Maintenance of multiple bank accounts for mutual funds enables investor convenience and financial inclusion under regulatory guidance.
Mutual funds are directed to maintain current accounts with an appropriate number of banks, including those outside major cities, for receiving subscription amounts and for payment of redemptions, dividends, brokerage, commission and related disbursements, to promote financial inclusion and investor convenience, recognising exceptions to general banking restrictions and the industry's analogy between continuous subscriptions/redemptions and offerings/buybacks.

Minimum unit holder requirements for unlisted InvITs impose compliance obligations on existing registered unlisted InvITs.
Amendment to the InvIT Regulations mandates a minimum number and holding of unit holders for unlisted InvITs. Registered unlisted InvITs which have already issued units must comply with sub regulation (3) of Regulation 26B within the compliance period specified in the circular. The circular, issued under the regulator's statutory powers, applies to all InvITs and parties to InvITs and is published on the regulator's website.

Resident Indian contribution rule: LRS funding allowed into global funds with limited Indian exposure under amended FPI guidelines.
The circular updates SEBI's Operational Guidelines to allow resident Indian individual contributions to be made through the Liberalised Remittance Scheme and invested only in global funds whose Indian exposure is less than 50%, aligning SEBI regulations with tax-related provisions enabling resident Indian fund managers to operate for offshore funds; DDPs and custodians must inform clients of the change.

Restriction on opening current accounts: banks must follow exposure-based rules and implement changes non disruptively with oversight.
The circular reiterates a restriction on opening current accounts for borrowers with CC/OD facilities and prescribes a graded approach based on banking-system exposure; non-lending banks may open accounts for collection in specified circumstances. Banks are allowed extra time to engage borrowers and resolve operational issues, escalate unresolved matters to the industry association and regulator, extend exemptions for white label ATM operators to Cash-in-Transit and cash replenishment agencies, and implement head office and regional monitoring mechanisms to ensure non-disruptive implementation while maintaining ineligibility for current accounts where borrowers have agricultural/personal ODs or ODs against deposits.

Continuous AEO-T1 certification replaces periodic renewal, subject to annual self-declarations, compliance review, and revocation for adverse findings.
Continuous AEO-T1 certification replaces periodic renewal applications, subject to annual self-declarations, compliance monitoring and comprehensive compliance review. Annual declarations are filed through the AEO online portal between 1 October and 31 December, with entities certified during a calendar year exempt for that year. Review follows at least two annual declarations and must be completed before the third declaration becomes due. Changes in compliance or adverse inputs may prompt action. Following review, continuous certification may be approved or revoked; revoked entities must submit a fresh certification application.

Extension of limitation applies to GST appeals and revisions, not to original adjudication or routine taxpayer compliances.
The Supreme Court order of 27.04.2021 extends limitation periods only for judicial and quasi judicial proceedings-appeals, reviews, revisions and similar lis-and therefore filing periods for appeals before appellate authorities, tribunals and courts under GST are extended until further orders. Statutory compliances, original adjudication, investigations, searches, summons, arrests and routine taxpayer actions remain governed by the CGST Act, Section 168A notifications and departmental timelines and are not covered by the Supreme Court extension.

Bankers to an Issue registration for payments banks allowed, subject to RBI approval and BTI regulatory conditions.
Non scheduled Payments Banks with prior RBI approval may register as Bankers to an Issue subject to the SEBI (Bankers to an Issue) Regulations, 1994; they may also act as Self Certified Syndicate Banks if they satisfy Board criteria, and all blocking/movement of investor subscription funds must be through the investor's savings account with the payments bank.

Extension of limitation under GST law applies to judicial and quasi-judicial appeals, not to original adjudication or routine compliances.
Extension of limitation granted by the apex court is confined to proceedings of a judicial or quasi-judicial character and, as applied under Section 168A of the HGST Act, extends time limits for filing and pursuing appeals, reviews, revisions and similar appellate proceedings under the GST regime; it does not broaden statutory timelines for original adjudication, routine taxpayer compliances, or executive investigative actions which continue to be governed by statutory time limits.

Extension of filing deadlines for specified income-tax e-forms provides additional time for electronic submission and regularisation.
CBDT extends electronic filing due dates for specified Income-tax Forms: Quarterly Form 15CC and Equalization Levy Statement (Form 1) are granted additional time; investment fund statements (Forms 64D and 64C) receive further extensions; and, where the e filing utility was unavailable, Pension Fund intimations (Form 10BBB) and Sovereign Wealth Fund intimations (Form II SWF) are likewise extended. The circular clarifies that forms e filed after prior extended deadlines or statutory time limits up to the date of this circular will be regularised accordingly.

Extension of limitation periods directs authorities to apply the nationwide limitation suspension to review and objection proceedings.
Extension of limitation periods for judicial and quasi judicial proceedings applies irrespective of condonability and must be followed by assessing and objection hearing authorities under the DVAT framework for suo motu review, review, rectification, applications and objection petitions; pending appeals may nevertheless continue to be heard and disposed of under existing DVAT Act procedures.

Extension of limitation periods applies to judicial and quasi judicial appeals under GST, not to original adjudication or routine compliances.
The Supreme Court's extension of limitation dated 27.04.2021 applies to judicial and quasi judicial proceedings in the nature of petitions, suits, appeals, reviews and revisions, and therefore extends limitation for filing appeals and similar remedies against quasi judicial orders; ordinary statutory compliances and taxpayer actions remain governed by statutory timelines and notifications and are not covered by that order.

AEO-T1 continuous certification: auto-renewal requires annual self-declaration and periodic comprehensive compliance review to retain status.
AEO-T1 holders are moved to an auto renewal continuous certification model conditioned on an annual self declaration filed within a prescribed window and subject to zonal review. Zonal AEO Programme Managers record declarations, may seek supporting information, and initiate a Comprehensive Compliance Review based on at least two declarations or from the last successful auto renewal; the zone will approve or revoke continuous certification following review. Annual declarations are filed via the AEO web portal, with exemptions for entities certified within the certification year, and field formations must report any non compliance to zonal and national managers.

Relaxation of compliance timelines: SEBI extends deadlines for KYC, audit and reporting obligations to address COVID-19 disruption.
SEBI extends timelines for specified compliance obligations due to COVID-19, including extended windows for uploading client KYC documents to KRA systems with an interim backlog clearance period; deferred submission deadlines for internal, system and cyber security/cyber resilience audit reports for the March period; deferral of Risk Based Supervision reporting; maintained call recording obligations; and continued permission to operate trading terminals from designated alternate locations subject to immediate mobile confirmation to clients after order execution. Exchanges and Clearing Corporations must notify members and publish the circular.

Instant Access Facility limited to Overnight and Liquid schemes; unclaimed dividend amounts may be invested in low risk overnight funds.
Unclaimed redemption and dividend amounts may be invested in a separate plan of Overnight, Liquid, or Money Market Mutual Fund schemes established specifically for such amounts, provided those plans are placed in the relatively low interest rate and relatively low credit risk cell of the Potential Risk Class matrix; AMCs shall not charge exit load and the plan's TER is capped at the direct plan TER or fifty basis points, whichever is lower. Implementation date for this change is December 1, 2021.

Intra-day NAV applies to ETF transactions with AMCs based on the executed price of underlying securities.
SEBI clarifies that Intra-day Net Asset Value applies to ETF unit transactions conducted directly with Asset Management Companies where the price is determined by the executed price of securities representing the underlying index or commodity(ies); disclosure of this intra-day NAV treatment must be made in the Scheme Information Document, Key Information Memorandum and Common Application Form.

Online refund process for user charges enables electronic claims with verification, time limits and sanction validity.
Amendments set a revised scale of user charges for specified DGFT services and establish an online-first deposit mechanism with eMPS fallback. Refunds are permitted only for excess payments, payments made without an application, or payments made in error by exempt applicants; online refund applications auto-route to the jurisdictional authority or DGFT(HQ), which must verify, obtain PAO authorisation and sanction refunds within one year of payment. Sanction orders expire after three months. Adjustment/refund is allowed where earlier authorisations/scrips are cancelled and replaced, subject to local head approval.

CSR funding for COVID-19 vaccination confirmed eligible under health-care and disaster-management provisions, subject to CSR Rules.
Spending of CSR funds on COVID-19 vaccination for persons other than employees and their families is eligible under Schedule VII entries for promotion of health care including preventive health care and for disaster management; companies undertaking such vaccination-related CSR must comply with the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014 and applicable Ministry circulars.

GST exemption on board-conducted examinations: fees and related input services exempt, accreditation fees taxable at standard rate.
GST is exempt on services by Central or State educational boards, including the National Board of Examination, when the service is the conduct of examinations (including entrance exams) and on input services relating to admission or conduct of examinations provided to such boards. Services such as accreditation, registration or authorisation provided by these boards are not exempt and are taxable at the standard GST rate.

Dynamic QR Code requirement: B2C invoices must include scannable payment QR or recorded payment cross reference to be compliant.
The circular explains that the Dynamic QR Code requirement applies to B2C tax invoices issued by registered persons exceeding the prescribed turnover threshold, subject to specified supplier and supply exclusions and export e invoicing treatment; it prescribes QR data elements (GSTIN, UPI ID, bank account/IFSC, invoice number/date, total value, GST breakup) and confirms that an invoice is deemed compliant where payment cross references (transaction id, date, time, amount, payment mode) or cash payment details are recorded on the invoice, while suppliers must provide a Dynamic QR Code on invoices when payment occurs after issuance.

Duty drawback risk management enables automated processing of facilitated shipping bills while retaining verification for selected claims.
RMS-based processing of duty drawback claims applies after filing of the corresponding Export General Manifest. Shipping bills are risk-assessed and either facilitated for automatic entry into the scroll-in queue or routed to the proper Customs officer for verification and processing. Facilitated cases are shown in designated drawback reports and flagged in the temporary drawback scroll, with recall available for further scrutiny. Required drawback documents may be uploaded through e-Sanchit at shipping bill filing using applicable document codes.