Electronic Release Advice now mandates TRA electronic transmission and ICES-based licence registration for customs clearance.
Implementation of an Electronic Release Advice requires TRAs issued by Mumbai Custom House to be transmitted electronically between ICES locations. All DEPB/DEEC/DFRC/EPCG licences must be registered in the ICES import system prior to TRA issuance, including manually registered and partially utilised licences which must be entered for remaining balances. Hard-copy TRAs signed by a designated Appraising Officer are required; incoming electronic TRAs will receive system-generated registration numbers upon submission by the designated Appraiser and manual register entry and signature verification at recipient houses are discontinued. The TRA registration number must be quoted on the Bill of Entry. The simplified Annexure procedure is rescinded and the revised process applies immediately to specified schemes.

Education Cess on excisable goods: not leviable retrospectively and applies only where duty is actually levied.
The Education Cess is a new levy not chargeable on goods manufactured before its imposition but cleared afterward. No Cess is leviable where goods are fully exempt, subject to nil duty, or cleared without payment of duty. The Cess applies only to goods listed in the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act and excludes items not specified. The Cess base is the aggregate duties of excise/customs actually levied and collected by the Department of Revenue, excluding certain customs duties such as anti dumping and safeguard duties.

Trade notice rules require full reproduction of central circulars; local administrative matters must be issued only as facilities.
Notices communicating budgetary changes, Board circulars, and policy decisions from other departments may continue but must reproduce the entire circulars, instructions or guidelines without editing, paraphrasing or summarising. Notices dealing with purely local administrative matters (office timings, local meetings, website information, public relations arrangements) must no longer be issued as Trade/Public Notices and should instead be issued as a "Facility."

Legal undertaking for raw silk imports from China allows suspension of sampling, obliges payment if anti dumping duty later applies.
Physical sampling of raw silk imports from China by EOUs and SEZ units is to be discontinued provided the importer furnishes an original Legal Undertaking (without bank guarantee) to the Assistant/Deputy Commissioner of Customs undertaking to pay anti dumping duty as if the goods were of lower grade if duty becomes chargeable subsequently; the undertaking is to be retained at import and a copy transferred to the Customs officer with administrative control over the EOU for monitoring and enforcement.

Customs duty changes on iron and steel reduce import tariffs, exempt melting scrap for melting units, and alter CVD treatment.
Customs duties on certain iron and steel imports have been amended: reduced duties on non alloy steel (excluding seconds and defectives), exemption for melting scrap of iron and steel (excluding stainless or heat resisting varieties) when imported for melting units, and reduced duty on ships for breaking up with withdrawal of the previous CVD exemption so that applicable additional duty is now payable on such ships.

Electronic TRA implementation mandates ICES registration and system processing with a signed hard copy and registration number.
Implementation of an electronic TRA replaces manual issuance and requires license registration in the ICES Import System. TRAs are issued from the Custom House of license registration, a signed hard copy is handed to the license holder, and the TRA is electronically transmitted to the recipient ICES location. The recipient generates a signed checklist, submits the TRA to obtain a registration number to be quoted in the bill of entry. After first transmission between ICES locations, manual registration at the recipient is withdrawn and all TRAs, including for non-ICES locations, must be processed through the system.

Administrative control reallocation: Inland Container Depot at Desur placed under Central Excise, Belgaum, modifying prior circular.
Administrative control over the Inland Container Depot at Desur, District Belgaum, is transferred from the Commissionerate of Customs, Mangalore to the Commissionerate of Central Excise, Belgaum; this modifies the earlier circular to that extent and directs that the instructions be brought to the notice of all concerned for strict compliance, the change having been published for public notice with no contrary representations received.

Computerised EDI processing of export shipping bills at ICD Whitefield mandates registration, prescribed declarations, electronic examination and "Let Export" ordering.
Computerised processing of specified export Shipping Bills at ICD/CFS Whitefield operates under the Customs EDI system from 02.08.2004 with mandatory registration of exporters/CHAs and bank accounts, submission of prescribed declarations and supporting documents at a Service Centre, checklist confirmation, and system driven generation of Shipping Bill numbers valid for fifteen days. Physical entry and examination are permitted on the checklist and Annexure C; SEO and Examining Officer record examination electronically; Appraiser/Superintendent issues electronic "Let Export" order which triggers printing and distribution of Shipping Bills. Scheme specific processing (DEPB/DEEC/EPCG/EOU/Drawback) requires licence/book registration and follows specialized assessment and payment rules within EDI.

Additional customs duty on imported computers imposed to counterbalance excise; specified parts and converters exempted.
An additional duty of customs has been imposed on imported CPUs and complete computer sets to counter balance excise on inputs; customs value for the levy is to be determined under the applicable valuation provision. Most parts of automatic data processing machines are exempt from customs duty, except populated printed circuit boards, motherboards, and specified ink cartridges which remain dutiable; static converters for computers are exempt while converters for other machines and telecommunication apparatus remain dutiable. Notifications issued give effect to these changes.

Export obligation monitoring: customs must coordinate with trade authorities before altering valuation or discharge certifications under EPCG.
Customs must accept EO Discharge Certificates issued by DGFT for EPCG bond/BG redemption unless specific valuation or EO doubts arise; in such cases the jurisdictional Commissioner shall refer the issue to the Board for coordination with DGFT rather than taking unilateral adjudicative action, because CIF valuation and the quantum of export obligation are linked and require simultaneous adjustment. Commissioners must follow DOR Circular No.24/2002 and issue standing orders and public notices to field formations and trade.

Education cess on customs excise and service tax broadens the tax base and alters CENVAT credit applicability.
A new Education Cess is levied on aggregate customs, excise and service tax duties with limited credit usable only against education cess on final products under the CENVAT regime. The circular outlines extensive customs and central excise rate changes, sectoral exemptions and revisions (notably textiles, health, IT, agriculture and export-promotion), introduces an optional duty/credit route for textiles, and details procedural and statutory amendments including AED credit limits, compounding of offences, recovery against transferees, adjournment limits, and significant service tax scope and administrative reforms.

Shut out cargo procedures clarified: ICES amendments and LEO cancellation govern complete and partial export shipments.
Procedure clarifies ICES processing for shut out cargo and back to town: complete shut out requires manual port endorsement and vessel-name amendment via CFS and ICES before the first vessel sailing date; partial shut out requires cancellation of LEO and amendment of quantity with supervisory permission (Assistant Commissioner before 'let export', Deputy Commissioner after), surrender of printed shipping bill copies if generated, and filing fresh shipping bills for subsequent export.

Customs EDI system implementation mandates electronic registration and structured electronic Bills of Entry processing, appraisal, and bond management.
Implementation of a Customs EDI System at Kandla Custom House mandates registration of importers, CHAs and shipping entities, initial data entry at a Service Centre with phased ICEGATE connectivity, and establishes electronic workflows for filing ANNEXURE A Bills of Entry, IGM submission, checklist verification, System/second/first check appraisals, Green Channel clearance, duty payment via linked bank, concurrent audit, and specialized modules for DEPB, export licences, Bond Management and exceptions where local connectivity is pending.

Import of measuring tapes: non-metric scales allowed alongside metric scale without unit labels, permitting compliant imports.
Amendment permits manufacture, verification and import of measuring tapes bearing a metric scale alongside non-metric scale inscriptions so long as non-metric unit names are not shown; earlier prohibition on importation of instruments with non-standard units is qualified and customs formations are instructed to allow import of such compliant tapes.

Cost recovery charges applicability clarified: applies from 2004-2005 for EOUs, EHTPs and STPs, governing posting of Cost Recovery Officer.
The corrigendum corrects a typographical error in the Board's circular on posting of the Cost Recovery Officer for EOUs, EHTPs and STPs, substituting "from the year 2004-2005" for "for the year 2004-2005" to clarify that the referenced cost recovery charges are payable commencing from that year onward.

Electronic customs filing under the EDI system streamlines shipping bill processing and integrates scheme registrations and checks.
Computerised processing of export Shipping Bills at Custom House, Kandla will be conducted under the Indian Customs EDI System (ICES). Exporters and CHAs must register identifiers and bank details, submit prescribed Annexure declarations at the Service Centre, and confirm printed checklists before submission. Physical arrival, registration, examination and issuance of Let Export Order are recorded in the system; scheme specific registrations and appendices are required for incentive schemes, and drawback/DEPB claims are processed electronically subject to statutory conditions.

Centralisation of customs case management to the Board's Legal Section, with communications directed to designated legal officers.
All Supreme Court matters relating to customs, central excise and service tax (other than those arising from CESTAT orders) previously handled by Customs VI and Anti Smuggling Sections are transferred to the Legal Section of the Board, effective 15th July 2004; the specified Annexure entry is deleted while clause (d) of the other Annexure provision remains unchanged. Communications should be addressed to the Joint Secretary (Legal) or the Director (Legal) of the Board.

Heritage preservation: administrative units must identify and report historical customs and excise artifacts for museum collection.
Administrative units must submit to the Director, National Customs and Central Excise Museum, Goa a formatted inventory for potential exhibits, listing name, reference details, age, physical condition, origin/source, content, reasons as to historical or potential historical value, present custody and other remarks; offices must also factor historical value into indexing and weeding of records to support collection and preservation.

Temporary removal for testing and repairs permitted without duty; EOUs may use unit-wise annual blanket permission instead of transaction approvals.
Goods other than capital goods, including partially processed items, may be removed from an EOU without payment of duty for test, repair, replacement, calibration, refining, processing, display or job-work under bond; the listed activities are to be treated as equivalent to job-work and the unit-wise annual blanket permission procedure for sub-contracting will apply, eliminating the need for transaction-wise permissions from the Deputy/Assistant Commissioner, subject to stated conditions.

Customs House Agents licensing clarifications: Board issues guidance, directs publication of Annexure I clarifications, Hindi version pending.
The Board reviewed queries on the Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 2004 and issued operative clarifications in Annexure I; field formations are directed to circulate these clarifications through appropriate public notices, and a Hindi version will follow.