September 2016 - Business and Economy News

• 22nd Issue of Annual issue of India's External Debt has stated that India's External debt is currently US$ 485.6 billion at end of March 2016, increasing by US$ 10.6 billion over previous year.
• Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry issued guidelines to regulate direct selling and multi-level marketing businesses to protect consumers from Ponzi frauds, titled Direct Selling Guidelines 2016 framework following SEBI notifying that it does not have purview to regulate ponzi schemes
• Andhra Pradesh stood first among states in attracting industrial investments in 2015-16.
• Reliance Communications (RCom) and Maxis Communications Berhad (MCB) signed a deal for the merger of wireless business of Aircel Limited with Reliance Communications (RCom). Merged entity will be country’s fourth-largest telecom company in terms of customers and revenue.
• Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filed IPO papers with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its Initial Public Offering (IPO). The move is first of its kind by any stock exchange in India.
• Asian Development Bank (ADB) sanctions $631 million loan for India’s first coastal industrial corridor between Visakhapatnam (Vizag) and Chennai. 
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved winding up of Hindustan Diamond Company Private Limited (HDCPL)
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved ‘Project SAKSHAM’ as the  New Indirect Tax Network (Systems Integration) of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). The total cost of the project would be 2256 crores, to be incurred over 7 years.
• Central Board of Direct Taxes collected Rs. 65,250 crores as part of the Income Disclosure Scheme 2016.
•  Goods & Services Tax (GST) Council decided to exempt businesses with annual turnover below 20 lakh out of GST net.
• Government approved drought assistance of Rs. 1269 crore for Maharashtra.
• formation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council and Creation of the GST Council Secretariat in New Delhi approved by Government
• As a part of budget reforms, Government approves merger of Railway budget with General budget and removal Plan and non-plan expenditure bifurcation in the union budget.
• Government approved simplification of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy 2016. Some prominent changes are:
• FDI beyond 49% has been permitted through government approval route, in cases giving access to modern technology for the country or for other reasons.
• Entities undertaking single brand retail trading have been relieved from local sourcing norms up to 3 years that were put earlier. Entities in single brand retail trading of products having ‘state-of-art and ‘cutting edge technology have been relieved from local sourcing norms up to 5 years.
• Government approved to raise 31300 crores in FY 2016-17 to boost infrastructure spending.
• Government notified constitution of Six Member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) with
• Government raised salary cap of beneficiaries to Rs.21,000 per month from Rs.15,000, to be eligible for Employees State Insurance (ESI).
• Department of Commerce amends Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) to give further  fillip to exports.
• New products introduced under the ambit of MEIS to take the total coverage to 7103 item.
• HDFC Bank named India’s most valuable brand by the BrandZ Top 50 list released by WPP Group.