Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Notification No. 55/2019 – Central Tax dated the 14th November, 2019.—

G.S.R.....(E).–In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (6) of section 39 read with section 168 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017) (hereafter in this notification referred to as the said Act), the Commissioner hereby makes the following further amendments in notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No. 26/2019 – Central Tax, dated the 28th June, 2019, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R. 452 (E), dated the 28th June, 2019, namely:–

In the said notification, in the first paragraph, after the second proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely: –

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Notification No. 54/2019 – Central Tax dated the 14th November, 2019.—

G.S.R.....(E).–In exercise of the powers conferred by section 168 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017) read with sub-rule (5) of rule 61 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (hereafter in this notification referred to as the said rules), the Commissioner, on the recommendations of the Council, hereby makes the following further amendments in notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No.29/2019 – Central Tax, dated the 28th June, 2019, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide number G.S.R.455(E), dated the 28th June, 2019, namely:–

 In the said notification, in the first paragraph, after the third proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely: –

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Order No. 08/2019-Central Tax dated the 14th November, 2019.—

S.O.(E).––WHEREAS, sub-section (1) of section 44 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (12 of 2017) (hereafter in this Order referred to as the said Act) provides that every registered person, other than an Input Service Distributor, a person paying tax under section 51 or section 52, a casual taxable person and a non-resident taxable person, shall furnish an annual return for every financial year electronically in such form and manner as may be prescribed on or before the thirty-first day of December following the end of such financial year;

CBIC issues clarification regarding optional filing of annual return under notification No. 47/2019- Central Tax dated 9th October, 2019.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Circular No. 124/43/2019 - GST dated the 18th November, 2019.—

Attention is invited to notification No. 47/2019-Central Tax dated 9th October, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as “the said notification”) issued under section 148 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as “the said Act”) providing for special procedure for those registered persons whose aggregate turnover in a financial year does not exceed two crore rupees and who have not furnished the annual return under sub-section (1) of section 44 of the said Act read with sub-rule (1) of rule 80 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as “the CGST Rules”).

Nov 13, 2019: The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is releasing CPI (Rural, Urban, Combined) on Base 2012=100 for the month of October 2019 in this press note.

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

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

Nov 15, 2019: The data on foreign trade of India for the month of October-2019 as released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Department of Commerce, Economic Division, is presented hereunder:—

India’s overall exports (Merchandise and Services combined) in April-October 2019-20* are estimated to be USD 310.23 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 1.51 per cent over the same period last year.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Notification dated the 15th November, 2019.—

S.O. 4126(E).―In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (3) of section 1 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (31 of 2016), the Central Government hereby appoints the 1st day of December, 2019 as the date on which the following provisions of the said Code only in so far as they relate to personal guarantors to corporate debtors, shall come into force:―

SEBI Circular No. SEBI/HO/MIRSD/DOP/CIR/P/2019/136 dated November 15, 2019 addressed to, all Recognised Stock Exchanges and all Depositories, reads as follows—

1. Vide SEBI circular no. SEBI/HO/MIRSD/DOP/CIR/P/2018/153 dated December 17, 2018, Early Warning Mechanism was put in place to detect the diversion of client’s securities by the stock broker at an early stage so as to take appropriate preventive measures. Early Warning circular, inter-alia, specified that Stock Exchanges / Clearing Corporations / Depositories, shall devise a mechanism to detect diversion of clients’ securities and to share information among themselves in respect of:

 1.1. Diversion of pay-out of securities to non-client/other client accounts.

 1.2. Mis-matches between gross (client-wise) securities pay-in and pay-out files of a stock brokers generated by the Clearing Corporation which shall be compared with actual transfer of securities to/from the client’s depository accounts by the Depository. The cases of any mismatch found out by the Depository shall be informed to the concerned Stock Exchange / Clearing Corporation.

Nov 18, 2019: The Company Law Committee was constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in September, 2019, inter alia, to further decriminalise the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 based on their gravity and to take other concomitant measures to provide further Ease of Living for corporates in the country.

The report of the Committee was presented today to the  Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman by Shri Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, who chaired the Committee. The other members of the Committee included Shri T. K. Viswanathan, Ex- Secretary General, Lok Sabha; Shri Uday Kotak, MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Shri Shardul S Shroff, Executive Chairman, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co;  Shri Amarjit Chopra, Senior Partner, GSA Associates; Shri Rajib Sekhar Sahoo, Principal Partner, SRB & Associates; Shri Ajay Bahl, Founder and Managing Partner, AZB & Partners;  Shri G. Ramaswamy, Partner, G. Ramaswamy & Co.;  Shri Sidharth Birla, Chairman, Xpro India Limited;  Ms. Preeti Malhotra, Group President, Corporate Affairs & Governance, Smart Group and Shri K.V.R. Murty, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (Member Secretary of the Committee).

Nov 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 September 2019 are given in the following Table.

Table: International Trade in Services

SEBI Circular No. SEBI/HO/CDMRD/DOP/CIR/P/2019/135 dated November 14, 2019 on "Modifications in the contract specifications of commodity derivatives contracts" reads as follows.—

1. SEBI vide its circular ref. no. SEBI/HO/CDMRD/CIR/2016/88 dated September 20, 2016 had inter-alia prescribed at Para 3(c) provisions regarding permission to allow modifications in contract specifications at the exchange level.

2. In order to streamline the process and after consultation with the exchanges, it has been decided to categorise the modifications in contract specification parameters in the following three categories:

a. Category A: Non-material modifications which can be made at the exchange level in yet to be launched and running contracts.

b. Category B: Material modifications which can be made at the exchange level in yet to be launched contracts or running contracts which have nil open interest. These modifications shall require approval from Product Advisory Committee and approval of Regulatory Oversight Committee to be obtained post facto.

c. Category C: Material modifications which can be made only after approval from SEBI. These modifications shall require deliberations and approval from Product Advisory Committee and Regulatory Oversight Committee before seeking permission from SEBI.