Understanding cross border social security obligations
By Kumar Panda
Under the current circumstances of employees temporarily working remotely from a different country other than their regular work location, a question arises as to whether an individual and the employer will be subjected to different social security obligations, where provision of services is provided remotely from home country. Elaborating on India’s Social Security Agreements (‘SSAs’) with various countries, the article in this issue of Corporate Amicus also deals with the scope of International Workers in Employees Provident Fund Scheme and the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995. It notes that many countries with which India has SSAs have clarified that the work from home scenarios arising out of COVID-19 would not be considered for determining the eligibility of payment of social security obligations, but in the absence of any clarification from Employees Provident Fund Organisation, there exists an ambiguity on the status of foreign workers who are currently working remotely from their home country...
Notifications and Circulars
- COVID-19 – Scope of Corporate Social Responsibility (‘CSR’) expanded
- SEBI – Relaxation from default recognition due to restructuring of debt
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (‘MSME’) – Clarifications on investment, etc.
- Disclosure of debt and money market securities transactions – Time lag reduced
- Guidelines for Core Investment Companies revised
- IBBI (Use of Caveats, Limitations, and Disclaimers in Valuation Reports) Guidelines, 2020 notified
- Grievance resolution between listed entities and proxy advisers – SEBI extends timeline for implementation of Circular
Ratio decidendi
- Home buyers cannot invoke insolvency proceedings for recovery of award under Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 – NCLAT
- Procedural way out for removal of encumbrances under Section 57 of Transfer of Property Act, 1882 – Kerala High Court
News Nuggets
- Creation of pledge of shares is not financial debt
- EMI moratorium – Intention of RBI is to protect a viable business from pandemic
- Insolvency – Acceptance of resolution plan after expiry of deadline is illegal
- Arbitration – Courts in India have power to grant anti-arbitration injunction
- Insolvency – Advance payment is not operational debt
- Motor insurance claims cannot be rejected for not holding valid PUC certificate
- Record of default before Information Utility as a condition for filing application under IBC Section 7, not mandatory
- Relaxation in classification of Approved Investment by insurers
- Priority Sector Lending Guidelines revised
- RBI releases framework for authorisation of pan-India umbrella entity for retail payments
- SEBI fixes 31-03-2021 as date for re-lodgement of specified transfer requests shares
- Companies not required to attach extract of annual return with Board’s report – Annual return to be placed on website of company
- AGM for FY 2019-20 can be held till 31-12-2020
- Insurance – Presence of COVID-19 and lockdown caused a direct ‘physical loss’ or direct ‘physical damage’
