Duty credit scrips: amendment permits debit for import of items previously excluded under Appendix provisions of trade policy.
The Director General, under paragraph 1.03 of the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020, deleted items at serial numbers 01-07 from the Appendix to the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme, with immediate effect. As a result, duty credit scrips issued under Chapter 3 of MEIS may now be debited for import of items that were earlier excluded by those Appendix entries, thereby expanding procedural eligibility for utilisation of export-linked duty credits in import transactions.

Information sharing under section 138 requires income-tax authorities to furnish specified investigation and assessment summaries to CEIB.
CBDT directs specified income-tax authorities, under section 138(1)(a), to furnish preliminary search reports, summaries of survey/appraisal reports, summaries of assessment and appellate orders in cases searched/surveyed by DGIT(Investigation), and prosecution details to the Director General, CEIB. Each specified authority must form the opinion that such furnishing is necessary for CEIB functions, and the Investigation Division of CBDT will manage the protocol for information transmission.

Authorised officer designation for GST practitioner enrolment assigns territorial responsibility and requires compliance with GSTN guidelines.
Delegation of authority to process enrolment applications for Goods and Services Tax Practitioners under the Assam GST Act, 2017 to specified Joint Commissioners of State Tax, each assigned defined territorial jurisdictions; officers must act subject to the Act and rules and follow GSTN guidelines.

Registration requirement under Sea Cargo Manifest Regulations: carriers must register or renew to transact; non-registration bars operations.
Sea Cargo Manifest and Transshipment Regulations, 2018 come into force and supersede earlier manifest and transportation regulations; stakeholders including Steamer Agents, Main Line Operators, Liners and authorized carriers must apply for registration or renew existing registration in the prescribed form under Regulation 3, and failure to register will bar them from transacting business under the Regulations, with the office to be informed of any compliance difficulties.

Electronic sealing requirements for customs bonded warehouses mandate compliance for deposit and removal of goods and reporting implementation issues.
Electronic sealing is mandated for the deposit into and removal of goods from customs bonded warehouses pursuant to Board Circular No. 19/2018, directing customs brokers, exporters, importers and other trade stakeholders to adopt electronic seals to secure consignments and comply with procedural requirements, with stakeholders asked to report implementation difficulties to the issuing office.

Deemed export benefits: refund of terminal excise duty permitted for supplies to JICA funded projects made before the policy change.
DGFT has directed that, in relaxation of para 8.3(c) of FTP 2009-14, refund of Terminal Excise Duty shall be allowed where TED exemption under excise notifications was unavailable for supplies made under ICB to projects funded by JICA and other agencies notified in DGFT Public Notice No.67, provided those supplies qualify under para 8.2(d) of FTP 2009-14 and were made up to the earlier policy cut-off; Regional Authorities must dispose pending claims accordingly.

One-to-one correlation between duty-free precious metal imports and exports not required; agencies must maintain accurate records.
Nominated agencies importing duty free gold, silver or platinum under the Export Against Supply scheme need not establish a one to one correlation between each imported consignment and exported jewellery; instead they must maintain proper records showing that duty free metal has been used in the manufacture of exported jewellery or articles and clearly account for duty free versus duty paid metal to demonstrate compliance with the exemption and export obligation.

Reward scheme for tax recovery extended to informers and officers, enabling discretionary payments for actionable intelligence.
Rewards are extended to informers and government servants for information that leads to recovery of arrears from tax defaulters; informers' names will be kept confidential. The Chief Commissioner may authorize rewards only after departmental efforts to trace defaulters have been exhausted and the information is shown to have been instrumental in recovery. The reward quantum is discretionary, guided by the nature and efficacy of the information, and capped as per the scheme. Officer rewards require Reward Committee satisfaction that recovery was pending after finality or the unit was nonfunctioning, with no appeal pending, and follow existing allocation policies.

Reward scheme for informers extended to tax recovery cases; informers and officers may receive discretionary rewards subject to conditions.
Extension of the reward scheme allows payment to informers who provide actionable intelligence on defaulters' assets and to government servants whose efforts result in recovery. Rewards require Chief Commissioner satisfaction that departmental tracing efforts were exhausted and that the information led to recovery. The reward may be up to 5% of the amount recovered, determined by the information's nature, accuracy and efficacy. Informer-initiated cases draw from the informer reward pool under existing policy. Officers may receive rewards for extraordinary post-adjudication recoveries subject to Reward Committee approval and applicable upper limits for post-investigation work.

Classification of Tramadol as a psychotropic substance: delayed applicability for licensed manufacturers, importers and exporters after grace period.
The amendment defers the operational applicability of Tramadol's classification as a psychotropic substance so that licensed manufacturers, importers and exporters are subject to the notification only after the expiry of a prescribed grace period following publication; the earlier public notice is amended accordingly and Customs staff are to treat this Public Notice as a Standing Order.

Goods and Services Tax reforms approved: law amendments, new return formats, appellate tribunal, IGST rule change, and rate adjustments.
The Council ratified recent central and pari materia State notifications, expanded ITGRC remit and extended migration and TRAN filing deadlines; approved legislative amendments to CGST/IGST/UTGST/Compensation Acts with specified drafting changes (including retrospective amendment to Section 7 and an enabling provision for Special Category States' registration thresholds); constituted GSTAT with a national and three regional benches; approved the new return design (monthly return; SAHAJ and SUGAM quarterly returns with monthly payment, eligibility up to Rs. 5 crore) targeted for January 2019; adopted multiple rate changes and exemptions as per Fitment recommendations, and directed IGST cross utilisation change plus establishment of a CBIC led committee to address IGST apportionment and balances.

Exporters must correct EGM errors to enable Shipping Bill migration and receipt of IGST refund to bank accounts.
EGM filing errors (SB002, SB006) and invoice errors (SB005) prevent Shipping Bills from migrating from the IGST Temporary Scroll to the Final Scroll, blocking IGST refund credit. Exporters must ensure correct EGM filing before flight departure, submit reconciliation documents (GSTR 1/Table 6A, GSTR 3B and a Concordance Table) and send rectification details to the IGST Refund Cell (Airport) for processing.

IGST refund clearance fortnight to expedite processing of pending export refund claims and assist exporters.
A public notice announces a dedicated IGST refund clearance fortnight at the Air Cargo Complex, NSCBI to expedite liquidation of pending IGST refund claims and assist exporters and export organizations in getting refund claims processed, with difficulties to be reported to the Assistant Commissioner of Customs, Drawback & IGST Refund Section.

IGST refund rectification: officer interface extended to resolve PAN/GSTIN and invoice mismatches, exporters urged to ensure accuracy.
Clarifies that where exporters have entered PAN instead of GSTIN in Shipping Bills, such cases will be treated under the same conditions as SB003 errors because PAN is embedded in GSTIN, and that the officer interface mechanism to rectify SB005 invoice mismatches and other specified errors is extended to Shipping Bills filed up to 30.06.2018; exporters must ensure due diligence and report implementation difficulties to the Assistant Commissioner of Customs.

IGST refund mismatch resolution: officer interface extended to allow rectification of PAN/GSTIN and invoice errors for export refunds.
CBIC directs that PAN-instead-of-GSTIN entries in Shipping Bills causing SB003 errors will be resolved under the same conditions and procedures as SB003/SB005 error resolutions, since PAN is embedded in GSTIN. The officer-interface rectification mechanism for invoice mismatches and other identified errors is extended to cover additional shipping bills to expedite IGST refunds; exporters must check ICEGATE and approach jurisdictional officers for rectification, and the Public Notice functions as a Standing Order for staff.

IGST refund sanction process urged following GSTN-to-Customs data transmission failures; exporters must submit documents for officer-interface processing.
Sanction of IGST refunds pending due to non-transmission of data from GSTN to Customs EDI is being advanced by processing claims through the officer interface. Exporters and customs brokers listed are required to follow CBIC Circular No. 12/2018-Cus and the local Public Notice, submitting all relevant documents so refunds can be sanctioned despite electronic transmission gaps; stakeholder associations should publicize the procedure to expedite compliance and sanctioning.

Refund of IGST on export: Help Desk established to expedite refunds after error rectification for exporters.
A Help Desk has been established to facilitate the IGST refund on export of goods on payment of duty by assisting exporters, customs brokers and other stakeholders to rectify errors and expedite refund claims. The facility is located at the FIEO Marine Building, Willingdon Island, Kochi, operates during specified dates and hours, and provides telephone contacts for in-person assistance and coordination with Customs.

IGST refund assistance: Help Desk established to expedite exporters' pending refund claims and resolve related issues.
A time limited administrative Help Desk has been set up at the Federation of Indian Export Organisation in Bengaluru, staffed by a nominated Customs officer, to provide expeditious assistance to exporters-especially micro, small and medium enterprises-in obtaining sanction of pending IGST refunds on export of goods; stakeholders are invited to use the service and report implementation difficulties to the Commissioner's office.

Tariff transparency requirement: CFSs must publish LCL cargo tariffs and provide e invoicing/e payment or face regulatory action.
Non-disclosure of tariff rates for LCL cargo by CFSs breaches customs regulatory obligations; CFSs must publish LCL tariff schedules on their websites and provide e-invoicing and e-payment facilities. Failure to comply will invite enforcement action under the relevant customs regulatory framework to ensure transparency and enable traders to ascertain charges in advance.

IGST refund facilitation: Help Desks enable exporters to submit documents remotely and resolve refund claim errors.
Help Desks at FIEO and AEPC offices, staffed by nominated Customs officers with necessary infrastructure, will identify specific errors delaying IGST refund claims via ANTARANG and ICEGATE, guide exporters on required documents, and transmit submissions by ICEGATE email to nodal officers at the port of export. The Help Desks will act as an extended office of the port of export so exporters need not visit the port once requisite documents are forwarded for processing.