Line of credit requires majority financing of eligible Indian goods and compliance with LC and disbursement deadlines.
Exim Bank provided a Line of Credit to Guyana to finance an Indian company's traffic signalling project; the LOC funds exports of goods and services eligible under India's Foreign Trade Policy and mandates that a substantial majority finance purchase of Eligible Indian Goods. The credit has specified terminal dates for opening Letters of Credit and for final disbursements. Shipments must be declared on GR/SDF forms. No agency commission is payable under the LOC, though exporters may pay commission from their own resources or EEFC balances after realisation, subject to prevailing rules and AD Category - I bank compliance.

Packaged commodities labelling: transitional enforcement and compliance guidance allowing corrective labeling and consumer care clarifications.
Most amendments to the Packaged Commodities Rules, 1977 become effective after the transitional period with guidelines requiring wide publicity, investigational survey style initial enforcement (with limited prosecution during transition), and temporary allowance for stickers declaring consumer care details to use existing packaging. Clarifications define "pre packed commodity" as unsealed packages opened by consumers, permit designation in lieu of a named person for the consumer care cell, allow a single comprehensive label (but prohibit altering declarations via individual stickers), require outer wrapper declarations where dual wrappings exist, accept quantity declarations by number for counted items, and require ice cream net content to be declared by weight.

Export documentation requirement: export documents must be in applicant's name for direct and third party exports; comments invited.
Clarification is sought on the One Star Export House eligibility criterion tied to a minimum export performance across specified years, and on VKGUY scheme documentary requirements which mandate that export documents for direct and third party exports be in the applicant's name; stakeholders are invited to submit written comments and may also send them by e mail to designated officers.

Extension of filing deadline for reconciliation returns and central declaration originals granted, permitting late submission without further sanction.
The Commissioner, invoking provisions of the Delhi Value Added Tax Rules and Central Sales Tax rules, extends the time for furnishing the reconciliation return in Form DVAT 51 and the original portions of Central Declaration Forms C, D, E I, E II, F, I, J and H for the first and second quarters of the year 2005-06, and directs departmental circulation and publicity of the order for compliance.

Extension of time for tax filing: reconciliation return DVAT 51 and central declaration forms filing deadlines extended.
The Commissioner extended the time for furnishing the reconciliation return in Form DVAT 51 and for submitting the original portions of Central Declaration Forms 'C', 'D', 'E I', 'E II', 'F', 'I', 'J' and 'H' pursuant to the Delhi Value Added Tax Rules and the Central Sales Tax rules; departmental officers were directed to publicise and implement the administrative extension.

Coercive action for recovery of customs arrears: time limit for payment after confirmation triggers enforcement measures.
The Board links initiation of coercive action to non-payment of confirmed customs demands by fixing a time limit for payment after confirmation; it directs that procedures and instructions previously issued for recovery of central excise duties be applied mutatis mutandis to recovery of customs arrears.

Monitoring of de novo adjudication requires time-bound re-adjudication and supervisory oversight in customs cases.
Field formations must treat remanded matters as fresh receipts for monitoring, apply prescribed procedural guidelines, and ensure that de novo cases are disposed of within six months/one year. If these time limits cannot be met, the adjudicating officer must notify the supervisory officer, who will set a new time frame and monitor disposal.

Adjudication time limits for customs seizure cases set, with staged deadlines and supervisory review required.
The Board prescribes adjudication time limits for seizure only customs proceedings: one year for Commissioners or Additional/Joint Commissioners, six months for Assistant/Deputy Commissioners, and three months for gazetted officers below Assistant Commissioner from service of the show cause notice. These limits exclude cases combining seizure with duty demand, which follow the indicative timetable for demand cases. If the prescribed period cannot be observed, the adjudicating officer must report circumstances to the supervisory officer, who will set and monitor an appropriate disposal timeframe.

Central declaration forms in advance ensure dealers may make central purchases upon prior issuance of forms by VAT officers.
Circular directs issuance of Central Declaration Forms in advance to enable dealers to make Central purchases without contemporaneous form submission, recalls an earlier December instruction permitting advance issuance, and requires all VATOs and AVATOs in operational circles and KDU units to follow the procedure as an administrative clarification.

EGM amendment authority moved to docks AC/DC to speed processing and reduce exporter time and travel costs.
Power to amend the Export General Manifest (EGM amendment) is reallocated so that authority previously exercisable by AC/Export shall be exercised by AC/DC Docks to expedite amendment transactions and reduce time and travel costs. The modification immediately supersedes the earlier public notice delegation and is intended to facilitate faster disposal of EGM amendment cases for exporters, CHAs, shipping agents and other stakeholders.

Line of credit availability for eligible exports sets opening and disbursement deadlines, documentary declarations, and commission rules under FEMA.
Exim Bank granted a Line of Credit to Bancoldex to finance eligible exports from India, with specified effective, LC opening and disbursement terminal dates. Shipments must be reported on GR/SDF forms. Generally no agency commission is payable, but Reserve Bank may allow up to five per cent commission for exports requiring after sales service payable in Colombia by invoice deduction; in such cases Exim Bank reimburses 90 per cent of the f.o.b./c&f/c.i.f. value net of commission. Exporters may otherwise use own funds or EEFC balances for commission and AD Category I banks must observe prevailing remittance instructions.

Time-bound disposal obligations for EOU/EHTP/STP/BTP applications require prescribed prompt processing and public notice of timelines.
Prescribes a time-bound framework requiring field formations to meet specified processing periods for applications under the EOU/EHTP/STP/BTP schemes for licences, bond execution and acceptance, broad-banding, procurement and CT-3 certificates, warehousing and re-warehousing, export and re-export clearances (subject to advance intimation where applicable), permissions for re-export of rejected inputs, and job work permissions and renewals. Time limits exclude holidays and apply only after deficiencies are rectified; senior officers must monitor compliance and widely publicise the timelines.

Inter-project transferability of funds expanded for project and service exporters under authorised dealer monitoring, and temporary cash surplus deployment permitted
Inter-project transfers of machinery for turnkey and construction contracts are permitted without mandatory recovery of market or book value, subject to reporting and monitoring by the sponsoring authorised dealer bank, Exim Bank or Working Group. Exporters may open and operate one or more foreign currency accounts with inter-project transferability of funds in any currency or country, and may deploy temporary cash surpluses abroad in specified short-term instruments and deposits with overseas branches/subsidiaries of authorised dealer banks, all under monitoring by the authorised dealer bank(s)/Exim Bank/Working Group.

Overseas investment limit for mutual funds updated; individual fund cap linked to net assets and subject to a fixed maximum.
Mutual funds may invest in ADRs, GDRs, foreign securities and overseas ETFs within an overall overseas investment ceiling of US$3 billion, subject to an individual sub ceiling not exceeding 10% of a fund's net assets as on March 31 of the relevant year and capped at US$150 million per fund; all other conditions from the prior circular remain unchanged and the directions are issued under Section 11(1) of the applicable Act and Regulation 77 of the Mutual Funds Regulations.

Customs peak rate reduction prompts revised tariff structure, new education cess and specified export duties effective immediately.
Peak customs duty on non agricultural goods is reduced to 10% with exceptions; a new Secondary and Higher Education Cess of 1% is imposed in addition to the existing education cess and both cesses are computed excluding each other. Export duties are introduced on specified iron and chromium ores effective immediately. Chapter wise tariff changes lower ad valorem rates for broad categories, maintain higher rates for designated items, extend or withdraw concessional entries and exemptions, and amend notifications to implement the revised tariff structure.

Excise duty payment deadline: March liabilities must be discharged by 30 March, with e-payment urged and revenue returns required.
The directive requires discharge of central excise duty liability for March/quarter ending March by 30 March 2007, urges use of the e-payment facility, and directs field formations to ensure compliance. A telegraphic summary of provisional revenue for March must be faxed to the Statistics Section by 12:00 noon on 31 March 2007, and officers compiling revenue figures must be in office on 31 March to obtain accurate returns from assesses.

Service tax on international in-bound roaming treated as taxable telephone service, liable for payment by domestic providers.
Domestic telecom operators provide a telephone connection service to international in bound roamers by assigning a temporary internal identification number and enabling making or receiving of calls; this service is consumed in India, not an export, and amounts received through the home network for such roaming are subject to service tax, with collection applicable from 15.1.2007 onward.

Export of software now includes development, data entry, processing, analysis and call center services for export.
The term "export of software" in notification no. 153/93-Cus is clarified to include manufacture or development of software, data entry and conversion, data processing, data analysis and control data management, and call center services for export, aligning its scope with activities permitted for STP units under notification 52/2003-Cus; a Public Notice is to be issued and implementation difficulties referred to the Directorate General of Export Promotion.

Bank Guarantee requirement for EPCG manufacturer-exporters mandates specified registration documents to obtain the reduced guarantee.
Execution of a reduced bank guarantee under the EPCG scheme is permitted for qualifying other Manufacturer Exporters at JNCH, subject to submission of one of the prescribed registration documents with PAN: certified Central Excise registration, permanent SSI registration from District Industries Centre, Secretariat for Industrial Assistance registration, or other manufacturer-exporter registration supported by prior export performance certified by a Chartered Accountant or Export Promotion Council.

Foreign Direct Investment ceiling increase: compliance period for telecom providers extended until early April under amended press note.
The Government amended Press Note 5 (2005 Series) to extend the correction period for existing licence-holding telecom service providers to comply with the FDI conditions specified in that Press Note, thereby modifying the operative timeframe within which affected companies must regularise their foreign investment arrangements under the Press Note.