Customs Clearance Facilitation Committee to expedite goods clearance and resolve procedural bottlenecks under specified terms.
CCFCs are to be set up for designated Land Customs Stations and Inland Container Depots, headed by the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs with senior representatives of relevant agencies as members. Their terms of reference include monitoring expeditious clearance per parent ministry timelines, identifying and resolving bottlenecks, initiating Time Release Studies, recommending best practices, and resolving trade grievances. CCFCs shall meet monthly or as needed; establishment orders and chair contact details must be publicised and endorsed to the Board. Chief Commissioners will review CCFC performance, and ministries must designate members and prepare SOPs with timelines.

MEIS reward rates updated: extensive additions and amendments to Appendix 3B alter eligible goods and rates effective immediately.
The Director General of Foreign Trade, under paragraph 1.03 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020, notifies immediate additions of 2,901 ITC (HS) code lines to Table 2 of Appendix 3B to the MEIS schedule and establishes specified reward rates for those goods; some entries remain subject to export policy restrictions.

Deletion of Non Ferrous Metal entry in public notice alters prior customs instructions and requires trade-wide dissemination.
The public notice partially modifies Public Notice No.21/2016 by deleting the entry for Non Ferrous Metal (including Aluminum) at paragraph 3(a)(vi); trade stakeholders are directed to publicize the change and the notice is valid until 15.12.2016, issued with the Principal Commissioner's approval.

Refund of Terminal Excise Duty allowed where duty paid from CENVAT credit; safeguards required to prevent duplicate claims.
Refund of Terminal Excise Duty (TED) is allowable under FTP where no ab-initio exemption applied and the duty was paid using CENVAT credit, subject to all FTP conditions and safeguards to ensure the TED has not been or will not be claimed by any other mechanism. No refund is permitted where ab-initio exemption existed.

Delivery mechanisms regulated to mandate tendering, allocation, settlement timelines and penalties for delivery defaults in commodity futures.
Exchanges must operate staggered delivery with a tender period, permit marking of delivery intentions, allocate delivery by random methodology with preference to signalled buyers, and complete pay-in/pay-out within prescribed working days. Open positions at expiry become compulsory delivery settled at the Final Settlement Price. Early delivery and early pay-in mechanisms allow matching and deposit of certified goods with settlement timelines; delivery defaults incur penalties combining a percentage of settlement price and replacement cost, with specified apportionment and disciplinary measures. FSP is determined by averaging available polled spot prices per a fallback hierarchy, and exchanges may advance expiry if the physical market is closed.

One-time-lock requirement: affix serially numbered bottle seal and record it on bill of entry and transport document.
The regulations require affixation of a serially numbered one-time-lock (bottle seal) by the proper officer at the customs station when goods are removed for deposit into a warehouse; the OTL number and date/time must be endorsed on the bill of entry and transport document, and customs stations must record OTL number, bill of entry, truck/container number, date/time and the affixing officer's name, designation and telephone number, while warehouse keepers inspect seals and permit unloading only if seals are intact.

Provisional assessment requires a prescribed bond and security by bank guarantee or cash deposit to secure customs duty.
Provisional assessment must follow the statutory procedure, requiring the importer to execute a prescribed bond to cover any duty deficiency and to furnish security-either a bank guarantee or a cash deposit-in amounts indicated by the Board's table; the earlier provisional duty regulations have been rescinded and the Board's circular and annexed forms must be applied uniformly to ensure transparency and predictability.

Immunity withdrawal for non compliance with settlement payment triggers enforcement and requirement to notify the settlement commission.
Non payment of sums under a Settlement Commission order withdraws immunity from prosecution, penalty and fine granted under Section 32K(2) (as applied to service tax and customs). Field formations must monitor compliance with settlement conditions and the jurisdictional Commissioner should notify the Commission and initiate appropriate action under the relevant law in case of violations.

Approval under Section 35(1)(ii) rescinded, removing tax-benefit status for specified research organisations.
Central Government notifications granting approval under Section 35(1)(ii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 to three Kolkata research organisations have been rescinded retrospectively; the rescissions state that the original approvals shall be deemed not to have been issued for any tax benefits. The approvals had been conditional on utilisation of sums for scientific research, research conducted through faculty or students, maintenance of separate books and audited accounts, and certified statements of donations and applications; the earlier notifications also listed specific grounds on which approval would be withdrawn.

Penalty mitigation under section 273A: declarations under the Income Declaration Scheme may qualify as cooperation, limiting prosecution.
The circular clarifies that a valid declaration under the Income Declaration Scheme for years not under assessment on an identical issue, coupled with an offer to pay tax and interest for the year pending assessment, shall be treated as having cooperated in any enquiry for the purpose of reducing or waiving penalty; revenue officers are advised to take a lenient view on applications for penalty reduction or waiver in such cases, subject to payment of the entire amount payable under the Scheme and appropriate application under the penalty relief mechanism.

Consolidated Account Statement disclosure requires scheme cost, gross distributor commission and average expense ratio in half yearly statements.
Consolidated Account Statement requirements now mandate that each CAS disclose the total purchase value/cost of investment for each scheme, and that half yearly CAS additionally disclose the gross commission paid by AMCs/Mutual Funds to distributors in absolute terms and the scheme's average Total Expense Ratio for the applicable plan(s). Commission includes direct monetary payments and non monetary benefits and must be shown as gross, without netting distributor costs. These half yearly CAS disclosures apply to investors except those with no holdings and where no commission was paid during the period, with an indicative format provided.

Permission for trading in futures contracts allows exchanges to approve and modify specifications subject to prior notice, regulator oversight.
Exchanges must submit proposals for new or renewed futures contracts with complete check list information; continuous trading approvals are conditional on compliance with exchange rules, fixed contract specifications and launch calendars, open position and price fluctuation limits, daily mark to market settlement, delivery procedures, and prevention of speculative cornering. Certain specification parameters may be modified at exchange level (e.g., ticker, trading unit, tick size, delivery centres, quality tolerances) provided exchanges give prior notice and reasons to market participants and the regulator; substantive changes or re launches require prior SEBI approval.

Service Tax Certificate for transportation of goods by rail enables claim of CENVAT credit without enclosing railway receipts.
The circular removes the requirement to enclose photocopies of railway receipts with the STTG Certificate for availing CENVAT credit and prescribes that Railways issue the STTG Certificate to the rail customer recording customer details, number of RRs, total service tax/cess paid, Service Tax code, registration number and certifying authority; a certified annexure shall list RR level details. Consignor paid tax may be claimed by consignor on an STTG Certificate or transferred to consignee via consignee wise STTG Certificates; consolidated and consignee wise certificates are mutually exclusive.

Single Window clearance automates PGA referrals and waives NOC for low-risk food consignments, subject to risk-based checks.
SWIFT routes integrated Bills of Entry automatically to PGAs for NOCs while allowing concurrent Customs processing. The RMS applies risk-based selectivity so low-risk consignments have PGA NOC requirements waived and are annotated accordingly; Customs must not manually refer these consignments to PGAs except with Assistant/Deputy Commissioner approval. The RMS will also issue documentary, inspection and sampling instructions based on PGA delegations. Importers and brokers must accurately declare end-use and product details in the Integrated Declaration to ensure correct automated processing.

Rebate of State Levies: exporters may opt into ROSL via shipping bill scheme codes to receive automatic rebate credits.
The ROSL scheme, effective 20 September 2016, permits exporters to elect rebates of State levies on textile garments by selecting prescribed scheme codes in the shipping bill (selection on EDI shipping bills is the sole claim method); rebates are calculated on FOB value using scheme rates and caps, displayed at item and shipping-bill levels and paid to the exporter's registered drawback account in parallel with drawback disbursal, with eligibility declarations printed on the checklist and status shown on ICEGATE.

Rebate of State Levies scheme requires exporters to opt via shipping bill scheme code; rebate credited to drawback account.
Implementation of Rebate of State Levies (ROSL) scheme provides a voluntary central rebate of specified State levies for textile garment exports; exporters must opt by selecting the prescribed scheme code on the EDI shipping bill, which serves as the exclusive claim and declaration. Rebate is calculated on FOB value per notified rates and caps and is disbursed into the exporter's bank account registered for drawback, processed in parallel to drawback and visible on ICEGATE. System and checklist changes require RES vendor compliance and inclusion of a declaration confirming non-duplication of claims.

Intelligence dossier submission requirement: agencies must step up forwarding of dossiers and file an action report to the Board.
Directive requiring investigation leadership to increase the frequency and quality of dossier submissions to the central economic intelligence institution and to furnish an action taken report to the Board within the timeframe specified, reiterating prior communications and supervisory follow up after an economic intelligence council meeting.

Rebate of State Levies scheme requires item-level scheme-code opt-in on shipping bills to claim rebate credited to drawback account.
The ROSL scheme provides an optional central rebate for specified state levies on textile garments; exporters must opt in by selecting prescribed scheme codes at the item level on the EDI shipping bill, which constitutes the claim and declaration of eligibility. Rebate is calculated on FOB value using scheme rates and caps and is credited to the exporter's registered drawback account after processing. Shipping bills with LEO on or after the effective date are eligible if scheme codes are inserted; system and RES vendor changes reflect ROSL amounts and required declarations.

Goods and Services Tax implementation requires administrative reorganisation and strengthened IT and training for effective rollout.
Implementation of the Goods and Services Tax requires administrative reorganisation, extensive training, stakeholder engagement and upgraded IT infrastructure. The board will continue to administer central components of indirect taxation while integrating excise and service tax functions into the GST framework; selected central duties on specified commodities remain outside GST. Operational steps include strengthening systems capacity, inter agency personnel secondment, and prioritising training and outreach to ensure compliance and effective rollout.

Settlement Guarantee Fund norms maintained where unmodified, with exchanges required to notify members and publish continued provisions.
Settlement Guarantee Fund requirements, stress testing procedures for SGF adequacy, and Base Minimum Capital norms previously prescribed for national commodity derivatives exchanges continue in force to the extent not modified by subsequent regulatory amendments; recent changes removing the annual cap on exchange contributions to SGF and revising BMC for members supersede inconsistent legacy provisions. Exchanges must notify members and disseminate the continued provisions on their websites.