All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback amended: tariff entries reclassified, rates and caps adjusted; rice eligible under brand rate route.
Amendments to the All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback establish separate tariff entries for specified goods, adjust drawback rates and caps for multiple tariff items, prescribe a 1% rate for optical fibre cable, and enable drawback under the brand rate route for rice exports; stakeholders are asked to publicize the changes.

Arm's Length Price determination directs transfer pricing referrals to specialized officers, defining AO and TPO roles and procedures.
Guidance clarifies that determination of the Arm's Length Price for international transactions is made by the Transfer Pricing Officer upon reference by the Assessing Officer, who must compute total income in conformity with the ALP. The AO may rely on Form 3CEB to form a prima facie belief, must record satisfaction and afford a hearing in cases of non filing, non disclosure or contested applicability, obtain higher level approval before referral, and refrain from referrals based solely on transaction value when cases are selected on risk parameters.

Bonded warehouse licensing: streamlined application and delegated discharge permissions to expedite clearance while ensuring compliance.
Prescribes a uniform framework for grant, renewal and administration of licenses for Public and Private Bonded Warehouses under Sections 57-59 of the Customs Act, 1962, requiring scrutiny of financial viability, past compliance, premises suitability, security measures and comprehensive insurance. Private operators handling sensitive goods must furnish additional cash deposit or bank guarantee equal to 25% of duty on maximum stored quantity, and the importer must execute a warehousing bond for twice the assessed duty. Licensing decisions are to be completed within seven working days and approved licensees need not seek Commissioner approval for routine transactions absent material changes.

Second hand machinery valuation: use price paid where applicable; otherwise apply sequential Valuation Rules and Rule 9 with expert inspection reports.
Valuation of imported second hand machinery is based on the price paid or payable where Rule 3 requirements are met; where post sale reconditioning, refurbishment or buyer incurred pre shipment costs affect the goods the proper officer must include those elements and, if Rule 3 is inapplicable, proceed sequentially through Rules 4-9, applying the residual method under Rule 9 when necessary and using inspection/appraisement reports from overseas chartered engineers (Form A) or DGFT notified Indian agencies/locally empaneled chartered engineers (Form B) to assess depreciation, condition and additional charges.

Service charges for Customs EDI services revised; vendor authorised to collect fees and applicable service tax from users.
The Directorate General of Systems and Data Management has engaged M/s Xeam Ventures Pvt. Ltd. to operate the Customs EDI Service Centre at the Inland Container Depot, Whitefield; the vendor is authorised to collect revised maximum service charges for document digitisation and RES-related services. The notice sets out fees for bills of entry, shipping bills, IGM/EGM, amendment blocks, printing and query charges, and confirms that the listed rates exclude Service Tax, which the vendor must collect from users and remit to the government, effective 1 October 2015.

Entry Inward and Outward procedure mandates officers verify last port clearance and ILH dues before EDI entry is granted.
Procedure prescribes that the section officer boarding a vessel verify last port clearance and ILH dues, ascertain berthing time, and sign the Entry Inward/Outward applications; the Agent's representative must bring these to Jubilee Gate where the Main Gate Officer feeds the details into the EDI System and grants Entry Inward/Outward using his SSOID; implementation difficulties should be notified to the Assistant Commissioner (Prev.).

Revised EDI service charges and mandatory service-tax collection for customs document processing at the air cargo complex.
Revision of fees and service-tax collection rules for EDI Service Centre operations at the Air Cargo Complex, Devanahalli: M/S Xeam Ventures Pvt. Ltd. is contracted to operate Customs EDI Service Centres and authorised to collect revised maximum service charges for digitisation and processing of customs documents (including bills of entry, shipping bills, IGM/EGM, amendments, printing and remote filings). The notice specifies fee categories, notes that charges exclude Service Tax and other taxes, and requires the vendor to collect and remit applicable Service Tax. The revised schedule is effective from 1 October 2015.

Electronic Delivery Orders streamline cargo clearance while preserving existing customs verification and allowing limited manual exceptions.
Introduction of Electronic Delivery Orders to replace paper-based delivery orders for cargo clearance, requiring Shipping Lines, Airlines, Consol Agents and Custodians to establish technical capability for secure electronic issuance and receipt, and encouraging electronic invoicing and e-payment of Delivery Order charges to avoid importer visits. Existing customs procedures, including verification, obtaining 'Out of Charge' and issuance of Gate Passes, remain unchanged. Manual Delivery Orders are allowed for specified categories or during technical failures. Chief Commissioners should facilitate stakeholder trials and implementation and report difficulties to the Board.

Production and stock discrepancy detection: compare IBM annual returns with income-tax filings and take remedial action.
Scrutiny of mining assessees must include obtaining IBM Annual Returns and comparing them with Income-tax Returns to detect production and closing stock discrepancies and potential suppression; where significant divergences are found, remedial measures should be applied for all affected years.

Information sharing requirements: agencies must transmit REIC forum appraisal materials to CEIB and increase dossier submissions.
Investigation units must forward information shared with the regional intelligence forum to the central intelligence bureau within 15 days of Appraisal Report completion and are directed to increase and improve submission of case dossiers to the central bureau to enhance consolidated intelligence processing.

Uniform listing agreement requirement mandates issuers to execute a fresh agreement and comply with listing obligations.
A uniform listing agreement format is prescribed requiring issuers to execute the annexed agreement and comply with the Listing Obligations And Disclosure Requirements and applicable exchange rules, including payment of listing fees, ongoing disclosure of issuer information, and obtaining board or authorised committee approval. Prior listing agreements must be replaced within the prescribed period; novation preserves accrued rights and ongoing enquiries or actions, while the exchange retains discretion to admit, suspend or withdraw listings and to enforce compliance and levy penalties.

Allocation of export quotas for sugar ensures duty free shipments under CXL and TRQ with certification and reporting requirements.
Specified quantities of sugar are allocated for export under the CXL Concessions to the EU and under the Tariff Rate Quota to the USA for the stated 2015-2016 period; these exports are duty free subject to notified conditions. Certificates of Origin for EU CXL shipments must be issued by the competent national authority and EUR forms endorsed by Customs at shipment; Certificates of Origin for preferential US shipments, if required, shall be issued by the designated national certifying authority. Reporting obligations under the governing notification remain applicable.

Classification of coconut oil: earlier Board order withdrawn; field authorities must follow judicial precedents on edible oil classification.
The Board withdraws its prior Section 37B order directing classification of coconut oil in small retail containers under the cosmetics tariff heading, noting judicial rulings that edible coconut oil in such packs is classifiable as edible vegetable oil rather than as hair oil; field formations must decide classification in individual cases based on facts and the cited judicial pronouncements.

Mutual Agreement Procedure invoked to consider Nokia India's assessed tax demands, clarifying no fresh notice was issued.
No fresh income-tax notice was issued to Nokia India; an assessment order for AY2010-11 passed in August 2015 raised a demand based on earlier issues, and that demand, along with prior demands, is being considered under the Mutual Agreement Procedure of the India-Finland tax treaty by the Competent Authorities.

Correction to circular reverses taxpayer classification from 'paying tax' to 'not paying tax' in para 3(iii).
Correction to an administrative circular alters wording in sub para (iii) of paragraph 3 by replacing 'who are paying tax u/s. 16 of the Act; and' with 'who are not paying tax u/s. 16 of the Act, and', while all other provisions of Circular No. 23 of 2015 16 remain unchanged.

Extension of SEZ approvals and LoPs permitted with strict compliance conditions and disclosure obligations to revenue authorities.
Board granted multiple extensions of validity for formal approvals and Letters of Permission and approved co developer participations and new sector specific SEZ proposals subject to compliance with the SEZ Act and Rules and specified conditions. Change of name, shareholding changes, amalgamations and amendments to authorized operations were approved only upon continuity of SEZ responsibilities, fulfillment of eligibility and security clearances, compliance with revenue and company law consequences, furnishing of financial and PAN details to revenue authorities, and required environmental and safety clearances. Non compliant or inadequately documented requests were rejected or deferred for further inspection.

Part delivery of import consignments extended with revised timing rules and coverage for homogenous finished goods.
Part delivery of import consignments is available on revised time-based conditions. Consignments received between 12 noon and 12 midnight are eligible for part delivery at the beginning of the next working day, while consignments received after 12 midnight up to 12 noon are eligible after 5 PM of the same working day. The facility is extended to goods of homogenous nature, including finished goods, and the earlier facility notice is amended accordingly.

Declaration of intent under MEIS permits submitting physical shipping bills to secure reward claims when 'N' was inadvertently marked.
Declaration of intent under MEIS must be indicated on EDI shipping bills; for exports between 1 April 2015 and 31 May 2015 where 'N' was inadvertently marked, exporters may electronically file MEIS applications and submit physical free shipping bill copies to the RA, which shall examine them and grant rewards in accordance with FTP/HBP; from 1 June 2015 only shipping bills transmitted by Customs to DGFT will be considered for MEIS.

Capacity planning requirements: maintain a 1.5x buffer on projected peak, monitor real time utilisation and escalate when thresholds hit.
The circular requires installed capacity to be 1.5 times projected peak load, with projected peak calculated for 60 days from per second peak trends of the past 180 days. All trading, clearing and settlement systems and technical components must be sized accordingly; action must follow if utilisation exceeds 75%. Real time monitoring, alerts and timely capacity enhancements are mandated. Exchanges and clearing corporations must amend rules and systems within three months, notify brokers and publish on their websites, and report implementation to the regulator.

ACU settlement mechanism: permitting use of ACU Dollar and ACU Euro nostro accounts for cross border trade payments.
Authorises use of ACU Dollar and ACU Euro Nostro accounts to settle eligible export and import transactions among ACU member countries: export payments may be debited to the counterparty bank's ACU account in India or credited to the authorised dealer's ACU account with its correspondent abroad; import payments may be credited to the counterparty bank's ACU account in India or debited to the authorised dealer's ACU account with its correspondent. Eligible trade with ACU members shall, except where specific exemptions apply, be settled through the ACU mechanism.