Tax demand remission capped per assessee, limited to small qualifying outstanding entries and excluding TDS/TCS demands.
Order authorizes remission and extinguishment of specified outstanding direct tax demands outstanding as on January 31, 2024, subject to per-entry monetary limits by assessment year and a maximum ceiling per taxpayer; demands above per-entry thresholds and TDS/TCS demands are excluded, fractional entries are not eligible, interest under section 220 is excluded from ceiling computation, and the remission does not confer any right to credit or refund or affect criminal proceedings. Implementation is by CPC Bengaluru with provision for rectification and CBDT directions.

Prohibition on trade with North Korea: customs clearance allowed only after correcting country data to prevent prohibited imports or exports.
Customs officers must strictly enforce prohibitions on trade with North Korea by amending any Bill of Entry or Shipping Bill that incorrectly names DPRK/KP as Country of Origin or Destination; OOC/LEO or Customs clearance is to be granted only after deleting the incorrect DPRK reference and recording the correct country, with penal action possible for wrong declarations and prompt amendment required for bona fide data errors to prevent misleading publication of trade statistics.

Audit powers under GST are conferred on designated tax officers for a specified financial year and zonal jurisdictions.
GST audit powers under Section 65, read with the administrative empowerment provision in Section 4(2), are conferred on specified State Tax officers for financial year 2019-20. The authority is limited to the respective zonal jurisdictions assigned to each officer within Patna West Division, including Patna South Zone-2, Shahabad Zone, Arrah, and Patna Central Zone-1.

Sharing of RP report under section 99 ensures both debtor and creditor receive the resolution professional's evaluation for transparency.
Resolution professionals must provide a copy of the report prepared under the Code to both debtor and creditor in all cases to ensure equal information access, transparency, and informed decision-making; this requirement is issued under the Board's powers under the Code and applies to registered insolvency professionals and recognised entities involved in Chapter III insolvency resolution processes.

Special Leave Petition filing approvals require prior jurisdictional concurrence before forwarding, with supporting approval documents.
Proposals for initiating Special Leave Petitions must be forwarded to the central authority only after obtaining prior approval or concurrence from the relevant jurisdictional Pr. Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner/Pr. Director General/Director General within the prescribed time limit, and a copy of the letter, correspondence, or note-sheet evidencing such approval must be attached when forwarding the proposal.

Authorisation clubbing rules eased: extended issuance window and added export timeframe expand Advance Authorization utility.
Amendment revises authorisation clubbing under the Advance Authorization Scheme by extending the issuance window for eligible authorisations from eighteen to twenty four months while retaining the thirty month import consideration; it adds that only exports within forty eight months of the earliest authorisation are acceptable for clubbing and exports beyond that period shall not be acceptable.

Litigation management centralisation: CIT(J) as nodal officer to ensure uniform departmental legal positions and coordinated appeals.
The instruction designates the Commissioner of Income-tax (Judicial) CIT(J) as the regional nodal officer responsible for ensuring uniform departmental positions on the Income-tax Act, 1961, supervising litigation management, coordinating High Court appeals and counsel inputs, identifying and bunching appeals with common questions of law, processing Central Scrutiny Reports (CSRs) and liaising with collegiums, Technical Units and monitoring systems such as LIMBS and e-Office for database management and MIS generation.

Bank import authorizations for gold and silver modified to specify effective import period and validity under foreign trade policy.
The DGFT has amended the headings of Table A and Table B of Public Notice No. 28/2023 to state that the lists of banks authorised by the Reserve Bank of India to import both gold and silver (Table A) and to import only gold (Table B) apply with effect from 01.04.2023 and are valid up to 31.03.2024, thereby making the operative scope of the authorisations explicitly tied to that financial year period.

Pricing methodology: privately placed InvIT institutional placements floor set at NAV per unit; public InvITs retain market-based floor.
SEBI distinguishes pricing for institutional placements: public InvITs must price at not less than the average of weekly high and low of closing market prices for the two weeks preceding the relevant date, with a permissible discounted price subject to unitholder approval; privately placed InvITs must price at not less than the NAV per unit based on a full valuation of all existing assets under the InvIT Regulations. The circular takes immediate effect.

Investigation jurisdiction: All India DGGI procedures to coordinate inter zonal probes and streamline summons and record based inquiries.
DGGI units have all India jurisdiction for GST enforcement but must follow operating procedures: Zonal ADG/ADG approval is required to initiate investigations, record based investigations are to be initiated by the ZU where the entity is registered, and cross jurisdictional or sensitive cases require higher approval. Summons and information requests must be specific, not fishing, avoid portal data demands, and receive prior reasoned approval, with mandatory e file documentation. Coordination among offices is required to prevent duplication and investigations should conclude promptly, ordinarily within one year.

Relaxation of additional fees for LLP beneficial owner filings permits penalty free submission of BEN 2 and Form 4D.
The Ministry prescribed e form LLP BEN 2 for declarations under the Significant Beneficial Owners rules and e form LLP Form No. 4D for declarations of beneficial interest in contributions. To aid compliance during migration of the filing portal to version 3, LLPs may file LLP BEN 2 and LLP Form No. 4D without payment of any additional fees until 15.05.2024; the forms will be available on version 3 for filing from 15.04.2024.

Return of draft offer document for non compliant disclosures requires remedial resubmission and public disclosure by the issuer.
Guidelines require return of draft offer documents that fail disclosure and presentation standards under Schedule VI of the ICDR Regulations, need substantial revision, face corrective regulatory interpretation, show inconsistencies, or involve material concerns from other regulators or litigation affecting eligibility. Resubmitted drafts must address the specific deficiencies, comply with ICDR and other laws, may incur fees for subsequent changes under Schedule XVI, and must be publicly announced as resubmissions with sectoral regulator intimation where applicable.

Drawback claim queries: exporters must reply in EDI by the prescribed deadline to avoid processing on record basis.
Exporters and other trade stakeholders must monitor Drawback claim status in the EDI system and reply to queries in the "Query Raised" or "EXPORTER" queues; replies in EDI trigger immediate processing and disbursement. Claims with shipping bills prior to 01.10.2023 must be answered or explained in person to the Assistant Commissioner (Drawback) by 28.02.2024, failing which claims will be processed based on available records or applicable rates. Annexure I lists pending claims and contact details are provided for assistance.

Waiver of late fee for delayed Bills of Entry due to ICEGATE disruption, providing administrative relief and reporting channel.
A waiver of late fee is granted for Bills of Entry delayed because of erratic ICEGATE functioning for cargo arriving at Chennai Air Cargo/Airport during the notice period; the waiver is provided under the statutory framework for electronic Bill of Entry filing, is to be treated as a Standing Order for departmental officers, and affected parties should report remaining difficulties to the Additional Commissioner for necessary action.

Restriction on export of specified goods prevents IGST-paid exports; refund route blocked at shipping bill level.
Goods listed in the notification must be exported only under LUT and cannot be exported on payment of IGST with refund; CBIC's backend disables the IGST refund route at the shipping bill level so any shipping bill containing a restricted item will not be allowed to be filed for the IGST-paid export/refund route.

Change of manufacturing site: import source cancelled; applicants must treat that supplier as new registration requiring data submission.
The Registration Committee found the manufacturer failed to notify a change of location of the manufacturing site and did not provide the required 5-Batch samples from old and new sites for impurity verification; as samples from the old plant are unavailable, the Committee cancelled the import source designation and directed that future applicants treat the source as a new registration with requisite data submissions and testing.

GST on composite supplies: principal supply governs tax; electricity ancillary to rent is taxed at the rent rate.
The circular limits same line of business to passenger transport and renting with operator, excludes leasing without operator; treats electricity bundled with rent/maintenance as a composite supply taxed according to the principal supply unless recovered as a pure agent; classifies job work converting barley to malt as job work in relation to food products attracting the food job work rate; recognises DMFTs as Governmental Authorities eligible for exemptions; and confirms horticulture services to CPWD with goods 25% qualify for exemption.

Imitation zari thread classification clarified: metallised-film yarn attract reduced GST rate and no refund on polyester inputs
Imitation zari thread or yarn made from metallised polyester film or plastic film falling under HS 5605 is to be treated as imitation zari under the Schedule I reduced-rate entry and attract 5% GST; no refund is permitted on polyester (metallised)/plastic film for inversion of tax rate, and the tax-rate notification has been amended to reflect this clarification.

Supply of Service: personal and corporate guarantees treated as taxable between related persons; valuation rules govern taxability.
Providing personal guarantees by directors to secure company credit is a supply of service between related persons and is valued under Rule 28; where RBI prohibits any consideration to guarantors the open market value may be treated as zero and taxable value may be nil, except in exceptional cases where remuneration is paid. Corporate guarantees by related companies, including holding company guarantees for subsidiaries, are also supplies of service and their taxable value is to be determined under Rule 28 as amended by the newly inserted sub rule (2), which governs valuation of such corporate guarantees and does not apply to personal guarantees.

Place of supply rules clarified: recipient location governs transportation, advertising and co location services under GST provisions.
The circular clarifies that for transportation of goods with supplier or recipient outside India the default rule under section 13(2) of the IGST Act governs place of supply (recipient location if available, otherwise supplier). Advertising services supplying or granting rights to use hoarding space are treated as services related to immovable property with place of supply at the property's location; pure display services without transfer of space or rights follow the default rule. Typical co-location services are classed as Hosting and IT Infrastructure Provisioning services and follow the default rule (location of recipient), except where only physical space with basic infrastructure is supplied, which is renting of immovable property.