Removal of original KYC document submission - agencies no longer require originals for KYC under amended regulations.
Amendment removes the requirement for clients to send original KYC documents to KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs), altering the documentary submission practice for intermediaries and reporting entities that rely on KRAs for client identity and verification records. The amendment modifies prior SEBI circulars to the extent they required original document transmission, while leaving other provisions of those circulars intact.

Pre-shipment inspection agency recognition expanded: five agencies added and operational regions for several agencies widened under trade policy.
Five Pre Shipment Inspection Agencies are added to Appendix 5 of the Handbook of Procedures with specified contact details and operational regions, one of them granted recognition for a six month period; existing PSIAs have corrected entries and expanded areas of operation, and the amendments take effect immediately under powers conferred by the Foreign Trade Policy.

Brand Rate Drawback requirement: exporters must submit sanction or attested application copies or claims may be treated as not pursued.
Exporters and customs brokers must submit either the Brand Rate sanction/fixation order from the jurisdictional Central Excise Commissionerate or, if not yet fixed, a copy of the application filed with a self-declaration that the Brand Rate remains unfixed; both documents must be attested by the jurisdictional DC/AC of Central Excise. Failure to submit by the deadline will result in pending Brand Rate drawback shipping bills being disposed of as not pursued.

Waiver of surety deadline prompts acceptance of registration applications at front offices to ease public access.
The Commissioner directed that DVAT-04 registration applications be accepted at the Central Front Office and at concerned Ward offices during 25.03.2013-31.03.2013 to accommodate expected high volumes in view of the 31.03.2013 waiver of surety deadline, and requested Systems and ward units to make necessary arrangements for receipt and processing.

Online TMS access for processing tax returns with PAN migration or de duplication issues to prevent time bar expiry.
Extension of Online TMS permits Assessing Officers to process returns time barring due to PAN migration, deletion, de duplication or restoration by entering and processing returns across jurisdictions until integration into AST is commanded by the jurisdictional AO; processing remains prohibited for invalid or absent PANs or name mismatches, with procedures set out in the user manual and support via Co desk.

Contract R&D insignificant risk: criteria defined for Indian development centres; conduct, control, assets and ownership determine transfer pricing treatment.
An Indian development centre may be treated as a contract R&D service provider with insignificant risk only if all five cumulative conditions are met: the foreign principal performs economically significant R&D functions while the Indian centre performs economically insignificant functions; the principal provides funds and economically significant assets including intangibles and the Indian centre does not use such assets; the principal actually supervises and controls core activities; the Indian centre bears no economically significant realised risks; and the Indian centre has no legal or economic ownership of research outcomes, with conduct prevailing over contractual terms.

Profit split method selection requires adequate transfer pricing data; reasons must be recorded if PSM cannot be applied before using alternatives.
PSM is suited for transfer of unique intangibles or interrelated transactions and allocates returns based on relative contributions; cost based methods tied to R&D costs are generally discouraged. Application of PSM depends on transaction nature, functions, assets, risks, and critically on availability, coverage and reliability of data. If a Transfer Pricing Officer concludes PSM cannot be applied due to data deficiencies, the officer must record reasons for non applicability before considering TNMM or CUP, and taxpayers are required to maintain prescribed documentation, so lack of information requires good and sufficient reason.

Dealer registration shifted to online and ward-based processing, ending centralized CRC registration and requiring public notice.
Closure of the Centralized Registration Cell shifts registration of dealers to an online mechanism or to concerned wards; Additional Commissioners are directed to implement the change and ensure public awareness by displaying notices to avoid confusion and inconvenience.

Refund procedure for double e payment of customs duty requires bank verification and E PAO reconciliation before sanctioning refunds.
Double or multiple electronic payments of customs duty become Government deposits once transferred by banks to the Reserve Bank for credit to the Consolidated Fund; banks can re credit customers only prior to such transfer. Refunds of amounts already credited must be made under the Customs Act by sanction order. The importer or agent must file a refund claim with the Deputy/Asst. Commissioner, CRARS (Import), Mumbai, submit a bank Verification Report, and the officer will verify records with E PAO before sanctioning the refund.

Bank guarantee exemption requires affidavit confirming no penalization for specified customs offences, subject to random verification.
Exemption from furnishing a Bank Guarantee under AA/DFIA/EPCG requires that the license holder should not have been penalized during the previous three financial years for specified customs, central excise, service tax offences-including duty evasion, mis-declaration, clandestine removal, wrongful availment of credits or rebates, non-deposit of collected duties, and non-registration with intent to evade-or under FEMA or the Foreign Trade Act; applicants must submit an affidavit declaring compliance, subject to random verification by Customs.

Set-off of refunds under Section 245 requires prior intimation and an opportunity to reply before any adjustment.
Adjustment of refunds against outstanding demands must follow the procedural safeguards under Section 245: CPC, Bengaluru issues prior intimation; the assessee may file a response to the Assessing Officer named in that intimation; the Assessing Officer must examine the reply and, if an adjustable demand is found, communicate findings to CPC, Bengaluru, which will then process the refund and effect any adjustment.

Exchange of information obligations: precisely framed requests and timely responses are required to secure effective bilateral tax cooperation.
Officers must use the Manual on Exchange of Information to seek information under DTAAs, TIEAs and the Multilateral Convention, framing requests precisely, monitoring responses, supplying timely clarifications to foreign authorities, prioritizing incoming treaty requests, meeting prescribed timelines, and providing feedback on the usefulness of information and the Manual's operation.

Electronic funds transfer requirement mandates listed issuers to use approved e-payment modes for investor cash payments.
Listed companies must use RBI approved electronic payment modes (such as ECS variants, NEFT, RTGS) directly or through their registrars and transfer agents, and must maintain requisite investor bank account particulars; depositories shall provide updated bank details for demat holders while companies/agents must collect details for physical holders. If electronic identifiers are unavailable or electronic transfers fail or are rejected, companies or their agents may use physical payment instruments that must print the investor's bank account details.

Corporate bonds and government securities as collateral permitted for FIIs, subject to rating, dematerialisation and haircut requirements.
Permits foreign institutional investors to offer corporate bonds and government securities, alongside cash and foreign sovereign securities with AAA ratings, as collateral for cash and F&O transactions, subject to SEBI and RBI stipulations. Clearing Corporations must ensure bonds are rated AA or above, dematerialised, treated as non-cash liquid assets not exceeding ten percent of total liquid assets, and subject to a fixed-percentage or VaR-based haircut with a minimum initial haircut.

Extension of filing deadline relaxes additional fees and reinstates expired filings, providing a short cure period to submit documents.
The Ministry extended the filing deadline and relaxed additional fees for specified forms, directed correction of increased additional fees for affected SRNs by updating fees in the database, regenerating challans with extended short-term validity and notifying users, and restored expired filings arising during the interim period while granting a limited cure period to file; failure to file within that period will result in NTBR status, and fees for forms due before the interim period remain payable with additional fee.

Allocation of work: temporary reassignment of Enforcement and Recovery duties during an officer's leave for continuity of functions.
Order reallocates duties during the Additional Commissioner's leave: Enforcement-II is assigned to the Additional Commissioner, Sh. Satnam Singh, and Recovery Branch plus Zone-III administrative work is assigned to the Joint Commissioner, Sh. Rajesh Goyal; effective immediately until the Additional Commissioner returns.

Common pool arbitrator selection: automatic randomized appointments replace exchange selection and require bye law amendments with conflict of interest opt out mechanism.
Lists of arbitrators on panels of recognised national stock exchanges must be pooled centre wise into a publicly available "Common Pool," from which applicants may choose. Failing party appointment, a randomized, computer generated Automatic Process will select arbitrators in chronological order of references and issue real time alerts; exchanges must communicate appointments by the next working day. Appointed arbitrators with probable conflicts must decline and the automatic process will reselect; timeline extensions must be recorded. Fees follow existing provisions and exchanges must amend bye laws for immediate implementation.

Mutual fund product labeling requires clear scheme nature, one line objective, colour risk box and suitability disclaimer.
Mutual funds must apply standardized product labeling stating scheme nature and time horizon, a one line investment objective and product type, a colour coded risk level box (Blue low, Yellow medium, Brown high) with textual description, and a suitability disclaimer. Labels must appear prominently on initial offering forms, Key Information Memoranda, Scheme Information Documents, the common application form and scheme advertisements. The requirement applies to all existing and future schemes effective July 1, 2013, with early adoption permitted.

Counter timings for DGFT submissions restrict after 12:30pm acceptance to exporters outside local limits; delivery starts at 3pm.
The notice prescribes differential counter submission and delivery timings at the DGFT office based on the exporter's administrative office location: only exporters whose administrative offices are outside local municipal limits may submit after 12:30 P.M.; prescribed slots apply for IEC applications, Advance Authorisations and DFIA (one day), other submissions, with document delivery beginning at 3:00 P.M. and a specified lunch break.

Electronic export filing via centralized ICES platform mandates registration, certified bank details and system based processing and refunds.
ICES 1.5 is implemented at Raxaul LCS as the centralized platform for electronic filing and processing of multiple categories of shipping bills. Exporters, CHAs and banks must register requisite identifiers (IE Code, CHA registration, AD/IFSC and bank account details, DGFT licence codes, currency/units/country/port codes) and submit certified documents where required. Service centre and RES filing procedures, checklist validation, automated shipping bill numbering, system routing for assessment and queries, sample/testing rules, container and self seal protocols, duty/cess challan generation, computerized drawback and service tax refund processing, and grievance/helpdesk mechanisms are prescribed.