Advisory on Preventive measures to contain the spread of COVID19
Advisory on Preventive measures to contain the spread of COVID19
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs ( MCA ) is in the process of developing and deploying a simple web form named CAR (Company Affirmation of Readiness towards COVID-19) for companies/LLPs to confirm their readiness to deal with the COVID-19 threat.
Since the wake of the Novel Coronavirus(COVID-19) affecting over 110 countries including India, the WHO had declared it a Pandemic. Apart from human suffering, it is also causing major economic disruptions. In order to contain the spreading of the virus, the corporate sector is required to play a key role in implementing the strategic policy decision of social distancing, which is most crucial in reducing the rate and extent of disease transmission at the community level.
Taking cognizance of the gravity of the public health situation, the Government in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has relaxed the rules with respect of Board and dispensed with the necessity of holding physical meetings on matters relating to approval of financial statements, board report, restructuring etc., up to 30th June, 2020. They are also examining any other relaxation under the Companies Act, 2013 that may be necessitated on account of COVID-19.
As part of disaster management to meet this urgent and severe health exigency, all companies/LLPs are strongly advised to put in place an immediate plan to implement the “Work from Home” in the Headquarters and field offices to the maximum extent possible, including by conduct of meeting through video conference or other electronic/telephonic/computerized means. They further instructed that even with the essential staff on duty, staggered timings may be followed so as to minimize physical interaction. Apart from that, the preventive measures including the Do’s and Don’t’s advised by the public health authorities are to be strictly followed.
The Webform named CAR will be deployed on 23rd March 2020. All companies/LLPs are requested to using compliance with the web form named CAR on the 23rd of March instant while following all possible preventive measures to contain the disease and its contagious effect.
Frequently Asked Questions on (CAR) – 2020
1. To whom is this form applicable?
To All Companies / LLP including small companies, private companies, One Person Company (OPC) .All Companies/LLP include the companies, whether incorporated in India or not, but having operations in India.
2. When will the form be deployed?
The form is expected to be deployed on 23rd March, 2020 and is required to be submitted by 30th March, 2020 (extended by a week).
3. Is there any fees for filing the form?
No.
4. Who can file the form on behalf of Companies / LLP?
CS, CFO, Managing Director, Director, Designated Partners or Authorized person who has been authorised for such purposes.
5. Whose Mobile number has to be entered in the form?
In case of Director / Designated Partner signing the form their mobile number will be automatically prefilled from database. In all other case, the Mobile Number shall be editable should be that of the person who is authenticating the form as it has to be verified by a One Time Password (OTP).
6. What if my organization does not have a whole time / permanent employee?
The form still has to be filed, but the Company / LLP will be eased of future compliance burden, if any.
7. Till when does such policy needs to be in place?
The policy needs to be in place till 31st March, 2020 as per present scenario but may be extended based on the review made by appropriate Govt. Authorities.
8. What if I do not adhere to filing of such web form?
There has not been any information on the same but going by the intent of the form, non – filing of it may not lead to any penal outcome.
9. On what basis can I prepare “Work from Home” policy?
This shall be prepared based on the guidelines and advisory issued by the Government from time to time to check the spread of COVID – 19.
10. How to track the filing of form?
Once the form is filed, a system based acknowledgement will be sent to:
Blockchain has the potential and can be implemented across diverse sectors such as banking, education, and health.
The use of the internet has undergone rapid evolution in a matter of a few decades.
In the 1990s, the internet was described as “a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents” or simply put, ‘The Internet of Information’ which was primarily used to access data resources and services administered on the web browsers.
Back then, no one would have thought how it would fundamentally change our daily lives in the future. It has rapidly evolved from a platform to gather information to a space where we can shop, bank and communicate. The digital revolution has made the world realise the value of the internet and its implementations.
So, today we are gradually moving towards what Canadian strategist Don Tapscott calls ‘The Internet of Value’; that is the fountainhead of digital assets. Blockchain, which allows us to enable the exchange of any asset across the globe in real-time, ranging from stocks and bonds to music and art, is the next inevitable step in the global progress towards ‘The Internet of Value’.
Various applications of the internet have been made possible which are efficient like peer-to-peer money transfer, because internet reduces the transactional and communication cost to a bare minimum. This is the same force driving the new platforms that have emerged to deliver goods and services at levels of efficiency previously unimaginable, and blockchain is leading the revolution in redefining the new-age internet.
Like a traditional ledger, blockchain is essentially a record of transactions. These transactions can be any movement of money, goods or secure data — for example, a purchase at a supermarket, or the assignment of an Aadhar number. It works in three basic steps. First, it gathers data that the user has provided in forms of smart contracts, transactions IDs. Second, it orders the received data into blocks and finally chains them together securely using cryptography making it decentralised and accessible via any computer/mobile device across the network.
Now the question here is why do we need it? What is it that will change the way groceries are bought, stocks are purchased, money is transferred, bills are paid, and land deeds are made? The answer possibly can be the demand for trust and security emerging from both people and enterprises alike. Blockchain best serves these purposes as the trust factor is native to the medium. For example, if you are transferring money online to your friend, then your medium becomes the internet and to secure your transfer, a clever programming code is written. The same concept is applied by blockchain, but the security is made more secure by cryptography.
Blockchain has the potential and can be implemented across diverse sectors such as banking, education, and health. For instance, we keep our savings, assets and cash with banks because they are trustworthy and secure. However, their data is centralised, making them quite prone to cybercriminals that can bring the entire banking system to a halt. Now consider a person working abroad who wants to send a remittance to his family back home but has to encounter multiple clearances before his family receives it. With blockchain technology, the concept of crypto currency comes into picture, thus resulting in an open-access registry of monetary flows which makes the intermediation of financial institutions unnecessary and even costs less.
Second, in the field of healthcare, while big data analytics and artificial intelligence are simplifying healthcare delivery by smartly diagnosing the diseases from the patterns of numerous plugged-in electrocardiograms, blockchain is turning out to be a perfect platform for recording the medical attention of a patient and identifying a trend from the data recorded. Consider health card: A database which can be perceived as your health identity as it carries your entire medical history. Such technologies can find effective application in reducing information asymmetries within the healthcare and insurance markets by providing the most accurate data on patients.
Finally, blockchain can reorient the education system by delivering academic transparency. It can build an e-portfolio of academic credentials which has your test scores since the day you entered school. Paying for school fee in crypto currency — which is decentralised — from anywhere around the world on a secured network is commendable. Hence, this multi-trillion-dollar industry of education is indeed revolutionising.
Also, if implemented in government operations, blockchain will help break down barriers built from bureaucracy and corruption by providing a means to bypass existing power structures. It could be used to transform the way charities are created and regulated. By implementing a transparent system of transactions that include deposits of cash, transfers of donation and expenses spending will bring about a paradigm shift on how rules are enforced for these organisations.
Moreover, this technology has the competence to revamp the present system by automating manual processes, eradicating frauds and controlling the issues for authorisation. Its implementation across diverse sectors can be a solution to the most foundational problems of mankind. Hence, blockchain could be the perfect platform to transform a knowledge-driven economy into a digital-inclusive society.
Budget 2018 has been presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and here are the key takeaways:
Personal tax
While the personal income tax structure remains the same-that is no new tax slab and no higher exemption limits-as a as a small concession, Jaitley has announced a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried taxpayers. This will be in lieu of the existing transport allowance and medical expense reimbursement. However, other medical reimbursements in case of hospitalisation will continue.
According to him, the existing allowances amount to Rs 30,000 so the actual tax benefit here on would be Rs 10,000 more for each taxpayer. This move is expected to benefit 2.5 crore people-25-30% of the total taxpayer base–and reduce paperwork along the way. The revenue cost of this concession is pegged at Rs 8,000 crore.
But if he is putting money in your wallets, his other hand is also taking cash away. The education cess levied on the tax you pay (also applicable on corporation tax) has gone up by 1%. The new 4% Health and Education Cess is expected to help the government collect an additional amount of Rs 11,000 crore.
Senior citizens
Apart from farmers and the gareeb nagrik, it is the older demographic that stands to gain the most from the latest Budget. To begin with, tax exemption of interest income from bank deposits has been raised to Rs 50,000 from the current Rs 10,000. He has also proposed to raise the deduction under health insurance premium under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act to Rs 50,000 (from Rs 30,000 currently). In case of senior citizens with critical illnesses the deduction will be Rs 1 lakh. Moreover, Fixed Deposit/Post office interest to be exempt till Rs 50,000. These concessions are expected to give senior citizens extra tax benefit of Rs 4,000 crore.
In addition to tax concessions, the government has proposed to extend the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana up to March 2020 under which an assured return of 8% is given by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). The existing limit on investment of Rs 7.5 lakh per senior citizen under this scheme is also being enhanced to Rs 15 lakh.
Corporate tax
Jaitley has announced that companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crore will now be taxed at 25% (from 30%). According to him, this move will benefit 99% of companies and the revenue foregone is pegged at Rs 7,000 crore in 2018-19. After this, out of about 7 lakh companies filing returns, only about 7,000 companies will remain in 30% tax slab.
The other bit of bad news is that the FM proposed to tax long term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh on sale of equity shares/units of Equity oriented Fund at 10%, without allowing any indexation benefit. To justify his move, he pointed out that the total amount of exempted capital gains had surged to nearly Rs 360,000 crore, as per returns filed for assessment year 2017-18, and that the return on equity was attractive even without exemptions. A major part of this gain has reportedly accrued to corporates and LLPs. So while retail investors will also be hurt by this move, the impact will be most felt by corporates.
However, existing investors will be exempted from capital gains tax up to January 31, 2018. All gains made thereafter this cut-off date will be taxed. This move could earn the government Rs 20,000 crore in revenue in the first year. The revenues in subsequent years may be more.
Petrol/diesel prices
In a rejig of excise duty on petroleum products, the union government has cut basic excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2. The Modi government has also abolished additional excise duty on fuel by Rs 6. Despite that petrol prices are likely to remain the same as a new road cess of Rs 8 per litre has been introduced.
Farmers
The Union Budget 2018 seems to have been the shot in arm it was predicted to be for the slowing agricultural sector of India. Staying true to government’s electoral promise of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, Jaitley kept the minimum support price (MSP) of kharif crops and all rabi crops at one and a half times the production cost of the crops. Currently, most of the rabi crops get that benefit.
In addition, an Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund of Rs 2000 crore will be set up for developing agricultural markets. Jaitley further allotted Rs 500 crore under Operation Greens-to be launched on the lines of ‘Operation Flood’-to address price volatility of perishable commodities and to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-logistics, processing facilities and more.
As per provisions of Budget 2018, government will encourage organic farming by FPOs and Village Producers Organizations (VPOs) in large clusters, preferably of 1000 hectares each. Women Self Help Groups will also be encouraged to take up organic agriculture in clusters under National Rural Livelihood Programme. Also, a sum of Rs 200 crore have been allocated to support organized cultivation of highly specialized medicinal and aromatic plants and aid small and cottage industries that manufacture perfumes, essential oils and other associated products.
Significantly, calling bamboo “green gold”, the finance minister announced the launch of a restructured National Bamboo Mission with an allocation of Rs 1,290 crore. The government will also set up two new funds for the fisheries sector and animal husbandry sector with a total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore.
Explaining that India’s agri-exports potential is as high as $100 billion against current exports of $30 billion, Jaitley wants export of agri-commodities to be liberalized. “I also propose to set up state-of-the-art testing facilities in all the forty two Mega Food Parks,” he added.
Lastly, the Budget not only proposed to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs 11 lakh crore for 2018-19 (up from Rs 10 lakh in the current fiscal) but also addressed the issue of air pollution due to burning crop residue. The Finance Ministry said that a special scheme will be implemented to support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for disposal of crop residue.
The icing on the cake is the announcement of 100% tax deduction for first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs 100 crore and above.
Poor families
“From ease of doing business, our government has moved to ease of living for the poor and middle class,” Jaitley said in his speech. But he actually meant only poor families, who have been extended a plethora of schemes and allocations. Take the new National Health Protection Scheme under which annual health coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family will be offered for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. This is expected to benefit over 10 crore vulnerable and under-privileged families. “This will be the world’s largest government funded health care programme,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address soon after the Budget speech.
The government will also establish 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres under the Ayushman Bharat programme to provide comprehensive health care-including for non-communicable diseases and maternal and child health services-free essential drugs and diagnostic services. The Budget has earmarked Rs 1200 crore for this flagship programme.
In line with the government’s “Housing for All by 2022” promise, Jaitley announced that a dedicated Affordable Housing Fund will be set up, funded from priority sector lending shortfall and fully serviced bonds authorized by the government.
Also on the cards are free LPG connections to 8 crore poor women-up from the initial target of 5 crore beneficiaries-under the Ujjwala Scheme; two crore more toilets under Swachh Bharat mission, and a whopping Rs 16,000 crore allocation for the Saubhagya Yojana, under which four crore poor households are being provided with electricity connection free of charge.
Railways
Jaitley has proposed an ambitious plan for Indian Railways with a focus on modifications and safety rather than new train lines. He announced a capital expenditure allocation of Rs 1.48 lakh crore-the highest ever-for capacity expansion, maintenance of tracks, transforming almost the entire network into broad gauge, redevelopment of railway stations, producing upend coaches, the bullet train project, safety policies and more.
The FM announced that Wi-Fi, CCTVs will be provided in every station and escalators will be provided in stations with more than 25,000 footfalls. In the coming year, there will be a focus on upgradation of signalling and use of fog safety devices. He added that 600 railway stations across the country have been picked for modernisation and 4,000 km of railway network is set to be commissioned for electrification.
According to him, the coming year will be dedicated to building world-class trains and a railway institute will be set up in Vadodara, where the workforce behind high speed railway projects would be trained. There will also be a special focus on the upliftment of suburban trains in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Education
“In order to further enhance accessibility of quality medical education and health care, we will be setting up 24 new Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country. This would ensure that there is at least one medical college for every three parliamentary constituencies and at least one government medical college in each state,” said Jaitley.
Significantly, by 2022, every block with more than 50% scheduled tribe population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have ‘Ekalavya’ school at par with Navodaya Vidyalas. Jaitley also announced a new scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure, with an allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore over four years. He added that an integrated BEd programme will be initiated for teachers, to improve the quality of teachers.
Custom duties
Custom duty on mobile phones increased from 15% to 20%. The duty applicable on some mobile phone parts and accessories has been hiked to 15% and that on certain parts of TVs to 15%. “To help the cashew processing industry, I propose to reduce customs duty on raw cashew from 5% to 2.5%,” added Jaitley.
Significantly, Budget 2018 has levied a “social welfare surcharge” at 3-10% on imports in place of the Education Cess and Secondary and Higher Education Cess currently in place.
PE, Venture Capital flows up 155% in May to $ 3 billion; SoftBank – Paytm deal tops
Private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) investments have recorded the highest monthly investments in the past 10 years at $3.1 billion in May 2017. For the third consecutive month in a year, the investment flow crossed the $2-billion mark.
The financial services sector topped the table on account of the $1.4-billion investment by Softbank in Paytm. This deal accounted 46 per cent of aggregate deal value for the month.
According to Ernst & Young (EY) data, the month recorded a 264 per cent increase in terms of value and 23 per cent in volume over May 2016. PE/VCs have invested $3,064 million across 55 deal in May this year as against $843 million across 45 deals in May 2016.
There were five deals of more than $100 million aggregating to $2.3 billion, accounting for 75 per cent of the aggregate deal value in May 2017.
Another important deal during the month was the $500-million investment by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in Indospace (a real estate platform for industrial and logistics parks) for a majority stake, thus taking the investments by Canadian pension funds in 2017 close to $2 billion.
Mayank Rastogi, partner and leader for PE, EY said that Indian PE/VC market has significantly matured over time. Five to seven years ago, the classic growth capital was the only meaningful capital pool available with limitations such as investment horizon and return expectations, and could not have suited some specific situations.
There are a variety of capital pools available ranging from angel/VC to buyout funds, family offices, pensions and sovereigns, corporate funds, debt funds, sector-focused funds providing solutions that address specific needs. This is one of the key drivers for continuing buoyancy in the PE/VC investments in India despite slow growth capital investing.
Financial services ($1.6 billion across 11 deals) emerged as the most active sector on account of the Paytm-Softbank deal, the largest deal in the financial services sector till date. The real estate sector bagged four deals worth $709 million, followed by e-commerce sector’s six deals worth $211 million in terms of activity.
May 2017 recorded $1 billion in exits and was the second consecutive month with more than $1 billion in exits.
The strong buyout trend established over the past two years continued into 2017 with $2 billion invested across 18 deals till date.
Between January and May, there was a significant increase of over 60 per cent compared to 2016 and over 100 per cent compared to 2015, both, in terms of value and volume.
Debt deals recorded the biggest monthly volume since 2014 with $377 million recorded across 12 deals.
Given the buoyancy in the public markets, open market deals emerged as the preferred mode of exit, accounting for 36 per cent of exits by value and 50 per cent by volume, similar to the trend seen in the previous month.
Till date, open market exits have accounted for 49 per cent of the total value of exits in 2017 compared to 25 per cent for the whole of 2016. May 2017 recorded $90 million in fund raise, a decline of 82 per cent and 76 per cent as compared to May 2016 and April 2017 respectively. The plans for fund raise announced during the month stood at $908 million.
There was one PE-backed initial public offering (IPO) in May 2017 (S Chand, a publishing company, primarily in the education space), which saw Everstone exiting a 13.9 per cent stake for $48 million. Till May 2017, PE-backed IPO tally stands at four compared to eight during the same period in 2016.
Financial services emerged as the leading sector with exits worth $466 million across six deals followed by the healthcare sector with exits worth $260 million across three deals.
Accounts for 70% of health services exports, finds survey
Medical tourism has been the largest contributor to India’s total health services exports, accounting for 70 per cent of the total revenues of $890 million earned in 2015-16, according to the first comprehensive government survey on the sector.
Asian countries, led by Bangladesh, Iraq, Pakistan and the Maldives, accounted for more than 60 per cent of the foreign exchange earnings of health services.
India’s major trade partners, the US and the EU, accounted for 14 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, according to the survey compiled by the Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics under the Commerce Department.
■ 60% of the earnings come from Bangladesh, Iraq, Pakistan and the Maldives
■ 14% from the US
■ 11% from the EU
“The personalised services and care that patients in India get is much cheaper than the services offered in developed countries and even in countries in the ASEAN, Middle East and the CIS states,” Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia noted in her comments.
“This, together with the support of the government in promoting India as a healthcare hub, research in healthcare and advances in information and communication technology have enhanced India’s export of health services,” Teaotia added.
Contract research was second-highest forex earner among health services, accounting for 27 per cent of export revenue. Clinical trials and telemedicine accounted for about 3 per cent of export earnings.
Orthopaedics, oncology, neurology and cardiology are the top four export revenue earners; strikingly, Ayurveda is a close fifth, much above other branches including urology, haematology, general medicine and nephrology.
The report is part of the Commerce Department’s efforts to develop a framework to collect statistics on services trade. The DGCI&S launched its pan-India survey on international trade in services in June 2016.
Along with information on medical and health value travel, the survey also captured information on telemedicine, clinical trials, contract research, distance health education and temporary overseas movement of personnel from the surveyed units.
The survey is likely to be undertaken on an annual basis by DGCI&S.
India Inc’s M&A deal tally in March rose four-fold to $27.82 billion, led by the Vodafone-Idea merger, taking the overall figure to $31.54 billion in the first quarter of 2017, says a report.
Overall deal activity in the January-March quarter witnessed an unprecedented three-fold year-on-year rise in value terms, driven solely by the Vodafone-Idea mega merger, which accounted for 80 per cent of the total values.
“The Indian deal activity was dominated by big-ticket mergers and acquisitions (M&As) this quarter. The quarter witnessed one of the largest deals in the country with Vodafone and Idea’s merger, which is estimated at around $27 billion,” Grant Thornton India LLP Partner Prashant Mehra said.
The January-March quarter recorded $33.7 billion across 300 deals marking a sharp increase in value as compared to $10.9 billion in the same period last year while volumes declined by 27 per cent.Without the Vodafone-Idea mega merger, estimated to be a $27 billion transaction, the deal activity would have recorded 39 per cent decline in values, assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton said.
M&A market activity has so far been driven solely by the big-ticket deals, while on the other hand number of transactions continued to slip for the third straight quarter.
“Primary driver for M&A growth was consolidation in the domestic market with deal values growing by 10 times on the back of healthy capital markets and easing credit conditions. This enabled companies strike big ticket deals either to slash debt or consolidate market share,” Mehra said.
Meanwhile, the cross-border deal activity is yet to pick up pace in 2017 as compared to previous quarters due to looming uncertainties in the global economy.
Going forward M&A activity this year is expected to stay positive owing to the sustained interest in Indian economy.
Mehra believes consolidation and expansion is set to be the major theme that will drive the deal activity, especially in healthcare, telecom, e-commerce and infrastructure sectors.”In financial services sector, the possibility of new business models emerging post demonetisation, continued fund raising by NBFCs and a consolidation push by micro finance firms will play a big role,” he added.
