Genuineness of finance leases: assessing officers must verify agreements, asset existence and accounting, and investigate potential fraud.
Assessing Officers must scrutinise finance lease agreements and supporting documents to establish genuineness of transaction and asset ownership, examine contractual indicia (commencement date, warranties, lessee liabilities, tax and transfer obligations, rent variation, end-of-lease transfer/purchase option), verify physical existence and compliance through field enquiries, check accounting of lease rentals, investigate return of purchase payments to lessor or associates, test sale-and-leaseback prices and refer valuation if needed, and consider Explanation 4A to section 43(1); false documents may lead to disallowance of depreciation and prosecution.

Passenger clearance: ensure smooth, harassment-free customs baggage processing through monitored inspections and improved passenger facilities.
The Board directs that passenger baggage clearance be conducted smoothly and without harassment, requiring senior officers to monitor field formations by surprise visits or otherwise to prevent rude behaviour, extortion, denial of rightful claims and improper penalty assessment; administrative and procedural improvements-such as separate counters for vulnerable passengers, prominent public information displays, courteous staffing at international airport posts, and examination of on the spot duty collection with receipts-are to be implemented and reported upon.

Pre-authenticated CT-3 extended to STP/EHTP/EPZ and usable for capital goods, with local range officer authentication.
Pre-authenticated CT-3 is extended to STP/EHTP/EPZ units and may be used for procurement of raw materials and capital goods. Range Officers in charge of EOU/STP/EHTP units are authorised to authenticate CT-3 forms, while EPZ CT-3s must be authenticated by the Assistant Commissioner in charge or an expressly authorised Central Excise Officer. Goods may be procured under CT-3 from the manufacturer's premises or its bonded warehouse. Circular No. 24/91-CX.8 is modified accordingly and publicity and acknowledgement are required.

PAN quoting requirement: taxpayers and departmental communications must display new-series PAN to enable computerized tax processing.
Mandate to quote Permanent Account Number (PAN) under the new series to support Income Tax Department computerization: taxpayers must quote PAN on challans, returns and correspondence; the Department must display PAN on its orders, challans and refunds; and a red-ink rubber stamp stating "Please obtain and quote PAN" is to be affixed on communications, with officers directed to ensure strict compliance.

Concessional duty eligibility confirmed for SBOC used via intermediate TPR in manufacture of soles, subject to end use bond.
Concessional duty under Notification No. 20/99-Cus. applies to SBOC listed in List 3A where SBOC is converted into TPR compound used to produce TPR soles for use by footwear manufacturers in the leather industry; insofar as List 3A imposes no additional condition analogous to List 3B, the concessional rate is available, subject to safeguards such as end use bonds and finalisation of pending provisional assessments consistent with Board instructions.

Export obligation relief: one-year extensions and procedural filing relaxations for units impacted by the Orissa super cyclone.
Targeted export relief for units in cyclone-affected areas of Orissa includes a one year general extension of export obligations under the EPCG Scheme, deferral of EOU export-performance monitoring until 31 March 2000, a further one-year period to complete Advance Licensing obligations and a deemed one-year validity extension for Advance Licences with ports in affected areas expired in October 1999 or thereafter. Procedural relaxations permit attested duplicate documents without duplicate-document cut and extend filing deadlines falling in October 1999 or thereafter to 31 March or the normal applicable time limit, whichever is later.

Investment limit for small scale and ancillary undertakings reduced, tightening plant and machinery eligibility under industrial policy.
The Government reduced the investment limit for plant and machinery qualifying units as small scale or ancillary industrial undertakings, applying the revised ceiling to investment in fixed assets in plant and machinery whether held on ownership terms, lease, or hire purchase, while maintaining the existing lower threshold for tiny units.

PAN requirement for ECC allocation: directs priority PAN allotment to enable New ECC numbers for pending applicants.
Allocation of the New ECC Number must be based on the 10-character alphanumeric PAN, but many assesses lack such PAN or quote older PAN/GIR numbers, impeding ECC allotment. The Income-tax Directorate has instructed Chief Commissioners to prioritize PAN issuance for Central Excise assesses and provided contact officers to expedite processing so that PAN allotment, and thereafter New ECC Number issuance, can proceed without delay.

DEPB scrip portability permits imports at any notified port via TRA, allowing use of registered DEPB entitlements for imports.
DEPB holders with scrips registered at any customs station notified under the DEPB Scheme may import at any of those notified sea-ports, airports, ICDs or LCSs; this facility applies only to imports. Imports at stations not notified must occur at the port of registration. Imports under the facility will be enabled by issuance of a Telegraphic Release Advice (TRA) from the port of registration to the importing Customs House, specifying description, value, quantity, DEPB serial number, date of issue and duty entitlement; the receiving Customs House will relay import details to the issuing Customs House, which will record them in a register.

Corrigendum after adjudication invalid where substantive changes bypass natural justice and proper review procedures.
A post adjudication corrigendum that substitutes substantive rates of duty or penalties without affording parties a hearing is impermissible: the Commissioner, as a quasi judicial authority, lacks statutory power to review or correct a signed adjudication and must observe natural justice; significant non clerical changes should be pursued by review through the appropriate authority rather than by corrigendum.

Common identification based on PAN to replace IE Code, requiring PAN submission and phased adoption of the PAN based identifier.
Importers and exporters must furnish their Permanent Account Number to DGFT for allotment of a PAN based IE Code; customs documents will initially show both the existing IE Code and PAN during a transition and thereafter use the PAN based IE Code exclusively. Public notices and administrative instructions will be issued to implement PAN as the common identifier to enable inter departmental data sharing, verification of Modvat and export rebate claims, and to support selective risk based assessment of import/export transactions.

Duty payment continuity: mandate to maintain ledger balances and procedures for bank computer failures preserving clearances.
Assessees must maintain sufficient balance in their Personal Ledger Account/Modvat account to cover clearances for several days around 1 January 2000. If an authorised bank's computer failure within a Commissionerate causes stoppage of transactions beyond three days from 1 January 2000, the procedure in Circular No. 480/46/99-CX applies. Assessees with their own computer failures may maintain records manually. Commissioners must monitor banks, prevent misuse, allocate temporary accounts staff, and ensure deposits under this procedure stop once the problem is resolved.

Designation of export deputy enables exporters to furnish consolidated bonds locally, streamlining bond security and debit procedures.
Designation of a Deputy/Assistant Commissioner as Deputy/Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise (Exports) allows merchant and manufacturer-exporters to file specific consignment or general running bonds with the officer at the exporter's head office/factory jurisdiction, subject to security equal to ten percent of the bond unless exempted. Specific consignment bonds require an attested photocopy for presentation at removal; consolidated running bonds require a provisional debit certificate from the Divisional Running Bond Account, conversion of provisional debits to actual debits on receipt of duty particulars, and production of the certificate at removal or within 24 hours for self-removed consignments.

DEPB coverage for frozen meat clarified: initially all frozen meats, later limited to fish, then eligibility restored.
DEPB rate notified on 1.5.98 covered all frozen meats (fish, buffalo, chicken) because norms only regulated packaging and previous Advance Licences included buffalo meat; amendment on 11.11.98 limited Serial 1 to fish meat only, rendering other meats ineligible between 11.11.98 and 7.5.99; from 8.5.99 meat products are eligible under Serial 15 of food products in Appendix 28A.

Export description amendments clarify polymer-based plastics entries and revise DEPB product descriptions and corrigenda.
Corrections to Appendix-28A revise Product Group Plastics descriptions for entries S.No.8-15 to articles made solely of specified polymers and amend DEPB descriptions: Chemicals entry revised to Auramine O/Auramine OH/Basic Yellow 2 with assay requirement; Engineering entries revised to high tensile precision fasteners (cold/hot forged bolts/screws/nuts) and to light commercial vehicles in CBU/SKD/CKD condition. A corrigendum corrects serial numbers in a prior public notice.

Extension of filing deadlines: applications, endorsements and IEC correction deadlines extended to year end and January grace periods.
Amendments to the Handbook of Procedures (Vol. I) extend filing and endorsement deadlines due to regional licensing disruptions from 17 November to 7 December 1999. Applications whose last dates fell between 17 November and 31 December 1999 are granted an extension to 31 December 1999, including endorsements for revalidation and transferability. Recognition applications for Export House categories are extended to 31 December 1999; deficiency communications are extended to 15 January 2000 and applicant rectifications to 31 January 2000. Corrections to IEC numbers and a related notice date are also extended into January/February 2000.

Self-sealing export container procedure: reduced routine physical checks and one-in-five visual inspections permitted at Gateway Ports.
Containers moved under the self-sealing procedure at Gateway Ports are to be exempted from routine opening; only one out of five self-sealed containers should be opened for visual inspection, and from each opened container a minimum of two packages and up to 5% of packages may be examined. The para 7 sampling percentage applies only to goods not under the self-sealing procedure, and conflicting Public Notices and Standing Orders must be amended.

Electronic maintenance of records permitted with readable formats, monthly printouts, backups and producibility on demand.
Rule 226A permits persons dealing with Central Excise to electronically maintain or generate required records, returns, invoices and other documents without prior permission; electronic records must be electronically readable, retained alongside any hard copies, with monthly printouts filed in bound folders, backups maintained for restoration, and all records preserved for five years from the first day of the financial year following the year to which they pertain. The Range office will note electronic maintenance, and officers or audit parties may demand production of records in hard copy or electronic form; misuse or denial of access can lead to prohibition after recorded reasons and consideration of explanations.

PAN requirement for IEC updates: PAN must be submitted to validate and issue or revalidate IEC certificates promptly.
All exporters and importers holding a valid IEC certificate must feed IEC data on the DGFT website and submit Appendix 2.A with the original IEC certificate, supporting documents and the PAN Number. The office will verify and validate hard-copy submissions; revised IE Code Certificates will be issued where data changes, and unchanged certificates will be stamped valid and returned. New IEC numbers will not be issued without PAN.

Service tax accounting allocation establishes Deduct Refund sub heads for taxable services to record refunds and receipts.
A separate sub head "Deduct Refund" has been created under major head 044 Service Tax for all specified taxable services. The notice prescribes new minor head and sub head alpha numeric account codes, with distinct entries for Tax Collections, Other Receipts and Deduct Refunds. Annexures I-IV list the affected service categories and the exact account and SCCD codes to be used by accounting officers to record tax receipts and refund deductions.