Draft survey-based quantity determination governs coal and coke clearance, with up to 2% shortage allowed and no pre-dispatch 100% weighment.
An independent draft survey report, jointly prepared by carrier and consignee and countersigned by a Customs Officer before discharge, shall be used to ascertain actual quantities of coal and coke and Customs duty recovered on that quantity; shortages up to 2% of the manifested quantity are allowed without penalty, while larger shortages require explanation and may attract penalty under Section 116. 100% weighment before dispatch is not required, and custodians may deliver cargo after OOC using weighbridges as needed.

GST registration awareness campaign restarted with help desks, trader outreach, and full enrolment of eligible traders.
Restarting the GST registration awareness campaign requires renewal of suspended camp, meeting and survey activities while maintaining social distancing, with the object of increasing trader enrolment under GST across the State. District and divisional offices are to operate Help Desks for new registration and return filing, staffed by officers familiar with registration and return procedures, and the Help Desks are to be publicised so traders can use them effectively. Registration camps, meetings and seminars are to be reorganised, remaining business establishments identified in enumeration or survey are to be fully covered, and daily progress is to be accurately uploaded in the prescribed departmental format.

Refund of security deposit: Exchanges must follow prescribed retention and release timelines upon member surrender to protect investors.
SEBI prescribes retention and release timelines for security deposits after approval of Trading Member surrender: client-facing members' deposits are to be released only after the earlier of three years from receipt of surrender application or five years from disablement of trading terminals; members who conducted only proprietary trading in the preceding three years have deposits released after the earlier of one year from receipt of surrender application or three years from disablement. Exchanges must amend bye-laws, notify members, provide website dissemination, report implementation to SEBI, and maintain arbitration mechanisms for claims.

Single Window query module enables mandatory electronic PGA queries and replies before NOC issuance in ICES.
Single Window online Query Module in ICES allows PGAs in the SWNOC role to raise electronic queries to importers/Custom Brokers via ICEGATE; PGAs may grant NOC only after all electronic replies are furnished. The NOC processing screen will display the importer's AEO status for facilitation, and officers should report system access or implementation difficulties to the designated ICEGATE and departmental email contacts. The Public Notice shall operate as a standing order for departmental staff.

SGST reimbursement procedure requires return compliance, tax payment, separate tax-period applications, demand adjustments, and excludes State-tax defaulters.
SGST reimbursement for registered hotel and tour operators requires an application in Form-1 with Forms A and B, prior filing of all due returns, payment of the computed SGST, and a separate application for each tax period. Applicants must provide an affidavit of compliance. Reimbursement is adjusted against outstanding demands and approved investment-promotion assistance, and is unavailable to State-tax defaulters or evaders. Aggregate reimbursement under all schemes cannot exceed SGST payable or deposited. Payment follows approval, budget demand and budget allocation, with prescribed records maintained.

Change of shareholding approvals in SEZs require continuity, statutory clearances, financial disclosures and tax assessment safeguards.
The Board approved multiple changes in SEZ developer/co-developer shareholding, transfers, demergers and limited LoA extensions subject to conditions requiring seamless continuity of SEZ activities, fulfilment of eligibility criteria including security clearances, compliance with Revenue/Company Affairs/SEBI rules, immediate furnishing of full financial details to CBDT and the jurisdictional authority, disclosure of PAN and jurisdictional assessing officer, and preservation of the Assessing Officer's right to assess taxability arising from equity transfers, mergers or demergers.

Record retention obligations require insolvency professionals to preserve electronic and physical CIRP records for prescribed durations.
An insolvency professional must preserve CIRP records with electronic copies retained for at least eight years and physical copies of physical records for at least three years from the later of CIRP completion or conclusion of related proceedings; preservation covers any period the IP served as IRP or RP and specified categories of records necessary to give a complete account of the CIRP, stored securely and producible on demand under the Code and Regulations.

Customs Authority for Advance Rulings created to provide advance rulings; notifications issued and publicity sought.
The circular notifies the Customs Authority for Advance Rulings (CAAR) Regulations, 2021, records the formal notification of two constituent CAAR authorities in specified jurisdictions, and directs departmental officers to publicise the Regulations locally. It emphasises the Regulations as the statutory mechanism for obtaining advance rulings on customs matters and requests reporting of any implementation difficulties to the Board.

Informer management requires duplicate slips, mandatory LTI and undertaking, AE-1/AE-2 reporting, sealed custody and LTI matching.
A standardized informer-management procedure requires duplicate information slips with the informer's Left Thumb Impression and a mandatory undertaking (noting liability under Section 182 IPC), creation of an AE-1 report, placement of originals and duplicates in sealed covers with identifying marks and AE-1 number, custody by the receiving officer with transfer on succession, maintenance of an AE-1 register, restriction on disclosure of informer details beyond LTI, preparation of AE-2 to record officials' roles for reward sanctioning, and LTI matching at disbursal (reporting officer's cover opened if receiving cover is lost).

Quarterly return monthly payment scheme: monthly tax deposits required with quarterly GSTR-3B filing and prescribed payment methods.
The circular implements the QRMP scheme allowing registered persons with aggregate turnover up to five crore rupees to file quarterly returns while making monthly tax payments. Eligibility is GSTIN-wise based on portal-calculated turnover; option windows, default migration criteria, and opt-out rules are set. Outward supplies are filed in quarterly GSTR-1 with an optional Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF) for the first two months subject to a per-month value cap. Monthly tax deposits via Form GST PMT-06 are required by the 25th, using either a system fixed sum method or self-assessment; deposits offset quarterly liability and interest and late-fee rules are clarified.

Input tax credit reconciliation: cumulative supplier-uploaded invoice cap requires reversal of excess claimed in the subsequent return.
Taxpayers must cumulatively reconcile ITC claimed in FORM GSTR-3B for February-August 2020 with supplier-uploaded invoice details available up to the due date of FORM GSTR-1 for September 2020; cumulative ITC claimed must not exceed 110% of the cumulative eligible credit evidenced by supplier uploads and remains subject to general ITC eligibility rules. Any excess ITC identified must be reversed in Table 4(B)(2) of FORM GSTR-3B for September 2020, failing which the excess will be treated as ineligible credit for that month.

IRP/RP registration rules clarified: fresh registration generally required, with exceptions and authorized-signatory transfer allowed.
Clarification confirms IRP/RP generally must obtain separate GST registration under the special procedure, but if the corporate debtor furnished all pre-appointment GST returns and statements, IRP/RP need not obtain a fresh registration. A single new registration suffices and subsequent IRP/RP changes are to be effected by amendment of the authorized signatory rather than fresh registrations. Pandemic-related statutory time limits for compliance that fall within the specified period are extended to the later prescribed date, including the merchant-exporter export-period requirement and the quarterly filing of FORM GST ITC-04.

GST refund and adjustment: suppliers must issue credit notes or refund vouchers to adjust tax or claim excess payment refunds.
Procedural clarifications require issuance of a credit note to adjust GST paid on advances or returned goods where an invoice was issued, declared in the return for the month of issuance and adjusted against output liability; if no output liability exists, taxpayers may claim excess tax refund through Form GST RFD-01. Where GST was paid on advances without issuance of invoice, a refund voucher must be issued and refund sought via Form GST RFD-01. Zero-rated supplies may continue under LUT subject to furnishing annual form Form GST RFD-11 within the extended timeline.

GST compliance relief: reduced interest and late-fee waivers for delayed returns subject to specified filing conditions.
Clarification sets out that specified COVID-19 relief measures under HPGST permit delayed filings for composition taxpayers (Form GST CMP-02, CMP-08, GSTR-4, GST ITC-03), grant a nil-interest window for the first 15 days after GSTR-3B due dates and reduced interest thereafter for larger taxpayers, and nil interest for smaller taxpayers, subject to filing by notification dates; waive late fees if returns/statements are filed by prescribed dates; suspend rule 36(4) for input tax credit for February-August 2020 with cumulative adjustment in September 2020; extend e-way bill validity and suspend/extend various statutory time limits to June 30, 2020 under section 168A.

Email authentication protocols protect exporters by validating senders and reducing payment interception risks.
Email spoofing and phishing cause exporters to ship goods without receiving payment; implementation of SPF, DKIM and DMARC is advised to authenticate senders and protect message integrity. SPF authorizes sending IPs via DNS, DKIM provides cryptographic signatures to assure content integrity and domain ownership, and DMARC ties SPF and DKIM to a policy and reporting framework that instructs receivers how to treat unauthenticated messages. Exporters should also follow stronger password practices and confirm bank details via a secure alternate channel.

RoDTEP export rebate claims require shipping-bill declarations, post-manifest processing, ICEGATE credits, and controlled scrip utilisation or transfer.
RoDTEP rebates unrefunded Central, State and local duties, taxes and levies on exported products. Exporters must make an item-wise RoDTEP declaration in the shipping bill; no benefit accrues where the prescribed claim option is not selected, and claims cannot be altered after filing of the export general manifest. Eligible claims are processed after that filing and credited through scrolls to ICEGATE. Registered IEC holders may create credit-ledger accounts, generate credit scrips from eligible shipping bills, use scrips for notified import duties, and transfer them through OTP-verified procedures. Suspended scrips cannot be used or transferred.

Record retention obligations require insolvency professionals to preserve and produce CIRP records, maintaining secure electronic and physical archives.
The circular mandates that insolvency professionals preserve CIRP records in electronic form for an extended statutory period from completion of the CIRP or conclusion of related proceedings, and retain physical copies for a shorter statutory period; records must be stored securely, produced on demand, and preserved for the specific period of the CIRP handled by the IP. It lists categories of records to be maintained, including appointment, handover, admission, public announcement, CoC records, claims and verification, professional engagements and reports, information memorandum, official filings and orders, resolution plan processes, statutory filings, correspondence, process costs, and avoidance transaction records.

Collegium mechanism exempted where only one senior officer exists; Pr. CCIT approval now governs recovery surveys in such regions.
The Board modifies its prior section 119 Order to exempt regions having only one officer at the level of Pr. CCIT or CCIT from the Collegium mechanism; in such regions recovery surveys will be conducted after obtaining approval of the concerned Pr. CCIT, thereby providing a delegated approval route in place of the previously prescribed Collegium composition for non-central charges.

Proper officer functions under Assam GST assigned across tax cadres with limited powers, approvals, and authorisations specified.
Assignment of proper officer functions under the Assam Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Assam Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 to designated State tax cadres, pursuant to re-designation of posts. The Principal Commissioner of State Tax, Assam allocates specified statutory and rule-based powers to officers ranging from Special Commissioner and Additional Commissioner to Joint Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner and Superintendent of State tax, with the table mapping each designation to the relevant sections and rules.

ITC blocking/unblocking under Rule 86A clarified: use Enforcement Alert menu and stop marking duplicate copies to headquarters.
Vigilance enforcement units must enter actions taken under Rule 86A against ITC claimed on invoices from non-existent firms into the SIB module's Enforcement Alert menu; this electronic entry notifies the concerned sector office and provides MIS, and copies of compliance letters/e-mails shall no longer be separately marked to the Vigilance Enforcement Section, Headquarters.