Company News

Vietnam has officially increased its general minimum wage levels from VND830,000 per month to VND1.05 million per month effective from May 1, according to Decree No. 31/2012/ND-CP dated April 12, 2012.

The Vietnamese Government issued Decree 05/2012/ND-CP to change and set up new rules concerning mortgages of land use rights and assets lying on land.

The Indian government is set to make a clarification to the country’s foreign investment laws, with specific attention to joint venture provisions.

India’s new General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) kicked in from April 1, and it looks like they will have an immediate impact on the use of Mauritius as a tax haven for investing in India.

Service tax is the tax charged on services offered, which has to be collected from the clients and paid to the government. If these taxes increase, there is an increase in many expenses such as mobile bills, insurance premiums, professional consultations, property purchases from the builder, courier expenses, and credit card bills.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs informed the Upper House that, under the Companies Act (1956), there is no precise provision for compulsory registration of foreign companies engaged in online business practices.

India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs informed the Upper House today that Indian chartered accountant (CA) firms are regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in terms of provisions of the Chartered Accountants Act (1949) and the rules and regulations framed thereunder.

Overseas companies, organizations or an association of individuals are not required to file income returns with regards to liaison offices (LOs) on the grounds that such business is not permitted to be carried out in India.

According to the new “Regulations on the Registration and Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign-Invested Enterprises(guowuyuanlingNo.584)” (Regulations), representative offices (ROs) of FIEs registered and established before December 31, 2011 are required to submit the annual compliance report to the local registrars before June 30, 2012.

The Beijing Social Security Fund Management Center released the “Notice from Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the Beijing Statistics Bureau on the 2011 Beijing Average Income” on April 11, specifying the new wage base for calculating social security contributions for the year 2012.