Centralized KYC verification: first-time importers and exporters must submit Category-I documents plus Category-II proof for customs processing.
First-time importers and exporters must submit prescribed KYC: Category I identity/constitutive documents plus one Category II fiscal or bank proof. A Centralized KYC Cell will collect files, record File Nos. against bills, and coordinate verification with SIIB (I), SIIB (X) and CIU, including telephonic bank confirmation and physical verification of at least ten percent of addresses. Verification results are registered, reported monthly, and adverse findings trigger alerts and preventive measures; customs brokers must exercise due diligence in verifying IEC and client details.

Letter of Undertaking eligibility: exporters meeting foreign remittance and status-holder criteria may use LUT; expedited acceptance ensured.
Clarifies that any registered person meeting specified foreign inward remittance thresholds in the preceding financial year, and status holders irrespective of remittance, are eligible to furnish a Letter of Undertaking (LUT) in place of a bond. LUTs are to be submitted on letterhead; bonds on stamp paper. LUT/bond submissions must be prioritised and accepted within a short prescribed period. Bank guarantees should normally not exceed a prescribed proportion and may be waived by the Commissioner in specified circumstances; self-declarations and supporting documents are acceptable unless contested.

Designation of Central Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities updated for Customs Commissionerate Ahmedabad; Annexure substituted.
Addendum substitutes Annexure-A to Public Notice No. 11/2016 to revise the roster of Central Public Information Officers and corresponding Appellate Authorities for the Customs Commissionerate, Ahmedabad, specifying names, designations, contact addresses and the administrative jurisdictions (offices, ICDs, CFSs and customs divisions) assigned to each officer.

Electronic sealing for self sealing exports requires RFID one time bolt seals, vendor data linkage, and Customs verification on dispatch.
Exporters eligible for self sealing must declare the physical RFID e seal serial number when filing the shipping document, procure one time bolt RFID seals from certified vendors meeting specified ISO/RFID standards, and tag shipment metadata to the seal via a vendor web/mobile application that prevents overwriting. Vendors must submit self certified conformity documents, provide unique seal series, transmit seal and shipment data to Risk Management Division and destination ports/ICDs, install reader scanners at ports/ICDs at their cost, and integrate their data retrieval systems with ICEGATE for Customs verification and tamper examination.

Inspection and seizure procedure under Uttar Pradesh GST requires written authorization, prescribed forms, and strict compliance with statutory safeguards.
Inspection, search and seizure under the Uttar Pradesh Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 require written authorization by a proper officer not below Joint Commissioner. The circular prescribes the procedure for inspecting business premises, transporters, warehouses and other places, and for seizing goods, documents, books or things relevant to proceedings. It provides for provisional release against bond and bank guarantee, retention and copying of seized records, special treatment of perishable or hazardous goods, and compliance with prescribed forms and rules.

Section 129 cash deposit procedure requires demand draft payment for seized goods until GST portal remittance is available.
Deposit of tax and penalty payable for goods seized under Section 129 of the Uttar Pradesh GST Act, 2017 is to be made by demand draft in favour of the concerned seizing officer until the cash-deposit facility on the GST portal becomes available. The circular addresses the practical difficulty in treasury remittance through the portal and clarifies the interim procedure for release of detained goods after payment of the amount due.

Valuation of secondhand machinery: empanelled chartered engineers may conduct inspection/appraisement where overseas report is not procured.
Amendment updates paragraphs 11 and 12(c) of Public Notice No.25/2015 to notify five chartered engineering firms as authorised agencies for valuation and appraisement of second hand machinery at the Bangalore port, specifies recognition validity periods, and instructs importers and customs brokers to contact them for inspection/appraisement reports. If an importer fails to procure an overseas inspection/appraisement report, these notified firms may inspect the goods under Appendix-2G of the Handbook of Procedure 2015-20 and relevant Aayat Niryat forms.

Rebate of State Levies continuation: exporters may claim pre-GST rates for transition period upon submitting revised undertaking.
The Ministry of Textiles restored pre-GST Rebate of State Levies (RoSL) rates for a three-month transition period and requires exporters to submit a revised undertaking in the specified format; the EDI Shipping Bill was updated for electronic filing of the undertaking and, for earlier exports without electronic filing, a manual undertaking must be submitted. The EDI system will apply notified RoSL rates at scroll generation irrespective of amounts on shipping bills, and no separate claim is necessary.

Single Window Interface for export clearances extended to all EDI locations, enabling online WCCB NOC referrals for wildlife shipments.
SWIFT on the export side is extended to all Customs EDI locations so that Shipping Bills filed on ICEGATE or through Service Centres for CITES or wildlife items are referred online to the Wild Life Crime Control Bureau for a No Objection Certificate where required; stakeholders are to report implementation difficulties to the issuing office.

Electronic self-sealing of export containers requires RFID one time seals and mandatory seal data transmission to customs systems.
Exporters must procure and affix RFID tamper proof one-time-bolt seals, declare the physical seal serial number when filing shipping documents, and ensure that vendors transmit non-editable sealing and shipment data to the Risk Management Division and destination ports/ICDs; vendors must hold required certifications, provide reader-scanner capability and integrate their data retrieval systems with ICEGATE at their own cost, while Customs will examine containers if seals are tampered.

IGST on high sea sales is collected only at importation, with value additions across transactions included in assessable value.
IGST on high sea sales of imported goods is collectable only at the time of importation when import declarations are filed; value additions from each high sea sale form part of the value on which IGST is assessed. The importer clearing the goods must furnish the complete chain of documents-original invoice, high sea sale contract, and service/commission details-to support the declared value, and Customs may reject the declared value and determine valuation under the Customs Valuation Rules if doubts arise.

Import restrictions on gold and silver from South Korea now apply to specified jewellery, other articles and coins.
Imports of jewellery, goldsmiths' and silversmiths' wares, other precious-metal articles and coins from South Korea are now restricted by insertion of a Policy Condition in Chapter 71 of ITC(HS) 2017, removing the FTP trade-facilitation/protection for those items; a Principle of Restriction relating to gold and silver was added to the Foreign Trade Policy and a country-specific Appendix listing South Korea was notified.

No Use Bond procedure clarifies submission, acceptance and monitoring requirements for DPD container clearance pending PGA NOC.
Procedure for execution and monitoring of No Use Bond requires importers to submit either separate bonds per Bill of Entry or a continuity bond; Group Officers must accept, record in the manual register and EDI Bond Menu ('UT'), and hand over a copy to the importer. Facilitated and non facilitated Bills of Entry have specified steps for entering bond particulars and departmental comments. Group Officers must close bonds based on PGA reports, initiate action on adverse reports, and submit monthly pendency reports for supervisory monitoring.

Direct Port Delivery requirements: advance intimation and allowed limited extensions to evacuation timeframes when justified.
DPD importers must evacuate containers within the prescribed timeframe or face transfer to a designated CFS; damaged or tampered containers are excluded from DPD. Importers may request a limited administrative extension from the DPD Cell with supporting reasons and must present the issued extension letter to the terminal before the expiry of the original period to prevent transfer. A prescribed standard format of advance intimation must be sent to shipping lines and copied to Customs via the designated email, and shipping lines must accept compliant intimations irrespective of IGM filing.

Sourcing of precious metals must be through nominated agencies for SEZ units under Rule 27(6), enforced strictly.
SEZ units importing precious metals on a loan basis must source those metals exclusively through nominated agencies in strict compliance with Rule 27(6) of the SEZ Rules, 2006, following observed non compliance particularly among gem and jewellery units and directed for immediate enforcement by SEZ authorities.

Late filing charge exemption for Bills of Entry where electronic filing failure prevented timely submission.
Exemption from levy of late filing charges is provided for Bills of Entry with entry inward dates from 22.08.2017 to 26.08.2017 due to ICEGATE system slowdown. Customs brokers or importers must submit evidence showing attempted electronic submission and lack of positive acknowledgement from ICES. Waiver requests will be processed on merits by the respective Deputy Commissioner/Assistant Commissioner and put up to the Joint Commissioner/Additional Commissioner for decision.

Foreign direct investment framework: unified Automatic and Government entry routes with sectoral caps, conditionalities and reporting obligations.
The Consolidated FDI Policy (effective August 28, 2017) provides a unified framework for foreign direct investment into India, defining eligible investors, investee entities and permissible instruments; it prescribes two entry routes (Automatic and Government), specifies sectoral caps, conditionalities and prohibited sectors, sets pricing, valuation, lock-in and reporting requirements (including FC-GPR and FC-TRS filings), details procedures for transfers and conversions, and identifies Competent Authorities and compliance, monitoring and remittance obligations under FEMA, SEBI and sectoral regulations.

Electronic sealing requirement: exporters must declare RFID seal serials with shipping documentation and use certified vendor systems.
Exporters eligible for self-sealing must procure RFID tamper-proof one-time-bolt seals bearing a unique serial and vendor brand, declare the seal's physical serial number with the shipping bill before dispatch, and tag shipment details to the seal via a vendor-supplied web/mobile application that prevents editing. Vendors must certify ISO/RFID conformity, submit seal series to Risk Management Division and ports/ICDs, provide reader-scanners and data transmission to customs at their cost, and integrate their data servers with the customs electronic gateway; customs will verify seal integrity and examine tampered seals.

Eligibility for LUT requires prescribed foreign inward remittance thresholds; LUT accepted for exports in place of bond with conditions.
Extends Letter of Undertaking (LUT) eligibility to all registered exporters who, in the preceding financial year, received foreign inward remittances equal to or exceeding ten percent of export turnover and not less than one crore rupees, with status holders exempt from the threshold. LUTs must be on letterhead with authorised signature; LUT/bond must be processed promptly and accepted within three working days. Self-declarations and submitted proof are acceptable subject to post-facto verification. Bank guarantees may be waived in specified circumstances and CT-1 is not relevant under GST.

Provisional release of seized goods requires bond and bank guarantee to secure duty, fines and penalties pending adjudication.
Provisional release under Section 110A requires a bond for full or estimated value and a Bank Guarantee or Security Deposit covering estimated/differential duty, potential fines in lieu of confiscation and penalties; release is barred for prohibited goods, non compliant goods, goods notified under Section 123, or where release would be against public interest. The adjudicating authority may adjust security with reasons recorded, exercises discretion subject to limited judicial review, and must ensure bonds and guarantees obligate payment or renewal until final adjudication.