AuthorSudhir Singh

How GST will work for software exporters

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GST council has yesterday cleared all the bills required to implement the GST. Finance minister wants to kick-start from July 1 2017. This can be easily achieved is the model laws can be enacted in the current session of parliament. The GST is therefore set become a reality from the second quarter of the current financial year. GST is going to catalyze greater IT adoption. We can see the business...

Place of Effective Management (POEM) of a business

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Finance minister had announced during budget 2016 that place of effective management (POEM) will determine if a company is resident in India or not. Accordingly, this was notified in Finance ACT 2016 as under. The details of what will determine the place of business rules was not decided in the Finance Act 2016. The POEM provisions was supposed to become effective from April 2017. The detailed...

A budget for “Digital Economy” sake

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Looking deeper in to the budget 2017. [An immediate official iSPIRT response to the budget was issued as a Press release on 1st FEB 2017. It is placed in media section. You can access it here.] Budget can’t be construed as main stream policy making exercise. Yet, the policy analysts and experts, track it with utmost seriousness, to understand Government’s thought process in economic policy...

RBI allows convertible notes for Startups from foreign sources

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As part of policy hacks, we covered the issue of Convertible notes being recognized by Ministry of Company affairs (MCA) in our earlier blog here. For benefit of users to start, the convertible note has been explained below. What is a convertible note? Convertible notes are debt instruments that converts in to equity, at a later date. The lender initially gives a loan with an understanding that...

What to expect from draft National Policy on Software Products?

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Ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has released the draft of National Policy of Software Product (NPSP) for public consultation. Click here to see the announcement and how to respond to the consultation process. Click here to see the draft pdf document. This blog aims to explain where the draft NPSP policy statement stands at present and what to expect further.. The blog...

External Commercial Borrowing norms for Startup (ECB)

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What is ECB? External commercial borrowings(ECB) imply borrowing (debt) from a foreign (non-resident) lender. ECB is an attractive financing route as it generally offers access to finance with low rate of interest available from overseas low interest markets. ECBs have been in use by many corporations, PSUS and especially by MNCs setting up operations in India. Who can raise an ECB, from where...

RBI relaxes FVCI norms

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RBI relaxes Foreign Venture Capital Investor (FVCI) norms for Startup investment One more announcement to the stay-in-India check list has come from RBI with respect to registered under SEBI (FVCI) Regulations, 2000. RBI has announced amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000, notified vide Notification No...

National Software Policy 2.0 needed

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A recent article by Andy Mukherjee, predicting the end of India’s IT industry has caused lot of commotion. Though, the ‘end’ is an exaggeration, the warning of the ground slipping is not new. The declining growth is owing to the rapid transformation in technology and Software Industry itself, globally. The first Software policy of 1986, resulted into Software Technology Park (STP) scheme in 1991...

GSP at GSTN what we know till now

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Recently GSTN invited application for becoming GSTN Suvidha Provider (GSP) under GSTN for enabling much awaited Goods and Service Tax. GSTN received total 344 applications. CEO GSTN reported in GSP workshop on 25th October that about 98 of these applicants are qualified for further evaluations according to them. The GSP application process, when started created lot of confusion and concern on the...

The payment gateway friction in cross-border trade of Software products

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The payment gateway problem in exporting online from India It is not easy for Indian Software product companies to export products online and receive payments in India.  This is true for both the downloadable Software product or Software as a Service (SaaS). Experts say there is no legal or policy hurdle from RBI. Yet, there is friction. An Indian payment gateway service provider denies foreign...