IRDA notifies norms on registration of insurance marketing firms

INSURANCE/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Registration of Insurance Marketing Firm) Regulations, 2015

Govt. releases press note reviewing FDI policy in insurance sector

FDI/FEMA/ILT : Consolidated FDI Policy Circular 2014 – Review of Fdi Policy on Insurance Sector – Amendment in Paragraph 6.2.17.7

Feb Iran Oil Imports Fall To Lowest Since July 2013

India slashed its Iranian oil imports in February to a 1-1/2-year low to keep annual volumes from Tehran near the previous fiscal year's levels and within the limits allowed under a deal aimed at curtailing the OPEC nation's nuclear programme.

India, Iran's top client after China, shipped in about 102,200 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and condensate from Tehran in February, the lowest since July 2013, and down 63 percent from January and 62 percent from a year ago, according to tanker arrival data from trade sources and ship tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

The cuts follow smaller but still sharp reductions in January. The two months of lower shipments came after New Delhi instructed Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Essar Oil and Indian Oil Corp to "virtually halt" Iranian oil imports in February-March.

Refiners in India had raised imports during April-December - the first nine months of this fiscal year - by more than 40 percent, leading U.S. authorities to raise an alarm with India's foreign ministry ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to New Delhi in January, a source involved in the talks said.

New Delhi wants to keep its average oil imports from Iran at 210,000-220,000 bpd or about 11 million tonnes in the year to March 31, 2015, to meet the terms of a temporary deal that asks buyer nations to retain purchases from Tehran at 2013 levels.

The deal brokered by six world powers and Iran in November 2013 eased some sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs to the Islamic republic's nuclear programme, capping its oil exports at around 1 million-1.1 million bpd.

The powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - are now working with Iran towards a final agreement on sanctions and its disputed uranium enrichment activities, aiming to reach a political understanding by the end of March and a lasting agreement by a June 30 deadline. Two earlier deadlines have been missed.

The West is worried that Iran's nuclear activities are aimed at making a weapon. Tehran says its uranium enrichment programme is only for power generation.

Over April-February India's oil imports from Iran averaged about 240,000 bpd, or nearly 11 million tonnes, leaving little room for further imports in March.

The April-February imports from Iran were up 16 percent compared with 206,800 bpd imported in the same period of the previous fiscal year, the data showed.

"So far there are no cargoes booked from Iran or Dalian in China for voyage to India (for March arrivals)," a trade source said. Iran has leased oil storage at Dalian in China from which it can supply regional clients.

MRPL had to buy additional oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for February and March to make up for the reduced Iranian oil imports, said an industry source.

MRPL has also booked Iraq's Basra light for March loading from spot markets to replace crude from Iran. MRPL's managing director H. Kumar declined to comment on any additional purchases from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Source:reuters.com

India Raises Metallurgical Coke Import Tax To 5% From 2.5%

India has hiked its customs tax on metallurgical coke to 5% from 2.5% starting April 1 this year, a move that could help domestic coke producers cope with heavy competition from cheaper Chinese imports.

The import duty on iron and steel will also be increased to 15% from 10%, finance minister Arun Jaitley said during the country's Union Budget 2015-2016 speech on Saturday.

India imported 3.69 million mt of coke from January to November 2014, according to data provider GTIS, an increase of 10.6% when compared to the previous year.

This is despite the imposition of the 2.5% import duty in July 2014 under the previous government's budget. China is the biggest supplier of metallurgical coke to India, accounting for 2.01 million mt, or 54% of the market share in 2014. It is the largest shipper of met coke in the world, exporting 8.6 million mt in 2014. Market participants gave a mixed verdict to the doubling of the import duty.

The import tax rise -- amounting to an additional charge of $4-5/mt under current spot pricing -- will increase the competitiveness of domestic coke versus imports, according to one merchant coke producer, estimating domestic coke with 64/62% CSR and 12.5% ash to be tradable at Rupees 12,000- 12,500/mt ex-works east India.

However, he said the marginal rise in steel import duties will not be enough to lift poor downstream steel demand. Although the move might aid the merchant coke producers, it only serves to increase the raw materials costs for the overall steel industry, according to one steelmaker in east India.

"The merchant coke plants will welcome this, but not steelmakers who need lower input costs to compete with all the cheap Chinese steel coming in," the mill source said, adding that he was disappointed that the current 2.5% import tax -- imposed under the previous year's budget -- wasn't removed.

An international met coke exporter appeared to be unfazed by the news. "Chinese coke prices are still falling, so I still think that Chinese coke will still be competitive to India despite the tax," the trading source said.

The source was confident that Chinese coke still had an advantage when compared to Indian coke due to price, and better quality such as lower phosphorous content. "Chinese imported coke is still workable," the trader said.

India is the world's 7th largest producer of met coke, at 10 million mt, estimated one large Indian cokemaker. It was the top seaborne importer of Chinese coke in 2014.

Source:platts.com

Iron Ore Imports Jump Multi-Fold To 5.63 Mt In April-November, Fy15

Iron ore imports have increased sharply to 5.63 million tonnes in 2014-15 till November as against 0.37 million tonnes in previous financial year, the government said today.

"The import of iron ore has increased from 0.37 million tonnes (MT) in year 2013-14 to 5.63 MT in the year 2014-15 (April-November)," Minister of State for Steel and Mines Vishnu Deo Sai said in a reply to the Lok Sabha.

The minister further said there is no acute shortage of raw material like iron ore. However, there are regional shortages of iron ore due to Supreme Court's decisions regarding lease renewal in Goa and Odisha and cancellation of mining leases in Karnataka.

"Coking coal which is used in steel making is largely imported into India due to its non-availability," the minister said. Iron ore imports in 2012-13 were at 3.05 MT while in the previous 2011-12 year imports were 0.97 MT, the minister said.

He further said that as per the report of the Working Group on Steel for the 12th Five Year Plan for 2016-17, the iron ore requirement is 206.2 MT for crude steel production capacity of 125.9 MT.

At present 21 per cent of crude steel production is being done by public sector and 79 per cent of crude steel production is being done by private sector.

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

RBI prohibits citizens of Macau and Hong Kong from acquiring/transferring immovable properties in In

FEMA/ILT/INDIAN ACTS & RULES : FEM (Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property in India) (Amendment) Regulations, 2015 – Substitution of Regulation 7

Customs Revenue Shrinks As Import Of Fresh Items From India Decreases By 70Pc

The import of fresh items like tomatoes, ginger and garlic form India via Wagha border has decreased by 70 percent. Pakistan Customs collects revenue on the import of fresh items, which will now decrease due to the less imports.

An official said that the decline in import of fresh items was due to the season, as the local production will increase during these days, which will be enough for domestic needs.

He added that import of fresh items will increase again in July. He said that less imports will result in less revenue for the Pakistan Customs, as it collects regulatory duty, sales tax and income tax on imported items.

He said almost 15 to 20 trucks carrying fresh items are entering Pakistan from India on a daily basis, while almost 120 trucks used to enter earlier during the routine trade.

Source:customstoday.com.pk

Aqua Aquaria 2015: India’S Seafood Exports Up 4.87 Per Cent During April 15 To Jan 15

India’s seafood exports have recorded an increase of 4.87 per cent at 875,791 tonnes during April 2014 to January 2015. Exports in dollar terms were up by 11.84 per cent to $4.72 billion, as compared to $4.22 billion.

During the same period last year, seafood exports were recorded at 835,125 tonnes, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) said in a statement released at Aqua Aquaria 2015. MPEDA attributed the growth to increase production and export of L.Vannamei shrimps.

Frozen shrimps continued as principle item in exports with 17.43 per cent growth at 300,147 tonnes, as compared to 255,603 tonnes exported in the same period last year.

The increase in frozen shrimps was due to increased and export of cultured L.Vannamei shrimps. About 85 per cent of L.Vannamei shrimps are exported from Andhra Pradesh.

Export of frozen cuttle fish has also shown tremendous growth with 19.67 per cent growth at 69,966 tonnes, against 58,465 tonnes exported during the same period last year.

However, frozen fish export decrease by 3.2 per cent at 268,922 tonnes, as compared to 277,824 tonnes exported during April 2013 to January 2014.

US was the biggest market with 26.42 per cent share, followed by South East Asia with 25.69 per cent, European Union with 20.77 per cent, Japan with 8.97 per cent, other countires 8.52 per cent, middle east with 5.80 per cent and China with 3.84 per cent.

Export to US has increased by 10.64 per cent and was the biggest market for Indian cultured shrimps with 42.09 per cent. The share of L.Vannamei shrimps to South East Asian countries was about 16.48 per cent and European union was 18.11 per cent.

Aqua Aquaria 2015, a biennial international aquaculture event, was organised in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh from February 20 to 22, 2015 by MPEDA.

Source:thefishsite.com

Union Budget Aims At Structural Changes With Focus On Infra: Fieo

Apex exporters body, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) while commenting on the Union Budget 2015-16, said that the Budget has aimed at structural changes in Indian economy focussing on infrastructure, tourism, manufacturing particularly micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME), ease of doing business, and curbing black money.

A firm date of GST and move towards it by raising the service tax from 12 percent to 14 percent is the most notable feature of the budget which will also help exports and may give an additional 1-2 percent GDP push to economy.

"Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of Rs 20,000 Crores, and credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crores and Trade Receivables discounting System (TReDS) for facilitating financing of trade receivables of MSMEs will address the liquidity problem of small business said," President, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), M Rafeeque Ahmed said in a press release on Saturday. However, FIEO Chief complimented the Finance Minister for rightly focussing on infrastructure.

Establishment of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) with an annual flow of 20,000 Crores, Tax free infrastructure bonds for the projects in the rail, road and irrigation sectors, Corporatisation of Ports in public sector to attract investment and leverage the huge land resources and 5 new Ultra Mega Power Projects, each of 4000 MW, in the Plug-and-Play mode will help manufacturing and exports.

Reduction of customs duty and special additional duty on some of key inputs, increase in availing of CENVAT Credit from 6 to 12 months, Online excise and service tax registration in 48 hrs and exemption of service tax on transportation of exports goods from factory to land customs station will add to competitiveness of exports said Ahmed.

However, President FIEO said that he expected reduction, if not abolition of MAT and DDT for SEZ Units, introduction of interest subvention for exports and an announcement of reduction in exports and imports documents in the Budget but hoped that such matters would be looked into shortly before passing of the Budget.

Source:smetimes.in

Budget 2015: Smuggling Of Gold Will Continue If Fm Arun Jaitley's Scheme Fails, Experts Say

Entry of gold through the illegal route will continue if Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's gold monetisation scheme fails to enthuse Indians to unlock their household gold, experts say. It is estimated that Indian households hold nearly 20,000 tonnes of the yellow metal.

Gold import attracts 10% duty and despite several representations by the industry, Jaitley did not reduce it in the budget announced on Saturday, raising fears that unofficial gold supply will increase in the market.

"The FM has announced a slew of measures to curb black money in India, yet he has ignored one of the biggest issues of smuggling of gold into the country. Unless the import duty is lowered, the unofficial route will thrive and even black money may find a way into the country in the form of gold," said Mehul Choksi, chairman of Gitanjali group.

According to the World Gold Council, nearly 200 tonnes of gold entered India in 2014 through the illegal route. The landed cost of "official" gold has increased by 20% in the last one year compared with unofficial gold, as the premium went up due to strict import norms, gold traders said. "The impact of this " unofficial" supply of gold is valued at about $10 billion, leading to a loss in foreign exchange inflow of a similar amount and a loss in revenue of over $1 billion on account of customs duty," Choksi said.

Smuggling of gold and alleged entry of black money in the form of gold can only come down if India can reduce its dependence on imported gold. The FM's gold monetisation scheme is a step in that direction. Gold traders says that if the scheme is attractive, Indians might respond favourably. "We are waiting for the details of the scheme," said Haresh Soni, chairman, All India Gem & Jewellery Trade Federation.

The country generally imports 850-950 tonnes of gold every year. Earlier, the industry has proposed to the government that as part of the gold monetisation scheme, a bank account would have to be opened by the retail customer. Gold can be deposited for a maximum tenure of three years and the rate of interest will be tentative, depending upon the prevailing interest rate. When mature, the interest is paid not in rupees, but in gold, and the investor has more gold in his account.

Banks can lend this gold to jewellers or deposit it with the Reserve Bank of India that will free rupee liquidity for them. The industry feels that the introduction of Indian-made gold coins is a move in the right direction. "It is not yet clear whether the government will mint these coins or not. We are waiting for clarification from government," said Bachhraj Bamalwa, director, Nemichand Bamalwa & Sons.

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

Rupee Marginally Down At 61.88 Per Dollar; Bond Yield Inches Up

The rupee was marginally down against the US dollar in afternoon trading on Monday as the greenback strengthened against major global peers in reaction to the interest rate cut by China on the weekend.

Dollar demand from state-owned banks, most likely on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), also kept the rupee under pressure.

At 2.30pm the Indian currency was trading at 61.8825 per dollar, down 0.07% from its previous close of 61.83 per dollar. It touched a low of 61.95 per dollar on Monday.

“The dollar’s strength has been the main reason for the rupee’s weakness. But there are also inflows in the market which are being absorbed by state-owned banks,” said a dealer with a US bank.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of currencies, touched 95.50 on Monday, its highest level since September 2003, as an interest rate cut by China on Saturday put that country’s slow economic recovery under the spotlight. The resultant weakness in other Asian currencies also affected the rupee.

The yield on the 10-year bond inched up to 7.76% from Friday’s close of 7.72% in reaction to Saturday’s budget announcement which increased the fiscal deficit target to 3.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) against market estimates of 3.6% to 3.8% of GDP.

“Yields have inched up but there is still widespread expectations that the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) will cut rates further in April which is why yields have not taken a tumble,” said the dealer quoted above.

Bond yields are likely to inch up after finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said he will achieve the fiscal deficit target of 3% by 2017-18, a year later than schedule, citing an increase in public spending required to support economic growth.

Source:livemint.com