Economy so far; prepared by PHD Research Bureau

Economy so far

(March 8, 2017)

• New Trade Mark Rules, 2017 notified – The Trade Mark Rules, 2017 have been notified and have come into effect from 06th March, 2017. These Rules, which replace the erstwhile Trade Mark Rules 2002, will streamline and simplify the processing of Trade Mark applications.Some salient features of the revamped Rules are as follows: Number of Trade Mark (TM) Forms have been reduced from 74 to 8.  Based on stakeholders feedback, the fees for Individuals, Start-ups and Small Enterprises have been reduced from that proposed in the draft Rules – i.e. only Rs 4,500 as against Rs 8,000 for e-filing of TM applications proposed at the draft stage. It may be recalled that the examination time for a Trade Mark application has already been brought down from 13 months to just 1 month in January 2017; this is despite a stupendous 35% jump in Trade Mark filings in 2015-16 vis a vis the previous year. The new Rules should give a boost to the Intellectual Property Regime in India.
• RBI releases Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person  Resident outside India) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2017 – In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (3) of Section 6 and Section 47 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999), the Reserve Bank of India hereby makes the following amendments in the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or issue of Security by a Person Resident outside India) Regulations, 2000 (Notification No. FEMA. 20/2000-RB dated 3rd May 2000) namely Short Title & Commencement, Amendment of the Regulations, Schedule 9 shall be substituted, namely Foreign Direct Investment (FDI-LLP) in Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) formed and registered under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. A person resident outside India (other than a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh) or an entity incorporated outside India (other than an entity in Pakistan or Bangladesh), not being a Foreign Portfolio Investor or Foreign Institutional Investor or Foreign Venture Capital Investor registered in accordance with SEBI guidelines, may contribute foreign capital either by way of capital contribution or by way of acquisition / transfer of profit shares in the capital structure of an LLP.
• No one to be deprived of benefits for lack of Aadhaar- Government has said that no one will be deprived of the benefits for lack of Aadhaar. In a statement issued, the Government has reiterated that till Aadhaar number is assigned to any individual, the benefit will continue to be given based on alternate means of identification. It also directed the departments to provide Aadhaar enrolment facilities to their beneficiaries under Regulation 12 of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016. Considering the usefulness of Aadhaar in curbing leakages and bringing transparency in delivery system, the Government has recently issued orders to use Aadhaar in several other welfare schemes funded from the Consolidated Fund of India. While these orders require beneficiaries of these programs to give their Aadhaar number, it has also been ensured that no one is deprived of the benefits for want of Aadhaar.
• Pre-Kharif Interface objective is to jointly identify emerging researchable areas and evolve strategies for better implementation of the schemes and programmes- A Pre-Kharif Interface between Department of Agriculture, Corporation & Farmers Welfare and ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) was held last week in Delhi, chaired by the Secretary (AC&FW) and co-chaired by the Secretary Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE).   During the Interface, joint/common issues relating to Crops, Seeds, Plant Protection, Horticulture, Farm Mechanization & Technology, Natural Resource Management, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Integrated Nutrient Management, Extension and Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries (DAHD&F) were deliberated upon. A few important decisions taken included: Crop varieties released by ICAR after 2011 should be promoted throughout India. The purpose is to achieve higher rate of varietal replacement. It was decided to request all the State governments to put seed indents for all the recommended varieties of various crops for their respective State, released after 2011.
• Clarification by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) on transfer of amount from Recognized Provident Fund & Superannuation Fund to National Pension Scheme (NPS) – In the budget of 2016-17, the Government had announced that the subscribers from recognized Provident Funds and Superannuation Funds would be able to transfer their corpus from these funds to National Pension System (NPS) without any tax implication. With the NPS gaining momentum vis-à-vis other retirement products and a number of queries being raised on the transfer of amounts from recognized Provident/Superannuation Funds to NPS, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has clarified the process through a circular dated 06.03.2017. The subscriber should have an active NPS Tier I account which can be opened either through the employer (where NPS is implemented) or through the Points-of-Presence (POPs) or online through eNPS on the NPS Trust website npstrust.org.in. The subscriber presently under Government/Private Sector employment should approach the recognised Provident Fund/Superannuation Fund Trust through the current employer by giving request for transfer to his/her NPS account.
• Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley calls upon the Financial Advisers of different Ministries to ensure that expenditure on schemes and projects start from the beginning of the financial year to leverage the early passing of the Finance Bill this year; FM releases the Revised General Financial Rules (GFR) 2017- Hon’ble Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said since this time, the Finance Bill would be passed by the Parliament before the 31st March, 2017, therefore, the different Ministries should be in a stage of readiness as the funds for various schemes would be available with effect from 1st April, 2017. Shri Jaitley was addressing all the Financial Advisors in the different Central Ministries/Departments after releasing the Revised General Financial Rules (GFRs) – 2017 at the Conference of the Financial Advisors (FAs) in the national capital.
• Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) signs another Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) with subsidiary of a Japanese Company taking the total APAs entered into by the CBDT to 141– The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has entered into a bilateral Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) with rollback provision with a Japanese subsidiary on 6th March, 2017. The total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has reached 141 with this signing. The CBDT expects more APAs to be concluded and signed before the end of the current fiscal. With this signing, the total number of bilateral APAs with Japanese subsidiaries has reached five, all with rollback provisions. Four APAs out of these five have been signed in the current financial year. All these five bilateral APAs are with Japanese trading companies (Sogo Soshas). Certainty in tax treatment for Sogo Soshas has been a long standing demand of the Japanese industry.
• 33% Sub Quota for Women in Allotment of each Category of minor Catering Units at All Category of stations has been provided under the New Catering Policy of Indian Railways– Hon’ble Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has recently launched New Catering Policy 2017, while there are many new features in the new Catering policy, special provisions for women have also been made in it. Under this policy, a Sub Quota of 33% for women in allotment of each of the reserved catering units is being introduced on Indian Railways in order to extend economic empowerment for women. It is also in compliance with the announcement made in Railway Budget 2016-17. A1, A, B, and C Category stations – 25% of the Units are reserved for various category like SC (6%), ST (4%), BPL (3%), OBC (3%), Minorities (3%), Freedom Fighters (4%) and Physically Challenged persons (2%). D, E and F Category stations – 49.5% of the Units are reserved for various category like SC (12%), ST (8%), OBC (20%) and Minorities (9.5%). 33% sub quota for women in allotment of each category of minor catering units at all category of stations has been provided. 33% sub quota reservation for women in each category shall ensure allotment of minimum 8% stalls to women at A1, A, B & C category station and minimum 17% at D, E and F category station.
• Water Level of 91 major Reservoirs of the Country goes down by three per cent–-The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on March 02, 2017 was 64.55 BCM, which is 41% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This percentage was at 44 for the week ending February 23, 2017. The level of March 02, 2017 was 132% of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 102% of storage of average of last ten years. The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM which is about 62% of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country. 37 Reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.
• Markets so far

• Source: PHD Research Bureau, complied from BSE, MCX and Bloomberg

Warm regards,

Dr. S P Sharma

Chief Economist