Company News

In an attempt to develop greater fund flows and offer some steadiness to the irregular Indian bourses, India’s Finance Ministry has tranquilized norms for foreign nationals and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to obtain permanent account numbers (PANs) that could also double up as know-your-customer (KYC) compliance for any investment they make in Indian stocks.

India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs stated that the Department of Public Enterprises and the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises have issued complete guidelines on corporate social responsibility (CSR) for central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) in April 2010.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has cut down measures under MCA-21 to facilitate the registration of a company within 24 to 48 hours where there is no complexity about availability of names.

If an individual fails to subtract the whole or any part of the tax at source, or, after deducting, fails to pay the whole or any part of the tax to the credit of the Indian Central Government within the agreed time-frame, the individual shall be legally responsible for the repercussions in agreement with the provisions of Section 201.

India’s Economic advisory council has released its outlook for the year 2011-12. Some vital points are given below:

Multi-brand retailing, perhaps the most vital issue of the new century in terms of FDI in India, has gone ahead by one more step. The top notch secretaries of the Indian government have forwarded 10 recommendations to the Commerce and Industry Ministry.

MCA 21 payments can be done via credit card, internet banking and physical challan currently. Now, the ministry has recognized five banks (Indian Bank, HDFC, ICICI, PNB and SBI) for collection of MCA 21 fees, which means that only the account holders of these banks can avail Internet banking facility. Also, payment through challan can only be made in the authorized branches of these above five banks.

The Indian government recently proposed to establish a new law in order to better regulate the country’s microfinance industry that is faced with complaints of aggressive lending practices and high interest rates. Aiming to bring various microfinance institutions (MFIs) under the regulation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the proposed law is expected to strongly impact smaller players who look for large profit through their lending businesses.

The Competition Commission of India needs to be notified for all transactions involving mergers and acquisitions in the country – including pre-merger clearances. Since June 1, 2011 prior clearance from the CCI authorities is required if mergers or acquisitions result in a “combination” within the meaning of Sections 5(a), (b) and (c) (Combination) of the Competition Act and the Combination exceeds any of the thresholds of Section 5 of the Competition Act (Threshold Test).

An inter-ministerial group (IMG) on inflation has suggested permitting foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail as one of two steps to reduce rising prices and cut down the margin between farms and retail prices.