Imposition of costs prompts departmental review of adjudication quality and reports on feasibility of court challenges.
Imposition of costs has arisen where adjudication orders suffer from deficient reasoning, disregard of directions, failure to apply principles of natural justice, neglect of pleadings and evidence, or non application of mind. Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners must sensitise adjudicating authorities, subject departmental favourable orders to critical review, and submit a one time report within one month on cases from the past two years for possible writ or special leave petition challenges.

Public Grievance Committee constituted for the Commissionerate with nominated members, two year term, and quarterly meetings.
Constitution of a Public Grievance Committee for 2015-16 and 2016-17 names the Principal Commissioner as ex officio Chairperson and the Additional/Joint Commissioner as Secretary, fixes a two year term, limits meeting attendance to nominated members (with provision for special invitees), restricts representation from one association to one of two nominees, and prescribes ordinary quarterly meetings with advance notification; an annexure lists members and trade interests.

Extension of return filing deadline for Central Excise forms for Puducherry assessees following natural calamity, permitting delayed submissions.
The Board, invoking sub rule (6) of rule 12 and the proviso to sub rule (3) of rule 17 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002, extended submission deadlines for Forms ER 1, ER 2, ER 6 (monthly clearance returns) and ER 4 (Annual Financial Information Statement) for assessees in the Union Territory of Puducherry (excluding Yanam and Mahe) as procedural relief due to rains and floods.

Fixing responsibility for audit lapses: officers must follow Audit Manual and face disciplinary action where serious failures occur.
A directive requires strict adherence to the Audit Manual 2015 and existing scrutiny instructions for returns, and mandates that Jurisdictional Commissioners review audit objections when preparing Action Taken Notes; where serious lapses or noncompliance with instructions are found, Commissioners must initiate proceedings to fix responsibility and take disciplinary action under the CCS (CCA) conduct rules, with all field formations being sensitised to these requirements.

Extension of return filing deadlines: Tamil Nadu assessees may file specified Central Excise ER forms by end of December.
Extension of filing deadlines for specified Central Excise return forms is granted for assessees in Tamil Nadu affected by severe rains and flooding. The due date for Form ER-1, ER-2 and ER-6 for November clearances and for Form ER-4 (Annual Financial Information Statement) is extended to the end of December under powers conferred by the Central Excise Rules, providing temporal relief tied to the natural calamity.

Authorization to defend indirect tax respondents designates Commissioners to represent Union and Board in appellate matters.
The Legal Cell will issue formal Authorizations empowering the concerned Commissioner to defend the Union, Ministry/Board and listed officeholders in indirect tax petitions; the Commissionerate must obtain Policy Wing comments and forward them to the Legal Cell. If no jurisdictional officer is joined, the nodal Commissioner for the bench's jurisdiction receives authorization and will coordinate with Law Officers/CGSC. Authorizations do not cover individuals sued in personal capacity or service and administrative matters, which require Administration Wing approval.

Central Excise Tariff Conference clarifies valuation, classification, exemptions and CENVAT credit procedures for uniform assessment practice.
The Board issued Minutes of the Central Excise Tariff Conference setting out 53 technically operative clarifications across assessment and valuation, classification, scope of exemptions, CENVAT credit, central excise rules and implementation; key outcomes include: depots treated as places of removal for industrial clearances (Section 4 valuation), VAT retained under incentive adjustment schemes includable in transaction value unless actually paid to exchequer, Section 4A assessment only where notified, adherence to formulas in exemption notifications unless amended, specified classification guidance invoking HSN notes and case law, and targeted recommendations for rule amendments and procedural simplifications including recognition of service provider invoices for certain credits and export rebate process review.

Excise duty exemption eligibility continues despite suspension of NEIIPP registrations; new and expanded units remain eligible under notification conditions.
Suspension of fresh registrations for NEIIPP schemes by DIPP is administrative and does not suspend the incentive package; Notification No.20/2007-Central Excise does not require NEIIPP registration as a condition for excise duty exemption. New units and units undertaking substantial expansion after the suspension date and up to the cut-off remain eligible for exemption, subject to the notification's conditions, and field formations and taxpayers should be informed accordingly.

Administrative redrafting of excise supplementary instructions updates regulatory guidance with zonal chapter allocation and standardized drafting rules.
Redrafting of CBEC's Supplementary Instructions requires zones to review and redraft allocated chapters to update Central Excise procedures. Zones must produce lucid, exhaustive drafts, add topics as needed, incorporate relevant notifications and circulars at the end of each topic, submit tracked-change versions alongside clean copies, and forward drafts to designated email channels. Coordination arrangements include consolidated compilation of multipart chapters and vetting of enforcement-related drafts by the enforcement directorate.

Exemption from sealing of bulk cargo permits case by case waiver subject to verification, safeguards and time limited permissions.
The amendment permits exemption from sealing of bulk cargo for export where sealing is impracticable, empowering the Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner of Central Excise to grant case by case waivers subject to safeguards including verification and testing of quantity and quality, prohibition on duty remission for transit loss, time limited permissions (not exceeding one year) and withdrawal for misuse; a defined application and review timetable by Assistant/Deputy Commissioners and Principal Commissioners is prescribed, with written communication of conditions when permission is granted.

Taxpayer Service Centre established to provide single-window grievance handling with on site acknowledgements and Commissioner monitoring.
Establishment of a Tax Payer Service Centre in Hyderabad-II Commissionerate as a single-window for receiving and handling taxpayer queries, complaints and grievances, issuing unique on-the-spot acknowledgement numbers, operating temporarily from Room No. 714, Technical Section, Kendriya Shulk Bhavan (6th Floor) with a listed telephone contact and two designated tax facilitator officers, and with disposal of matters monitored at the Commissioner's level for redressal.

Arrest threshold revised for central excise and service tax, prosecution now requires substantial evasion before action.
The circular sets a consolidated monetary threshold for prosecution and arrest in Central Excise and Service Tax matters: prosecution may be initiated, and arrests effected for specified offences under the Central Excise Act and the Finance Act (Service Tax), only where the evasion of duty or misuse of Cenvat Credit equals or exceeds the revised monetary limit; earlier circulars are amended accordingly and implementation issues may be reported to the Board.

Prosecution threshold: guidelines require substantial evasion, proven mens rea, and sanctioned filing before initiating criminal proceedings.
The circular prescribes a consolidated framework for launching prosecution under the Central Excise Act and the Finance Act for service tax: companies and responsible officers may be prosecuted; prosecution is normally limited to substantial evasion or misuse and to habitual evaders; prosecution requires evidence establishing mens rea and should not be used for mere technical disputes; sanction from senior authorities is mandatory; investigation reports in prescribed format and prompt filing after sanction are required; monitoring, registers, withdrawal procedures and compounding are prescribed.

Exemption scope for wind-operated electricity generator components now includes towers, blades and nacelles under notification.
The circular directs that the exemption in serial no. 332 of Notification No. 12/2012-Central Excise covers specified WOEG elements: towers; nacelles including gearbox, generator, yaw components, couplings, brake hydraulics, sensors and covers; rotors including blades, hub, nosecone, main shaft and bearings; and wind turbine/nacelle controllers and control cables. It instructs field formations to treat these as exempt and to seek MNRE opinion via the Board for parts not listed, with unresolved issues to be referred through the Chief Commissioner.

Classification of coconut oil: earlier Board order withdrawn; field authorities must follow judicial precedents on edible oil classification.
The Board withdraws its prior Section 37B order directing classification of coconut oil in small retail containers under the cosmetics tariff heading, noting judicial rulings that edible coconut oil in such packs is classifiable as edible vegetable oil rather than as hair oil; field formations must decide classification in individual cases based on facts and the cited judicial pronouncements.

Settlement Commission jurisdiction barred for smuggled goods under Customs Act; admissions should be challenged in the High Court.
Settlement Commission has no jurisdiction to entertain matters relating to goods specified under the Customs Act, including gold, in smuggling cases; if the Settlement Commission admits any such matter, the jurisdictional field formation should challenge the admission in the High Court by way of writ at the admission stage.

Judicial supremacy: Board circulars conflicting with Supreme Court rulings must not be followed and should be referred for rescission.
Board circulars conflicting with Supreme Court law are non est in law and must not be followed; such circulars should be referred to the Board for rescission or the Board may act suo moto. All pending matters, including those in the Call-Book and decisions rendered after the judicial pronouncement, must conform to the law declared by the Supreme Court or High Court. Where the Board chose not to appeal a High Court decision the instruction applies; where revenue has appealed, matters should be kept in the Call-Book and appeals maintained. Difficulties must be reported to the Board.

Adjudication delay must be avoided; authorities directed to conclude proceedings within a reasonable period and digitize records.
Adjudicating officers must conclude tax adjudicatory proceedings within a reasonable period; failure to decide long standing Show Cause Notices can render proceedings unsustainable. All Commissioners should ensure adjudication orders are passed within prescribed time limits, employ monitoring mechanisms, and explore scanning and digitization of papers related to adjudication and litigation to prevent undue delay.

Specified health warning requirement mandates monitoring to prevent clearance of tobacco packaging without prescribed warnings.
Every package of cigarettes and other tobacco products produced, manufactured or imported after the prescribed date must bear the specified health warning in the manner prescribed; Central Excise formations are directed to monitor and prevent clearance of tobacco products from registered premises unless packages comply with the prescribed health warnings and other labelling requisites, and to circulate prior instructions to subordinate formations for necessary compliance.

Withdrawal of long pending prosecutions proposed for small central excise cases; field units asked to report counts and comments.
The Department seeks information on Central Excise prosecution proceedings pending for more than 15 years and involving Central Excise duty of up to Rs. 5 lakhs to assess whether such old, low value cases should be considered for withdrawal of prosecution. Responding offices must report the number of cases, duty involved and comments on withdrawal, and submit the consolidated report to specified email addresses and fax numbers by the stated deadline.