Electronic sealing requirement: mandatory RFID sealing for goods moved under warehousing bond extended; stakeholders must comply and report issues.
Electronic sealing is mandated for movement of goods under customs warehousing bond, requiring RFID sealing for consignments deposited in or removed from Customs bonded warehouses; the mandatory implementation date has been extended by Board circular and stakeholders are instructed to comply strictly and report any difficulties in implementation to the issuing office.

Tax Deduction at Source under GST: DDOs must deduct, deposit via GSTN using CPIN and report in GSTR 7.
Government deductors must withhold TDS under Section 51, deposit deducted amounts to the Government via GSTN by generating a CPIN (payable by NEFT/RTGS or OTC), obtain CIN on payment which credits the electronic cash ledger, register as DDOs on the portal with GSTIN, maintain a register per Annexure A, and file monthly FORM GSTR 7 and issue FORM GSTR 7A. Two process flows are provided: Option I (bill wise CPIN per payment) and Option II (bunching deductions in a Suspense Head and periodic consolidated CPIN payment).

Recovery as land revenue: delegation allows commissioners to recover GST dues and sanction upset price, auction, or imprisonment.
Delegation authorizes specified Joint Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and Additional Commissioners to recover GST dues as arrears of land revenue upon receipt of a proper officer's certificate, and to sanction upset price, auction and civil imprisonment under the Land Revenue Code in assigned sequences, subject to territorial jurisdictional limits.

RFID one time locks mandated for bonded warehouse movements, with electronic trip reports and ISO compliant vendor and reader requirements.
Importers, exporters, owners and licencees must use RFID anti tamper one time locks (RFID OTL) instead of mechanical one time locks for movement of goods into, out of, and between bonded warehouses; vendors listed on the CBIC portal must supply ISO compliant RFID OTLs, capture TID and warehouse linkage at sale, and provide readers/data upload capability. The circular prescribes specific data elements to be captured for each movement scenario, requires licencees to procure readers, establishes that scanned RFID "trip reports" serve as arrival acknowledgements, mandates examination on tamper detection, and allows discretionary exemptions by the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner.

e-SANCHIT document upload: PGAs will furnish LPCOs electronically and beneficiaries must register on ICEGATE for access.
e-SANCHIT under SWIFT will centralise electronic submission of regulatory documents and transition upload responsibility to Participating Government Agencies, which will upload Licences, Permits, Certificates and Other Authorizations and generate a unique IRN. Beneficiaries will be notified via their ICEGATE-registered email and a viewing facility will be provided. Following a pilot with three PGAs and subsequent rollout, beneficiaries will not be permitted to upload PGA-issued documents themselves and are directed to register on ICEGATE per the published procedure.

Customs duty on cruise ship consumption: duty payable based on vessel self assessment; domestic passengers cannot buy duty free onboard.
Cruise vessels must pay customs duty on consumption of stores including alcohol based on the vessel's self assessment and declaration; Customs may recover appropriate duty. No routine Customs escort will accompany domestic legs, though the Chief Commissioner may deploy officers when necessary. Domestic passengers on domestic sectors cannot buy duty free goods onboard and will pay duty on such purchases at the next port. International passengers retain baggage allowances under the Baggage Rules, 2016. Calling at an Indian port, transit through territorial waters, or staying at port renders the vessel liable for duty; mere passage without calling does not.

Classification of e-seals as base-metal seals directs customs to assess them under the seals tariff item.
RFID e-seals are functionally seals with an electronic add-on that evidences tampering; accordingly they are to be classified under Heading 8309 as seals and other packing accessories of base metal, and customs assessments must follow that tariff treatment.

Extension of filing due date for income-tax returns and audit reports; interest under Section 234A remains payable.
The Board, under Section 119 of the Income-tax Act, further extends the due date for filing return of income and audit reports for the relevant assessment year for assessees covered by the return-filing explanation, and specifies that assessees filing within the extended period shall remain liable for interest under Section 234A as provided in the earlier order.

Unverified transit declaration forms require assessment, penalty, and strict reporting where TDF-2 was not uploaded.
Unverified transit declaration forms (TDF-1) without the corresponding TDF-2 upload are treated as indicating that the goods were brought into Uttar Pradesh for sale. For financial year 2015-16, such cases are to be assessed under the second proviso to section 26 by applying the presumption under section 52, with tax under section 28(9) and penalty under section 54(1). The circular designates Assistant Commissioners (In-charge), Mobile Squad units as assessing authorities, authorises zonal transfer of pending cases, and prescribes monthly and quarterly reporting formats and deadlines.

Customs Broker Licence examination scheduled; applicants must meet eligibility, pass written and oral exams, and submit complete applications on time.
Examination for grant of a Customs Broker Licence under Regulation 6 will be conducted by the Commissionerate. Applicants must meet Regulation 5 eligibility criteria-citizenship, sound mind, non-insolvency, Aadhar and PAN, no specified penalties or criminal convictions, requisite educational/professional qualifications or equivalent customs experience, and financial viability evidenced by bank certification or acceptable asset proof. The Commissioner may verify eligibility; written and oral examinations both must be passed, with a capped number of attempts. Applications in prescribed Form A with required documents and attested photo must be complete and timely or will be rejected.

Refund on inverted duty structure: formula requires net ITC-based computation and defines adjusted turnover criteria.
The amendment prescribes a formula for refund on account of inverted duty structure computing maximum refund as a function of turnover of inverted-rated supplies, Net ITC and Adjusted Total Turnover, defines Net ITC as input tax credit availed in the relevant period excluding certain claims, and retains the existing meaning of Adjusted Total Turnover; it also establishes a detailed Consumer Welfare Fund regime with a Standing Committee to administer credits, grants, investments, audits, and compliance measures.

Eligibility of educational services for SEIS: services to NRI students qualify, sponsored Indian students excluded.
Educational services provided by Indian institutes to Non-Resident Indian students qualify for SEIS benefits under the FTP 2015-20 when the student is a foreign consumer; services to Indian students sponsored by NRIs are excluded because they are not foreign consumers. This clarification was issued by the DGFT in consultation with the Department of Commerce.

Phase-out of plastic recycling units in SEZs upheld, licence renewal denied to protect environmental and export policy objectives.
The Board refused renewal of the LoA for plastic waste and scrap recycling in Kandla SEZ, citing environmental concerns, prior policy to phase out such units, misuse of SEZ rules to channel goods to DTA and the ban on import of solid plastic waste in the DTA; renewal would set an adverse precedent. The BoA also disposed of multiple appeals: penalty matters held final, time-barred revalidation directed to submit revised business plan, SEEPZ LoA cancellations upheld for structural and procedural deficiencies, various proposal rejections for misleading information or being outside authorized SEZ activities, and some matters referred for consultation with DGFT or further departmental approvals.

Family assistance scheme: Rs. 5 lakh accidental-death benefit for eligible registered Rajasthan dealers' legal heirs.
Family Assistance Scheme provides a lump-sum accidental-death benefit of Rs. 5 lakhs to the nearest kin or legal heir of a registered Rajasthan VAT/GST dealer/trader who is a bona fide resident and has carried on business for at least one year, limited to proprietors, partners and heads or family members of HUFs; claims require no pending anti-evasion cases or outstanding VAT/GST returns/demands, mandatory specified documents, submission within six months of death, non-duplication with government-sponsored accidental-death insurance, and registration with the Rajasthan Vyapari Kalyan Board upon payment of the annual e-gras fee.

Cross empowerment of tax authorities allows intelligence based enforcement across the entire value chain with initiating authority prosecuting the case.
Both Central and State tax administrations are authorized to initiate intelligence based enforcement against any taxpayer irrespective of administrative assignment, and the authority that initiates such action is empowered to complete the entire process of investigation, issuance of show cause notices, adjudication, recovery and filing of appeals without transferring the case to the administratively assigned counterpart.

Compensation cess refund entitlement for international organizations: refunds allowed on intra and inter state supplies subject to prescribed conditions.
Entities specified under the CGST refund-entitlement framework-including UN agencies, specified international organizations, foreign diplomatic missions or consular posts in India, and diplomatic agents or career consular officers posted therein-are eligible to claim refund of Compensation Cess paid on intra State and inter State supplies of goods or services, subject to the same conditions and restrictions set out in the notification that identifies such entities, with CGST notifications (other than rate or exemption orders) applying mutatis mutandis to Compensation Cess refunds.

Reward guidelines expanded to include GST recoveries and permit rewards to eligible non-CBIC officers on par with CBIC.
Amendments expand the reward framework to include recovery of dues under CGST and IGST for calculating reward amounts; permit officers of other Departments/Agencies who assist in relevant investigations to be eligible for rewards if they hold rank equivalent to or lower than Additional Commissioner of Customs & Central Excise; revise Apex Reward Committee composition for high-value informer rewards to include Principal DGRI/DGGSTI and any two Principal Chief Commissioners/Chief Commissioners; update agency nomenclature; and make the amendments applicable to pending cases and advance reward recommendations.

Mandatory registration on ICEGATE for e-SANCHIT PGA uploads; beneficiaries must register to receive IRN notifications.
e-SANCHIT under SWIFT requires PGAs to upload licences, permits, certificates and other authorisations (LPCOs) to the system; a unique Image Reference Number (IRN) will be generated and communicated to the beneficiary via the email id registered with ICEGATE, and beneficiaries must register on ICEGATE to receive notifications and access PGA-uploaded documents; after PGA implementation beneficiaries cannot upload those documents themselves.

Online registration requirement: eligible units must use ACES GST portal for filing and processing budgetary support claims.
Mandatory online registration on the ACES GST portal is required to obtain a unique ID for filing, processing, sanction and payment of quarterly budgetary support claims for eligible units in Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and the North East including Sikkim; jurisdictional Deputy Commissioners or Assistant Commissioners of Central Tax shall approve online registrations based on earlier manual approvals without further verification, and claims from the quarter ending September 2018 onwards must be filed and processed online while PFMS integration for electronic disbursement is being implemented.

Relaxation of additional fees for delayed filing of annual returns and financial statements extends relief for affected companies.
The Ministry authorised waiver of additional fees for delayed electronic filings of AOC-4, AOC (CFS), AOC-4 XBRL and MGT-7 for companies with registered offices in the affected State, recognising disruption to normal business due to heavy rains and floods and making the concession applicable only where additional fee would otherwise be leviable.