Securities and Exchange Board of India

14.05.2020

Capital Market

Relaxation from the applicability of SEBI Circular dated October 10, 2017 on non-compliance with the Minimum Public Shareholding requirements

MANU/SSMD/0023/2020

1. SEBI circular No. CFD/CMD/CIR/P/2017/115 dated October 10, 2017 lays down the procedure to be followed by the recognized stock exchanges/depositories with respect to MPS non-compliant listed entities, their promoters and directors, including levy of fines, freeze of promoter holding etc.

2. After taking into consideration requests received from listed entities and industry bodies as well as considering the prevailing business and market conditions, it has been decided to grant relaxation from the applicability of the October 10, 2017 circular. Accordingly, the stipulations of the aforesaid October 10, 2017 SEBI circular are relaxed for listed entities for whom the deadline to comply with MPS requirements falls between the period from March 1, 2020 to August 31, 2020. Recognized Stock Exchanges are advised not to take any penal action as envisaged in the October 10, 2017 circular against such entities in case of non-compliance during the said period. Penal actions, if any, initiated by Stock Exchanges from March 1, 2020 till date for non-compliance of MPS requirements by such listed entities may be withdrawn.

3. This Circular shall come into force with immediate effect. The Stock Exchanges are advised to bring the provisions of this circular to the notice of all listed entities that have issued specified securities and also disseminate on their websites.

4. The Circular is issued in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 11 (1) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 read with regulations 97, 98, 101 and 102 of the LODR.

Tags : Relaxation Applicability SEBI Circular

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Ministry of Finance 

14.05.2020

Direct Taxation

Sabka Vishwas (legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme (Amendment) Rules, 2020

MANU/EXNT/0001/2020

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and (2) of section 132 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (23 of 2019), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules to amend the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme Rules, 2019, namely:-

1. (i) These rules may be called the Sabka Vishwas (legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme (Amendment) Rules, 2020.

(ii) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the official gazette.

2. In the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme Rules, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as the said rules), in rule 6,-

(i) In sub-rule (2) for the words "within a period of sixty days from the date of receipt of the declaration", the words, figures and letters "on or before the 31st day of May, 2020" shall be substituted;

(ii) In sub-rule (3), for the words "within thirty days of the date of receipt of the declaration under sub-rule (1) of rule 3", the words, figures and letters "on or before the 1st day of May, 2020" shall be substituted;

3. In the said rules, in rule 7, for the words "within a period of thirty days from the date of its issue", the words, figures and letters "on or before the 30th day of June, 2020" shall be substituted.

Tags : Scheme Amendment Rules

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Press Information Bureau

13.05.2020

Property

Government committed to uphold and protect interest of homebuyers while ensuring ease of doing business in real estate sector

MANU/PIBU/1274/2020

The Government is committed to uphold and protect the interest of homebuyers while ensuring ease of doing business in the real estate sector. Subsequent to the announcement made by the Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman's in a press conference, today, in order to protect the interest of homebuyers, Central Government has issued an advisory to all States / UTs and their Real Estate Regulatory Authorities to automatically extend registration of all real estate projects registered under RERA by 6 months and further upto 3 months, if required in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MoHUA has today issued an advisory to all States / UTs and their respective Real Estate Regulatory Authorities to consider the current pandemic of COVID-19 as "force majeure" being a natural calamity, which is adversely affecting the regular development of the real estate projects and extend registration of all real estate projects registered under RERA by 6 months and further upto 3 months, as per situation evolving in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This measure will safeguard the interest of homebuyers to get them the delivery of their flats/homes although with the delay of few months but it will definitely ensure the completion of the projects.

In the past a lot of projects got stalled due to various reasons leaving lakhs of homebuyers in a very difficult situation, where they were running from pillar to post for their booked homes. Therefore, it is vital to take remedial measures now to ensure that COVID-19 does not lead to a complete breakdown of the real estate sector. Accordingly, in the prevailing circumstances, the primary objective is to address the concerns of homebuyers by ensuring suitable regulatory relief to the developers for completion of projects so as to create a WIN-WIN situation for all the stakeholders.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) had wide consultation with all stakeholders including homebuyers, developers, financial institutions etc. and discussed all related issues threadbare to find the optimum solution of the situation created due to this sudden pandemic.

Further, an urgent meeting of the Central Advisory Council (CAC) of RERA was held on 29th April, 2020 under the chairmanship of Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C), MoHUA, wherein it was decided unanimously to recommend to issue the advisory by the Central Government to treat the current pandemic as force majeure under RERA.

Due to situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic, nation-wide lockdown was announced w.e.f. 25th March, 2020. As a result, the construction work of ongoing real estate projects was halted leading to reverse migration of labourers to their native places. Further, there was large scale disruption in the supply chain of construction materials which adversely impacted the construction activities across the country.

It is also anticipated that construction activities in pre-monsoon could not be undertaken, which will further delay the construction cycle. Moreover, due to the impending monsoon season followed by festivals like Dussehra, Diwali, Chatth etc. the labourers are not expected to come back soon.

It is clear that in such circumstances, work on the real estate projects will take quite some time to restart in full gear. In the absence of urgent remedial regulatory measures under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 [RERA], there is also a possibility of many real estate projects getting stalled leading to litigation etc. This will ultimately result in non-delivery of flats to the homebuyers, who have invested their lifetime savings for their dream homes.

Tags : Protection Interest Homebuyers

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Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

13.05.2020

Media and Communication

Extension of last date to receive comments on TRAI Consultation Paper

MANU/TRAI/0036/2020

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had invited comments/counter-comments of stakeholders on Consultation Paper on "Methodology of applying Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) under the weighted average method of SUC assessment, in cases of Spectrum Sharing" dated 22nd April 2020. The last date for receiving written comments and counter-comments were fixed as 20th May 2020 and 3rd June 2020 respectively.

2. Keeping in view the request of Industry Association for extension of time for submission of comments, it has been decided to extend the last date for submission of written comments upto 3rd June 2020 and for counter-comments upto 17th June 2020. No further requests for extension would be considered.

3. The comments and counter-comments may be sent to Shri S.T. Abbas, Advisor (Network, Spectrum & Licensing), TRAI, preferably in electronic form.

Tags : Last date Extension SUC

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Reserve Bank of India

13.05.2020

Banking

Interest Equalisation Scheme on Pre and Post Shipment Rupee Export Credit-Extension

MANU/RMIC/0077/2020

1. Please refer to the operational instructions for the captioned Scheme contained in RBI circular on Interest Equalisation Scheme on Pre and Post Shipment Rupee Export Credit issued vide DBR.Dir.BC.No.62/04.02.001/2015-16 dated December 4, 2015; DCBR.CO.SCB.Cir.No.1/13.05.000/2015-16 dated February 11, 2016, DBR.Dir.BC.No.09/04.02.001/2018-19 dated November 29, 2018 and DBR.Dir.BC.No.22/04.02.001/2018-19 dated January 11, 2019.

2. In this connection, Government of India has approved the extension of Interest Equalization Scheme for pre and post shipment Rupee export credit, with same scope and coverage, for one more year i.e. upto March 31, 2021. The extension shall take effect from April 01, 2020 and end on March 31, 2021 covering a period of one year.

3. Consequently, the extant operational instructions issued by the RBI under the captioned Scheme shall continue to remain in force upto March 31, 2021.

Tags : Interest Equalisation Scheme Extension

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Reserve Bank of India

12.05.2020

Banking

RBI Working Paper No. 05/2020: Core Inflation Measures in India - An Empirical Evaluation using CPI Data

MANU/RPRL/0075/2020

Today the Reserve Bank of India placed on its website a Working Paper titled "Core Inflation Measures in India - An Empirical Evaluation using CPI Data" under the Reserve Bank of India Working Paper Series. The paper is co-authored by Janak Raj, Sangita Misra, Asish Thomas George and Joice John.

This paper assessed eleven possible candidates for their suitability as measures of core inflation in India based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) (2012=100) for the period 2012 to 2019. These included six exclusion-based measures, viz., (i) CPI excluding food and fuel; (ii) CPI excluding food, petrol and diesel; (iii) CPI excluding food, fuel, petrol and diesel; (iv) CPI excluding food, petrol, diesel, gold and silver; (v) CPI excluding food, fuel, petrol, diesel, gold and silver; and (vi) CPI excluding food, fuel, petrol, diesel, gold, silver and housing and five statistical measures, viz., (i) median; (ii) 5 per cent trimmed mean; (iii) 10 per cent trimmed mean; (iv) 20 per cent trimmed mean; and (v) historical standard deviation. All these candidates were tested for the standard properties of core inflation, viz., ease of communication, equality of means, lower volatility, unbiasedness, revertability, co-integration and attraction conditions. Historical standard deviation-based measure satisfied all the properties of core inflation, except ease of communication - in general, use of statistical measures pose formidable challenges for monetary policy communication. All the six exclusion based measures satisfied all properties but revertability, i.e., headline inflation reverting to core inflation over the medium term. This was possibly due to a low food inflation episode from January 2017 to August 2019. Controlling for this time period, all the exclusion-based core inflation measures, other than CPI excluding food, fuel, petrol, diesel, gold, silver and housing, revert to headline inflation satisfying all the desirable properties of core inflation.

Tags : Inflation Measures Evaluation

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Ministry of Commerce and Industry

12.05.2020

Civil

Procedure for availing Transport and Marketing Assistance on Specified Agriculture Products-claims to be made on per kilogram basis for the shipments by air

MANU/DGFT/0081/2020

Consequent upon issuance of Notification No. 17/3/2018-EP (Agri. IV) dated 27.04.2020 by Department of Commerce and in exercise of the powers conferred under Paragraph 2.04 of the Handbook of Procedures (2015-20) as amended, Director General of Foreign Trade hereby makes the following amendment(s) in Chapter 7(A) of "Handbook of Procedures", with immediate effect:

1. Department of Commerce's Notification No. 17/3/2018-EP (Agri IV) dated 27.04.2020 is added in Appendix-7(A)A.

2. In para 7A. 03(f), the following shall be inserted after the first sentence:

"However, for the fresh applications made on or after 28th April, 2020, in case of shipment by air, claims should be made in the multiple of Kilograms, ignoring any fraction thereof. Applications submitted before 28th April, 2020 cannot be modified from per ton basis to per kilogram basis."

3. Point (xi) of Instructions/Guidelines at ANF7(A)A should be amended to read as follows:

"Assistance for products exported by air would be based on per kilogram freight charges on net weight of the export cargo, calculated on the full kilogram basis, ignoring any fraction thereof."

4. Column (15) of para 6(b) of PART B of ANF7(A)A and Column (15) of para 6(b) of Annexure(A) to ANF7(A)A are deleted.

5. Point (ix) of para 2 (Declaration/Undertakings) of PART B of ANF7(A)A and Point (xii) of para 3 of Annexure(A) to ANF 7(A)A should be amended to read as follows:

"The claim is made only for Full Container Loads (FCLs) Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers or forty feet containers equivalent of two TEUs in case of shipment by sea and in the multiple of kilograms (ignoring any fraction thereof) in case of shipment by air."

Effect of the Public Notice: Assistance for products exported by air would be based on per kilogram basis instead of per ton. Annexure 3 to the Notification No. 17/3/2018-EP (Agri. IV) dated 27th February, 2019 has been replaced indicating the differential rate of assistance on per kilogram basis for the products exported by air.

Tags : Procedure Transport assistance Agriculture Products

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Ministry of Corporate Affairs

11.05.2020

Company

Clarification on dispatch of notice under section 62(2) of Companies Act, 2013 by listed companies for rights issue opening upto 31st July, 2020

MANU/DCAF/0065/2020

1. Several representations have been received in the Ministry for providing clarification on the mode of issue of notice referred to in section 62(1)(a)(i) of Companies Act (the 'Act') read with section 62(2) of the Act for rights issue by listed companies, in view of the difficulties faced by companies in sending notices through postal or courier services on account of the threat posed by Covid-19. The issues raised in the said representations have been examined. The Circular (Number SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2020/78) issued by SEBI on 6th May, 2020 has also been considered.

2. In view of above and on account of the overall situation, it is hereby clarified that for rights issues opening upto 31st, July, 2020, in case of listed companies, which comply with the aforementioned SEBI Circular dated 6th May, 2020, inability to dispatch the notice referred in para 1 of this Circular to their shareholders through registered post or speed post or courier would not be viewed as violation of section 62(2) of the Act.

3. This issues with the approval of the competent authority.

Tags : Clarification Dispatch of notice

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