SHOULD FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTORS BE WORRIED ABOUT MAT?
Background Minimum Alternate Tax (“MAT”) is a tax levied under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”) on the book profit of a company where the overall tax paid by the company is less than 18.5% of the book profit. Generally speaking, in the case of non-resident entities who do not have a permanent establishment in…
CRITIQUE OF THE UNDISCLOSED FOREIGN INCOME AND ASSETS (IMPOSITION OF TAX) BILL, 2015
In his budget speech on February 28, 2015, the Finance Minister (“FM”) made it clear that black (unaccounted) money was eating into the Indian economy and this problem would have to be tackled forcefully. While the FM acknowledged that there were limitations under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the “IT Act”) to deal with black money,…
INDIA’S SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND EXPRESSION
Introduction On March 24, 2015, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (the “SC”) pronounced its judgment on constitutional validity of Sections 66A, 69A and 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (the “IT Act”) and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 (the “Intermediary Rules”). The SC declared Section 66A of the IT Act to…
INDIA – KEY CHANGES AFFECTING FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR
Introduction On December 26, 2014, the President of India promulgated the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 (the “Ordinance”) to amend the Insurance Act, 1938 (the “Act”), the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999. On March 12, 2015, the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Parliament)…
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE INCOME TAX PROPOSALS IN INDIA’S BUDGET FOR 2015-16
India’s Union Budget (“Budget”) was announced on February 28, 2015, and the Finance Bill, 2015 (the “Finance Bill”) was tabled in Parliament. Most of the income tax proposals in the Finance Bill will be effective from the financial year commencing on April 1, 2015, unless specified otherwise. Announced in the backdrop of high expectations, the…
PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO INDIA’S ARBITRATION LAW: WILL IT HAVE THE DESIRED EFFECT?
Introduction The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (the “Act”), was enacted by the Parliament of India to consolidate and amend the law relating to domestic arbitration and enforcement of foreign awards. One of the main objectives of the Act was to minimise the supervisory role of courts in the arbitration process. However, in our view,…
RECENT CHANGES TO INDIA’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE REGULATIONS
This update discusses certain key changes to India’s foreign exchange regulations implemented in the past few weeks Liberalization of the limit under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (“LRS”) In the bi-monthly monetary policy statement released on February 3, 2015, the Reserve Bank of India (the “RBI”) has increased the limit on remittance of foreign exchange for…