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Mumbai: The Big Four accountancy firms will have to burn the midnight oil to give foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) the chance to move money faster.At a meeting on Tuesday, the Indian capital market regulator has told the accounting biggies in no uncertain terms to generate the mandatory 'confirmation certificate' overnight so that offshore funds managers can repatriate the money from the sale of stocks here to other international markets the very next day.Under the regulations, FPIs have to submit confirmation reports to the authorised dealer banks every time they transfer funds out of India to invest elsewhere. The banks, which arrange the remittance and also act as custodians of the FPIs, receive the certificate from the accounting firms to figure out the quantum of tax that has to be withheld before funds are repatriated.After the market closing hours, clearing corporations send the trade information to the custodian banks which share the data with the Big Four and other accounting firms which handle the accounts of the FPIs.The accounting firms receive the information from the custodians later in the evening of the day the trade happens. The tax certificates are generated the next day and shared with the custodian banks by evening. Since the foreign exchange market is not active in the evening, it's not possible for FPIs to remit the money that day.110547882TO GET BENEFITS OF T+1 TRADEAccording to persons aware of the discussions, senior officials of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) have made it clear that this must change so that FPIs can reap the benefits of the T+1 (trade plus one day) settlement cycle. Given a choice, FPIs would prefer having the flexibility and time-window to deploy the money in other markets."Sebi wants the custodians and the accounting firms to speed up their systems so that FPIs can remit money the next day of the trade. So, if a Big Four receives data at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. on the day of the trade, it now has to generate and send the report to the banks by around 9 a.m. the next day. Even though an FPI which sold stocks (on T day) would receive the sale proceeds at about 1 p.m. (on the T+1 day), it can buy dollars between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. (on the T+1 day) in the forex market, and remit the funds soon after the money is credited to its bank account," said an industry person.Sebi is categorical that the accounting agencies must use the 12 hours, between 9 p.m. (of the previous day) and 9 a.m. (of the next day), to produce the certificate - an instruction that has understandably not gone down well with many in the Big Four."I don't think they have a choice, though the certificate typically takes some time. The tax liability is computed based on FIFO (first in-first out method), corporate actions are considered, and then the calculation is cross-checked and reviewed by another person. Also, depending on the jurisdiction of an FPI, the specific treaty, if any, of that country with India and the applicable tax rate has to be checked," said another person.Besides the chartered accountants, the meeting was attended by officials of custodian banks and clearing houses of the stock exchanges. The T+1 settlement was introduced in 2021 in a phased manner and was fully implemented from January 2023. From the end of March this year, the regulator introduced the T+0 settlement on an optional basis.

Mumbai: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has issued a new health insurance circular that seeks to improve services for policyholders by reducing settlement times and ensuring cashless claim processes.The regulator wants insurers to achieve 100% cashless claim settlement in a time-bound manner, minimising the need for reimbursement claims to exceptional circumstances.In terms of cashless claims, the regulator wants insurers to decide on authorisation requests within one hour of receipt. It has directed insurance companies to put in place necessary systems and procedures to meet the new guidelines by July 31, 2024.Further, insurers are required to give final authorisation within three hours of receiving a discharge request from the hospital. If there is any delay beyond this timeframe, the insurer must cover any additional costs incurred by the hospital from their shareholders' funds.The circular allows policyholders to cancel their policies at any time during the term by giving a 7-day notice in writing, down from the previous 15-day grace period.IRDAI has also set a grace period for premium payments, which is 15 days for monthly premiums and 30 days for quarterly premiums.

The Centre's fiscal deficit could come in marginally lower than the downwardly revised estimate of 5.8% of GDP on the back of robust revenues and lower subsidy outgo, officials said.Tax revenues could exceed the upwardly revised estimate of ₹26.99 lakh crore by ₹27,000 crore."Fiscal deficit is marginally narrower than even the revised estimates - both in percentage as well as absolute terms," a senior official told ET. FY24 fiscal deficit in absolute terms was pegged at ₹ 17.3 lakh crore. The government would announce its final accounts for FY24 on May 31. For the next financial year (FY25), the Centre has fixed the fiscal deficit target at 5.1% of the GDP."Revenue receipts have been better than expected ... .There has been some savings on account of lower subsidy bill," the official added. Both direct and indirect tax receipts have remained robust, the official added.110543774Direct tax receipts are expected to exceed revised estimates by about Rs 14,000 crore while indirect revenues, including customs and excise duty, by Rs 13,000 crore. Non-tax revenue for FY24 is already up by ₹13,700 crore on account of higher dividend receipts from central public sector enterprises which exceeded the revised estimate of ₹50,000 crore at ₹63,700 crore on March 31, 2024.The government had increased the FY24 allocation for fertiliser subsidy to ₹1.89 lakh crore from the budgeted ₹ 1.75 lakh crore. The lower subsidy outgo is attributed to moderating global fertiliser prices, reduced import volume, and efficient subsidy utilisation.One nodal agency and just-in-time transfers have also led to savings in excess of ₹10,000 crore in FY24, the official said.

A dozen top-listed retailers and quick-service restaurant (QSR) chains saw the slowest pace of store expansions in at least five years at 9%, reflecting tapering demand for discretionary and lifestyle products last fiscal. As of March 31, these companies, including Reliance Retail, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail, DMart, Tata's Trent, Titan Co and Starbucks together had 33,219 stores, data sourced from their latest investor presentations showed. In FY23, the number was 30,551 and had climbed 18% from a year ago.These companies added 2,700 stores - on average about 7 a day - to their network during the last fiscal year, but that's nearly half compared to 13 doors each day in FY23. "The material part, not specific to just this quarter, was the demand side of the business coming down. You saw rationalisation of the network so that it reduces fixed costs of less profitable stores or unprofitable stores," Ashish Dikshit, MD of Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail, told investors.Retail sales growth rate fell year-on-year every month in the previous fiscal, reflecting weak consumer sentiment across segments such as apparel, footwear and quick service restaurants (QSR). The previous fiscal's comparatively slower 4-7% growth rate sustained this year as well, with April seeing a 4% rise, the Retailers Association of India (RAI) said after a survey of top 100 retailers.110543367Most retailers have also shuttered a lot of unviable stores, a trend expected to continue as companies seek to boost profitability."We are not being very aggressive, but we are being very mindful and analytical on our approach in terms of trying to open up the stores which can retain and sustain the ROE that we expect and the ROCE that we expect. So, a lot of that work is happening, being selective in our approach, because the market is getting a little bit corrupted in terms of people, our competitors are trying to give a little more higher rentals and give more favorable terms to the consumers," Lalit Agarwal, chairman of hypermarket chain V-Mart, told analysts.Easing of the pandemic was marked by booming sales across athleisure wear, apparel and lifestyle products, due to pent-up demand with consumers upgrading their wardrobes after offices reopened and higher frequency of eating out and socialising. This led to retailers accelerating store launches, with many opening larger stores in marquee properties to cash in the surging demand led by revenge shopping."We are guiding 700 restaurants by FY27. We continue to stay put on that. We have always believed and we will always continue to behave that we have to responsibly grow. If in a particular year, we see that maybe moderation on growth rates is required, we will look at those. We don't want a cowboy approach to growth. Responsible, disciplined growth is what we believe in, and we will continue to do that," said Rajeev Varman, CEO at Restaurants Brands Asia.