Out-of-scope classification: specified HS-coded non-food items excluded from FSSAI referral; rely on revised annexure lists.
Specific non-food goods listed by HS code in Annexure-A1 and Annexure-A2 are declared out of scope of FSSAI certification and should not be referred to FSSAI for import clearance; the notice supplements earlier public notices, leaves other provisions of Public Notice No. 09/2018 unchanged, directs officers to treat the notice as a standing order, and notes that the annexured HS codes are indicative as provided by FSSAI and do not affect Customs assessment.

Transitional import-export policy: pre-change shipments unaffected; post-change shipments require pre-existing irrevocable commercial LC and registration.
Item-specific import/export permissions follow the policy in force on the date of import/export, determined principally by Bill of Lading and Shipping Bill. Policy changes from free to restricted/prohibited do not affect shipments completed before the restriction, but exclude high sea sales. Post-restriction shipments are permitted only if the importer/exporter had an Irrevocable Commercial Letter of Credit (ICLC) in place before the restriction, limited to remaining quantity, value and period, and the ICLC is registered with the jurisdictional authority within fifteen days of restriction. Changes apply prospectively unless stated otherwise.

Duty free import procedure clarified: prior district approval not required; import station information suffices subject to jurisdictional scrutiny.
Submission of information by an EOU/EHTP/STP/BTP to the DC/AC at the Customs Station of importation under Rule 5(1)(a) is sufficient to obtain duty free import under the exemption notification; prior approval by the Jurisdictional DC/AC is not a precondition. The Jurisdictional DC/AC must scrutinize the intimations to confirm eligibility under the exemption and any Letter of Permission, forward one copy to the import station, and the import station shall reconcile Bills of Entry and report discrepancies for revenue protection.

Tenancy rights transfers are taxable services, while residential tenancy rights granted for use as a residence remain exempt.
Transfer of tenancy rights against tenancy premium is a supply of services liable to GST, being a form of lease or renting of property. Stamp duty and registration charges on the transfer do not remove it from the scope of GST, and the transaction is not treated as sale of land or building. Grant of tenancy rights in a residential dwelling for use as a residence is exempt, whether consideration comprises tenancy premium, periodic rent, or both. Surrender of tenancy rights by an outgoing tenant for a share of tenancy premium remains taxable.

Taxability of tenancy rights: transfer for tenancy premium treated as taxable service, residential dwelling grants exempt.
Transfer of tenancy rights against tenancy premium is a supply of service liable to GST as a form of lease or tenancy; stamp duty or registration does not exclude such transfers from GST. Granting tenancy rights for use as a residential dwelling is exempt under the residential renting exemption, whereas surrender of tenancy rights by an outgoing tenant for a portion of the premium is taxable.

Recovery of arrears: inadmissible transitional input tax credit to be recovered as state tax from electronic ledgers.
Amounts of VAT, entry tax or other pre GST levies and any wrongly availed or inadmissible transitional input tax credit that remain unrecovered under the existing law shall be recovered as arrears of State tax under the Assam GST Act. Principal tax liabilities are to be discharged through the electronic credit or cash ledger and recorded in Part II of the Electronic Liability Register (FORM GST PMT 01), while related interest, penalty and late fee must be paid from the electronic cash ledger and similarly recorded. Unregistered dealers' arrears are to be recovered in cash under the existing law.

IT grievance redressal mechanism for GST portal glitches; states to adopt central circular and notify taxpayers.
The Chief Commissioner directs state tax officers to follow Central Board of Excise & Customs Circular No. 39/13/2018 establishing an IT Grievance Redressal Mechanism for GST portal technical glitches, invoking powers under Section 168 of the Tripura GST Act, and to inform all taxpayers in their jurisdictions about the mechanism.

Interception of conveyances: procedures for inspection, detention, release, confiscation, bond, payment and auction under GST.
Designated proper officers may intercept conveyances to verify prescribed documents and the e-way bill; if documents are not produced or defects found they record the statement in FORM GST MOV-01, issue FORM GST MOV-02 for physical verification, upload Part A of FORM GST EWB-03 within 24 hours, complete inspection within three working days (or obtain FORM GST MOV-03 extension), record results in FORM GST MOV-04 and Part B of FORM GST EWB-03, and either release by FORM GST MOV-05 or detain by FORM GST MOV-06 with notice in FORM GST MOV-07 leading to demand in FORM GST MOV-09, provisional release on bond (FORM GST MOV-08), and, if unpaid, confiscation proceedings in FORM GST MOV-10/MOV-11 and auction.

Recovery of transitional and pre-GST tax arrears must be effected as central tax liabilities via electronic ledgers.
Arrears of wrongly availed or inadmissible CENVAT credit, central excise duty, service tax, and related interest, penalty and late fees arising from proceedings under the existing law shall, unless recovered earlier, be recovered as central tax liabilities under the CGST framework, to be paid through utilization of amounts in the electronic credit ledger or electronic cash ledger of the registered person and recorded in Part II of the Electronic Liability Register (FORM GST PMT-01); interest, penalty and late fee are to be paid from the electronic cash ledger. Where not registered under CGST, recovery shall be made in cash under the existing law.

Interception of conveyances: procedures for inspection, detention, release and confiscation under GST e way bill and seizure rules.
Designated proper officers may intercept conveyances to verify prescribed documents, including invoices and e-way bills (electronically or physically). If documents and goods are in order, release is immediate; otherwise the officer records a statement in FORM GST MOV-01, issues FORM GST MOV-02 for physical verification, uploads reports in FORM GST EWB-03, concludes inspection within three working days (or authorised extension), and effects release, detention, or initiation of confiscation proceedings using the MOV series forms with demands recorded in the electronic liability ledger.

FPI short term debt limits: short residual holdings capped and transition relief provided, with expanded monitoring measures.
FPIs may invest in treasury bills, G secs and SDLs; investments in any debt category with residual maturity below one year are limited to 20% of that FPI's total investment in that category at any point in time. The cap applies continuously, reckoning all securities with less than one year residual maturity at the time of measurement; FPIs exceeding the cap as of the transition date have six months to comply but must not add to the short residual portfolio during the transition. Corporate bonds are brought into the same short residual limit. Related FPIs aggregate investments for concentration limits and online monitoring of G sec limits will be implemented.

Merchandise Export Incentive Scheme rate increase for listed handicrafts exports, applicable retrospectively to the specified export period.
Amendment increases the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) rate to 7 for specified ITC (HS) codes in Table 2 of Appendix 3B of the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, harmonised with HS(2017), and applies the revised rates to exports made during the stated export period; handicrafts entries are included for enhanced benefit.

Interception of conveyances for inspection requires e way bills, checks, detention, release or confiscation under GST procedures.
Proper officers designated by jurisdictional Commissioners shall intercept and verify conveyances under sections 68, 129 and 130; missing or defective documents trigger FORM GST MOV 01 and FORM GST MOV 02, electronic reporting in FORM GST EWB 03, and physical verification concluded within three days (extension by FORM GST MOV 03). Release is by FORM GST MOV 05 where no discrepancies; detention uses FORM GST MOV 06 and notice in FORM GST MOV 07 with demand in FORM GST MOV 09. Non payment within seven days permits initiation of confiscation under FORM GST MOV 10 and final confiscation/order in FORM GST MOV 11; payments and securities are recorded in the electronic liability register and settled via electronic ledgers.

Monitoring of foreign investment limits: companies given extended deadline to submit data before new monitoring system goes live.
Companies must provide prescribed data to depositories by May 15, 2018, and SEBI's new centralized monitoring system for foreign investment limits will be made operational on May 18, 2018; custodians, depositories, stock exchanges and FPIs are directed to act on these timelines.

Pre-deposit requirement: appellants must make an additional deposit before filing appeals to CESTAT to ensure compliance.
Appellants preferring appeals to the CESTAT against a Commissionerer's (Appeals) order must deposit separately 10% of the duty or penalty confirmed or imposed, over and above the amount already deposited before the Commissioner (Appeals), as the quantum of pre-deposit required to institute the appeal.

Goods in transit inspection procedure sets rules for detention, release, confiscation, and e-way bill verification
Procedure for interception of vehicles carrying goods in transit is prescribed to ensure uniform enforcement of the Uttarakhand GST framework. A proper officer may stop a vehicle, require production of the prescribed invoice, bill of supply, delivery challan and E-way bill, and verify the documents either physically or electronically. Where no prima facie discrepancy is found, the vehicle may be allowed to proceed. Where documents are not produced or inspection is otherwise required, the officer must record the statement in Form GST MOV-01, issue an inspection order in Form GST MOV-02, and complete inspection within the prescribed time, subject to limited written extension.

External Commercial Borrowings liberalisation introduces uniform all in cost ceiling, expanded eligible borrowers, and standardized negative end uses.
External Commercial Borrowings policy is reformed to set a uniform all-in-cost ceiling tied to prescribed benchmark rates, raise the liability to equity ratio to 7:1 for ECBs from direct foreign equity holders under the automatic route (with a small value exception), expand eligible borrowers to include regulated Housing Finance Companies and Port Trusts (with 100% hedging for Track I) and permit certain INR denominated ECBs for MRO and freight forwarding companies, and to replace track specific positive/negative lists with a single negative end use list including prohibitions on real estate investment (subject to specified exceptions), capital market and equity investments, certain corporate uses for Tracks I and III unless raised from equity holders or group companies with minimum five year maturity, and on lending for prohibited activities.

FPI investment limits revised: operational rules change including maturity requirements, concentration and issue exposure caps.
The circular revises operational rules for FPI debt investment: minimum residual maturities for G secs, SDLs and corporate bonds are relaxed subject to a cap on short term residual maturity exposure; the aggregate FPI cap in any Central Government security is increased; CCIL online monitoring replaces the auction allocation mechanism; concentration limits by FPI sub category are imposed with transitional relaxations for existing excess holdings; corporate bond issue wise and corporate exposure caps are specified; and investment in partly paid instruments is prohibited, effective immediately.

Extension of filing deadline: fourth quarter VAT returns may be filed online by the extended date; payment procedure unchanged.
Extension granted for submission of fourth quarter 2017-18 VAT returns in Form DVAT 16, with annexures, to 13.05.2018; dealers filing electronically with a digital signature need not submit a hard copy of Form DVAT 56. The filing extension does not affect the obligation to pay tax, which remains governed by the applicable VAT provisions.

Importer identification and KYC compliance required; brokers must verify documents and accurate declarations to ensure smooth clearance.
Customs mandates strict KYC norms for Bill of Entry filing: custom brokers must verify client antecedents, IEC correctness, identity, and declared address using reliable authentic documents and, as necessary, confirm financial capacity by reviewing recent income tax returns, purchase orders, and bank attested invoices; brokers must submit accurate declarations including generic product descriptions, correct tariff classification, and matching unit quantity codes to ensure smooth clearance.