RG-1 account maintenance: timing of register entries left to local collectors under Basic Excise Manual guidance.
The Board determined that fixed nationwide timings for entries in the RG-1 register are impracticable and directed that individual cases be handled by Collectors, exercising administrative discretion in accordance with paragraph 208 of the Basic Excise Manual and the needs of the situation.

Tax deduction at source from salaries: employers must compute withholding on estimated taxable salary including perquisites and apply prescribed exemptions.
Employers must deduct income-tax at source from salary by computing tax on the employee's estimated annual salary inclusive of monetary pay and prescribed valuation of perquisites, applying exemptions and deductions (including gratuity, leave encashment, retrenchment and approved voluntary retirement payments, house rent allowance, standard deduction and permitted savings deductions) to arrive at taxable income. New procedural provisions allow aggregation of salary from multiple employers, relief for arrears or advances, require allotment and quoting of a tax-deduction account number, and impose interest, rounding rules and penalties for non-compliance; specific valuation rules and evidentiary requirements for allowances and perquisites are prescribed.

Modvat credit rules: credit disallowed for exempt final goods but allowed when inputs inseparable with required debit before removal.
Modvat credit is not available for exempt or nil-rated final products, but where dutiable and exempt final products are produced together and inputs cannot reasonably be segregated, credit on all inputs may be allowed provided the credit attributable to exempt products is debited in the credit account before removal of those exempted final products.

Interpretation of remade clarifies duty treatment for non manufacturing alterations versus remanufacture under excise rules on clearance
The term 'remade' has two distinct meanings: where retention and re clearance without duty are permitted, it denotes processes not amounting to manufacture; where refund of duty on returned goods is provided, it denotes remanufacture involving a manufacturing process, with clearance governed by duty payable on excisable goods.

Meaning of 'remade' clarified: non-remanufacture for conditional re-clearance but remanufacture for refund-on-return.
Clarification that the word remade has distinct meanings: in the provision permitting retention and conditional re-clearance of duty-paid goods without duty, remade does not amount to remanufacture, whereas in the provision allowing refund of duty on goods returned for remaking, remade does amount to remanufacture, since those goods involve a manufacturing process and can only be re-cleared on payment of duty.

Summary Assessment Scheme requires inspections and corrective action where eligible summary assessments are not completed summarily.
Summary Assessment Scheme requires that eligible non-corporate assessments be completed summarily so appeals to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner normally do not arise; where reviews show summary cases were not summarily disposed, appellate records should be scrutinised to identify offending wards or circles, periodic inspections undertaken, disciplinary or corrective action initiated against defaulting officers and supervising Assistant Commissioners, and such actions reported to the Board.

Excisability of lime sludge: not marketable as goods, therefore generally outside central excise levy and not chargeable.
The Board concludes that lime sludge produced in paper mills during caustic soda recovery and bleach liquor manufacture is not ordinarily marketable and therefore does not fall within the meaning of goods for central excise purposes; stray instances of outside despatch do not establish a market, and pending assessments should be decided on that basis.

Classification of graphite powder and flakes affirmed as tariff goods for central excise classification under the schedule.
The Board's view is that graphite powder and graphite flakes, as described in the reference, are appropriately classifiable under sub-heading No. 2505.00 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985, directing their treatment within that tariff entry for central excise purposes.

Estate duty cessation for agricultural lands yields exemption for qualifying deaths under the Amendment enacted and published in the Gazette.
The Estate Duty (Amendment) Act, 1986 amends the Estate Duty Act, 1953 so that the Act ceases to apply to agricultural lands situated in the territories comprised in the States of Punjab and Tripura where the property passes on deaths occurring on or after the operative date specified by the Amendment; the Amendment received presidential assent and was published in the Gazette, and earlier circulars set out corresponding dates for other States and Union Territories.