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The Ministry of Labour and Employment has by a notification relaxed the applicability of sections 28, 30 and 35 of the Mines Act, 1952, to persons employed in the exploration and production of oil and gas mines in India.

The aforesaid sections of the Mines Act, 1952 provide for (i) a 6 day working week in a mine, and (ii) a maximum of 48 hours of work in a week and 9 hours a day in “above ground” mines (subject to a total of 10 hours in a day inclusive of overtime), with a compulsory rest period of 30 minutes after 5 hours of work.

In terms of Section 6(4) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (“FEMA”) a person resident in India may hold, own, transfer or invest in foreign currency, foreign security or any immovable property situated outside India if such currency, security or property was (a) acquired, held or owned by such person when he was resident outside India, or (b) inherited from a person who was resident outside India.

However, the RBI has vide A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 90 dated January 09, 2014, clarified that the following transactions will be permitted for purposes of Section 6(4) of the FEMA:

(a)   Foreign currency accounts opened and maintained by a person when he was resident outside India;

(b)   Income earned through employment or business or vocation outside India taken up or commenced while a person was resident outside India, or from investments made while such person was resident outside India, or from gift or inheritance received while such a person was resident outside India;

(c)   Foreign exchange including any income arising there from, and conversion or replacement or accrual to the same, held outside India by a person resident in India acquired by way of inheritance from a person resident outside India;

(d)   A person resident in India may freely utilize all of his eligible assets abroad as well as income on such assets or sale proceeds thereof received after his return to India for making any payments or to make any fresh investments abroad without approval of Reserve Bank, provided the cost of such investments and/ or any subsequent payments received therefor are met exclusively out of funds forming part of eligible assets held by them and the transaction is not in contravention to extant FEMA provisions 

By: Ms. Seema Jhingan, Partner (sjhingan@lexcounsel.in) and Mr. Himanshu Chahar,  Senior Associate (hchahar@lexcounsel.in).

The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) has, vide its A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 85 dated January 06, 2014, further liberalized the existing definition of ‘Infrastructure Sector’ under the extant external commercial borrowings policy (“ECB Policy”), to additionally include ‘Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul’, which will be treated as part of sub-sector of Airport in the Transport sector of infrastructure.

Further to the liberalization as aforesaid, the ‘Infrastructure sector’ and its sub-sectors that can avail external commercial borrowings under the automatic route of the ECB Policy (subject to certain compliances) will be deemed to include:

In terms of the extant foreign direct investment policy (“FDI Policy”) of the Government of India, only equity shares and compulsorily and mandatorily convertible preference shares/debentures are allowed to be issued by Indian companies to non-residents.

However, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) has vide A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 86 dated January 09, 2014, now also recognized and allowed certain optionality clauses with respect to issuance of the above instruments to non-residents, that oblige the buy-back of securities from the non-resident investor at the price prevailing/value determined at the time of exercise of the option, so as to enable the non-resident investor to exit without any assured return.