-infrastructure sector can avail of ECB up to USD 750 million or equivalent per financial year under the automatic route as against the present limit of USD 500 million or equivalent per financial year.
Considering the specific needs of the infrastructure sector, the existing ECB policy has been reviewed in consultation with the Government of India and it has been decided to allow Indian companies which are in the infrastructure sector, where “infrastructure” is as defined under the extant guidelines on External Commercial Borrowings (ECB), to import capital goods by availing of short term credit (including buyers’ / suppliers’ credit) in the nature of ‘bridge finance’, under the approval route, subject to the following conditions:-
As per extant guidelines, repayment of existing Rupee loans is not a permissible end-use for ECB. Considering the specific needs of the infrastructure sector, the existing ECB policy has been reviewed in consultation with the Government of India and it has been decided to allow Indian companies which are in the infrastructure sector,
Consequential amendments to be carried out in Clause 35 of the Listing Agreement, pursuant to SAST Regulations 2011 are given in Annexure – 1 to this circular. Stock Exchanges are advised to carry out the said amendments in their Listing Agreement and confirm compliance of the same in the next monthly development report.
Circular No. 43/2011-Customs The Board had informed vide said Circular dated 14.09.2011 that export of ONION is prohibited vide Notification No.73(RE-2010)/2009-2014 dated 09-09-2011. Now DGFT vide Notification No.75(RE-2010)/2009-2014 dated 20/09/2011 amended the said notification and lifted the ban on export of Onion with immediate effect. Export of Onions is now allowed subject to Minimum Export Price of $475.00 per MTS or as notified by DGFT from time to time. The field formation may take note of this change and strictly monitor the conditions of the said Notification.
Circular No. – 42 / 2011-Cus – As in previous years, the drawback rates have been determined on the basis of certain broad parameters including, inter alia, the prevailing prices of inputs, Standard Input Output Norms (SION), share of imports in the total consumption of inputs, FOB value of export goods and the applied rates of duty. The incidence of duty on HSD/Furnace Oil has been factored in the drawback calculations. The incidence of service tax paid on taxable services which are used as input services in the manufacturing or processing of export goods has also been factored. The Commissioners may ensure that the exporters do not avail of the refund of this tax through any other mechanism while claiming the All Industry Rates of duty drawback.
Circular No. 146/15/2011 – Service Tax – Audit of the accounts of M/s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Tiruchirapalli – Issue of eligibility or otherwise of Notification No.03/1994 – ST dated 30.6.1994 in case of telephone services for local calls provided through Village Panchayat Telephones – regarding.
Reference has been received from the Chief Commissioner, Central Excise, Coimbatore, wherein, a clarification has been requested for uniformity in assessment as regards levy of service tax on telephone services rendered by M/s BSNL through Village Panchayat Telephone (VPT) with local call facility, after M/s BSNL have become a public sector unit
