MCCI NEWS | 1

The growth-outlook for India in 2015-16 has been lowered by IMF to 7.2 p.c., but the country is on track to remain the world’s fastest-growing large economy. It says that growth will benefit from recent policy reforms, a consequent pick up in investment, and lower commodity prices. IMF suggests that to fuel growth, India should remove infrastructure bottlenecks in the power sector and implement reforms in education, labor, and product markets to enhance their competitiveness and productivity. It also advises reforms in tax system, deep cuts in subsidies and introduction of market-based pricing of natural resources to boost up investment.

We have noted that Government has already relaxed foreign investment rules in 15 sectors of the economy, and eased the process for FDI approval. It has also set up a Committee to look into tax reforms, all of which bear out that the reforms agenda is on track and send a positive signal to the global investors.

In September, India’s industrial production grew by 3.6 p.c. over the same month last year. It undershot market analysts’ expectations of a 5.0 p.c. expansion. The dip was driven by slower growth in the manufacturing and mining sectors.

West Bengal Government is organising ‘Bengal Global Business Summit 2016’ during 7-9 January 2016. The three-day event will include Plenary Sessions addressed by national and international entrepreneurs of repute who will share their thoughts and experience. The Summit will include Sectoral Breakaway Sessions with the participation of leading industrialists of each sector. The Summit will also organise B2B and G2B interactions.

By the time this Bulletin will reach your hands, I might have handed over the baton to my able successor. I take this opportunity to place on record my deep appreciation of the support I received from all of you. I am sure, the Chamber would be more visible with its vibrancy and flurry of activities in the coming days.

Vol. IV | No. 1 September-October 2015

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S

DESK

Dear Members,

‘MCCI Team for the year 2015-16’

MCCI Business Delegation to Vietnam : 15- 20 September, 2015

MCCI in collaboration with the Indian Embassy in Hanoi, Consul General at Ho Chi Minh City, mounted a ten-member Business Delegation from 15 to 20 September 2015. The Team visited Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, had interactions with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce, Department of Trade & Industry, Business Meetings, B2B meetings and visited Industrial Parks & factories. (please see page 4-5)

Manish Goenka President

Hemant Bangur Sr. Vice President

Surendra Keyal Hony. Secretary

Ramesh Agarwal Vice President

Rajaram Chowdhary Treasurer

Yours Sincerely

Arun Kumar Saraf

MCCI NewsMCCI News

2 | MCCI NEWS

Exclusive Session with Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder and Mentor, KIIT University & KISS, Bhubaneswar on 3rd Sept. 2015

Special Session on ‘Business Opportunities in Start-up

Companies’–A MCCI-NASSCOM Initiative on 11 September 2015

Debate on ‘eRetail Vs Brick & Mortar Retail’ held on Sept. 21,

2015 at The Park, Kolkata

(R-L) Ramesh Agarwal, Dr. Achyuta Samanta & R. S. Goenka

The Chamber organised an Exclusive Session on ‘KIIT University and KISS’ with Dr. Achyuta Samanta, visionary founder of KIIT and KISS and Mentor, KIIT University & KISS, Bhubaneswar.

Prof. Samanta informed that KIIT having 25,000 students and KISS having another 25,000 tribal students were set up for the elite and deprived sections of the society, respectively. Market value of KIIT assets is Rs 10,000 crores. Currently 800 poor tribal children of KISS are pursuing their professional education like Medical, Dental, Engineering, Law, etc. in KIIT University, at completely free of cost. This initiative seeks to metamorphose the hapless to haves, tax consumers to tax payers.

The Chamber organised a Special Session on ‘Business Opportunities in Start-up Companies – A MCCI-NASSCOM Initiative’ with an aim to support ’10,000 Start-ups Initiative’ of NASSCOM and provide the new generation entrepreneurs with an access to the potential customers and investors and help them gain knowledge of possible strategic tie-ups.

Nirupam Chaudhuri, Regional Head, NASSCOM, Eastern Region and Ravi Ranjan, Manager, NASSCOM Kolkata addressed the Session. Founders of start-ups in Kolkata : Sourav Goswami, Co-Founder, iManageMyHotel, Partho Mitra, Manager, Tickto, Rahul Singhal, Founder & CEO, Oiral, Angshuman Bhattacharya, Founder & CEO, Sibia Analytics and Anurag Prajapat, Founder, Axon Tech Labs also addressed the Session. Nirupam Chaudhuri, said that NASSCOM is focusing towards Eastern India which has significant prospects to become a cradle for innovative business start-ups. He explained that NASSCOM 10,000 start-ups will help these start-ups by providing

MCCI organized a Debate on ‘eRetail Vs Brick and Mortar Retail’ at The Park, Kolkata. Sadhan Pande, Hon’ble Minister of Consumer Affairs, GoWB was the Chief Guest at the event. P Kamalakanth, Executive Director, WBIDC; Vidyut Saraf, Deputy Managing Director, Forum Projects;Dr Archana Sharma, Head of Retail Management IISWBM; Partha Sinha, Sr General Manager, Leads Property Acquisition Team, WB and NE, Reliance Industries Ltd; Swagat Sengupta, Country Head, (Operations and Purchase), Apeejay Oxford Bookstore; Anil Talreja, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP; Navin Mistry, Head Retail Exports and India Lifestyle Category, eBay India were the panelists. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India moderated

‘mentorship’, ‘incubation angel-funding’, ‘industry-connection’, and ‘co-working space start-up warehouse ’and‘ spreading awareness’.

Ravi Ranjan said that since its initiation in 2013, the Start-up programme has organised 450 events in 22 cities and got 16,000 applications from which 800 start-ups got shortlisted. Phase four of the programme is running. It got 40+ angel investors, 56 accelerators, 190 mentors and 500 connected enterprises within just 2 years. NASSCOM has it’s second incubation centre in West Bengal after Bangalore and it is planning to setting up six more centers in Kochi, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Pune soon.

(R-L) P. C. Kankaria, Ravi Ranjan, V. K. Bhandari, N. Chaudhuri & R. K. Sen

Distinguished Panel of Speakers; Sadhan Pande, Hon’ble Minister of Consumer Affairs, GoWB (Centre)

MCCI NEWS | 3

Meeting with 7-member Business Delegation from Taiwan on 09 Oct 2015

‘True Meaning and Understanding of Ram Rajya in Today’s Context’

- A Divine Session with His Holiness Morari Bapu on October

4, 2015 at Nazrul ManchaSession on ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’ held on 28 Sept. 2015

Ashish R Bedekar, Prem Chand Kankaria & Tushar Basu

The Chamber organised an Interactive Session with Shri Ashish R Bedekar, Head-MediaTek Labs (India), on ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’. Prem Chand Kankaria, Co-Chairman, Standing Committee on IT & Communication, MCCI chaired the session.

Ashish Bedekar said that The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. He mentioned that IoT ecosystem is rapidly growing in India and Govt. of India is playing a very important supporting role. The department of Electronics and IT has drafted an IoT Policy with the goal of creating an IoT industry in the country worth $15 billion by 2020. Right from B2B enterprise, every sector has its own opportunity in IoT.

(L-R) A.K.Saraf, His Holiness Shri Morari Bapu & Hemant Bangur

MCCI in association with MCCI Ladies Forum organized a Divine Session with His Holiness Morari Bapu, Renowned Exponent of Ram Charit Manas, who addressed on the theme ‘True Meaning and Understanding of Ram Rajya in Today’s Context’. Smt Saroj Saraf, Chairperson, MCCI Ladies Forum, welcome His Holiness Morari Bapu with a bouquet. Arun Kumar Saraf, President, MCCI welcomed all by saying by Ramarajya, he did not mean Hindu Raj, but he meant Divine Raj, the Kingdom of God. For him Rama and Rahim are one and the same deity and he acknowledged no other God but the one God of truth and righteousness. Shri Bapu said ‘Satya, Prem and Karuna are the three Pillars of 21st Century Ramrajya and people need to Rachnatmak not Vachanatmak’. The Ideal State of Ramarajya which dreamt of by Mahatma Gandhi may not be quite relevant in the present context, but requires at least 10 % change in the society to make it happen in the present India. ‘Ever progressive and changing rituals’, ‘Truthfulness’, ’Kindness’, ‘Education’, ‘ ‘Less of Decision on any matter’, ‘Absence of Castes as a Differentiator among society, but as a system’,’Assigning tasks according to the abilities of the people’ -like Khsatriya for war, Brahmins for Education’ were few of the points discussed by Shri Bapu.

the session after introducing all to the audience. Sadhan Pande said that West Bengal is formulating a Policy to statute the Online Channel of Purchase. He advocated the formation of a Committee to impose Tax and some restrictions as demanded by the Panelists to weed the Unfair Pricing and Unfair Market Players so that online consumers do not suffer. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India said after NASA, Retail uses the maximum technology, but is yet not considered as an industry per se.

Mr. Fu-Han, Director of the Kolkata Office of Taiwan World Trade Centre and a 7-member Business Delegation from Taiwan visited the Chamber. Opening the Dialogue, Surendra Keyal, Hony. Secretary of MCCI welcomed Mr. Fu-Han and the Delegates from Taiwan at the Chamber. The delegation members represented industries like Machine Tools & Accessories, Self-drilling Screws for particle board/clip board/roofing/Window, CR/HR products, Auto, Motor Cycle parts etc.

Taiwanese exports to India were $1.28 billion while imports from India touched $828 million. Bilateral trade between India and Taiwan stood at $6 billion in 2014 and has been growing further. The Team was appraised that entrepreneurs in West Bengal were eager to explore new fields of co-operation and work together with Taiwanese entrepreneurs in the areas of mutual interest and expertise. Surendra Keyal (Centre) meeting the Taiwanese Delegation

4 | MCCI NEWS

MCCI Business Delegation Team to Vietnam :15-20 September 2015

In front of

the Yen

Phong

Industrial

Zone Office

Vietnam – India

Business

Meet (L-R)

A.K. Agarwal,

M.P. Agarwal,

Manaj Kumar,

Consul & head

of Chancery,

HCMC, Smt

Smita Pant ,

Indian Consul

General,

A.K.Saraf,

V. Agarwal &

M.C.Das

A view of the

audience

President presenting a bouque to Ms Di Thi Thu Ha, Senior

Partner, KPMG, at the Indian Embassy. KPMG made an

exhaustive Presentation on Vietnam Economy Cruising in Halong Bay

B2B in Progress

(L-R) Phom Thang, Economic & Commercial Officer, Indian Embassy, Vineet Nahata, Arun Kumar Saraf, Maruti Maheshwari, Shashikant Tewary, Vijoy Agarwal,

MCCI NEWS | 5

MCCI Business Delegation Team to Vietnam :15-20 September 2015

Team visited Investment & Trade Promotion Centre

at Dong Nai Province on 16 September afternoon

Arun Kumar Agarwal, Mahabir Prasad Agarwal Pankaj Shah, Ramesh Agarwal & M.C.Das in front of Vietnam

Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Visited the Sung Sot Cave in the Halong Bay

President with H.E. Mrs. Preeti Saran, Indian Ambassador in Vietnam

President addressing before the B2B Meeting

A Powerpoint presentation of the Yen Phong Industrial Zone in Bacninh Province on 17 September

6 | MCCI NEWS

Interactive Session with the Consul General of the Federal Republic of

Germany on 13 October 2015

Interactive Session on ‘SXC Vision 2020’ with Rev. Fr. Dr. J. Felix Raj, S.J, Principal, St. Xavier’s College, on 28th October 2015

Strengthening Communication Linkages in India – Road Ahead’

on October 31, 2015(L-R) Nari Kalwani, Olaf Iversen. A. K. Saraf & Damien Syed

Chamber organised an Interactive Session with Mr Olaf Iversen, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany at the Chamber. Mr. Nari Kalwani, Chairman, Eastern Region Council, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce also addressed the Session. Mr. Damien Syed, Consul General of France in Kolkata was also present at the Session. While speaking on the Indo-German trade growth, Mr. Nari Kalwani, mentioned that 1600 German companies were present in India making investment in sectors like automobiles, mechanical & engineering industries, services, chemicals and trading. Mr. Iversen while presenting his views on Indo-German relations with emphasis on trade and investment, mentioned that the trade volume between India and Germany has doubled in the last 10 years and the overall exchange of goods and services between the two countries is valued at around 16 billion Euros in 2014-15. Mr. Iversen also informed that Germany ranks 7th in the list of top 10 investing countries in India, investing over US$ 8.3 billion since 1991.

Chamber organised an Interactive Session on ‘SXC Vision 2020’ with Rev. Fr. Dr. J. Felix Raj, S.J, Principal, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. R.S. Agarwal, Trustee & Past President, MCCI & Jt. Chairman, Emami Group of Companies also addressed the Session.

St. Xavier’s has made its mark in the world of higher education and is one of the ten best Colleges in India credited with autonomous status and a College with Centre for Excellence status, said R.S. Agarwal. On SXC Vision 2020 and its expansion plans, Father Felix Raj announced opening of St Xavier’s University, with a new management school on the premises, at Rajarhat in July 2017. The management school will be on the lines of Jesuit-run B-schools, XIMB in Bhubaneswar and XLRI in Jamshedpur. It will be the first minority university campus that will be built on the public-private partnership (PPP) model with the authority and administration by Jesuits and with limited participation by State.

The Chamber organised a Session on ‘Strengthening Communication Linkages in India – Road Ahead’ with Anand Kumar, Managing Director, National Highways Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) at the Chamber. Manoj Kumar Agarwal, Managing Director, West Bengal Highways Development Corporation Ltd (WBHDCL) also addressed the session. Anand Kumar said that though our country ranks second in length of roadways, we lack far behind in terms of quality of those roads.

He felt that future planning of projects in road infrastructure or highways should be done on priority and need basis (since resources are limited) instead of being colored by any kind of political, regional and personal bias. One should have a blueprint of next 20-30 years ready. The north east regions are characterized by loose and undulated soil which needs to be stabilized against rainfall and other weather uncertainties. Social, political issues in those areas raise security concerns as well.

Manoj Kumar Agarwal observed that the link between infrastructure and economic development is a continuous process. Six major projects with total investment of Rs. 1250 crores have been taken up on item rate contract basis ;Seven more projects are in the pipeline. WBHDCL has engaged RITES Ltd for preparing DPRs of ROBs on State Highways at Simlagarh, Khejuria and Bandel Car shed.

(R-L) A. K. Saraf, Rev. Fr. Dr. J. Felix Raj, R. S. Agarwal, R. S. Goenka & Hemant Bangur

(L-R) Anand Kumar, A. K. Saraf, Manoj Kumar Agarwal

MCCI NEWS | 7

FORTHCOMING EVENTS114TH ANNUAL SESSIONon 07 November 2015 at Lalit Great Eastern at 11 a.m. with Kalraj Mishra, Hon’ble Union Minister of MSME, Babul Supriyo, Hon’ ble MOS for Urban Development, Housing & Poverty Alleviation and Dr. Amit Mitra, Hon’ble Minster for Finance, Commerce & Industries, IT & Electronics, Government of West Bengal

114TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGMeeting of the Chamber on 23 November 2015 at 4 p.m. in the conference Hall of the Chamber

INTERACTIVE SESSIONwith R. S. Sharma, Chairman , Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on ‘Telecon Revolution in India – Vision 2020’

Factory output growth dips in Sept as manufacturing slows

Use of Digital Signature For Submission Of Documents by Importers & ExportersThe CBEC, Ministry of Finance, Government of India vide Circular No. 26/2015-Customs dated 23rd October, 2015 has decided that all importers, exporters using services of Customs Brokers for formalities under Customs Act, 1962, shipping lines and airlines shall file customs documents under digital signature certificates mandatorily with effect from 01.01.2016. (In Circular No 10/2015–Customs, dated 31.03.2015, only importers registered under Accredited Client Programme (ACP) were required to file Bills of Entry with digital signature w.e.f. 01.05.2015) The importers/exporters desirous of filing Bill of Entry or Shipping Bill individually may however have the option of filing declarations/documents without using digital signature. Further, wherever the customs process documents are digitally signed, the Customs will not insist on the user to physically sign the said documents.

BSE to provide a platform for CSR spendingWithin a fortnight, the BSE will launch a new exchange Called Sammaan, that has been designed as an intermediary between corporates willing to spend on philanthropy and cash-starved non-government organisations. Sammaan will launch with about a thousand projects listed by NGOs across the country, which deal with subjects ranging from education, art and culture, and sports to sanitation, women’s empowerment and environment sustainability. While NGOs can list their projects on Sammaan for free, their work first needs to be green-lighted by six central ministries. They will also have to disclose twice a year how they spent the funds raised through the exchange. In the first few years, Sammaan will enlist agencies such as Dasra, HelpYourNGO, Credibility Alliance and GiveIndia to audit the projects. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has also agreed to sign off on CSR spending made through Sammaan.The new exchange will be a simple way for them, and for countless other unlisted companies, to comply with the CSR rules.

INTERACTIVE SESSIONon 07 November 2015 with H.E. Mrs. Maria Teresita C. Daza, Ambassador of the Republic of Philippines in India on ‘India-Philippines Bi-lateral Trade’ at Lalit Great Eastern at 3 p.m.

SPECIAL SESSION with Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping on 01 December 2015 at The Oberoi Grand on’ Enhancing connectivity across Eastern India – Key to Economic Growth’

Slowing down of factory output in September is a cause of worry for the government which is further increased as retail inflation jumped up in October.Index of Industrial Production grew 3.6 p.c. in September against a near-three-year high of 6.2 p.c. in August; low growth in mining and manufacturing sectors pulled down the IIP. But it was better than the 2.6 p.c. recorded in September 2014. The manufacturing sector, which has a 75 p.c. weight in the IIP, posted 2.6 p.c. growth in September 2015 (versus 6.6 p.c. in August), while mining grew 3 p.c. (3.8 p.c.). The sharpest growth was in electricity production at 11.4 p.c. (5.6 p.c.). For 2015-16 first half, the IIP grew a robust 4 p.c. against 2.9 p.c. in April-September 2014.

114THANNUALSESSION

8 | MCCI NEWS

Published by R. K. Sen, Director General, MCC Chamber of Commerce & Industry, 15B, Hemanta Basu Sarani, Kolkata - 700 001 Tel.: 91 33 2248 1502/6329/3123/2262 5070-74, Fax: 91 33 2248 8657, Email: mcciorg@gmail.com, mcciorg@mcciorg.com, Website: mcciorg.com

Board of Editors : R.K. Sen, Director General, M.C. Das, Dy. Director General. Contact Person : S Roy, Asst. Director GeneralPrinted & Designed at : CDC Printers Pvt. Ltd., Tangra Industrial Estate-II, (Bengal Pottery) 45, Radhanath Chowdhury Road, Kolkata - 700 015

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Circular No. 1006/13/2015-CX dated the 21th September, 2015

1. A large number of judgements have been delivered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on various aspects of Central Excise, Service Tax or Customs consequent upon the constitution of special bench on 28.02.2015 to expeditiously decide appeals in Indirect taxes. However, there may be Board circulars on some of these issues which are contrary to the judgement delivered by Hon’ble Supreme Court. The issue is whether the field officers are bound by such circulars, during the period the circular has not been rescinded.

2. In this regard, attention is invited to the judgement of Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 14th October 2008 [2008 (231) E.L.T. 22 (SC)/2008-TIOL-104-SC-CX-CB] in case of M/s Ratan Melting & Wire Industries Vs Commissioner of Central Excise, Bolpur. In the said judgement Hon’ble Supreme Court has held at para 6 & 7 that - “6.Circular and instructions issued by the Board are no doubt binding in law on the authorities under the respective statutes, but when the Supreme Court or the High Court declares the law on the question arising for consideration, it would not be appropriate for the court to direct that the circular should be given effect to and not to a view expressed in a decision of this court or the High Court. So far as the clarification/circulars issued by the central Government

and of the state Government are concerned they represent merely their understanding of the statutory provisions. They are not binding upon the court. It is for the court to declare what the particular provision of statute says and it is not for the Executive. Looked at from other angle, a circular which is contrary to the statutory provisions has really no existence in law.7.. to lay content with the circular would mean that the valuable right of challenge would be denied to him and there would be no scope for adjudication by the High Court or the Supreme Court. That would be against very concept of majesty of law declared by Supreme Court and the binding effect in terms of Article 141 of the Constitution’’

3. Therefore, it is clarified that Board Circulars contrary to the judgements of Hon’ble Supreme Court become non-est in law and should not be followed. All pending cases on the issue, including those in the Call-Book, decided after the date of the judgement should, conform to the law laid by the Hon’ble Supreme Court or High Court, irrespective of whether the circular has been rescinded or not.

4. This would also apply to the judgements of Hon’ble High Court where Board has decided that no appeal would be filed on merit and where appeal has been filed by revenue against the High Court’s order, these should be transferred to the Call-Book and such appeals should be kept alive.

CBEC Clarification regarding binding nature of circular and instructions