Lawyer Monthly Magazine - March 2020 Edition

Regulatory Update of the Month By Clasis Law 24 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | MAR 2020 a new Debt-ETF consisting primarily of Government Securities to give attractive access to retail investors, pension funds and long-term investors. Education and skill development: • Proposal to announce a new National Education Policy; and • Proposal to allow foreign currency loans/external commercial borrowing in the education sector. Make in India initiative: To push the “Make in India” initiative, the following amendments have been proposed: • Increase in the rate of customs duty onmobile phones, electric vehicles, electronics, household articles etc.; • Withdrawal of exemption from levy of social welfare surcharge cess on various goods and removal of concessional duty benefit on several items; • 5%health cess to be imposed on the imports ofmedical devices, except those exempt from basic customs duty; • Customs Act being amended to enable proper checks of imports under free trade agreements; • Basic customs duty on imports of news print and light-weight coated paper reduced from 10% to 5%; • Anti-dumping duty on purified terephthalic acid (PTA) abolished to benefit the textile sector; • Lower customs duty on certain inputs and raw materials like fuse, chemicals, and plastics; and • Higher customs duty on certain goods like auto-parts, chemicals, etc. which are also being made domestically. Trade policy measures: • “Rules of origin” requirements to be reviewed for certain sensitive items to ensure that free trade agreements are aligned with the national policy; • Provisions relating to safeguard duties to be strengthened to enable regulating such surge in imports in a systematic way; • Provisions for checking dumping of goods and imports of subsidized goods being strengthened; and • Suggestions for reviews of exemptions from customs duty to be crowd-sourced. For any clarification or further information, please contact: Gaurav Wahie, Partner: E: gaurav.wahie@clasislaw.com | Vasudha Luniya, S. Associate: E: vasudha.luniya@clasislaw.com