Customs Broker Licensing Examination online CBT established, with Form-A application, documentary verification and published eligibility lists.
The Customs Brokers Licensing Examination will be conducted as an online Computer Based Examination by NACIN. Applicants must submit completed Form A in person or by registered/speed post to the appropriate Commissionerate with identity, educational, financial and other supporting documents, two passport photographs and the prescribed fee within the specified submission period; incomplete or late applications will be rejected and eligible candidate lists will be published on the Commissionerate website/notice board.

Appointment of Approved Valuer for jewellery valuation establishes duties, fee limits, reporting and empanelment conditions.
Appointment of an Approved Valuer for valuation of gold, silver, jewellery, precious and synthetic stones, and valuable articles for import/export and for seized/confiscated goods within the Mangaluru Customs Commissionerate, subject to strict adherence to prescribed procedures; annual performance reporting to customs authorities; a capped, slab-based service fee schedule with a minimum charge and applicable GST; fees borne by the stakeholder except where the Department disposes seized goods; five-year empanelment with interim review and possible extension.

Customs Brokers Examination: online CBT in March 2024; apply with Form A, documents and Rs.500 by 17.11.2023.
The online written Computer Based Test for Customs Broker licensing under Regulation 6 (150 bilingual MCQs; 2.5 hours; +3/-1 marking; pass 60%) will be held in March 2024; applications in Form A with prescribed documents and Rs.500 fee must be submitted between 18.10.2023 and 17.11.2023 to the designated Customs office; eligible candidates will be listed by 08.12.2023, admit cards issued online and by email, successful candidates will face a separate oral exam (60% pass) in Q2 2024, and applicants are limited to six attempts with disability accommodations available upon request.

Appointment of Central Excise Officer for adjudication of specified show cause notices against M/s Ind Aust Maritime.
Using powers under rule 3 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994 read with clause (e) of sub section (2) of section 174 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the Board appoints the Additional Commissioner/Joint Commissioner, CGST & CX, Belapur Commissionerate as the Central Excise Officer empowered to exercise the powers of Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994 for adjudication of the listed show cause notices, and directs that the specified SCNs issued to M/s Ind Aust Maritime Pvt. Ltd. be made answerable to the officers named in the table.

Input Tax Credit permitted on GST-paid materials transferred between units under Advance Authorization, subject to GST law and customs intimation.
Transfers of duty-free imported or indigenously procured material under the Advance Authorization Scheme require prior intimation to the jurisdictional Customs Authority; where GST has been paid on such transferred inputs between units, availment of Input Tax Credit shall be governed by the provisions of the GST law and the rules made thereunder.

Know Your Client (KYC) norms: uniform KYC form, mandatory PAN verification, digital e KYC options, and KRA cybersecurity rules.
Master Circular consolidates SEBI's Know Your Client (KYC) requirements, effective on issue, requiring intermediaries to update KYC by December 31, 2023. It mandates a uniform KYC form using CKYCR templates, online PAN verification as the unique identifier, lists accepted PoI/PoA, authorises digital KYC (electronic signatures, DigiLocker, VIPV) and Aadhaar e-KYC through a KUA/sub-KUA model while prohibiting storage of full Aadhaar numbers. KRAs and CKYCR must validate attributes, maintain audit trails, enable portability of validated records, and implement a prescribed Cyber Security and Cyber Resilience framework with incident reporting and audit obligations.

Seizure of gold: claimants must assert ownership now or disposal will proceed under customs disposal procedures per Disposal Manual.
Claimants asserting legal ownership of gold and valuables transferred to New Customs House, Panambur, Mangaluru must notify the office immediately; absent timely objections, disposal will be initiated under the procedures of the Disposal Manual, 2019. This publication serves as a notice under Section 150 of the Customs Act, 1962 and follows the custodial transfer and inventory of seized items.

Suspension of SION E-125 for Shea Stearine exports; exporters may apply for Advance Authorisation under Handbook provisions.
The Suspension of SION E-125 removes the Standard Input Output Norm for export of Shea Stearine with immediate effect under Paragraphs 1.03 and 2.04 of the Foreign Trade Policy, 2023; the suspension remains until a revised SION is established based on production and consumption data submitted by exporting firms. Exporters may apply for Advance Authorisation under Paragraph 4.07 of the Handbook of Procedures, 2023 during the interim.

Total input tax credit governs interest calculation for wrongful IGST availment; interest applies only where combined ledger falls short.
Total input tax credit across IGST, CGST and SGST in the electronic credit ledger is to be treated as the available balance for computing interest on wrongful availment and reversal of IGST credit under rule 88B(3) and section 50(3). No interest arises if, from availment until reversal, the combined ITC balance never falls below the wrongly availed amount; when it does fall below, the extent of deemed utilization equals the shortfall and interest is chargeable to that extent. Compensation cess credit is excluded from this calculation.

Refund procedure for unregistered persons: temporary registration and FORM GST RFD-01 enable tax recovery after contract or policy cancellation.
Enables unregistered recipients who bore GST on advance payments for long-term supplies to claim refund where contracts/policies are cancelled and credit notes cannot be issued. Requires temporary portal registration using PAN, selection of supplier's State/UT, Aadhaar authentication, bank details in applicant's name, and filing FORM GST RFD-01 under 'Refund for Unregistered Person' with statement 8, supplier certificate, and supporting documents. The refund cannot exceed tax declared on relevant invoices; the supplier's cancellation letter is the relevant date for limitation; only proportionate tax on amounts actually refunded by supplier is claimable.

Qualification and experience requirements timeline extended for investment advisers to meet Regulation 7(1) standards.
Extension of the timeline to comply with enhanced qualification and experience requirements under Regulation 7(1) is provided by amending the first proviso to Regulation 7(1) of the Investment Advisers Regulations, extending the compliance deadline to September 30, 2025 for individual investment advisers, principal officers of non-individual advisers and persons associated with investment advice.

Manual out of charge procedure for liquid bulk cargo permits staged clearing when duty is paid to reduce port congestion.
Importers or customs brokers may request a manual out of charge on the physical assessed Bill of Entry for liquid bulk cargo once the entire duty is paid; a surveyor prepares a gate pass and the gate customs officer records vehicle numbers and loaded quantities in the physical Bill of Entry. Manual out of charge must not be given for the last ten percent of the consignment until the boarding officer records out of charge in the ICES system, and the boarding officer must ensure system entry is completed or updated by the next working day if manual clearance was exceptionally granted for the full consignment.

Automatic issuance of Status Holder Certificates from export data streamlines certification and removes routine application requirements.
Automatic IT-driven issuance of electronic Status Holder Certificates (e-SHC) will classify exporters into five Status categories using merchandise export data from DGCI&S for the preceding three financial years (with a sectoral exception for gems and jewellery) and deliver e-SHCs to registered emails and the DGFT dashboard, removing the need for exporters to file applications or submit CA export performance certificates where data is available. Exceptions for services, deemed, and double-weighted exports require affected exporters to apply via the existing IT module with CA support or to file amendment applications under HBP for upgrades; Regional Offices must expedite processing and limit additional document requests.

Pet import documentation requires advance quarantine clearance, with airlines barred from carrying animals lacking prescribed documents.
Pet and live-animal imports require pre-arrival veterinary documentation and an advance No Objection Certificate from Animal Quarantine and Certification Services. Eligible transfer-of-residence passengers may bring up to two dogs or cats after establishing baggage-rule eligibility. Re-imported pets also require the earlier AQCS export health certificate. Short-stay pets and specified commercial-dog imports additionally require an import licence from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. Airlines must not carry pets without the required documents, and Passenger Clearance Groups must maintain prescribed registers.

Automatic issuance of Status Holder Certificate streamlines certification using export data, removing application requirement in most cases.
System-generated electronic Status Holder Certificate will be issued based on merchandise export data in the government database without exporters needing to file an application in most cases; exporters may nevertheless file ANF IB with a CA certificate for recognition or up gradation, and jurisdiction for filing remains determined by Registered Office or Head Office location as per Appendix 1A.

Substantial contribution reporting clarified: include contributors exceeding threshold for audit reports and related persons if available.
For assessment year 2023-24, audit reports in Form No. 10B and Form No. 10BB should list persons qualifying as making a substantial contribution where their total contribution during the previous year exceeds fifty thousand rupees; additionally, details of relatives of such contributors and of concerns in which they have substantial interest may be provided, if available.

Separate notices for fraud-based and non-fraud tax determinations required, with adjudication and closure proceeding independently.
Separate notices must be issued when a taxpayer has distinct subject matters requiring non-fraud and fraud-based tax determinations; officers must clearly delineate which matters fall under each category, and adjudication and closure shall operate independently at the notice level rather than by individual subject matter.

Relaxation of LODR meeting compliance extended; listed entities must comply with prescribed Master Circular conditions and statutory provisions.
The circular extends the relaxation from Regulation 36(1)(b) for Annual General Meetings and Regulation 44(4) for electronic general meetings until the date specified, permitting continued reliance on prior exemptions. Listed entities availing the relaxations must comply with the conditions in paragraph 5.1 and 5.2 of section VI-J of the Master Circular, including procedural and disclosure safeguards. The relaxations are issued under SEBI's regulatory powers and remain subject to the provisions of the Companies Act and rules thereunder.

Ex-bond shipping bill records warehoused exports in ICES, updates ledger balances, and disallows export incentive claims.
Implementation of an ex-bond shipping bill in ICES requires declaring the warehouse code to identify re-exported warehoused goods and entering item-wise into-bond bill details; only one warehouse code per shipping bill is permitted, and items under different into-bond bills may be declared separately. Filing and verification will debit exported quantities from the ICES warehouse ledger, with automatic re-crediting on cancellation or purge and ledger updates on amendments. The ex-bond shipping bill applies only to exports of warehoused goods exported as such and excludes entitlement to export incentives.

GST Council updates cover tribunal appointments, guarantee valuation rules, ISD credit distribution, appeal condonation, ENA and rate changes.
The Council approved amendments aligning GST Appellate Tribunal appointments with Tribunal Reforms, clarified taxability and valuation for personal and corporate guarantees (treating gratuitous personal guarantees as zero value unless remuneration is paid and deeming corporate guarantee value at 1% of guaranteed amount or actual consideration), established a one time condonation procedure for delayed appeals subject to pre deposit, mandated mandatory ISD registration and detailed distribution rules for input tax credit (including RCM service credits), issued place of supply and export receipt clarifications (including Vostro INR receipts) and prospectively narrowed inverted duty refund restriction to constructions intended for sale; multiple Fitment Committee rate and procedural changes were also approved.