CA Jan 09
CA Jan 09
CA Jan 09
INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL
REPORTING STANDARD EMERGING CHALLENGES &
OPPORTUNITIES
contd. ... pg 3
contd. ... pg 3
* Mr. Vinod Jain, FCA, FCS, FICWA, LL.B., DISA (ICA), Chairman, INMACS Management Services Limited and Convenor, National Economic Forum (NEF). vinodjain@inmascindia.com, vinodjainca@gmail.com, 9811040004
LATEST IN FINANCE
LATEST IN FINANCE
1.0 EXTERNAL COMMERCIAL
BORROWINGS
(ECB)
POLICY
LIBERALISATION
It has been decided to modify
some aspects of the ECB
policy as indicated below :
All-in-cost ceilings
Average Maturity
Period
All-in-Cost
ceilings over
6 Months LIBOR*
300 bps
500 bps
NBFC- Infrastructure
financing
- JANUARY 2009
Approval Route:
Un billed debtors
SATYAM FRAUD........
Appointment of independent
auditors - In all those cases
where large public funds are
managed by a corporate on
behalf of several investors /
depositors, for example, in case
of banks, mutual funds, venture
capital / private equity fund - the
government may consider that
the auditors are not appointed by
the management / promoter but
are actually appointed by
an independent regulatory
mechanism.
Mandatory
physical
verification of inventory by
the management and its
reconciliation with a stock
A JOURNAL OF
IFRS - EMERGING........
proper to shift to fair value
accounting as compared to
historical cost accounting. The
checks and balances in case of fair
value accounting needs to be deeper
and stronger. The chartered
accountants community needs to
very carefully study all international
financial reporting standards as a
matter of great priority to enable
successful implementation of the
target of convergence by1st April,
2011 and transition to new set up
of accounting standards with effect
from 1st April, 2009.
LATEST IN FINANCE
LATEST IN FINANCE
3.0 RUPEE EXPORT CREDIT
INTEREST RATES INTEREST ON OVERDUE
EXPORT BILLS
It has now been decided that
the prescribed interest rate as
applicable to post shipment
rupee export credit (not
exceeding BPLR minus 2.5
percentage points) may also
be extended to overdue bills
up to 180 days from the
date of advance till further
notice.
5.0 PENSION
REFORMS
OFF THE BLOCKS,
PROPOSALS CALLED
FOR SIX FUNDS
The pension regulator set the
stage for opening the business
for non-government employees
from April by seeking
proposals for setting up six
pension funds.
RBI/2008-09/314 DBOD.Dir.(Exp).
BC.No.95/04.02.01/08-09, 8/12/08
Recapitalisation of the
public sector banks to the
value of Rs. 200 billion
proposed over the next two
years.
- JANUARY 2009
LIMITED LIABILITY
PARTNERSHIP BILL, 2008
The Parliament of India has given
its nod to the Limited Liability
Partnership Bill, 2008. The Bill
would now be placed for the
Presidential assent and would come
into force on such date as the
Central Government may notify. It
is expected that the first LLP in the
country would be registered by the
first day of the next financial Year
i.e. 1.4.2009.
Legal Framework
Conceptually, an LLP is a
hybrid corporate form entity
combining features of the
existing partnership firms and
limited liability companies.
LLP combines the benefits of
limited liability for partners
with flexibility to organize
internal management based on
mutual agreement among the
partners. India s 1932
Partnership law permitted
partnership firms with
unlimited liability.
TAXATION
TAXATION
1.0 TAX RELIEF FOR CINE
FILM PRODUCERS
Supreme Court has set aside
the ruling of the Madras High
Court which had denied
income tax benefits in terms
of Section 32AB, Section
80HH and Section 80I of the
Income Tax Act to cine film
manufacturers. In this case,
India Cine Agencies vs.
Commissioner of Income Tax,
the court dealt with the
process of conversion of
jumbo rolls of photographic
films into small rolls of desired
sizes. The cine traders argued
that they were entitled to the
benefits as they were
manufacturing or producing a
new product. The high court
had denied the benefits and
therefore the traders appealed
to the Supreme Court. It
reversed the high court ruling.
2.0 ALLOTMENT OF SHARES
CANNOT BE TREATED AS
GIFT
The Supreme Court has ruled
that Khoday Distilleries Ltd.
was not liable to pay gift tax
on the allotment of rights issue
to its shareholders following a
board resolution. The decision
of the Karnataka High Court to
the contrary was set aside on
the appeal of the company. The
allotment, said the Supreme
Court, meant creation of
shares and did not amount to
transfer. The judgment also
remarked that the tax
department has "messed up
the entire case", and had no
clear focus on the invocation
of income tax, gift tax,
wealth tax.
- JANUARY 2009
professional
services,
therefore, is taxable in the state
of residence. It is additionally
taxable in the other contracting
state if the services are
performed in that other state.
4.0 I-T DEPT PUTS FOREIGN
BANK HQ EXPENSES
UNDER SCANNER
Indian branches of foreign
banks have come under the
scanner of the Income-tax
Department. The Central Board
of Direct Taxes has instructed
its field forces to carefully
examine their claims of head
office expenses to ensure they
were in conformity with
transfer pricing provisions and
relevant tax treaty. As per the
provisions of the I-T Act, in
case of a non-resident, head
office expenditure is allowed to
be deducted from total income
at the rate of 5% of the
adjusted total income or
expenditure actually incurred
by the taxpayer, whichever
is less.
5.0 SC REFERS ISSUE OF
INTEREST
TAX
ON
INVESTMENTS
TO
TRIBUNAL
The Supreme Court has
referred a bunch of petitions,
raising a similar question
whether interest earned by
banking companies on
investments, which are in the
form of securities, bonds and
debentures, is liable to be
assessed for tax, to a sectoral
tribunal. Both the Income Tax
Appellate Tribunal and the
Bombay High Court had held
that such banking institutions
are not liable to pay interest tax
under the Interest Tax Act,
1974.
INFRA-
Accelerated depreciation of
50 percent to be provided
for commercial vehicles to
be purchased on or after
Jan. 1, 2009 up to March
31, 2009
SERVICE TAX
1.0 WHEN COURIER SERVICE
BECOMES AN EXPORT
The Tribunal has held that
delivery of articles and
documents outside India by a
courier agency in India shall
qualify as export of services,
since such international
courier service was partly
performed in India and partly
outside India. In this case, the
assessee was engaged in
providing international courier
services and did not charge
service tax on the basis that
the services qualified as
exports not subject to service
tax. It was contended by the
assessee that under the Export
of Service Rules, 2005,
courier services, if performed
partly in India and partly
outside, qualified as exports
and consequently the assessee
did not charge service tax
on provision of such
international courier services.
The Department however
contended that transport and
delivery of articles and
documents abroad could not
be held to be service partly
rendered in India and
partly abroad and on that
basis rejected assessee's
contentions. The Tribunal,
accepting
assessee's
contentions, held that the
assessee was not liable to pay
A JOURNAL OF
CAPITAL MARKET
1.0 NSE CUTS MARGIN
IN STOCK LENDING
BORROWING SCHEME
The NSE clearing corporation
will not levy the value at risk
(VaR) and extreme loss
margin (ELM) on the lender.
Stock lenders would continue
to pay the marked-to-market
margin as well as 25 per cent
of the lending price. In case
of early pay-in- of securities,
the lender will not be levied
any margins. In the case of
reverse leg transaction
(borrower returns shares to
lender), the lender would not
be charged any margin at all.
The NSE clearing corporation
will continue to charge VaR,
ELM, mark to market and
fixed percentage of lending
price as margin from the
borrower. The changes have
been applicable from Dec. 22,
2008.
CORPORATE LAWS
AUDITING
NBFCs
1.0 LIQUIDITY SUPPORT TO NBFCs
A special purpose vehicle (financing entity) will be
designated shortly to provide liquidity support against
investment grade paper to NBFCs fulfilling certain
conditions.
The scale of liquidity potentially available through
this window is Rs. 250 billion.
An arrangement will be worked out with leading public
sector banks to provide a line of credit to NBFCs
specifically for purchase of commercial vehicles.
MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED
COMMODITY
1.0 FMC WARNS AGAINST PMS PRACTICE
Forward Markets Commission (FMC) has directed the
members of the national commodity exchanges not to
indulge in any portfolio management services, portfolio
advisory services and such other services either directly
or indirectly to its clients for investment in commodities
futures contracts. The commission has not formulated
any guidelines for investment advisory services by any
entity.
INSURANCE
1.0 INSURER LIABLE TO PAY INTEREST IN
WORKER'S INJURY CASE
An insurance company would be liable to pay interest
on the amount insured if there was no contract to the
contrary in the context of the Workmen's Compensation
Act. The Supreme Court thus set aside the ruling of
the Madhya Pradesh High Court in the case of Kamla
Chaturvedi vs. National Insurance Company.
IFRS conversion
US GAAP conversion
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- JANUARY 2009