Currency denomination restriction removal allows foreign-going vessels to carry Indian currency notes of any denomination for onboard disbursements.
The Board withdraws the earlier denomination restriction on Indian currency carried by merchant ships for onboard disbursements, following revised Reserve Bank guidelines that do not prescribe any restriction on denomination carried by an Indian traveller or ship captain; carriage and disbursement remain subject to the usual conditions prescribed by the Reserve Bank.

Agricultural income verification required to confirm genuineness, correct entry errors, and report adjusted claims promptly.
Assessing officers must verify high-value declarations of agricultural income to ascertain genuineness, correct inadvertent data-entry errors, and identify possible improper routing of funds; where scrutiny under section 143(3) is complete provide feedback from assessment records, and where proceedings are pending conduct thorough verification. A departmental list of cases is available on itaxnet for jurisdictional action and officers must submit a consolidated status report to the Directorate by the stated internal deadline to enable accurate reporting to the court.

Arm's Length Price determination governs when Assessing Officers must refer cases to Transfer Pricing Officers and follow procedural safeguards.
Determination of the Arm's Length Price requires Assessing Officers to refer cases to the Transfer Pricing Officer only in prescribed circumstances: mandatory referral when cases are selected on transfer pricing risk parameters; referral where transactions are undeclared or omitted from the accountant's report; where past transfer pricing adjustments are significant and contested; or where transfer pricing issues arise from search, seizure or survey. The AO must record satisfaction of potential income effect and afford the taxpayer an opportunity to be heard before seeking approval to refer. The TPO must determine ALP using the prescribed methods, issue speaking orders with reasons and data, and maintain detailed records.

Exchange Traded Cross Currency Derivatives: permitted subject to specified trading hours, position limits, dynamic price bands and margining.
SEBI permits recognized exchanges to introduce cross currency futures and options on EUR USD, GBP USD and USD JPY and exchange traded currency options on EUR INR, GBP INR and JPY INR, subject to RBI permissions, prescribed position limits, submission of contract specifications to SEBI, specified trading hours with enhanced intra day SPAN updates, Dynamic Price Bands for orderly trading, and a detailed margining, settlement and risk management framework including initial, extreme loss and calendar spread margins and INR cash settlement.

Monetary thresholds for appellate filings limit departmental cross objections and High Court references; below limit filings may not be considered.
The Board clarifies that the increased monetary limit for appeals to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal applies equally to departmental cross objections; cross objections below the monetary threshold already filed should be pursued for dismissal as withdrawn/not pressed and such filings may not be considered henceforth. The same monetary threshold rule applies to references to High Courts; references below the threshold should be pursued for dismissal as withdrawn/not pressed and future references below that limit may not be entertained.

Implementation monitoring of tax administration reforms mandates publication of recommendation status and ongoing digital and governance measures.
Department of Revenue instructs CBEC to publish on its website a status statement of accepted, under-implementation, and under-examination TARC recommendations affecting CBEC, summarising chapter-wise dispositions and listing implemented operational reforms such as the Directorate General of Tax Payers Services, SEVOTTAM adoption, digital platforms (ACES, ICES, RMS), Directorate General of Performance Management, integrated Audit Commissionerates, automated refund interest, customs single window progress, and a formal Data Sharing Policy with periodic information security audits.

Scrutiny of VAT returns mandates targeted monitoring of specified dealer categories and enhanced ITC-output matching.
Ward officers must use enhanced software validations and ITC output matching to target high risk dealers-new registrants with sudden GTO growth, large statutory form downloads without matching sales, circular trading, abrupt cessation of filing or registration, persistent nil GTO returns, frequent refund claimants, non payers and sustained excess ITC carry forwards-and trigger assessments from mismatch reports where discrepancies persist; on cancellation prefer framing assessments and serve notices at the cancellation address, compel registration of liable unregistered dealers, expedite recovery where no stay exists, and rely on system reports and alerts.

Dispensing of customs baggage declaration: domestic passengers on international flights' domestic leg need not file the form.
Domestic passengers on the domestic leg of an international flight are not required to file the Customs Baggage Declaration form, and Chief Commissioners of Customs are directed to ensure strict implementation at all airports; the Circular was later rescinded by a subsequent circular effective in 2026.

Re-export procedure: streamlined permission and documentation centralises approvals for warehoused goods export.
Streamlined procedure requires the bonder exporter to apply to the Bond Section where goods are warehoused; upon verification and conditional permission, a provisional entry is made in the Bond Register and a sealed permission letter is sent to the Export office and warehouse Bond Officer. The party then files the permission and generates the Shipping Bill at the exporting Commissionerate; after assessment, the Bond Officer records Shipping Bill details and authorises movement to the export port under supervision or seal. Following examination and LEO at export, final Shipping Bill is submitted to Bond Section for cancellation or debit in the Bond Register.

Verification timeline under section 245 reduced to expedite refunds by halving response period for taxpayers and assessing officers
CPC will issue reminders to assessing officers or taxpayers to confirm, correct or accept arrear demands; failure by an assessing officer to respond will lead CPC to issue refunds without adjustment with the assessing officer remaining responsible for non adjustment, while failure by a taxpayer to respond will permit CPC to adjust the demand and issue any balance refund. The prescribed response period has been temporarily reduced to a shorter timeframe for notices issued in the remaining part of the financial year to expedite clearance of refund backlog.

Consortium not an AOP where members have separate work, risk and profits, clarifying tax treatment.
A consortium for EPC/Turnkey contracts is not to be treated as an AOP if each member independently executes and bears risk for its demarcated scope of work, incurs expenditure only for that scope, earns profits or bears losses based on its performance, retains control of men and materials for its work, and common management is limited to administrative inter-se coordination; sharing of contract price at gross level for billing convenience does not alter this. The circular excludes cases involving Associated Enterprises, where the Assessing Officer will decide on AOP status.

GSP certificate authorization: Tobacco Board empowered to issue certificates for tobacco products under FTP framework.
An amendment to Appendix 2C of the FTP 2015-20 adds Tobacco Board, Guntur to the agencies authorised to issue GSP Certificate of Origin, thereby empowering the Tobacco Board to issue GSP certificates for tobacco and tobacco products under the Foreign Trade Policy.

Continuity bond permits one-year port clearance for vessels, subject to post-arrival submission of required certificates within seven days.
The Board authorised steamer agents to submit a one year continuity bond/guarantee in the annexed format to obtain Advance/EDI Port Clearance, thereby obviating execution of a fresh bond at each entry. Clearance under the continuity bond is conditional on submitting specified certificates within seven days of the vessel's sailing, and failure to comply will invite action under the Customs Act, 1962. The bond must be executed before the Preventive General Dy./Asst. Commissioner of Customs on prescribed stamp paper and is renewable, issuing a reference number for covered vessels.

Denomination restriction on Indian currency lifted for foreign-going vessels, with customs directing public notices and reporting of issues.
The Board notes that RBI revised guidelines do not restrict denominations of Indian currency carried by Indian travellers or ship captains, withdraws the earlier denomination restriction for merchant ships, directs jurisdictional Chief Commissioners to issue public notices, and requests reporting of any implementation difficulties to the Board.

No duplicate IEC issuance: rely on online verification and printed portal records instead of applying for duplicates.
There is no provision under the current Foreign Trade Policy for issuance of a duplicate Import Export Code certificate; users are advised not to apply for duplicate IECs if the original is lost or misplaced. Instead, stakeholders must rely on the DGFT online portal to verify IEC authenticity and may retain printed copies of the online record for transactional use, as the online database is the authoritative source for third party checks.

Revisional powers of Commissioner under section 263: departments must report pending litigation on pre amendment assistant commissioner orders by deadline.
Revisional powers of the Commissioner under section 263 are in question where orders were passed by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner before Explanation (a) and (b) were added; departments must report any pending litigation on that issue to the designated legal office by the prescribed internal deadline, and failure to report will be treated as confirmation that no such litigation is pending.

Infrastructure readiness for tax investigation IT modules required, with local procurement and data entry deadlines to ensure rollout.
The Board directed local procurement of network and computer infrastructure up to Inspector level and submission of network node requirements to ADG (S)-4 by 15 March 2016 to ensure readiness for the revamped Investigation and Search & Survey Modules of ITBA. Systems Directorate will release Excel offline utilities for pending TEPs and STRs, and PD account deposit data must be captured in the prescribed Excel format; all data-entry tasks and infrastructure provision are Top Priority with a compliance report due to the Board by 15 March 2016.

Categorization of suspicious transaction reports updated: legacy category 'A' to be treated as category 'F1' under post-Finnet rules.
The Board directs that pre-Finnet category 'A' Suspicious Transaction Reports shall be read as category 'F1' in the post-Finnet period; references to P1 STRs in the SOP on STRs and related feedback communications are to be interpreted as F1, pursuant to an explanatory letter from the Financial Intelligence Unit and communicated to all DGsIT (Invest.) and DGIT(l&CI).

Electronic payment of refunds: direct bank credit via RTGS/NEFT with bank certified authorization and net receipt after charges.
A system of electronic payment of refunds/rebates requires direct credit to the assessee's/exporter's bank account via RTGS/NEFT through designated authorized banks. Claimants must submit a one time bank certified authorization and a cancelled cheque for fresh claims, with self attested copies for subsequent claims and similar certification for pending claims by the specified deadline. Refund sanctioning authorities will forward a signed beneficiary statement, a consolidated cheque, original authorizations (retaining duplicates), and a soft copy to the bank; banks will credit accounts after deducting applicable RTGS/NEFT charges recoverable from claimants.

Disposal of time-expired bonded goods requires staged notices, detention, verification and auction with recovery of outstanding dues.
A staged administrative procedure governs time expired bonded goods: maintain warehouse lists and bond registers; issue a formal notice one month before expiry for clearance or extension; on noncompliance issue notices under section 72(1) and section 72(2), compile importer responses, verify absence of investigative or appellate holds, obtain supervisory approval to forward goods for public auction, and, if auction proceeds are inadequate, initiate statutory recovery of the balance.