Innovation sandbox enables controlled testing of fintech solutions with anonymized market data under strict eligibility and governance.
Creates an Innovation Sandbox providing phased access to historical, anonymized securities-market datasets via published APIs and virtual test environments; access is conditioned on confidentiality/end-user agreements prohibiting resale or sharing. Participation requires contractual acceptance of rights and obligations, cybersecurity compliance, and demonstrated testing readiness, need and post-testing strategy. A Steering Committee of MIIs and QRTAs will issue operating guidelines, evaluate and onboard applicants, monitor testing and maintain oversight; the sandbox lifecycle must transition to a fully digital process within a prescribed timeframe.

Customs jurisdiction change creates new preventive and export facilitation unit and directs exporters to apply for self sealing.
The Customs Preventive Unit at Sullurpet is merged into the Customs Preventive Unit, Nellore, which will handle preventive, anti smuggling and coastal patrolling for SPSR Nellore District. A new Customs Preventive Unit at Kurnool is established with jurisdiction over Kadapa, Kurnool and Ananthapur Districts and is designated as an Export Facilitation Unit for those districts; its office address is provided. Exporters in those districts are requested to apply to the Kurnool unit to avail the self sealing export procedure under the procedures set out in the Trade Facilitation Circulars.

Refund of unutilized input tax credit: Portal calculations and prescribed order of debiting electronic ledgers must be followed.
Refunds of unutilized input tax credit must be the least of three amounts: statutory maximum under rules 89(4)/89(5) on consolidated ITC, ledger balance at the end of the tax period after filing the return, and ledger balance at time of filing; the electronic credit ledger must be debited first towards Integrated Tax, then equally to Central and State/UT Tax with shortfalls met from the other head. Until portal automation is available taxpayers must manually compute and debit accordingly before ARN generation and filing FORM GST RFD-01A; illustrative allocations are provided and no adverse action will be taken for past non-conforming filings.

Authorised Sea Carrier registration required; ICEGATE filing of arrival/departure manifests and inland manifest enables e seal cargo tracking.
The Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018 require Indian representatives to register as Authorised Sea Carriers (ASC) and their agents as Authorised Sea Agents (ASA), and to submit electronic Arrival and Departure Manifests via ICEGATE prior to departures. ICEGATE now accepts registration and applications routed through ICES to the Appraising Officer (EDI) for verification and approval. The Customs Inland Manifest (CIM) is operational for e Sealed export cargo and must be filed before cargo leaves exporter premises; CIM data on vehicles, containers and e seals will be shared with RMS and verified by preventive officers to support tracking and risk based facilitation.

Affordable housing GST eligibility clarified for Mumbai Metropolitan Region projects under amended rate notifications.
Lower GST rate of 1% applies to construction services of affordable residential apartments where the project commences on or after 1 April 2019 or is ongoing without the promoter exercising the prescribed option; eligibility requires carpet area not exceeding 60 square metres in metropolitan cities (90 square metres elsewhere) and the gross amount charged within the Notification's ceiling. "Mumbai Metropolitan Region" for applying the metropolitan threshold comprises the areas listed in Schedule I of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act, 1974, as amended.

GST exemption on upfront lease premium applies when the amount is determined upfront, even if paid in instalments.
GST exemption on the upfront amount payable for long term leases of industrial or financial infrastructure plots is admissible provided the amount is determined upfront, irrespective of whether that upfront amount is paid in one or more instalments; the exemption covers amounts labeled in any manner and applies where the leases are for thirty years or more and granted by State industrial development bodies or entities with majority public ownership.

GST exemption for seed testing and certification treats tags supplied by agencies as exempt; outsourced tags taxable.
Supply of seed certification tags by State Seed Certification Agencies is an element of the integrated, multistage composite supply of seed testing and certification, exempt under Notification No. 12/2017 - State Tax (Rate) Sr. No. 47. When tags are procured from external departments or manufacturers, that supply to the agencies is a taxable supply of goods and must be classified according to the tags' predominant material.

Revocation of GST registration: applications allowed subject to outstanding returns being filed before or within the prescribed period after revocation.
Clarifies procedural conditions for revocation of GST registration cancelled for failure to furnish returns: where cancellation is from the cancellation order date, all returns due up to that date must be filed before applying for revocation; where revocation is ordered, returns for the period between the cancellation order date and the revocation date must be furnished within a prescribed period after revocation; and where cancellation is retrospective and portal restrictions prevent filing, an application may be accepted provided returns for the period from the effective cancellation date to revocation are filed within the prescribed post revocation period.

Input tax credit utilization: Integrated tax credit must be exhausted first, then may be apportioned to central and state liabilities.
Clarifies that input tax credit attributable to Integrated tax must be completely exhausted before Central or State/Union Territory input tax credit can be used; after Integrated liabilities are met, the Integrated tax credit may be apportioned in any order and proportion towards Central and State/Union Territory liabilities. Illustrations demonstrate permissible apportionments. Until the common portal is updated to reflect this allocation rule, taxpayers may continue using the portal's existing functionality. The circular is clarificatory and implementation difficulties may be reported to the Commissioner of State Tax.

Option to pay composition tax clarified; filing CMP 02 or indicating in REG 01 required, applicability extends across PAN.
Registered persons opting for the concessional composition rate under Notification No. 02/2019 must intimate the option by filing FORM GST CMP-02 and furnish FORM GST ITC-03; applicants may indicate the option in FORM GST REG-01 at registration. The option applies across all places of business under the same PAN and is effective from the start of the financial year or from the date of registration for new registrations. Chapter II of the Maharashtra GST Rules applies mutatis mutandis except as clarified. The Circular is clarificatory and implementation difficulties may be reported.

Transfer of input tax credit after a sole proprietor's death - transferee may claim unutilized ITC by prescribed GST procedure.
Where a sole proprietor dies and the business is continued by a transferee or successor, unutilized input tax credit in the transferor's electronic credit ledger may be transferred to the transferee by the transferee filing FORM GST ITC-02 in respect of the registration to be cancelled; FORM GST ITC-02 must be filed before filing the cancellation application, and upon acceptance the specified credit will be credited to the transferee's electronic ledger. The transferee/successor must register effective from the date of transfer and, together with the transferor, is jointly and severally liable for tax, interest or penalty due from the transferor.

Registration verification: fresh GST applications may be rejected when prior cancellation and unresolved statutory violations persist.
Officers must treat failure to seek revocation of an earlier cancelled registration and the persistence of the cancellation grounds as a material deficiency in any fresh registration application; they should compare application data with prior registrations on the same PAN using the common portal and may reject applications that conceal earlier registrations or fail to justify continued statutory violations.

Refund of accumulated ITC: portal filing workaround requires debit via electronic credit ledger before refund order issuance.
Where taxpayers reversed ITC required to lapse under the notification through returns, they may, as a one-time measure, claim refund of accumulated ITC for that same period under the portal category "any other" with required documents; the proper officer will calculate admissible refund, request the taxpayer to debit the electronic credit ledger, and only after receiving proof of debit issue the refund order and payment advice. Late reversals attract interest, and similar debit-then-refund steps apply to merchant exporter claims and corrected resubmissions after deficiency memos.

Inter State Supply IGST payable on trading of Priority Sector Lending Certificates, with credit where CGST/SGST already paid.
Trading of Priority Sector Lending Certificates (PSLC) on the RBI e-Kuber portal is a supply of goods in the course of inter State trade, and therefore attracts Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST). This applies to both the earlier forward charge period and the subsequent reverse charge period. Banks that have already paid CGST/SGST or CGST/UTGST for such transactions are not required to pay IGST additionally. The Circular is clarificatory in nature.

GST treatment of sales promotion schemes: defining supply, valuation and ITC consequences for free goods and discounts.
Clarifies GST taxability, valuation and Input Tax Credit (ITC) treatment of sales promotion schemes: free goods without consideration are not a supply except as per Schedule I (and attract ITC denial for inputs used unless treated as supply); 'buy one get one' is treated as multiple supplies priced together with tax determined by composite/mixed supply rules and ITC allowable; pre-established invoice discounts can reduce taxable value if statutory conditions are met, while post-supply commercial credit notes do not reduce taxable value unless conditions are satisfied.

Inter-State supply for warehoused goods: taxpayers who paid central and state tax are deemed compliant if amounts match integrated tax
Supply of goods deposited in customs bonded warehouses is an inter-State supply; due to lack of portal functionality for July 2017-March 2018, some suppliers reported and paid central tax and state tax instead of integrated tax. As a one-time exception, such suppliers will be deemed to have complied with tax payment obligations provided the combined central and state tax paid equals the integrated tax otherwise payable on those supplies.

Place of supply obligation: include State in invoice for inter-state supplies under GST, non-compliance invites penalties.
All registered persons making supplies in the course of inter-State trade or commerce shall specify the place of supply along with the name of the State in the tax invoice as required by rule 46(n). The place of supply for goods and services should be determined with reference to the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. Contravention of the invoicing requirement may attract penal action under the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act.

Inter-State supply reporting required in GSTR-3B and GSTR-1 to ensure correct IGST apportionment and compliance.
Registered persons making inter-State supplies to unregistered recipients must report those supplies, with place of supply, in Table 3.2 of FORM GSTR-3B and Table 7B of FORM GSTR-1. Table 3.2 data is used to apportion IGST to the State where supply occurs; omission leads to non-apportionment, mismatches in supplied quantities and tax allocation, and potential penal consequences under the MGST Act. The Circular is clarificatory and implementation difficulties should be notified to the Commissioner of State Tax.

Realization of export proceeds in Indian Rupee: INR allowed where RBI permits and LUT acceptance clarified.
Amendments implement GST Amendment Acts effective 01.02.2019: export proceeds in INR for services allowed where RBI permits; acceptance of LUT for supplies of goods or services to persons outside India or SEZ developers/units allowed irrespective of payment currency if RBI guidelines are followed; detention-related payment period extended from seven to fourteen days with revised forms and notices; suspension of registration permits field formations not to issue non-filing notices for applicants for cancellation while preserving the obligation to file a final return.

GST on Priority Sector Lending Certificates: seller bank to discharge tax under forward charge for earlier period.
GST on Priority Sector Lending Certificates for the period 1 July 2017 to 27 May 2018 must be paid by the seller bank on a forward charge basis, with GST applicable to the supply of PSLCs; the Trade Circular is clarificatory and implementation difficulties should be reported to the Commissioner of State Tax, Maharashtra.