Resident firm classification extends Advance Ruling scheme to firms, including LLPs, sole proprietorships and One Person Companies.
Specifies resident firm as a class of persons for the purposes of sub-clause (iii) of clause (c) of section 28E of the Customs Act, thereby extending the Advance Ruling scheme to resident firms. The notification defines "firm" to include limited liability partnerships, limited liability partnerships without a company partner, sole proprietorships and One Person Companies, and treats "resident" with the meaning applicable to a resident firm under the Income-tax Act.

SAD refund claims may be filed at importing customs stations; claims are limited monthly per station.
Importers may file refund claims for SAD at the Customs stations where imports are made, but the number of such claims at each Customs station is limited to one in a particular month; the earlier restriction of one claim per importer per Commissionerate is modified and field formations are to publicise the revised procedure and report any implementation difficulties to the Board.

Long-term capital asset classification altered; roll-over of fixed maturity mutual funds isn't a transfer, taxation on redemption.
The Finance (No.2) Act, 2014 extended the holding period for non-equity mutual fund units to qualify as long-term to over thirty-six months. Rollovers of closed-ended Fixed Maturity Plans under the specified rollover and disclosure regime do not create a new scheme and therefore do not amount to a transfer; no capital gains arise at the time of rollover. Capital gains will arise only upon redemption or when a unitholder opts out and effects transfer, at which point the amended holding-period rule determines short term or long term character.

Effective yield comparison for tax-free bonds prevents violation of lending yield restrictions under companies law.
Where the effective yield on tax-free bonds exceeds the prevailing Government Security yield closest to the loan tenor, there is no violation of sub-section (7) of section 186 of the Companies Act, 2013; the comparator may be the prevailing yield of the one-year, three-year, five-year or ten-year Government Security that most closely matches the tenor.

Interest under wealth-tax rules not chargeable on self-assessment tax paid before the return filing due date.
The Board directs that interest under the Wealth-tax Act shall not be chargeable on amounts of self-assessment tax paid by an assessee before the due date for filing the return of net wealth, aligning the administrative position with the reasoning applied by the Supreme Court to analogous income-tax interest provisions.

Citizens Charter service standards: centralized single-window receipt with defined timelines for acknowledgements, decisions, refunds, registrations and grievance redress.
Implementation of Citizens Charter service standards under the Sevottam model establishes an integrated compliance system for monitoring the Charter, handling public grievances, and strengthening service delivery. Divisional offices commit to defined timelines for acknowledgements, decisions, refunds, registrations, export clearance, release of non-required seized documents, and grievance replies. All written communications must be submitted through designated Common Facility Centres with dated acknowledgements or via specified online portals; thereafter communications will be accepted only through the single-window CFC system. The notice lists CFC locations and grievance officers and is issued for trade facilitation.

Position limits for currency derivatives updated; underlying exposure required for positions exceeding prescribed exchange limits.
The circular revises per exchange position limits for FPIs and domestic clients in USD INR and in the combined EUR INR/GBP INR/JPY INR pairs, permitting positions up to those limits without proof of underlying exposure while requiring qualifying Indian debt or equity exposure to take long positions in excess; short positions are capped and breaches trigger exchange restrictions. Exchanges may set sub limits within the combined limit, must monitor and report breaches to the RBI surveillance team, and implement systems, by law changes, dissemination and reporting to the regulator.

Board composition requirement breaches trigger escalating fines and enforcement actions for delayed appointment of a woman director.
SEBI prescribes a graduated penalty regime for failure to meet the Clause 49(II)(A)(1) requirement of a board-level woman director, directing stock exchanges to levy specified fines for entities that comply after the March 31, 2015 timeline according to defined compliance windows and daily rates, and warning that SEBI may take further action against non compliant entities, promoters or directors for breaches beyond the stated period.

Foreign direct investment in insurance allowed higher ceiling, with automatic route to lower share and government approval for larger stakes.
Foreign direct investment in the Indian insurance sector is permitted up to forty nine percent with investment up to twenty six percent under the automatic route and any additional foreign investment up to the sector ceiling requiring Government approval. Investors and companies must comply with the Insurance Act, obtain IRDA licences, ensure ownership and control remain with resident Indian entities, and observe FEMA/SEBI rules for portfolio investment and RBI pricing guidelines; defined terms follow the referenced notification.

Information Security Committee established to ratify and enforce IS policies and oversee incident management and disciplinary action.
Constitution of an Information Security Committee within the Central Board of Direct Taxes, chaired by Member (IT) with CIT (M&TP) as Chief Information Security Officer; the ISC ratifies and ensures implementation of Information Security Policies and Procedures, conducts management and security reviews, initiates corrective security reviews, and oversees disciplinary action, while the CISO prepares and communicates ISPP, manages incident detection and response, provides employee security training, and reports security status and violations to the ISC.

Power plant location restriction: operations limited to non processing areas; O&M benefits withdrawn for processing area plants.
Power plants are now permitted only in SEZ Non Processing Areas; existing Processing Area plants must be demarcated as Non Processing and will forfeit O&M fiscal benefits. The 2009 guidelines classify installations as developer/co developer non processing plants (initial setup benefits only), processing area units/captive plants (full Section 26 fiscal benefits and duty free inputs counted to NFE), and single stand alone processing units (Section 26 benefits). Distribution is a licensed activity under the Electricity Act; generation may be licence exempt if statutory standards and definitions are met. Metering, quarterly reporting and duties on processing to DTA supplies apply, with tariffs governed by the Electricity Act.

Guidelines for power generation in SEZs: earlier guidelines withdrawn; prior framework restored for policy and operations.
The Ministry withdraws the 2012 guidelines with immediate effect and restores the Department's 2009 guidelines as the operative policy for power generation, transmission and distribution in Special Economic Zones; the 2009 framework will guide policy and operational decisions and is circulated to Chief Secretaries, SEZ Development Commissioners, the Ministry of Power, the Department of Revenue and other concerned agencies.

Cancellation of FCRA registration for failure to file annual returns triggers deregistration and asset management directives for affected organisations.
The Central Government cancelled the certificates of registration of numerous associations for failing to file mandatory annual returns in form FC 6 for the relevant financial years, after issuing show cause notices and receiving limited responses; cancellations were effected for violation of the statutory annual return obligation and attendant regulatory rule, and district authorities and financial regulators were directed to manage assets and take necessary administrative action during the cancellation period.

Auditor reporting obligations under section 143(11) await a government order; no additional reporting required yet for auditors.
Auditor reporting obligations under the Companies Act depend on a government Order that, when notified, will specify classes of companies and matters to be included in audit reports; until that Order is issued no additional reporting is required and auditors should await the Central Government's notification before changing auditor reporting for the affected financial year.

Newsprint Control amendment adds a registered mill to the Order, expanding permitted newsprint manufacturing locations under statutory authority.
The Newsprint Control (Amendment) Order, 2015 amends the Newsprint Control Order, 2004 by adding M/s. Sapphire Papers Mill (P) Ltd., Bidhan Nagar, Darjeeling, West Bengal as a new serial entry in the Schedule of licensed mills, and takes effect on publication in the Official Gazette under the statutory authority of the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951.

Provisioning for fraud accounts: phased full provisioning within a limited period unless delayed reporting triggers immediate provisioning and supervisory action.
Banks must provide for the entire amount due or for which the bank is liable in respect of frauds, irrespective of security, by phasing provisioning from the quarter of detection and completing it within four quarters; if the fraud is reported late to the Reserve Bank, the entire provisioning must be made immediately and the Reserve Bank may take supervisory action for delays in reporting or provisioning.

Buyer's credit cap removal allows unlimited buyer's credit for project exports under revised FEMA project export guidelines.
Authorised dealer banks and participating export finance institutions may extend buyer's credit to foreign purchasers for export of goods on deferred payment terms and turnkey projects from India without the former USD limit; the USD 20 million cap is withdrawn and the Memorandum of Instructions on Project and Service Exports (PEM) has been revised. Authorised dealers must notify constituents of the revised PEM and implement the changed procedures for post award approvals and modifications. Directions are issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and are without prejudice to other statutory permissions.

Simplification of shipping customs procedures: reduced hardcopy demands and streamlined transhipment permissions to speed clearance.
The Board limits physical Import General Manifest submissions to two hard copies where electronic IGM exists, requires only one hard copy of the Sub Manifest Transhipment Permit except for amendment needs, allows steamer agents to use a continuity bond (and merge guarantees) to replace repeated bonds, and removes the need for separate permission upon change of transport mode for transhipment provided the carrier intimates the change and the bond covers both modes.

Suo moto payment of customs duty allows exporters to prepay self calculated duty and interest pending authoritative reconciliation.
Facility allows Advance/EPCG authorisation holders with acknowledged regularisation applications to make suo moto payment by depositing self calculated duty and interest in cash at the designated bank or by presenting eligible duty credit scrip for debit, with paid challans submitted to Customs. Upon RA's detailed computation, Customs will reconcile actual duty and interest against amounts already deposited/debited, require payment of any balance, and on receipt of the RA's redemption letter will reconcile and initiate release of the bond or bank guarantee.

Track and Trace system mandates standardized barcodes and central data upload for exported pharmaceutical packaging to ensure traceability.
Manufacturers exporting pharmaceutical formulations must apply standardized barcodes at secondary and tertiary packaging and maintain parent-child packaging data, uploading prescribed data to a central government portal prior to release. Primary packs require human-readable GTIN, batch, expiry and serial information with barcode labelling initially exempted. Manufacturers or designated agencies are responsible for accuracy, completeness and timely upload. Transitional exemptions apply for consignments manufactured before the implementation date, and importing-country barcode mandates are permissible with licensing permission but do not negate domestic tertiary barcode requirements.