(g) Payment of Bonus Act, 1965;

(h) Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972;

@ Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.
The Code on Wages, 2019 (the “Wage Code”)

The Wage Code has been introduced to amend and consolidate the laws relating to wages and bonus, and matters
connected therewith. It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 23, 2019 and was eventually passed in the Rajya
Sabha on August 2, 2019, thereby receiving the President’s assent on August 8, 2019. The Wage Code regulates
and amalgamates wage and bonus payments and subsumes four existing laws namely — the Payment of Wages
Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and the Equal Remuneration Act,
1976. It will be the first Code to become an Act out of the four Codes: Code on Wages; Industrial Relations;
Social Security and the Labour Code which Ministry of Labour and Employment has formulated.

Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“CGST Act”); Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“IGST
Act”); and the various State Goods and Services Acts (collectively “SGST Acts”)

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has replaced erstwhile taxes levied and collected by the Central Government:
central excise duty, service tax, central surcharges, cesses so far as they relate to supply of goods and services etc.
state taxes that have been subsumed by the GST are State VAT, central sales tax, luxury tax, taxes on
advertisements, purchase tax, state surcharges, cesses so far as they relate to supply of goods and services etc. The
GST would be now applicable on the supply of goods or services as against the present concept of tax on the
manufacture and sale of goods or provision of services. It is a destination based consumption tax. It is dual GST
with the Central and State Governments simultaneously levying it on a common tax base.

The GST to be levied by the Centre on intra-State supply of goods and/or services is called the Central GST
(“CGST”) as provided by the CGST Act and that to be levied by the States is called the State GST (“SGST”) as
given under the SGST Acts. An Integrated GST (“IGST”) under the IGST Act, is to be levied and collected by
the Centre on inter-State supply of goods and services.

The CGST and SGST is to be levied at rates to be jointly decided by the Centre and States. The rates are notified
on the recommendations of the GST Council. There is a floor rate with a small band of rates within which the
States may fix the rates for SGST. The list of exempted goods and services is common for the Centre and the
States. Tax payers are allowed to take credit of taxes paid on inputs (‘input tax credit’) and utilise the same for
payment of output tax. However, no input tax credit on account of CGST is to be utilised towards payment of
SGST and vice versa. The credit of IGST is permitted to be utilised for payment of IGST, CGST and SGST in
that order.

Foreign Investment Regulations

Foreign investment in India is governed by the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 along
with the rules, regulations and notifications made by the Reserve Bank of India thereunder, and the consolidated
FDI Policy (“FDI Policy”) issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (“DIPP”), Ministry of
Commerce and Industry, Government of India from time to time. The FDI Policy consolidates all the press notes,
press releases, and clarifications on FDI issued by DIPP. Foreign investment is permitted (except in the prohibited
sectors) in Indian companies either through the automatic route or the approval route. Under the current FDI
Policy, foreign direct investment in companies engaged in the manufacturing sector is permitted up to 100% of
the paid up share capital of such company under the automatic route, i.e. without requiring prior government
approval, subject to compliance with certain prescribed pricing guidelines and reporting requirements.

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