Round the clock customs clearance pilot enables facilitated imports and factory stuffed exports to be processed outside normal hours.
Pilot provision of round-the-clock customs clearance at specified Air Cargo Complexes and Seaports limited to facilitated Bills of Entry not requiring examination and assessment, and factory stuffed export containers and consignments covered by Free Shipping Bills. Implementation depends on redeployment of existing staff facilitated by self assessment and risk management, coordination with custodians and CHAs, confirmation of customs duty payment, and submission of fortnightly reports detailing documents filed and container/package movements in normal and extended hours.

Company Law Settlement Scheme grants immunity from prosecution and allows belated filings with a standardised additional fee.
A special Company Law Settlement Scheme for Jammu & Kashmir permits defaulting companies to file belated annual returns and balance sheets due up to 30.06.2012 by paying statutory filing fees plus an additional fee of twenty five percent of the standardised additional fee; applicants must withdraw any appeals against prosecution, file for immunity electronically after the Scheme's closure within six months, and receive an immunity certificate from the Registrar, which will result in withdrawal of related prosecutions. The Scheme excludes certain companies and specified filings and contemplates action against non participants after its close.

Input tax credit bifurcation: revised returns claiming both refund and carry forward will be accepted manually at a designated counter.
Where the online DVAT-16 return system prevents bifurcated claims of excess Input Tax Credit as both refund and carry forward in a single revised filing for prior periods, such revised returns will be accepted manually at the designated counter; a manual acknowledgement will be issued, the revised return will be updated in the database, and an online confirmation will appear in the dealer's return history. All other returns remain subject to normal online filing procedures.

Pending demand reporting ensures Central Declaration Forms issued only to dealers without outstanding DST dues, with officer liability for errors.
All pending DST period demands must be entered into the Central Information Platform so Central Declaration Forms are issued only to dealers showing no outstanding DST dues; inaccuracies may expose responsible officers to action under CCS (CCA) Rules, 1964. Entries must include demands under stay and those against cancelled dealers and be completed by Ward In-charges within three days, with Zonal In-charges monitoring daily progress.

Form 23B filing: fees will apply from 12 August 2012; form requires auditor and company details and digital signature.
The Circular mandates imposition of fees on certain MCA 21 e forms where none were prescribed, deferring fee application on Form 23B (auditor's intimation) until 12 August 2012; Form 23B requires mandatory auditor and company identifiers, appointment dates, acceptance status, attachments and digital signature, and will be filed electronically via MCA 21.

Relaxation from compulsory e-filing allows agents of non-residents and private discretionary trusts to avoid electronic submission due to system limits.
The Board exempted agents of non-residents (representative assessees) and private discretionary trusts from the mandatory electronic furnishing of income tax returns for the assessment year, on account of practical difficulties arising from multiple agent relationships and e filing software limitations that prevent acceptance of private discretionary trusts filing in the status of an individual.

ISIN activation: additional issues must be frozen under temporary ISINs until exchanges grant final trading permission.
For debt IPOs, ISINs shall be activated only on the date trading commences. For additional issues of listed companies, depositories shall allot new securities under a temporary ISIN which shall be frozen until the exchange grants final listing/trading permission. Upon receipt of final permission, securities in the temporary ISIN shall be debited and credited to the pre existing ISIN and then become available for trading. Exchanges must notify depositories of final permission; depositories must amend bye laws, inform DPs and publish the mechanism.

Direct Market Access clarified: brokers must use standardized terms and authorize institutional clients or investment managers after KYC.
DMA use is permitted by clients directly or through SEBI registered investment managers who may execute documentation on clients' behalf; standard Terms and Conditions replace specific Broker Client DMA agreements (Annexure I), with Part A for direct clients and Part B for investment manager routed orders and additional investment manager details in Annexure II. Brokers must authorize clients/investment managers after KYC and due diligence, validate DMA orders via risk systems, may reject or withdraw DMA for breaches or misuse, and disclaim liability for client side compromises, system failures, vendor transmission risks and service availability.

Financial statement filing relief permits non XBRL submission of revised Schedule VI accounts without additional fee within an extended period.
Companies required to file Forms 23AC and 23ACA under the revised schedule VI may submit those e forms in non XBRL format without additional fee or penalty for a limited extended filing period; the revised e form formats are under finalisation and will be notified on the MCA website. Filings must still include required authenticated balance sheet and profit and loss attachments, statements of subsidiaries, auditor particulars and qualifications, director comments, and verification by an authorised signatory.

Foreign investment from Pakistan permitted under government route, excluding defence, space and atomic energy sectors.
The policy amendment permits investment by a citizen of Pakistan or an entity incorporated in Pakistan, only under the Government route, in sectors/activities other than defence, space and atomic energy, revising paragraph 3.1.1 of the Consolidated FDI Policy and taking immediate effect.

Accredited Client Programme enables declaration-based customs clearance with limited RMS or intelligence-based exceptions for compliant traders.
The Accredited Client Programme creates a category of registered importers and exporters eligible for assured facilitation, allowing clearance based on declaration without routine physical examination, subject to exceptions identified by the Risk Management System, specific intelligence, or patterns of non-compliance; benefits apply at all ports where EDI and RMS operate, and eligible trade participants are directed to register under the scheme in accordance with existing procedural guidance.

Exemption scope for sports goods clarified: comprehensive coverage of equipment and accessories, subject to certification and undertaking.
Notification No.146/94-Customs exempts two categories: "sports goods, sports equipments and sports requisites" and their "spares, accessories and consumables"; classification by tariff chapter does not affect eligibility. The exemption requires a certificate from specified sports bodies for use in national or international competition and an importer undertaking. Both specialized equipment and optional accessories are covered, while exclusion is limited mainly to general purpose machines.

Filing requirement for unpaid and unclaimed amounts: single Form 5 INV must be filed with investor details uploaded accordingly.
Companies must file a single Form 5 INV each year to report unpaid and unclaimed amounts as on the date of the Annual General Meeting, uploading investor details in the prescribed excel template. Where multiple Form 5 INV filings were made for the same year, companies are directed to re-file a single consolidated Form 5 INV with investor details; companies that have not yet filed are permitted to file the single Form 5 INV with the excel investor schedule within the prescribed compliance window.

Deductibility denial for prohibited freebies: providers cannot claim deduction and recipients may face taxable income.
Expenses by pharmaceutical and allied health sector entities for freebees to medical practitioners or their associations that violate the Indian Medical Council Regulations, 2002 are inadmissible as business deductions under section 37(1) of the Income Tax Act because the Explanation denies deduction for expenses incurred for purposes prohibited by law; the provider must face disallowance. The equivalent value of such freebees is taxable in the hands of the recipient as business income or income from other sources, subject to factual examination by assessing officers.

Downstream investment treatment: banking-company restructuring and trading-book investments excluded from indirect foreign investment, but strategic subsidiary investments included.
Downstream investments by an Indian banking company owned or controlled by non-residents made under Corporate Debt Restructuring, other loan restructuring mechanisms, held in trading books, or arising from acquisition of shares due to loan defaults shall not count as indirect foreign investment; however, strategic downstream investments-investments by these banks in their subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates-shall count towards indirect foreign investment.

Due date extension for mandatory e filers after power disruption permits later filing under tax administrative powers.
Extension of the due date for filing income tax returns is directed for assessees mandatorily required to e file whose original statutory filing date fell on 31 July; the tax administration, invoking powers under Section 119 in light of power failures disrupting general life, shifts the operative filing deadline for that category to a later specified date as an administrative instruction.

Forward contract modification allowed for exporters to enhance hedging flexibility; banks may exclude options and overseas positions from NOOPL.
Exporters may cancel and rebook forward contracts involving the Rupee for hedging contracted export exposures up to an annual capped extent to provide operational flexibility. AD Category I banks may exclude their Net Options Position and positions of overseas branches from the Net Overnight Open Position Limit for Rupee involving positions, provided the bank's board fixes separate limits for these components within the overall NOOPL and communicates them to the Reserve Bank for approval.

Foreign exchange earnings retention restored for EEFC accounts, subject to conversion into rupees by the succeeding month after approved utilisations.
Full credit of foreign exchange receipts to EEFC accounts is permitted, conditioned on conversion of accruals in any calendar month into Rupee balances on or before the last day of the succeeding calendar month after adjusting for approved utilisations and forward commitments; the same procedure applies to Diamond Dollar and Resident Foreign Currency (Domestic) accounts, and authorised dealers must notify customers while other earlier terms remain unchanged.

Compounding of FEMA contraventions: a suo moto compounding application requires initiation of the compounding process.
When a contravention is identified or brought to the Reserve Bank other than via the prescribed compounding application, the Bank will determine whether it is technical/minor (administrative/cautionary advice), material (requires compounding under the prescribed procedure), or sensitive/serious (refer to the Directorate of Enforcement). If an entity files a suo moto compounding application admitting the contravention, it shall not be treated as technical or minor and the compounding process will be initiated under section 15(1) of FEMA read with the compounding rules.

Quarterly return submission: designated counters accept printed online returns under prescribed timings and verification controls.
Printed hard copies of electronically filed quarterly VAT returns, including refund and non-refund claims, will be accepted only at designated Front Office Extension Counters on specified dates and hours; zonal in-charges must manage floor-wise staff deployment, ensure that no manual return not filed online is accepted, and return date-and-number stamps issued for receipts by the prescribed closing hour.