Importer-Exporter Code issuance: electronic fee payment enables immediate IEC generation, online viewing, and dispatch within a day after physical copy
The DGFT simplifies issuance of the Importer-Exporter Code (IEC) with an optional online application requiring scanned PAN and bank certificate, and two payment options: Demand Drafts yield IEC only after receipt of the physical copy, while electronic fund transfers prompt automatic IEC generation and online viewing, with the physical IEC printed and dispatched within a day after receipt of the hard copy.

Voluntary settlement scheme permits payment of duty with penalty to avoid full adjudication, preserving regular proceedings for unpaid portions.
An optional voluntary settlement mechanism allows assessees to pay duty with interest and a penal percentage within a prescribed period after receipt of a show cause notice to dispense with adjudication; unpaid portions remain subject to regular proceedings. A corrective amendment authorizes officers other than adjudicating authorities to file appeals on behalf of Commissioners. A retrospective rule treated wire drawing units as assessees for a prior period to regularize input credit, payment treated as duty, and permit downstream credit, without creating new liabilities for units that did not pay.

Reimbursement of Central Sales Tax limited to purchases with 'C' Form; ITES/BPO units may claim without 'C' Form under conditions.
Amendments limit reimbursement of Central Sales Tax on supplies from DTA to EOU/EHTP/STP units to payments supported by 'C' Form, with an exception allowing ITES/BPO units to claim without 'C' Form. The Development Commissioner must ensure purchases are essential for export production or export services. Documentary requirements include a Chartered Accountant's certificate confirming receipt in bonded premises, supplier invoice scrutiny, proof of payment and reconciliation with 'C' Form (not required for ITES/BPO), and photocopy of the 'C' Form issued to the supplier except for ITES/BPO units.

Definition of Manufacture clarified: official text omits conjunctive and between subclauses, confirming statutory wording and scope.
Clarification confirms the correct text of section 2(f) of the Central Excise Act: manufacture includes processes incidental or ancillary to completion of a manufactured product; processes specified in the Section or Chapter Notes of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act as amounting to manufacture; and processes involving packing, repacking, labelling, re labelling, declaration or alteration of retail sale price or other treatment to render goods marketable. The Official Gazette does not contain an inserted conjunctive between the enumerated clauses; stakeholders are asked to note and circulate the correction.

Mutual fund overseas investment liberalisation expands eligible securities and removes reciprocal shareholding requirement, subject to SEBI guidelines and RBI reporting.
Liberalisation permits SEBI registered Mutual Funds to invest more broadly overseas by removing the reciprocal shareholding requirement and expanding eligible securities, including specified overseas Exchange Traded Funds for qualified funds; SEBI will prescribe operational guidelines on eligibility, limits, recognised exchanges and monitoring, while monthly RBI reporting by Authorised Dealer Category I banks continues using a modified table and regulatory amendments to FEMA will be issued separately.

All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback revised to reflect input duties, service tax and input prices; transitional relief announced
Revision of the All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback effective 15.7.2006: rates recalculated by reference to input prices, SION norms, import share, applied duties, education cess and HSD/Furnace Oil duty; Drawback Rules amended to include service tax incidence on input services and exporters are directed not to claim that tax refund elsewhere. The Schedule adds 84 items, revises sectoral rates and caps across textiles, leather, metals, machinery, chemicals and others, and provides transitional provisional rates for certain reclassified items subject to stipulated conditions.

Concessional customs duty must be notionally applied to domestically sourced capital goods under EPCG, affecting export obligations.
EPCG capital goods procured domestically are subject to the scheme's concessional customs duty on a notional basis; this duty must be charged before any Authorisation invalidation and export obligations are calculated on the reduced duty-saved amount. The measure responds to ASCM subsidy concerns and applies prospectively to new Authorisations and those not yet invalidated.

Appointment of custodian required for portfolio managers, with exemptions for small managers and advisers under amended regulations.
Amendments redefine "principal officer" as an employee designated by the portfolio manager and set eligibility by either a professional qualification in finance, law, accountancy or business management, or at least ten years' related securities-market experience. A new rule mandates that every portfolio manager appoint a custodian for securities managed or administered by it, with exemptions for managers below a prescribed assets-under-management threshold and for those performing purely advisory functions. The amendments come into force on publication in the Official Gazette.

Special CVD payment through DFCE scrips disallowed, importers must pay Special CVD in cash and claim cenvat or drawback.
Imports under the DFCE notifications 53/2003-Cus. and 54/2003-Cus. cannot have the Special CVD @ 4% debited against DFCE scrips because those notifications exempt only the additional duty under subsection (1) of Section 3 and not the special CVD under subsection (5). Importers must therefore pay the Special CVD in cash at import, with subsequent recovery available, where eligible, by claiming Cenvat credit or drawback.

Mutual fund reporting obligations updated to require revised MCR and ASR formats including unit capital and new scheme reporting.
Revised reporting requirements require all registered mutual funds to submit MCR and ASR in modified formats including unit capital data, with ASR aggregated across schemes. New-scheme details must be reported in the MCR for the month in which allotment occurs. The circular is issued under statutory powers to protect investors and regulate the securities market.

Mandatory PAN requirement clarifications: exemptions, limited-purpose BO accounts for NRIs, UN exemptions, and DP verification duties.
The circular requires production of the Permanent Account Number (PAN) for opening Beneficiary Owner (BO) accounts, allows SEBI-registered entities to open accounts without immediate PAN provided the PAN card is submitted within thirty days or accounts are frozen as "Suspended for Debit," permits PAN allotment letters in lieu of PAN cards pending production by a compliance date, creates restricted "limited purpose BO accounts" for NRIs/PIOs unable to obtain PAN with constrained credits and sale conditions, exempts tax-exempt U.N./multilateral entities and Sikkim residents subject to documentary proof, and directs DPs and depositories to verify documents, amend bylaws, collect proof of address, and report implementation.

Basic Customs Duty defined as the duty determining DFCE import eligibility under status holder and target plus schemes.
The term Duty in provisions permitting import under DFCE for the Status Holder and Target Plus Schemes is clarified to mean Basic Customs Duty only; this interpretation applies to the specified agricultural items listed in Para 3.2.5 of the Handbook of Procedures and Para 3.7.6 of the Foreign Trade Policy, and excludes other components of customs incidence when determining eligibility for DFCE based imports.

End-use certification requires declaration of non WMD use, prohibition on retransfer without Indian government consent, and verification.
Amendment requires an End Use cum End User Certificate for SCOMET exports on end user letterhead identifying the item, exporter and declared end use; it must affirm sole use for the stated purpose, prohibit modification, replication or retransfer without Government of India consent, permit post installation verification, and certify non use in WMD development. For Schedule 3 chemicals transferred to non party states, recipient state certification is required confirming permitted uses under the Chemical Weapons Convention and no re export.

Irrevocable letter of credit rule clarified: status holders may use irrevocable L/C while others need confirmed L/C.
Chapter 4 and Appendices 22A and 22B amend documentary requirements by substituting "confirmed irrevocable letter of credit" with a distinction: an irrevocable letter of credit for status holders and a confirmed irrevocable letter of credit for others. Appendix 22B provides a new Bank Certificate of Payments for Domestic Supplies template requiring invoice details, payment/realisation particulars, bank reference where applicable, and a declaration; realization details may be omitted only where supplies are against the specified irrevocable inland letter of credit arrangements. A new Aayaat-Niryat Form entry 5A requires recording the SION serial number for DEPB claims on packing material.

Deduction for converted interest allowed only on actual payment; apportionment required if interest is merged with principal.
Converted interest (including Funded Interest Term Loans) does not amount to actual payment by mere conversion; deduction under section 43B is admissible only in the previous year when such converted interest is actually paid. Waiver of interest is not deductible. If converted interest is merged with principal and repayments are indistinguishable, the interest component of any repayment must be apportioned and only that portion is deductible. Assessing Officers may require lender certification to verify actual payment.

Encashment Certificate requirement: authorised dealers may issue ECF on letter head when requested, security paper rule removed.
Encashment Certificate issuance procedures are amended to allow Authorised Dealer banks (Category I) to provide the form ECF on their letter head (with logo), duly signed by authorised officials, when requested by customers, regardless of the amount; the security paper requirement is withdrawn. Proper records of all ECFs must be maintained and customers advised that absence of an ECF may bar conversion of unspent local currency held by non resident visitors into foreign currency. Directions are issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and do not affect other statutory permissions.

Mandatory PAN requirement for cash market trades: trades allowed only after member collection, verification and exchange upload of PAN.
PAN must be collected from all existing and new cash market clients, verified with original documents, cross checked via the Income Tax Department web facility, and uploaded to the exchange as part of the unique client code; cash market trades shall be executed only for clients whose PAN details have been collected and uploaded.

FII regulatory amendment requires updated reporting for security receipt investments and prompt compliance by investors and custodians.
SEBI amended the regulatory framework for Foreign Institutional Investors by issuing a gazette notification and directed FIIs and custodians to implement the changes; a standardized reporting format for investments in security receipts will be circulated separately and the amendment text is published on SEBI's website for compliance and operational implementation.

Adjustment of seized cash disallowed against advance tax liability for the year in which a search occurred.
The Board decided that law does not permit application of seized cash against an assessee's advance tax liability for the year in which a search took place, and therefore such adjustment is not allowable.

Amendment to Standard Input Output Norms updates SION entries and adds engineering and food input norms requiring compliance and EODC.
Amendment to the Handbook of Procedures (Vol.2, 2004-2009) revises Standard Input Output Norms (SION) across chemical, engineering, food, handicraft and plastics product groups by amending descriptions, deleting specified entries, and altering input quantity norms. It adds engineering SION C 2034 with component import allowances and two new engineering tables (alloy mass by thickness and resin consumption), and creates food SIONs E 127 and E 128 with import inputs subject to PFA compliance and EODC preconditions.