REC BAGS ICSI AWARD IN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

ONGC, SAIL AND COAL INDIA STAKE SALE TO FUEL DISINVESTMENT DRIVE

Bullish on Dalal Street’s performance, government is all set to start big bang PSU disinvestment drive in next 2-3 months. If we go by finance ministry’s assessment then, due to a fabulous bull run at the bourses, the government is quite confident of surpassing the disinvestment target of Rs. 58425 crore for the current fiscal. Finance ministry is making arrangements for the disinvestment drive with three mega disinvestments; 10 per cent stake sale in Coal India and 5 per cent each in ONGC and SAIL. In the budget, FM has targeted to clock Rs. 43425 crore via PSU disinvestment and another Rs. 15000 crore via residue stake sale of companies like BALCO and Hindustan Zinc, but now the ministry wants to surpass this target by a great margin owing to better valuations. Other companies that are present in disinvestment list are IPO of RINL, NHPC, REC and PFC. Ministry is also looking at various options of disinvestment with an objective of reviving retail investors confidence in the stock market and for this, options of more discounts to retail investors, higher reserved portion under reserved category etc. are also being deliberated. In all possibility, disinvestment exercise will start around Diwali.

A HIGH LEVEL COMMITTEE CONSTITUTED BY CBDT FOR RETROSPECTIVE TAX MATTERS

As announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget, a high level committee has been constituted by central board of direct taxes (CBDT) to consider the proposals for assessment of retrospective tax matters. This committee will assess the cases of income arising or accruing before April 2012 on account of retrospective amendments to the provisions of indirect transfer. This committee will scrutinize all the fresh cases that will come to the notice of assessing officer and are related to retrospective amendments of 2012 concerning indirect transfer. This committee includes Joint Secretary (FT&TR-I), Joint secretary (TPL-I) and Commissioner of income tax. After this, all cases of indirect transfer will be required to seek prior approval of this committee. This is really a big respite for the new investors as there were various litigations going on in the court due to this controversial provision including Vodafone case.

“ROAD TRAFFIC ACT” TO REPLACE MOTOR VEHICLES ACT

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that a new Road Traffic Act will be brought in the winter session of Parliament, which will be at par with international Acts in the road sector. Minister informed that the existing Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 has outlived its utility and in the fast changing traffic scenario, a holistic Act is needed. The draft of the proposed Act is already reaching its final stage and it will have features of the best practices of developed countries like USA, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Germany and the UK. As per ministry data every year, 1.38 lakh people are killed in road accidents and 63 per cent of the road crash deaths occur on National and State Highways.