Container scanning procedure requires cancellation of out of charge and examination where containers are held or marked suspicious.
Where OOC is given at the JNCH facilitation centre but at the CFS gate pass stage the Bill of Entry or any container is found under hold by an investigating agency or marked suspicious by CSD, the CFS must withhold gate pass issuance, refer the Bill of Entry to the AC/DC(Import, Docks) to cancel the out of charge and conduct further examination; DPD containers continue to follow the Facility Notice scanning priority and clearance endorsement by CSD, and if no scanning list is generated the Public Notice 15/2013 procedure applies.

Annual Return requirement suspended for the 2015-16 excise and service tax period owing to GST implementation.
Amendments replaced Central Excise Forms ER 4 to ER 7 with an Annual Return and amended Rule 7 of the Service Tax Rules to prescribe an annual return. Due to GST implementation, the Board directed that the prescribed Annual Return need not be filed for the year 2015-16; relevant circulars and notifications are available on the department website and trade may report difficulties to the department.

Gate automation and parking plaza procedures require electronic customs approvals and live monitoring for container entry and exit.
The SOP mandates that factory stuffed and CFS containers be routed through Parking Plazas for document verification, electronic pre gate transactions and issuance of RFID BATs or PINs; Customs in Parking Plaza cabins shall verify documents, grant LEO where applicable and contemporaneously record clearance in the Terminal Operating System or e Form 13. Terminals must provide Customs cabins and live TOS feeds for monitoring; gate entry/exit requires BAT/PIN verification and CISF checks, with interim manual endorsements where automation is pending.

Co-location connectivity allowed between exchanges and brokers; outsourced colocation remains exchange's responsibility with fair access.
SEBI mandates direct connectivity between colocation facilities of recognised stock exchanges and between a broker's servers across such facilities, to be offered fairly to colocated brokers. Colocation services outsourced to third parties are deemed provided by the stock exchange, which retains control and accountability and must submit quarterly compliance reports after board consideration. LAN-based access by brokers or data vendors falls within the definition of colocation, and all provisions of the earlier colocation circular apply, excluding commodity derivatives exchanges.

Digitalisation of customs documentation reduces routine printouts, permitting electronic challans and system-transmitted shipping and BOE copies.
Routine paper printouts in customs clearance are discontinued where electronic transmission and system integration suffice: GAR7/TR-6 challans will not be printed by default as ICEGATE and bank e-payment confirmations provide electronic records; transhipment permits and certain Shipping Bill copies (Exchange Control and Export Promotion) need not be printed when digitally transmitted and integrated with central monitoring systems; Exchange Control copies of Bills of Entry are discontinued except where manual processes or lack of system interconnectivity require physical copies. Paper copies remain available on demand.

Paperless customs processing: default discontinuation of routine printing of certain challans and shipping and exchange-control copies.
Notice mandates default discontinuation of routine printing of GAR7/TR-6 challans, TP copies where electronic transmission exists, Exchange Control and Export Promotion copies of Shipping Bills, and Exchange Control copies of Bills of Entry due to electronic e-payment confirmations and integration with IDPMS/EDPMS; printed copies remain available on demand.

Paperless customs clearances: routine printing of several import/export documents discontinued, with printouts provided only on demand.
Routine printing of GAR-7/TR-6 challans, TP copies where electronic transmission exists, Shipping Bill Exchange Control and Export Promotion copies, and Exchange Control copies of Bills of Entry is discontinued by default because electronic transmission, ICEGATE e-Payment confirmations and IDPMS integration supply required data; printouts remain available on demand and manual printing may continue where systems are not interconnected or manual BOEs are used.

Demonetization legal tender cessation: exchange window and bank credit rules raise questions about seizure of demonetized notes in tax searches.
Cessation of legal tender for old high denomination bank notes from 9 November 2016 is coupled with an exchange or deposit facility up to 30 December 2016, permitting crediting of equivalent value to bank accounts without a specified limit and providing for further deposit facilities; the clarification examines whether demonetized notes continue to be seizable as valuables/assets during searches or requisitions under the Income-tax Act.

Sale of seized gold may be routed through RBI approved public sector banks and national trading companies under existing conditions.
Sale of seized or confiscated gold found ripe for disposal may be routed through all Public Sector Banks approved by the central bank to import and sell gold, and through national trading companies, while all other conditions in the Ministry's earlier disposal letter remain applicable; customs houses must take urgent steps to dispose accordingly.

Port gate automation procedures require Customs electronic endorsement before terminal entry and controlled TT movement.
Standard operating procedures require that factory stuffed containers eligible for direct port entry be routed through the Parking Plaza for document verification, survey/photo capture and issuance or confirmation of Bay Allocation Tickets, with Customs in the plaza issuing the Let Export Order (LEO) and simultaneously endorsing clearance in the Terminal Operating System or e Form 13; only TTs cleared by Customs may exit the plaza and proceed to terminal gates where BAT swipe or PIN verification and CISF checks control physical entry and outbound closure. For imports, Customs access to ICES and terminal systems enables verification of Out Of Charge for DPD releases and monitoring of other container movements, with interim manual endorsements specified until gate automation is operational.

Refund claims under CENVAT Credit rules: submit only prescribed documents for export services; authorities may request more evidence.
Refund claims under the CENVAT credit framework must comply with Notification 27/2012 CE (NT); required enclosures include Customs certified ARE I with shipping bill and bill of lading for goods, Bank Realization Certificates for services, and an Annexure A I auditor's certificate. Trade must submit only these documents with Form A, while Assistant or Deputy Commissioners retain the power to request additional documents where claim information appears incorrect or insufficient before sanctioning refund.

Cenvat credit: principal manufacturers may claim credit when job workers charge service tax on intermediate processes.
Where the principal manufacturer clears goods on payment of Central Excise duty, job work activities that are intermediate production processes are exempt from service tax and the job worker need not charge service tax; however, if a job worker does charge service tax on such intermediate processes, the principal manufacturer is entitled to take Cenvat credit of that service tax. A Central Excise Act stipulation mandating non-payment of excise on exempted goods does not by itself apply to service tax law.

PAN mandatory for registration: convert temporary non PAN registrations to PAN based profiles or face cancellation and loss of GST migration.
PAN is required for Service Tax registration and existing non PAN temporary registrations must be converted to PAN based registrations by the specified deadline; failure to comply will lead to cancellation of temporary registrations and non migration of data to the GSTN. Registrants must also update valid email and phone contact details in their registration profiles to ensure complete migration to the GST database.

Paperless customs processing: routine printouts of challans, transshipment permits and control copies discontinued where electronic systems suffice.
The notice discontinues routine printing of GAR-7/TR-6 Challans, TP copy for transshipment permits where electronic transmission exists, Exchange Control and Export Promotion copies of Shipping Bills, and Exchange Control copies of Bills of Entry where integrated electronic systems (including IDPMS) and ICEGATE ePayment provide secure data transfer; printouts remain available on demand or when manual or non connected processing requires them.

Transhipment Bond requirement and waiver affect carriers handling large container volumes, altering bond filing and discharge procedures.
Procedures consolidate sea to sea transhipment clearance steps: define port and vessel types; prescribe IGM/EGM and transhipment application filing responsibilities at gateway and loading ports; require registration of a Transhipment Bond and bank guarantee in ICES with bond numbers recorded against cargo lines; bond discharge on customs certificate of safe arrival and forfeiture if not produced; and apply a waiver of BG for qualifying high volume carriers, with earlier public notices prevailing in case of conflict.

Duty forgone on indigenous procurement added to reporting formats to monitor domestic procurement and duty concessions.
Amendments to Annexure III and Annexure IV of Appendix 6E add reporting fields for indigenous procurement (cumulative domestic procurement of raw materials/consumables and capital goods) and an entry for duty forgone on indigenous procurement, and renumber existing items; the changes require working units to report domestic procurement and corresponding duty concessions in Quarterly and Annual Progress Reports.

Mandatory Advance Filing of Bill of Entry accelerates port clearance and grants enhanced facilitation for FCL consignments.
Requirement: submit Advance/Prior Bills of Entry in the ICES system for Full Container Load (FCL) consignments to speed port clearance and reduce cargo dwell time; such advance filings will receive enhanced facilitation. The notice confirms a streamlined amendment procedure for IGM/documents after advance filing, with amendments ordinarily processed promptly and generally without penalty, and encourages advance filing for Less than Container Load consignments; stakeholders may report implementation difficulties to the Commissioner.

Refund and Adjudication procedure for SEZ units now administered by jurisdictional customs through designated refund, adjudication and legal cells.
Amendment delegates refund, demand, adjudication, review and appeal for SEZ unit operations to jurisdictional Customs and Central Excise authorities. Refund claims from SEZ units will be processed by the Central Refund Cell; adjudication will be recorded and handled by the Central Adjudication Cell with designated officers (Commissioner, Additional/Joint Commissioner, Deputy/Assistant Commissioner) exercising powers according to prescribed monetary limits and scheme-specific rules; review and appeals will be managed by the Central Legal Cell with specified file routing and comment obligations for DC/AC officers.

RMS facilitation streamlines out-of-charge of facilitated Bills of Entry, allowing round-the-clock clearance and document verification.
A dedicated RMS Facilitation Centre centralizes registration and scrutiny of RMS-facilitated Bills of Entry, issues printed signed out-of-charge receipts after verifying duty payment and RMS/CCR compliance, and requires Container and Seal verification by port terminal or CFS gate officers with immediate reporting of discrepancies to the Assistant/Deputy Commissioner. Documents submitted are retained and digitized daily.

Verification of Export Obligation streamlined: EODCs ordinarily accepted with limited random and intelligence based checks, exporters notified.
Customs should not replicate Export Obligation verification done by Regional Authorities; EODCs under FTP/HBP are normally accepted without re verification, subject to detailed checks in a limited percentage of randomly selected cases and where intelligence suggests need. Exporters will be informed when selected. Mandatory verification applies when RA endorses checks or where EODCs derive from non EOI shipping bills. Monitoring of block wise EO fulfilment continues and authorization wise export data is available in EOI.