Exemption for human chorionic gonadotrophin as life saving drug applies when certified for human therapeutic use, veterinary rate otherwise.
Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin, listed under Chorionic Gonadotrophin in the Pharmacopoeia, qualifies for customs duty exemption as a life saving drug when certified for human therapeutic use; if used for veterinary purposes, the concessional duty applicable to veterinary drugs applies. Pending consignments may be cleared accordingly and implementation issues should be reported to the Board.

Private Bonded Warehouses eligibility broadened beyond bulk licence holders; security requirement increased to protect government revenue.
Private Bonded Warehouses under the Exim Policy are not limited to Bulk Licence holders and may permit import and re export of both rough and cut & polished diamonds and coloured gemstones; licensing must follow applicable Board circulars and warehousing instructions. To safeguard revenue, such warehouses must furnish a cash deposit or bank guarantee equal to one-half of the duty liability along with the bond, replacing the earlier lower security requirement.

Exemption from Bank Guarantee extended to registered manufacturer exporters of specified nil duty textile goods under DEEC and EPCG schemes.
Manufacturer exporters registered with Central Excise under Rule 174(1) and producing goods chargeable to nil central excise duty referenced in the textile/apparel chapters become eligible for exemption from Bank Guarantee under Board Circular No. 71/98 Cus, provided they satisfy the conditions of that circular; administrative instructions require issuing standing orders and public notices and forwarding copies to the Drawback wing and the Directorate General for coordination.

Annual Advance Licensing Scheme enables duty free input imports for export manufacture, conditioned on S.I.O. norms and export obligation.
Annual Advance Licensing Scheme issues Annual Advance Licences to eligible manufacturers and qualifying merchant exporters for duty free import of inputs for specified export product groups that have standard input output norms. Licences require registration at the port, detailed entry of imported inputs in part C of the DEEC Book by Customs, and debit entries in the Licence and Part D of DEEC before clearance. Imported inputs must be used only in manufacture of the export product, are non transferable, and export discharge is verified by DEEC endorsements and export documentation; failure to discharge triggers recovery with interest.

All industry rate of drawback misuse flagged; exporters must substantiate use of imported inputs before drawback admissibility.
Exporters are mis-declaring Cast Alloy Permanent Magnets to wrongfully claim the All Industry Rate of Drawback though such magnets, made primarily from imported cobalt, nickel and pure iron, are eligible only for Customs allocation under General Note 17. Commissioners must verify manufacture and export by sampling or evidence, determine admissibility after officer satisfaction, and report abuses to the Drawback Directorate.

Arrears Clearance Month extended; directive to finalise pending drawback claims expeditiously and submit telex reports of disposals.
The Board has extended Arrears Clearance Month to include July and directs all customs locations to expedite finalisation of pending drawback claims before the statutory interest deadline and to send telex reports to the Board showing numbers of cases disposed and amounts of drawback disbursed for the relevant months.

Publication of numbered circulars required to be circulated intact to staff and trade; classified circulars excluded.
The Board requires that all substantive instructions and clarifications be issued only as numbered circulars and, where relevant, referred back for numbering; numbered circulars must be made public and circulated intact to staff and the Trade via the Directorate of Publicity and Public Relations, while circulars classified confidential or above remain withheld. Field formations must not change the number or language when issuing copies to the Trade to prevent local deviations, with immediate effect.

Duty-free computer installation permitted outside bonded premises for administrative offices, subject to accounting, disposal and intimation conditions.
EOU/EPZ/STP/EHTP units may install duty free personal computers in their registered or administrative offices outside the factory, subject to a numerical limit, accounting in unit records, disposal conditions applicable to other imported goods, and intimation with technical details to the Assistant Commissioner of Customs/Central Excise at removal and after installation.

Bonded warehouse operations: mixing, sieving and assortment allowed for imported cut and polished gemstones with consignment restriction.
The Ministry of Commerce authorised mixing, sieving, assortment and cleaning of imported cut and polished diamonds and cut and polished coloured gemstones in private/public bonded warehouses under the Exim Policy, provided such activities are restricted to the individual consignment and mixing of different consignments for these purposes is prohibited; the permission is intended to enable exporters to meet the value addition norms, and field formations are to be instructed and report implementation problems to the Board.

Drawback entitlement extended to DEPB exports where modvat credit is unavailable, enabling reimbursement of CVD and excise on inputs.
Exports under the DEPB Scheme whose inputs cannot obtain modvat credit may receive a brand-rate drawback against additional customs duty (CVD) or excise duty paid on inputs, upon submission of proof of payment; this applies to re-rolled steel products and processed fabrics and amends the prior circular while preserving its other provisions.

DEPB scheme TRA facility allows imports at designated alternative ports, requiring TRA with DEPB details for customs processing.
The circular permits imports against DEPB scrips at specified sea-ports, airports and ICDs other than the port of registration, subject to listed groupings and exclusions, and limits the facility to imports only. The arrangement is to be operated by issuance of a Telegraphic Release Advice (TRA) from the port of registration to the importing Customs House, which must record TRA details including description, value, quantity, DEPB serial number, date and duty entitlement to enable imports against the relevant DEPB book/scrip.

Present Market Value verification required: DEPB credit entitlement capped at half for exports with higher DEPB rates.
DEPB credit entitlement for export products with DEPB rates of ten percent or more shall not exceed fifty percent of the Present Market Value, and Customs is required to determine and verify the PMV of all such products exported under the DEPB scheme; earlier circulars are amended to this extent.

Cargo clearance hours extended: exports accepted later in evening, imports delivered until earlier evening at all air cargo complexes.
The Board confirms that Circular No. 89/98-Cus applies to all Air Cargo Complexes and substitutes paragraph 2(c) to set terminal hours: export cargo will be received at all cargo terminals until 9.00 PM and import cargo delivery will be allowed until 8.00 PM. Officers must issue standing orders to implement these hours and report any difficulties to the Board.

Prosecution thresholds for customs offences: value, intent and senior approvals govern arrests and launches of criminal cases.
The circular establishes a restrained, evidence-focused regime for initiating prosecution and arrests under the Customs Act, requiring proof of mens rea and role-specific culpability, value-based thresholds for different offence categories with exceptions for repeat or professional offenders and specified high-risk items, and mandatory procedural safeguards including prior Commissioner/Chief Commissioner approvals, written reasons for arrests, maintenance of prosecution registers, timely decision-making, and active monitoring and training to ensure quality investigations and effective prosecution.

Reduced physical examination thresholds for export consignments introduced; selection percentages and self certification eligibility for EOUs clarified.
Amendment prescribes that 10% of consignments under Free Shipping Bills are to be randomly examined daily; consignments by SSTh/STH/TH/EH units or Government Departments/PSUs under export schemes face 10% examination if estimated export incentives per shipping bill are below the prescribed threshold; other exporters with incentives below the threshold face 50% examination; consignments with incentives at or above the threshold are taken up for full examination. Self-certification applies to EOUs/EPZ/EHTP/STP units with EH/TH/STH/SSTH status.

Valuation integrity: customs instructed to use published price data to detect and prevent under-declared polymer imports.
Customs formations must use published price information circulated by the Directorate of Valuation to determine correct assessable values for polymers and related commodities, ensure uniform valuation practices nationwide, and consult the Directorate of Valuation or the Directorate General of Revenue Intelligence wherever under-declaration of value is suspected, taking pre-emptive checks to curb fraudulent practices.

Ad-hoc customs exemption limited to defence, police, and charitable donations, subject to non-commercial use and inspection.
Ad-hoc exemptions under Section 25(2) are limited to specified categories-government secret imports, defence and DRDO R&D hardware/software, central and state police equipment for security/intelligence, and charitable institutions providing free or no-profit public services-subject to donor and recipient institutional status, certification by district authorities, prohibition on commercial use or disposal without prior Ministry permission, and availability for customs inspection; requests outside these categories will not be considered.

Handicraft classification requires predominant manual production and substantial ornamentation to meet customs criteria for handicraft status.
An item qualifies as a handicraft for customs classification only if it is predominantly made by hand (use of some machinery permitted) and it possesses substantial ornamentation, inlay or similar artistic work that gives genuine artistic improvement rather than mere pretence.

Transhipment procedures: gateway-port transhipment allowed with bonding, manifesting and strict proof-of-export and endorsement rules.
Transhipment through gateway ports is authorised with conditions: imports under the Goods Imported (Conditions of Transhipment) Regulations, 1995 upon application and manifestation; exports permitted after shipping bills are passed at origin subject to execution of a bond under Regulation 4 and manifestation to final destination via the gateway port. Drawback may be paid when shipping bills are passed and goods shipped at origin provided the steamer agent executes a bond to submit proof of export within ninety days and EP/AR4 endorsement procedures are followed. Operational steps, registers and endorsement practices are specified in the Kandla Public Notices, with limited procedural relaxations.

DTA sale entitlement cap limits domestic disposals relative to prior exports; duty recovery and compliance conditions clarified.
Amendments impose a uniform cap on DTA sale entitlement for EOUs and EPZ/FTZ units measured against prior year FOB exports, retain concessional duty eligibility where policy conditions are met, and maintain scrap clearance limits. Duty and interest may be demanded where units fail to meet export or utilisation timelines for inputs and capital goods, subject to administrative extension mechanisms and exceptions for mala fide diversion. Additional measures recognise services as exportable, permit exports of processed agricultural products, allow sourcing from bonded warehouses, enable duty free clearance to specified warehouses or licensees for most EOUs, permit exports from registered jobworkers with safeguards, and set approval requirements for duty free procurement of fuel and consumables.