Deferred payment of Customs duty extended to authorized public undertakings, subject to eligibility, ICEGATE OTP authentication and monitoring.
Extension of the deferred payment of Customs import duty to Authorized Public Undertakings (APUs) is authorised from the Notification dated 19.08.2020 and governed by the Deferred Payment of Import Duty Rules, 2016 (as amended). Eligible APUs-Government companies, statutory corporations, departments or autonomous bodies with IEC and requisite governmental recommendation-must apply to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner, DIC, CBIC for a two-year approval (renewable). Approved APUs must obtain ICEGATE login, authenticate deferred-payment intent via OTP, indicate flag "D" on Bills of Entry for clearance, and remit duty by the due dates prescribed in rule 5, with monitoring and potential revocation for non-compliance.

Virtual personal hearings mandated for customs, excise and GST proceedings, with prescribed video-conferencing procedure and records.
Personal hearings in proceedings under Customs, Central Excise, Chapter V of the Finance Act and the CGST/IGST Acts are mandated to be conducted via video conferencing. Authorities must notify parties by official email with joining links and officer contact details, require scanned authorization and photo ID, and conduct hearings from official facilities or approved platforms. Oral submissions will be reduced to a written "record of personal hearing" emailed within one day; parties have three days to sign or modify it. Documents filed during hearings must be self-attested and emailed within three days.

Deferred payment of customs import duty extended to authorised public undertakings, subject to eligibility, ICEGATE authentication and monitoring.
Extension of the deferred payment of Customs import duty to Authorised Public Undertakings allows eligible government-owned or controlled companies, statutory corporations, departments or autonomous bodies with valid IEC and a prescribed recommendation to apply to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner, DIC, CBIC for approval. Approved APUs will be registered in the Customs Automated System, appoint a nodal person for ICEGATE OTP authentication, mark Bills of Entry with flag "D" to indicate deferred payment, and must pay by the due dates under the Deferred Payment of Import Duty Rules, 2016; the Commissioner may monitor compliance and revoke approval for ineligibility or non-compliance.

Manufacturing in special warehouse requires special warehouse licence, integrated application, bonds, electronic records and GST/ex-bond compliance.
Manufacturing and other operations on specified warehoused goods require a special warehouse licence and permission under the Customs Act; applicants may seek both via an integrated application. Licensees must execute the prescribed bond and furnish bank-guarantee security, maintain electronic records with audit-trail and time-stamp, submit monthly returns, and demonstrate compliant software to customs. Exports require shipping bills; domestic clearances are taxable supplies under GST with ex-bond bill of entry for import-duty payment. Physical security, CCTV, customs examination space, and chargeable customs supervision are mandatory.

Disaster Recovery drill halts electronic customs filing and payment services during planned switch over to DR site.
A Disaster Recovery Drill will switch operations from the Primary Data Centre in Delhi to the DR site in Chennai, during which document filing at Service Centres and via the Remote EDI System (RES), online customs duty payments, and GSTN integration services will be unavailable in specified maintenance windows. All ICES activities by officers and service centres must be completed before the outage; trade associations should notify members and departmental officers must treat the instruction as a Standing Order. Difficulties should be reported to the Additional Commissioner (Technical) by email.

Virtual personal hearings now mandatory for specified indirect tax proceedings, with emailed records treated as statutory documents.
Mandatory implementation of virtual personal hearings is prescribed for proceedings under the Customs Act, Central Excise Act, Chapter V of the Finance Act and extended to CGST and IGST proceedings. Authorities must notify that hearings will be via video conference, provide official email contact and meeting link, require scanned authorization and photo ID, and reduce oral submissions to a record of personal hearing sent as a PDF within one day. Parties may amend and return the record within three days; the record is deemed a statutory document under Section 4 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Exceptions to virtual mode require written approval with reasons.

Verification of origin obligations require importers to provide origin evidence and enable country to country verification before preferential treatment.
CAROTAR and the statutory importer duty require importers to retain and provide minimum information proving compliance with Rules of Origin; where doubts about a Certificate of Origin's genuineness or the accuracy of origin claims persist after seeking information from the importer, customs may request verification from the exporting country via the Board's International Customs Division. Verification requests must be representative, complete, approved by the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner/Commissioner, include legible CoO, invoice and transport documents, and follow prescribed timelines; specimen signatures are stored on ICES to assist verification.

Unit quantity codes in Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills standardized; only Annexure codes allowed from 20.08.2020.
Prescribed Statistical Unit Quantity Codes (SQCs) must be declared for every item in Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills in addition to invoice commercial units, and from 20.08.2020 only commercial UQCs listed in the Annexure will be accepted; any other commercial UQC declarations will be rejected. Stakeholders must follow the standardized UQCs when filing and report implementation difficulties to the Additional/Joint Commissioner. This Public Notice functions as a standing order for officers and staff.

Unit Quantity Codes in Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills must use prescribed Annexure codes; others will be rejected.
From 20.08.2020, commercial Unit Quantity Codes declared in Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills must be limited to the specific codes listed in the Annexure; any other UQC will not be accepted. Statistical Unit Quantity Codes prescribed under the Tariff Act remain mandatory in addition to commercial units, and the notice is to be treated as a standing order with trade associations and brokers required to publicize the change.

Deferred payment of customs duty extended to authorised public undertakings, subject to eligibility, ICEGATE authentication and monitoring.
Extension permits deferred payment of Customs import duty to eligible Authorised Public Undertakings, governed by the Deferred Payment of Import Duty Rules, 2016. APUs must meet specified eligibility criteria including government ownership/control, valid IEC, senior-government recommendation, compliance undertakings and AEO-related legal-compliance conditions. Applications go to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner, DIC, CBIC; approvals are for two years renewable. Approved APUs must obtain ICEGATE access for a nodal person to authenticate deferred-payment flags on Bills of Entry; payment due dates follow rule five of the Deferred Payment Rules and approvals may be revoked on ineligibility.

Grievance redressal committees for GST ensure structured resolution and escalation of taxpayer grievances to policy and IT wings.
Constitution of a State-level Grievance Redressal Committee for GST designates Co-Chairs, nodal officers and secretaries, prescribes member nomination and attendance rules, limits representation, and mandates quarterly meetings. The Committee will examine and resolve taxpayer procedural and IT grievances, refer policy matters to the CBIC Policy Wing and GST Council Secretariat, and refer portal issues to GSTN for time-bound resolution. The Secretary must submit quarterly reports to the GST Council Secretariat and CBIC; GSTN will develop a public portal for recording and displaying grievances and their disposal, with Co-Chairs and nodal officers responsible for timely updates.

Unit Quantity Codes standardization limits permissible commercial codes in customs declarations to improve EDI data quality and compliance.
The notice mandates use of prescribed commercial unit quantity codes from the Annexure for Bills of Entry and Shipping Bills, requires declaration of Statistical Unit Quantity Codes alongside commercial invoice units captured in the Single Window table, and directs that only Annexure-listed UQCs will be accepted while deviations must be reported to the designated Joint Commissioner; the directions operate as a standing order for officers.

e-Office adoption: electronic communications encouraged to improve transparency and receive diary acknowledgement for future reference.
Launch of e-Office in the Kolkata South CGST & CX Commissionerate transitions office work to a paperless electronic application; taxpayers are encouraged to send communications in searchable PDF format, provide mobile and email for immediate mail/SMS acknowledgement, and will receive a Diary Number to reference future correspondence.

Unit Quantity Codes standardization: only prescribed commercial codes allowed in import declarations; non compliant codes will be rejected.
Statistical Unit Codes (SQCs) prescribed under the Tariff Act are mandatory for each item in import declarations and captured in the Single Window. From the effective date, only commercial UQCs listed in Annexure A will be accepted in Bills of Entry; any other commercial UQCs will be rejected. The instruction is to be treated as a standing order, trade associations must publicize it, and implementation issues should be reported to the Additional Commissioner of Customs (Technical).

Extension of time limits under Customs Act: key filing and compliance deadlines are extended to the notified end date for relief.
Time limits under the Customs Act, 1962 for filing refund applications, drawback claims (including under Section 74), export filings, appeals, issuance of show cause/demand notices, licence renewals and related actions whose last date fell within the covered period are extended to the new specified end date pursuant to the Government notification; the Public Notice directs stakeholders to utilise the extension and directs officers to treat the Notice as a standing order.

Manufacture in special warehouses governed by section 65: integrated licensing, bond and digital records control duty and GST treatment.
Licensed special warehouses under section 58A may undertake manufacturing and other operations under section 65 subject to an integrated application, execution of the prescribed bond and bank guarantee, and compliance with specified security, digital recordkeeping and software requirements. Resultant products exported require shipping bills and GST invoices with no duty on imported inputs under section 69; products cleared domestically attract GST/IGST and ex-bond Bills of Entry to discharge import duties on contained warehoused goods. Annexures prescribe application, inventory registers and bond formats and customs verification procedures.

Electronic communication encouraged: use searchable PDFs and provide contact details for immediate acknowledgement and tracking.
Launch of E-Office in the Principal Commissioner, CGST, Visakhapatnam establishes a paperless workflow application to enhance efficiency, transparency, accountability and data security. Taxpayers are encouraged to use electronic communication, submit PDF (preferably searchable) documents, and provide mobile and email contacts to receive immediate acknowledgement and a Diary Number for reference; trade bodies are requested to circulate the notice and report difficulties or suggestions.

e-Office implementation encourages electronic communications; submit searchable PDF filings with contact details for faster departmental processing.
Launch of e-Office requires taxpayers to use electronic communication and submit PDF files (preferably searchable) for faster processing. Communications should include mobile number and e-mail to enable immediate e-mail/SMS acknowledgement; the system will issue a Diary Number for reference. Trade associations are requested to disseminate this notice and convey difficulties or suggestions.

Refund of IGST on export: submit a signed concordance table mapping GST invoices to shipping bills for refund processing.
Exporters with invoice-shipping bill mismatches must use the alternative mechanism for IGST refund: consult the JNCH website list of affected IECs, prepare the prescribed concordance table signed by the authorised signatory mapping GST invoices to shipping bill invoices, and email it to the Deputy Commissioner (Drawback, NS II, JNCH) at [email protected]. The mechanism and SB005 error correction apply only to shipping bills within the corrective window specified by the implementing circular. Annexure A provides the concordance template and an IEC list for reference.

Centralised receipt handling: all correspondence routed to CRU for scanning, e Office diarisation and controlled custody.
Centralises all incoming correspondence to a Central Receipt Unit responsible for receipt intake, scanning to searchable PDF, diarisation and upload into e Office, generation of acknowledgements, forwarding to addressees, and secure custody of physical documents; prescribes staffing, email handling, confidential envelope procedure, scanning specifications and storage and retention processes.