Line of Credit financing for defence equipment procurement requires majority India sourced supplies and FEMA compliance.
Exim Bank's Line of Credit to Mauritius finances procurement of eligible goods, machinery, equipment and services from India for specialised defence related equipment and vehicles; sellers must supply a majority of the contract value from India with up to 25 percent procured abroad. The Agreement was executed February 12, 2014 and effective May 15, 2014; last dates for Letters of Credit and disbursement are 48 months from scheduled completion for project exports and 72 months from execution for supply contracts. Shipments must be declared on GR/SDF forms; no agency commission is payable under the LOC, subject to FEMA compliance.

Transitional jurisdiction preserved under existing administrative board to maintain corporate adjudication until tribunal is established.
The Order provides that, until the statutory adjudicatory tribunal is constituted, the existing Board of Company Law Administration shall exercise the jurisdiction, powers, authority and functions assigned by the first proviso to clause (41) of the Act, ensuring continuity of corporate adjudicatory competence and administrative authority pending the tribunal's establishment.

Jurisdiction of Company Law Board continues to exercise powers under Section 73 until tribunal notification.
The Central Government directs that until a date is notified for establishing the successor tribunal, the Company Law Board constituted under the earlier statute shall exercise the jurisdiction, powers, authority and functions under subsection (4) of Section 73 of the Companies Act, 2013, ensuring continuity of administrative and adjudicatory functions related to the regulation of deposits and associated compliance until the new authority is notified.

Designation of the Designated Authority for administering anti dumping and countervailing duty rules and injury determinations.
Appointment of the Designated Authority to perform identification, assessment and collection of countervailing duty on subsidised articles and to determine injury under the Countervailing Duty Rules, 1995 as amended, and to perform identification, assessment and collection of anti dumping duty on dumped articles and to determine injury under the Anti dumping Duty Rules, 1995 as amended; the order replaces the earlier designated official and delegates these regulatory functions to Shri J. K. Dadoo with immediate effect.

Administrative functional control: reclassification of VAT dealers by block and staff allocation enabling zonewise operational management.
Administrative functional control reorganises VAT dealers into Blocks I-VIII by dealer type, registration status, gross turnover and tax quantum using the latest financial year data; zone-specific bifurcation applies for certain zones; Additional/Joint Commissioners must deploy VATO/AVATO and staff, may create special Blocks IX and X, update systems and publish block-wise lists on the department website.

Electronic filing for transhipped consignments required; manual bill of entry filing barred where destination port not declared in IGM.
The new ICES transshipment module permits electronic filing of Bills of Entry at the destination port against the IGM filed at the gateway port, contingent on declaration of destination port/CFS in the gateway IGM. Manual filing of Bills of Entry for transshipped FCL consignments will not be permitted where non-declaration of the destination port in the gateway IGM causes manual processing. Shipping lines, agents and importers must ensure destination port particulars are declared in the gateway IGM to enable electronic processing and avoid delays.

Departmental Representative nominations required for ITAT representation seminar - nominations and travel plans needed to secure participation.
Nominations are requested for a two-day training on effective representation before ITAT for officers ranked JCIT to CIT; at least two to three officers who are posted or likely to be posted as Departmental Representatives should be nominated by the stated deadline. Nominated officers must submit travel plans by email using the provided proforma to permit accommodation and transport arrangements, with contact details supplied for coordination.

Sharing of wealth return asset details: permitted to public sector banks for loan recovery with confidentiality and NOC safeguards.
Asset information from wealth tax returns may be furnished under Section 42B when the Commissioner is satisfied it is in the public interest to assist public sector banks in recovering loans; disclosures are limited to borrower, mortgagor or guarantor, require a bank undertaking and confidentiality clause, and mandate a No Objection Certificate from the jurisdictional tax authority before appropriation of any surplus to protect departmental tax dues.

Crystallization of inoperative foreign currency deposits mandates conversion to Indian Rupee after inactivity; depositor may claim rupee proceeds or equivalent.
Authorised dealers must convert inoperative foreign currency deposits into Indian Rupee at the prevailing exchange rate after the prescribed inactivity period. For fixed maturity deposits the conversion occurs at the end of the inactivity period following maturity; for non maturing deposits conversion follows a prior notice to the depositor and excludes debits for bank charges as operations. Depositors may claim either the Indian Rupee proceeds with interest or the foreign currency equivalent calculated at the rate prevailing on the date of payment.

Duty credit scrips: ensure scheme specific registration and verify goods permissibility before use to prevent misuse.
Duty credit scrips vary in transferability and actual user conditions and each reward scheme prescribes which goods may or may not be imported against a particular scrip; these intrinsic conditions-including exclusions such as items in Appendix 37B of HBPv1-remain applicable even when scrips are used to discharge duty on already imported goods for export obligation defaults. Field formations must verify scheme identity, notification references and goods permissibility to prevent incorrect registration or misuse of scrips.

Corrigendum to Companies (Removal of Difficulties) Order correcting the notified nomenclature and title in the original notification.
Corrigendum to notification S.O. 1177(E) dated 29th April, 2014 directs that, in line six, the wording "(1) This order may be called the Companies (Removal of Difficulties) Second Order, 2014" shall be read as "(1) This order mab be called the Companies (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2014"; recorded under F. No. 2/6/2014-CL-V and signed by Joint Secretary Amardeep Singh Bhatia.

Hedging flexibility for resident importers expanded under past-performance route, permitting increased forward cover subject to existing operational conditions.
Importers may book forward contracts under the past performance route for a larger share of the eligible import limit, as computed by the higher of the three year average import turnover or the prior year's actual turnover; importers who previously booked up to the earlier threshold may avail the incremental entitlement, and all existing operational guidelines, terms and conditions apply while AD Category I banks must inform constituents. Directions issued under FEMA remain subject to other statutory permissions.

Special Currency Basket value revised, changing rupee conversion for deferred payment protocols under FEMA with immediate bank compliance.
The Reserve Bank revised the rupee valuation of the Special Currency Basket for deferred payment protocols with the erstwhile USSR, directed Authorised Dealer Category I banks to apply the revised value from the stated effective date, and required banks to notify their constituents; the Directions are issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and are without prejudice to other statutory permissions.

Monetary allowance increase for Presidential Award recipients-revised monthly allowance applies to recipients and widows from notification date.
The Ministry of Finance Notification revises the monthly cash allowance payable to recipients of the Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificate for exceptionally meritorious service at the risk of life and to their widows, establishes distinct rates for an initial qualifying act and for subsequent acts, makes the revised rates applicable to past and future recipients from the Notification date, and directs field formations to publicize the change and ensure disbursement through payroll units and banks.

Reserved company names validity extended for an additional short period following issuance of the administrative circular.
Approval is conveyed to extend the continuity of all names reserved as on 31st March, 2014 for a further fifteen day period from the date of issue of this circular, preserving their reserved status for that additional short period.

Listing transition for companies on de-recognized exchanges: nationwide exchanges must prioritise relisting or facilitate voluntary delisting.
Companies exclusively listed on de-recognized/non-operational stock exchanges may seek prioritised relisting on nationwide exchanges, which must create dedicated cells to process such requests, or opt for voluntary delisting using reverse book building. Voluntary delisting under these provisions is exempt from the Minimum Public Shareholding requirements. Exchanges must identify untraceable or outdated-data companies for the vanishing list; failing relisting or delisting, exchanges must place affected companies on the dissemination board and transfer their databases to SEBI and the respective dissemination boards.

Cash transaction limit increase in mutual funds allows higher permitted cash subscriptions subject to AML compliance and systems.
SEBI increases the permissible cash transaction limit per investor per mutual fund per financial year, subject to Anti-Money Laundering compliance and adequate systems and procedures. It also amends employee trading guidelines to treat liquid schemes like Money Market Mutual Fund schemes: exempting certain liquid-scheme transactions from seven-day reporting, adding liquid schemes to the list of non-applicable products for some restrictions, and including liquid schemes among those units employees are barred from trading in specified situations.

PAN requirement for foreign nationals: passport and undertaking suffice when PAN is not mandatorily required under tax law.
PAN is required for foreign nationals only if they are mandatorily required to have PAN under the Income Tax Act on the date of application; otherwise the foreign national may provide passport number and a proforma undertaking declaring PAN is not mandatory, that no PAN has been issued, and to furnish PAN to the Registrar of Companies when issued.

Gold import regulation: revised 20:80 scheme allows nominated agencies imports with export-linked discipline and Gold Metal Loans.
Revised guidelines permit STH/PTHs registered as DGFT nominated agencies to import gold under the 20:80 scheme subject to prior import history, Customs verification, submission of port-wise import plans, a first-lot cap based on highest monthly import in the prior 24 months (subject to a maximum), and the continued requirement that 20% of each consignment be exported before the next import. Nominated banks may provide Gold Metal Loans to domestic jewellery manufacturers from the 80% domestic quota to the extent of GML outstanding as on March 31, 2013; imports must route through bonded warehouses and domestic sales require upfront payment except for permitted GML.

Long term export advances: banks may fund long term supply contracts subject to eligibility, compliance and reporting requirements.
Authorised Dealer Category I banks may permit exporters with three years' satisfactory track record to receive long term export advances up to ten years for long term supply contracts, subject to conditions including firm irrevocable orders, demonstrable execution capacity, routing through one AD bank, adjustment through future exports, prohibition on using advances to repay NPA rupee loans, avoidance of double financing, AML/KYC and overseas buyer due diligence, and an interest cap at LIBOR plus 200 basis points; banks must report large advances and submit annual progress reports to the Reserve Bank.