The Red Fox

The Red Fox by Anthony Hyde is his debut novel and set in the Cold war era. An ex girlfriend calls for help in locating her missing father and the search leads the protagonist to Canada, France and Soviet Union. Starts off well, but just when we thought we are coming to the end of the suspense, it meanders off to Soviet Union and further adventures. Anthony has managed to keep the suspense intact until the end, the very last paragraph.  Goodreads rating 2/5

Monitoring of Foreign investment limits in listed Indian companies

SEBI circular dated 5th April, 2018

1. Foreign Investment in India is regulated in terms of clause (b) of sub-section 3 of section 6 and section 47 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) read with Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of a Security by a Person resident Outside India) Regulations, 2017 issued vide Notification No. FEMA 20(R)/2017-RB dated November 7, 2017. FEMA prescribes the various foreign investment limits in listed Indian companies. These include the aggregate FPI limit, the aggregate NRI limit and the sectoral cap. The RBI Master Direction (FED Master Direction No. 11/2017-18) dated January 04, 2018 provides a compilation of the instructions issued on Foreign Investment in India and its related aspects under FEMA.    

2. As per FEMA, the onus of compliance with the various foreign investment limits rests on the Indian company. In order to facilitate the listed Indian companies to ensure compliance with the various foreign investment limits, SEBI in consultation with RBI has decided to put in place a new system for monitoring the foreign investment limits. The architecture of the new system has been explained in Annexure A. 

3. The depositories (NSDL and CDSL) shall put in place the necessary infrastructure and IT systems for operationalizing the monitoring mechanism described at Annexure A. The Stock Exchanges (BSE, NSE and MSEI) shall also put in place the necessary infrastructure and IT systems for disseminating information on the available investment headroom in respect of listed Indian companies. 

4. The depositories shall issue the necessary circulars and guidelines for collecting data on foreign investment from listed companies. The system for collecting this data from the companies shall go live on the date of the issuance of this circular. The companies shall provide the necessary data (details of which have been mentioned in Annexure A) to the depositories latest by April 30, 2018. 

5. The new system for monitoring foreign investment limits in listed Indian companies shall be made operational on May 01, 2018. The existing mechanism for monitoring the foreign investment limits shall be done away with once the new system is operationalized. RBI shall issue the necessary guidelines in this regard. 

This circular is issued in exercise of powers conferred under Section 11 (1) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. 

Prohibition in dealing in virtual currencies

RBI has vide its notification dated 6th April, 2018 clamped down on dealing in virtual currencies like bitcoins etc. Gist of the notification is given below:

Reserve Bank has repeatedly through its public notices on December 24, 2013, February 01, 2017 and December 05, 2017, cautioned users, holders and traders of virtual currencies, including Bitcoins, regarding various risks associated in dealing with such virtual currencies.

2. In view of the associated risks, it has been decided that, with immediate effect, entities regulated by the Reserve Bank shall not deal in VCs or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs. Such services include maintaining accounts, registering, trading, settling, clearing, giving loans against virtual tokens, accepting them as collateral, opening accounts of exchanges dealing with them and transfer / receipt of money in accounts relating to purchase/ sale of VCs.

3. Regulated entities which already provide such services shall exit the relationship within three months from the date of this circular.

4. These instructions are issued in exercise of powers conferred by section 35A read with section 36(1)(a) of Banking Regulation Act, 1949, section 35A read with section 36(1)(a) and section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, section 45JA and 45L of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and Section 10(2) read with Section 18 of Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.

Copy of the notification can be found here

GST on railway catering

PIB Press release dated 6th April, 2018

With a view to remove any doubt or uncertainty in the matter and bring uniformity in the rate of GST applicable to supply of food and drinks made available in trains, platforms or stations, it has been clarified with the approval of the competent authority that the GST rate on supply of food and drinks by the Indian Railways or Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. or their licensees, whether in trains or at platforms (static units), will be 5% without input tax credit. The copy of letter F.No. 354/03/2018-TRU dated 31.03.2018 (Order No. 2/2018 – GST) issued to the Railway Board is available atwww.cbec.gov.in .

Investor Grievance Redressal System - SCORES

SEBI has issued a circular dated 26th March, 2018 on the new measures initiated under SCORES, the investor grievance redressal system under SEBI. The gist of the circular is given below:

1. This circular is being issued in continuation to SEBI circular no. CIR/OIAE/1/2014 dated 18th December, 2014 regarding redressal of investor grievances through SEBI Complaints Redress System (SCORES) platform.

2. SCORES is a web based centralized system to capture investor complaints against listed companies and registered intermediaries and is available 24x7. It was introduced on June 8, 2011 and has been facilitating redressal of investor grievances in a speedy manner.

3. SEBI encourages investors to lodge complaints through electronic mode in SCORES. However, complaints received from investors in physical form are also digitized by SEBI and uploaded in SCORES. Thereafter, follow-up actions of the complaint are done in electronic form only i.e. through SCORES. Investors can easily access, retrieve and preserve the complaints lodged by them in electronic mode. Further, it enhances the turnaround time and speed of redressal of a complaint.

4. Investors may contact the Investor Associations (IAs) recognized by SEBI for any assistance in filing complaints on SCORES. The lists of Investor Associations are available on SEBI website (www.sebi.gov.in). Investors may also seek assistance in filing complaints on SCORES from SEBIs toll free helpline number 1800 266 7575 or 1800 22 7575.

5. SEBI has received inputs from listed companies and intermediaries that investor grievances can be resolved faster if the grievance been taken up directly with the entity at the first instance. Accordingly, it appears to be prudent and time saving if the investors approach the concerned listed company or registered intermediary first with all the requisite details to redress the complaints. In case, the listed company or registered intermediary fails to redress the complaint to the investor’s satisfaction, the investor may file a complaint in SCORES.

6. At present following types of complaints are not dealt through SCORES:

i. Complaints against the companies which are unlisted/delisted, in dissemination board of Stock Exchanges,

ii. Complaints those are sub-judice i.e. relating to cases which are under consideration by court of law, quasi-judicial proceedings etc.

iii. Complaints falling under the purview of other regulatory bodies viz. RBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, CCI, etc., or under the purview of other ministries viz., MCA, etc.

iv. Complaints against a sick company or a company where a moratorium order is passed in winding up / insolvency proceedings.

v. Complaints against the companies where the name of company is struck off from RoC or a vanishing company as per list published by MCA.

vi. Suspended companies, companies under liquidation / BIFR / etc.

7. To enhance investor satisfaction on complaint redressal, SEBI has already put in place a ‘Complaint Review facility’ under SCORES wherein an investor if unsatisfied with the redressal may within 15 days from the date of closure of his complaint in SCORES opt for review of the complaint and the complaint shall be escalated

8. Effective from August 01, 2018, following procedure shall be followed for filing and redressal of investor grievances using SCORES:

a. Investors who wish to lodge a complaint on SCORES are requested to register themselves on www.scores.gov.in by clicking on “Register here”. While filing the registration form, details like Name of the investor, PAN, Contact details, Email id, Aadhaar card number(optional), CKYC ID(optional) etc. (Annexure A) may be provided for effective communication and speedy redressal of the grievances. Upon successful registration, a unique user id and a password shall be communicated to the investor through an acknowledgement email / SMS.

b. An investor shall use login credentials for lodging complaint on SCORES (“Login for registered user” section). Details on how to lodge a complaint on SCORES is at Annexure B.

c. The complainant may use SCORES to submit the grievance directly to companies / intermediaries and the complaint shall be forwarded to the entity for resolution. The entity is required to redress the grievance within 30 days, failing which the complaint shall be registered in SCORES

d. Presently, the limitation period for filing an arbitration reference with stock exchanges is three year. In line with the same and in order to enhance ease, speed & accuracy in redressal of investor grievance, the investor may lodge a complaint on SCORES within three years from the date of cause of complaint, where; 

Investor has approached the listed company or registered intermediary for redressal of the complaint and, The concerned listed company or registered intermediary rejected the complaint or,

The complainant does not receive any communication from the listed company or intermediary concerned or,

The complainant is not satisfied with the reply given to him or redressal action taken by the listed company or an intermediary.

Pensioners' portal at EPFO site

PIB press release dated 29th March, 2018

EPFO has launched the pensioner’s portal  https://mis.epfindia.gov.in/PensionPaymentEnquiry. The pensioner’s portal is recently launched service, available at EPFO website by which all EPFO pensioners may get the details of pension related information like Pension payment order number, Pensioner’s Payment Order details, Pensioner’s passbook information & other related information such as date of credit of pension, submission of pensioner’s life certificate etc.

It is helpful to know the status of their life certificate, in case of non-submission/rejection of life certificate of the pensioners. It also provides the details and the reason of stoppage of pension.

Track e KYC:

The enhanced “Track eKYC” facility for the convenience of members have been launched to check the status of Aadhaar seeded against their UAN and to figure out the specific mismatch details.

The facility has been made available at EPFO’s website www.epfindia.gov.in >> Online Services >> e-KYC Portal>> TRACK eKYC.

Using the facility, EPFO members can online track the status of Aadhaar seeded against his/ her UAN. While using the facility, the member will have to provide his/her UAN. After entering his/ her UAN the member can click the “Track eKYC” button and the exact status in respect of his/her UAN will be displayed on the screen.

RUN - two names & 1 resubmission

Ministry of Corporate Affairs is planning to somewhat ease the serious issues in company incorporation in India by allowing two names in their new RUN (Reserve Unique Name) system on their website and also allow one resubmission.

Even then the serious problems remain that MCA is quick to reject the names proposed on totally vague and illogical grounds. Common rejection reasons are that the name is closely resembling to some existing name already registered. But when you compare the name proposed with the name it is supposedly resembling to, there is not even a remote resemblance, forget about close resemblance. Secondly, when the applicants do a name check on the MCA portal, they do not get these names which are supposed to be closely resembling to the names proposed. So MCA is using a different algorithm when they are checking from their side to what the user is able to generate when he is checking from his side. This is not helping matters.  Thirdly the user is clicking the Auto Check option on the RUN system, still it is not throwing up any identical names. So something is seriously wrong with the MCA system. It is not working to the satisfaction of the user.

Then there is another issue, that of TM comparison. When the user does a check on the TM site, he does so normally only for the class of business in which the company is going to be involved in, not all the classes of businesses. Now MCA is rejecting names on the ground that the TM is registered in another class different from what the proposed company is going to do business in. Such general and wide ranging rejections is not helping matters at all. It is not at all Ease of Doing Business as the government is claiming to be. Why is the MCA getting involved in TM matters. Let the companies who are affected by similar trade marks take action under the relevant Trade Marks Act. Secondly it is only an incorporation stage, not the TM stage, there is no logo or trade mark involved at the incorporation stage. This kind of overarching abuse of power is not helping India generate businesses and thereby employment and asset creation of which there is a dire need.