Government to ease rules for FPIs in bid to attract investment
The government plans to cut red tape and ease rules for foreign portfolio investors (FPI), as it seeks to attract more investments into Asia’s third-largest economy, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
As part of the plan, Centre will reduce the time required for FPIs to register in India, introduce a single-window clearance for them and allow foreign banks to trade on behalf of their clients without registering, the people said, requesting anonymity.
The steps come at a time when Indian exchanges have decided to stop sharing market data feeds with overseas exchanges to prevent a flight of liquidity from the country. That decision has been criticised by market participants, including index provider MSCI, which termed it anti-competitive and protectionist. Foreign investors pointed out that such moves should be accompanied by removing barriers for global investors.
“The FPI registration process, which now on an average takes two months, is set to reduce to just 3-6 days by moving towards a single application and doing away with the requirement of obtaining a Permanent Account Number,” said a government official, one of the three people cited earlier.
The 2016-17 Union budget had proposed a single-window clearance for FPIs, but that proposal
Wooing foreign investors
FPI registration time to be cut to three-six days from two months now
Single-window clearance for FPIs to be notified; currently, separate approvals are required from Sebi, RBI and CBDT
FPIs will need to fill up a six-page registration form Foreign banks can trade on behalf of their clients in Indian securities
Lobbying efforts to get India recognized by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Relaxations come even as Indian exchanges have decided to discontinue product and data-sharing arrangements with foreign exchanges
MUMBAI:
got stuck because of differences between the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). “CBDT had wanted its set of documents, which took a little bit of time. But now we have come to a common ground and the department of revenue has agreed to a six-page form.
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standards (CRS) will be separately done by brokers or custodians,” said a Sebi official, another of the three people cited earlier. CRS is an information standard for the automatic exchange of tax and financial information on a global level.
EPFO FILES REPORT AGAINST VIKRAM KOTHARI
Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has filed a report against Rotomac promoter Vikram Kothari for not depositing the provident fund amount of his employees for the last two years, police said. In-charge of Panki police station, Lalmani Tripathi, said the inspector of enforcement branch of EPFO, Rajbali Patel, lodged a report in this connection on Saturday.
Kothari is accused of committing an alleged loan default of ₹2,919 crore towards a consortium of seven nationalised banks
KANPUR:The