Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Notification dated 16th August, 2019 (published in Official Gazette on 16th August, 2019) —

S.O. 2953(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2019 (26 of 2019), the Central Government hereby appoints the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force.

The following Act of Parliament received the assent of the President on the 5th August, 2019, and was published for general information by Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department) in the Gazette of India (Extraordinary, Part II - Section 1) on 6th August, 2019 :—

THE INSOLVENCY AND BANKRUPTCY CODE (AMENDMENT) ACT, 2019

NO. 26 OF 2019

[5th August, 2019.]

An Act further to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Seventieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

Aug 14, 2019: CBDT takes further steps to ensure transparency in Tax Administration by bringing in concept of DIN —

With a view to bringing greater transparency in the functioning of the tax-administration and improvement in service delivery, almost all notices and orders of Income Tax Department are being generated electronically on the Income Tax Business Application (ITBA) platform. However, it has been brought to the notice of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that there have been some instances in which the notice, order, summons, letter and any correspondence (hereinafter referred to as “communication”) were found to have been issued manually, without maintaining a proper audit trail of such communication.

Aug 14, 2019: The Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) passed a final order with respect to cartelisation amongst NSK Limited, Japan (‘NSK’) and JTEKT Corporation, Japan (‘JTEKT’) and their Indian subsidiaries namely Rane NSK Steering Systems Ltd. (‘RNSS’) and JTEKT Sona Automotive India Limited (‘JSAI’) respectively, in relation to the supply of Electric Power Steering (‘EPS’) Systems to three automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (‘OEMs’), by means of directly or indirectly determining price, allocating markets, co-ordinating bid response and manipulating the bidding process in Request for Information/ Request for Quotations (‘RFIs/ RFQs’) issued by these three automobile OEMs. The duration of the cartel was found to be from 2005 to 25.07.2011.

Aug 16, 2019: Two Arrests have been made by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (HQs) in cases of fraudulent IGST refund claims here, today.

As per the statement of the DGGI (HQs), the action was taken on receipt of an input from Allahabad Bank, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi that suspicious transactions were noticed in the accounts of 4 proprietorship firms (Monal Enterprises & Ors.) wherein large quantum of IGST refunds had been received by them immediately after their opening, without any prior business transaction history.

Aug 13, 2019: There have been reports in the media about Income Tax notices being issued to Durga Puja Committees in Kolkata recently. The reports also mention that Income Tax notices were sent to the Durga Puja Committee Forum in the last few weeks. It is unequivocally stated that the said reports are factually incorrect and are strongly denied. It is a fact that no notice was issued to the Durga Puja Committee Forum by the Department during this year.

Aug 10, 2019: The Finance Ministry has simplified the process of assessment in the case of Startup entities.

In cases where scrutiny assessments of Startup entities are pending, the CBDT has decided that:

i) In case of Startup Companies recognized by DPIIT which have filed Form No. 2  and whose cases are under “limited scrutiny” on the single issue of applicability of section 56(2)(viib),the contention of the assessee will be summarily accepted.

ii) In case of Startup Companies recognized by DPIIT which have filed Form No. 2 and whose cases have been selected under scrutiny to examine multiple issues including the issue of section 56(2)(viib),this issue will not be pursued during the assessment proceedings and inquiry on other issues will be carried out by the Assessing Officer only after obtaining approval of the supervisory authority.

Aug 13, 2019: The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released CPI (Rural, Urban, Combined) on Base 2012=100 for the month of July 2019.

In addition to this, Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for all India Rural, Urban and Combined are also being released for July 2019.

All India Inflation rates (on point to point basis i.e. current month over same month of last year, i.e., July 2019 over July 2018), based on General Indices and CFPIs are given as follows:

Aug 9, 2019: The Quick Estimates of Index of Industrial Production and Use-based Index for the month of June, 2019 (Base 2011-12=100), (data as released by Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation), is reproduced hereunder:—

1. The Quick Estimates of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with base 2011-12 for the month of June 2019 stands at 130.2, which is 2.0 percent higher as compared to the level in the month of June 2018. The cumulative growth for the period April-June 2019 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 3.6 percent.

2. The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of June 2019 stand at 106.6, 130.1 and 173.0 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 1.6 percent, 1.2 percent and 8.2 percent as compared to June 2018 (Statement I). The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-June 2019 over the corresponding period of 2018 has been 3.0 percent, 3.1 percent and 7.2 percent respectively.

Circular No. SEBI/HO/IMD/DF4/CIR/P/2019/093 dated August 16, 2019 addressed to all Mutual Funds/ Asset Management Companies (AMCs)/ Trustee Companies/ Boards of Trustees of Mutual Funds, reads as follows:—

Parking of Funds in Short Term Deposits of Scheduled Commercial Banks by Mutual Funds – Pending deployment

1. Kindly refer to Clause 8 of Schedule VII of SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations 1996 read with SEBI circular SEBI/IMD/CIR No. 1/91171/07 dated April 16, 2007 pertaining to investment in Short Term Deposits (STDs) of scheduled commercial banks, pending deployment.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Notification dated the 14th August, 2019, reads as follows.—

S.O. 2947(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (3) of section 1 of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2019 (22 of 2019), the Central Government hereby appoints the 15th day of August, 2019 as the date on which the provisions of sections 6, 7 and 8, clauses (i), (iii) and clause (iv) of section 14, section 20, section 31, sections 33, 34 and 35 and sections 37 and 38 of the said Act shall come into force.