Foreign Direct Investment approvals confirming equity inductions and operating cum holding conversions, with referrals for post facto regularisation and PAB review.
Thirteen FDI proposals were approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board covering equity inductions, conversions to operating cum holding companies to permit downstream investments, and sector specific undertakings in manufacturing, heavy industry, telecommunications, information and broadcasting, commerce, industrial policy, information technology and urban development. Several approvals note percentage foreign equity limits and reference Press Note 1 (2005 series). One proposal was deferred and one rejected; three applicants were advised to seek RBI post facto regularisation for past FDI policy violations; three proposals were remitted to the Project Approval Board for fee/royalty issues beyond automatic limits; one activity was advised to be treated under the automatic route.

Leasing of tankers not treated as banking and financial service, affecting service tax classification and recovery measures.
Leasing of cryogenic tankers by a manufacturer for hire is a commercial equipment-leasing activity ancillary to manufacture and distribution and does not fall within Banking and Financial Services for service tax classification; the tribunal so concluded and accordingly considered interim measures on recovery and pre-deposit of the disputed demand.

ECB approval requirement limits large external borrowings and forbids their domestic use, with prior approval needed for rupee expenditures.
ECB policy mandates prior approval of the Reserve Bank for borrowings above the prescribed threshold and bars use of those borrowings for domestic purposes on a per-financial-year basis; smaller borrowings per company per year may be remitted into India only after prior approval for rupee expenditure. Other ECB rules remain unchanged, and borrowers with existing loan agreements and Reserve Bank loan registration numbers are exempt from these conditions.

FEMA payment compliance requires remitters to submit prescribed undertaking and CA certificate for trade-related payments.
A remitter of foreign exchange must submit a prescribed undertaking and a Chartered Accountant certificate when making payments to non-residents; this requirement covers all trade-related payments and is not limited to transactions on which tax is to be deducted at source.

Service tax on money changing clarified as not leviable where activity is not foreign exchange broking, reversing prior guidance.
Administrative guidance initially treated money changing as falling within foreign exchange broking and taxable as a banking and financial service; a later circular reversed that view, stating service tax is not leviable on money changing per se because the activity does not constitute foreign exchange broking, raising questions about taxpayers harmed by reliance on the earlier incorrect instruction.

Service tax threshold increase expands registration relief; tax base broadened to include renting, works contracts and asset management.
The exemption threshold for small service providers and the registration trigger are raised, while the service tax base is expanded to add or redefine taxable categories including renting of immovable property for business use, works contract services (with specified inclusions and infrastructure exclusions and a proposed composition option), mining, content development and supply, asset and fund management, and design services; scope amendments further adjust definitions for advertisement space, rent-a-cab, event and social-function related services, producing refund opportunities and raising compliance and litigation issues.

Service tax expansion extends to advertising space, vehicle rentals, events and financial services under clarified definitions.
Amendments expand the service tax base by: excluding certain commercial publications from the term "book" to tax sale of advertising space; widening the definition of "cab" to include larger passenger vehicles while exempting specified educational rentals; including marriage events within mandap, pandal and event management services; defining manpower recruitment to cover pre recruitment screening; altering banking service language to "commercial concern," removing the exclusion for cash management so such services become taxable, and defining financial leasing; and clarifying that maintenance or repair of computer software is taxable while software development remains outside this service.

Telecommunication service expansion consolidates telecom activities and broadens taxable recipients under service tax.
The Finance Bill, 2007 widens the service tax base by creating comprehensive heads: Telecommunication service merges several distinct telecom services and removes the subscriber-only recipient requirement; Mining service covers exploration and exploitation activities including outsourced and subcontracted mining work; and new services for renting of immovable property, the services portion of specified works contracts (with an optional composition scheme), development and supply of content, asset and fund management, and expanded design services are specified with defined inclusions and exclusions.