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.

Export of services payment via Special Rupee Vostro accounts qualifies under IGST export payment condition.
Payments credited to Special Rupee Vostro Accounts opened by AD banks, under RBI's rupee settlement mechanism and the Foreign Trade Policy procedures, shall be regarded as satisfying the IGST export payment condition where exporters are paid export proceeds in Indian rupees from balances in designated correspondent bank Special Vostro Accounts, subject to applicable RBI and Foreign Trade Policy conditions and other statutory permissions.

Track and Trace requirement for exported pharmaceuticals extended, Parent-Child packaging relationship compliance deferred to February 1, 2025.
Extension of the Track and Trace compliance timeline for export pharmaceutical consignments postpones the mandatory maintenance and Central Portal uploading of the Parent-Child relationship across packaging levels, amending the Handbook of Procedure and prior public notices to apply the new implementation date uniformly to both small-scale and non-small-scale manufacturers.

IPE liability clarified: authorised partners receive disciplinary notices; assignment limits and fixed fee rules do not apply to IPEs.
Show cause notices for assignments undertaken by an IPE shall be issued to the partner or director authorised to sign and act for that assignment; the IPE itself may be targeted where repeated contraventions or systemic failure are found. Clause 22 limiting number of assignments does not apply to an IP that is an IPE. Regulation 34B prescribing minimum fixed and incentive fees for CIRP practitioners does not apply to an IP that is an IPE, whose fees are to be market determined.

Professional service by insolvency professionals permitted for resolution plan implementation when expressly specified in the approved plan.
An IP may render professional services for implementation of an approved resolution plan only if such services are specified in the resolution plan. Bills or invoices for professionals engaged by the IP may be raised in the name of the insolvency professional entity, the individual professional, or the firm in which the professional is a partner, and fees must be paid through banking channels; these clarifications are issued under the Board's statutory powers.

Electronic declaration for postal exports authorizes additional booking post offices to file e PBE and accept export consignments.
The Department of Posts has authorized fourteen Booking Post Offices with Dak Ghar Niryat Kendra (DNK) facility for electronic filing of the Postal Bill of Export (e PBE) and to accept international mail consignments booked via the DNK portal, mapping each Booking Post Office to a corresponding Foreign Post Office; these offices are additional to earlier notified DNK locations.

Ex-bond shipping bill requires warehouse linkage and itemwise into-bond BE tracking with automatic ledger updates on filing.
ICES 1.5 now includes an ex-bond shipping bill format requiring a warehouse code and mandatory item-wise linkage to the original into-bond BE details; only one warehouse may be specified per shipping bill, though multiple into-bond BEs for the same item may be entered as separate lines. Filing, cancellation or amendment of the shipping bill automatically debits or re-credits quantities in the warehouse ledger. The format applies only to export of warehoused goods as such and is a free shipping bill with no export incentives available.

Tax refund processing timeframe extended to allow processing of electronically filed returns with refund claims until the prescribed April deadline.
The Board, under its section 119 authority, further relaxes the time in the second proviso to sub section (1) of section 143 to permit processing of electronically filed returns with refund claims up to AY 2020 21 that had become time barred; such returns should be processed by 30.04.2024, with all other terms of the earlier orders remaining unchanged.

Certificate of Origin (Non Preferential) authorization reinstated: chambers enlisted to issue COO(NP) after onboarding compliance.
Director General of Foreign Trade enlists specified chambers under Appendix 2E of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, authorising them to issue Certificate of Origin (Non Preferential). The notice reinstates entities earlier de listed for non compliance with onboarding to the Common Digital Platform and records the administrative effect, contact details of the enlisted chambers, and the DGFT file reference.

Import of gold under TRQ: advance payment remittance permitted to facilitate imports through IIBX.
Valid Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) holders under the India-UAE CEPA as notified by IFSCA may import specified gold through IIBX against the TRQ, and AD Category I banks may remit advance payment on their behalf for eleven days, subject to the directions in A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No.04 dated May 25, 2022 and without prejudice to other statutory permissions.

ICES system update suspends Bill of Entry filing and Section 48 approvals until tariff and notification changes are applied.
ICES Notifications and Tariff Directories will be updated after the Budget presentation, causing suspension of Bills of Entry filing and Section 48 approvals from 11.00 hours on the budget day until updates are completed; Shipping Bill filing and assessment continue, prior BEs must be monitored for duty changes before OOC, and any new export levies must be collected manually until directory changes are in place.

Grievance redressal: BIS directs trade to website guidance, product manuals, line ministries for QCOs, or cmd2/cmd3 emails.
Stakeholders must use the BIS product-certification webpage to determine compulsory certification applicability, consult product-specific information and product manuals on BIS for labelling and marking queries, approach the issuing Central Government line ministry for QCO applicability or implementation issues, and direct other or policy queries to [email protected] and/or [email protected] as the established grievance redressal channels.

Faceless bills of entry clearance uses a designated Nodal Officer to facilitate delayed clearances and verification feedback.
Faceless bills of entry clearance pending beyond 24 hours is facilitated through the appointed Nodal Officer. Feedback concerning verification of messages received by the Air Cargo Complex from the Department of International Customs may be obtained from the Assistant Commissioner (Import) previously designated as Nodal Officer.

IGST refund disposal: Special drive urges exporters and brokers to submit documents to clear pending refund cases promptly.
A Special Drive will be held from 05.02.2024 to 07.02.2024 to dispose of IGST refunds pending as of 31.12.2023 where shipping bills carry error codes awaiting rectification; affected shipping bills and error-code details are published on the ICD, TKD Export Commissionerate website. Exporters and customs brokers listed are requested to submit necessary documents during the scheduled drive to enable refund processing, and difficulties may be communicated to the nodal officer via the provided email.

Online AQCS clearance now mandatory for imported consignments; manual NOCs discontinued, all clearances via AQCS ICS integrated portal.
AQCS has adopted the AQCS ICS portal integrated with ICEGATE to provide AQCS clearances for imported consignments exclusively online; manual NOCs are discontinued and stakeholders must obtain all AQCS clearances through the AQCS ICS portal. Standing Order No. 23/2023 is withdrawn.

Verification of market rumours extended; compliance timeline for top listed entities postponed to allow industry standards finalisation.
The circular defers the effective compliance timeline for the proviso to Regulation 30(11) of the LODR Regulations, extending the period before specified listed entities must mandatorily verify and confirm, deny or clarify market rumours, to allow finalisation of industry standards and required amendments to the Regulations under powers exercisable under Section 11 of the SEBI Act read with Regulation 101 of the LODR Regulations.

Regulatory reporting obligations by DDPs and custodians centralized on SI Portal with mandated monthly, quarterly and annual filings.
SEBI requires DDPs and custodians to submit specified regulatory reports on the SEBI Intermediary Portal to standardise compliance; covered reports include DDP internal controls audits, custodians' expert system reviews, audited annual reports with net worth certificates, AI/ML reports, custodian quarterly reports and multiple FPI-related disclosures. Reports must follow prescribed monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual periodicity, with monthly and quarterly uploads due within fifteen calendar days after period end; formats will be provided by the Custodians and DDPs Standard Setting Forum and must be published by DDPs and custodians.