Ultra Marathon Man

Just finished reading "Ultra Marathon Man - Confessions of an All-Night Runner" by Dean Karnazes - an absorbing and overwhelming story of his early athletic prowess, loss of his sister to accident, his subsequent forays away from running for 15 years and rediscovery of running to running ultra marathons to running crazy distances and impossible feats like running the south pole marathon, running 199 miles non stop etc. His heroic attempt at running the Western States 100 miler and succeeding first time and the Badwater Marathon and failing first time have been very poignantly told. A very nice inspirational story with dollops of quotable quotes for keeping in one's mirror or desktop. The paperback edition has given details of his training plan, nutrition, strategy etc. at the end so that helps in people who are planning to run short distances like the marathon instead of crazy distances like ultra marathon and beyond. A must read for all running addicts. 

The Accidental Billionaires

Just finished reading the brilliant biography of the founding of Facebook "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich. The book cover says "Sex, money, betrayal and the founding of the Facebook". Sex and money are definitely not connected to the founding of the facebook though money is all pervasive connection because of the greed factor. Mark Zukerberg is portrayed as a near genius programmer but with little flair for business. Business ethics and gentlemen's agreement is the basis on which betrayal is suggested. But i guess any business has to be founded on the blood and guts of somebody and it is blood of one person and guts of another. I hope young entrepreneurs or wannabe entrepreneurs do not get ideas on how to found their business upon reading this book. But Indian readers might as well say in Gujarati - "aa ma soo che, aa tho bhadha normal che na bhai!!" Nice narrative style of Mezrich makes for compelling reading.

Non resident guarantee for non fund based facilities between two resident entities

Hitherto RBI had allowed a resident entity to make payment to a non resident entity who had given guarantee on a ECB loan on the invocation of the guaranty. Now it has extended this facility further by allowing the same even for non-fund based facilities between two resident entities in India (i.e. letter of credit/ guarantees/ letter of undertaking/ letter of comfort). The provisions of FEMA will become applicable only when the guaranty is invoked so when that happens the non resident guarantor will satisfy the guaranty to the resident lender in India and the principal debtor in India will then make the necessary arrangements to repatriate the funds to the non resident guarantor.

http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=7531&Mode=0

Hedging facilities for QFIs

Hedging facilities have been made available to Qualified Financial Institutions to hedge their currency risk on account of their permissible investments in India. QFIs have been allowed to invest in rupee denominated units of domestic mutual funds and listed equity shares and to purchase debt securities on repatriation basis. Contents of the RBI circular allowing this can be found at http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=7537&Mode=0

Service tax on remittances

Ministry of Finance, Central Board of Excise and Customs has clarified that no service tax is appliable on remittances from abroad in foreign currency. The "service" as defined in section 65B(44) of the Finance Act, 1994 excludes transaction in money. Since remittance amounts to transaction in money, the service tax becomes not applicable. Any fee or conversion charges levied by the foreign banks or by their Indian counterparts to the foreign banks are also out of the ambit of the service tax because the place of rendering the service is outside India and therefore the Place of Provision of Services Rules 2012 does not apply to that service. A welcome clarification from the CBEC, but I wonder why it is issued as a circular by the CBEC and not as a notification by the service tax department.

I would also wonder if the CBEC would clarify how "acting" becomes a service and actors have to pay service tax on their acting!! Bizarre!!

A copy of the CBEC circular can be found here

service tax on railways

Service tax on travel by Railways in first class or air-conditioned coaches as well as transport of goods by railways exempted upto 30th September 2012. So expect increase in train fares from 1st October 2012 for those travelling by first class or air-conditioned coaches, of which latter is usually the norm even for middle class passengers looking to travel in some comfort. Also with service tax on transport of goods kicking in from October 2012 do not expect inflation to abate. I think looking at the government inability to curb the monster called "inflation" of which the supply side constraints is baffling the government the most, it would have been wiser to leave transport of goods from the service tax ambit. But don't expect the revenue mandarins to think in the same way as the economists or the politicians who of course do not think at all of the common man!! The copy of the service tax circular can be found here

XBRL filing for FY 2011-12 ended

MCA has vide its circular dated 6th July 2012 clarified that

1) there is no change in the applicability criteria for XBRL filing for the financial year ended 2011-12 i.e. listed companies, companies with paid-up share capital above Rs.5 crores or turnover above Rs.100 crores;
2) The taxonomy for XBRL filing which will be based on revised Schedule VI is not ready, so
3) No additional fees will be levied for filings done upto 15th November 2012 or 30 days from the date of AGM whichever is later. Since the AGMs will necessarily have to be held on or before 30th September 2012 for companies having 31st March as the financial year, the exemption is available upto 15th November 2012;

Copy of the MCA circular can be found here