Jan 14, 2019: The Reserve Bank of India has today released the data on Overseas Direct Investment, both under Automatic Route and the Approval Route, for the month of December 2018.

Jan 15, 2019: The Reserve Bank releases monthly data on India’s international trade in services with a lag of around 45 days.

The value of exports and imports of services during the month of November 2018 are given in the following Table.

Jan 14, 2019: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed, by an order dated January 03, 2019, a monetary penalty of ₹ 10.0 million on Bajaj Finance Ltd. (the NBFC) for violation of Fair Practices Code of Master Direction DNBR. PD. 008/03.10.119/2016-17 dated September 01, 2016.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Notification dated the 15th January, 2019 (published in the Official Gazette on 15-Jan-2019):—

G.S.R.29(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) of section 469 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the National Company Law Tribunal Rules, 2016, namely:-

1. (1) These rules may be called the National Company Law Tribunal (Amendment) Rules, 2019.

(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the National Company Law Tribunal Rules, 2016, in rule 71:-

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Notification No. 1/2019-Central Tax dated the 15th January, 2019

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 147 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017), the Central Government, on the recommendations of the Council, hereby makes the following amendment in the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue No. 48/2017-Central Tax dated the 18th October, 2017 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i) vide number G.S.R 1305(E) dated the 18th October, 2017, namely:–

  In the said notification,

Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Act, 2018 - Clarification regarding section 140(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Circular No. 87/06/2019-GST dated the 2nd January, 2019) :-

Attention is invited to sub-section (a) of section 28 of the CGST (Amendment) Act, 2018 (No. 31 of 2018) which provides that section 140(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 be amended with retrospective effect to allow transition of CENVAT credit under the existing law viz. Central Excise and Service Tax law, only in respect of “eligible duties”. In this regard, doubts have been expressed as to whether the expression “eligible duties” would include CENVAT credit of Service Tax within its scope or not.

2. Therefore, in exercise of powers conferred under section 168 of the Central Goods and Services Act (hereinafter referred to as “Act”), for the purposes of uniformity in the implementation of the Act, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs hereby directs the following:

Clarification on GST rate applicable on supply of food and beverage services by educational institution (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Circular No. 85/04/2019- GST dated the 1st January, 2019) :-

Representations have been received seeking clarification as to the rate of GST applicable on supply of food and beverages services by educational institution to its students. It has been stated that the words “school, college” appearing in Explanation 1 to Entry 7 (i) of Notification No. 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 give rise to doubt whether supply of food and drinks by an educational institution to its students is eligible for exemption under Notification No. 12/2017- Central Tax (Rate) dated 28.06.2017 Sl. No 66, which exempts services provided by an educational institution to its students, faculty and staff.