PFMS verification failures impede IGST refund disbursal; exporters must update ICEGATE bank and AD Code details to resolve errors.
IGST refunds and drawback disbursals may fail when PFMS cannot verify bank or Authorized Dealer Code details; IEC holders must register on ICEGATE, verify or update bank account and AD Code information to match bank records, and follow ICEGATE advisories for rectifying specific PFMS error codes. For 'failed-after-success' transactions, ICES Advisory No.18/2020 creates the SCROLL_PC role to enable reprocessing, updating of account details via CLK, and generation of temp or final PC scrolls to allow re-scrolling of corrected shipping bills.

Standardized unit quantity codes required for exports and imports; non-standard units allowed temporarily, then disallowed.
DGFT mandates standardized Unit Quantity Codes (UQCs) in its EDI and Customs' ICEGATE. No new authorizations shall use non-standard units (e.g., BoU, packs, boxes, cartons, bottles); system changes are being made. Customs will accept shipping bills against existing authorizations with non-standard units until the transition cutoff to prevent export disruption. Authorization holders must obtain conversion of non-standard units to standard units from their Regional Authority; RAs facing difficulty will consult the Norms Committee. Post-transition, imports and exports without standard UQCs will be disallowed.

Faceless Assessment rollout for imports assigns Bills of Entry to national assessment groups with new ICES roles and monitoring.
The Standing Order mandates phased All India roll out of Faceless Assessment at Nhava Sheva, assigning Bills of Entry to designated Faceless Assessment Groups via the Customs Automated System, defining new ICES roles (VAO, VDC, VDN), specifying operational workflows for first check, provisional assessment, testing and recalls, retaining certain port functions with the port of import, constituting National Assessment Centres to ensure uniformity in classification and valuation, establishing monitoring dashboards and reporting requirements, and vesting appeals in Commissioners of Customs (Appeals) for the port of import.

Verification rules require importers to prove origin criteria and face compulsory checks if origin information or care is inadequate.
CAROTAR, 2020 and section 28DA require importers claiming preferential duty to retain specified minimum information demonstrating satisfaction of Rules of Origin; mere submission of a Certificate of Origin does not relieve the importer of exercising reasonable care. Where information is not provided or reasonable care is not exercised, the matter is to be reported to the Risk Management Centre to enable compulsory verification of future consignments until adequate controls are established. Verification requests to the Board must follow prescribed SOPs, include representative COOs and supporting documents, and be routed through the designated nodal point.

Rules of Origin verification: importers must declare origin, retain Form I evidence and comply with document requests promptly.
Importers claiming preferential rates must declare goods as originating, cite the tariff notification, produce Certificates of Origin and enter CoO details in the bill of entry, and possess and retain Form I information demonstrating compliance with origin criteria including regional value content and product specific rules. Proper officers may requisition these documents, requiring a ten working day response; if satisfied, acceptance must be communicated within fifteen working days, otherwise a verification proposal is forwarded. Importers must exercise reasonable care in accuracy and retain supporting documents for five years.

Faceless Assessment rollout expands centralized commodity-wise assessment, assigning NACs and nodal officers to standardize classification, valuation and appeals.
Faceless assessment at Mumbai Customs Zone III will be extended in phases with the Customs Automated System assigning Bills of Entry to officers of designated Faceless Assessment Groups. Eleven commodity wise National Assessment Centres (NACs) are constituted with specified conveners, co conveners and nodal officers; NACs will monitor and promote uniformity in classification, valuation, exemption application and compliance, analyse RMS facilitated Bills of Entry, liaise with ports and industry, and form working groups on valuation, classification and outreach. Jurisdictional nodal officers are named for Mumbai Zone III and Commissioners of Customs (Appeals) are empowered to hear appeals arising from faceless assessments.

Anti-evasion cell reorganisation assigns inspection, search, seizure, arrest and goods-in-movement inspection functions under the DGST framework.
Enforcement I and Enforcement II branches are redesignated as Anti-Evasion Cell-I and Anti-Evasion Cell-II to prevent tax evasion and strengthen tax-collection monitoring. Anti-Evasion Cell-I handles inspection, search, seizure, arrest, access to business premises, and related enforcement measures. Anti-Evasion Cell-II handles inspection of goods in movement and associated inspection, search, seizure, and procedural measures under the applicable Chapter XIV framework and rules.

Faceless Assessment expands nationwide, centralising electronic bill-of-entry verification while ports retain physical inspection and bond processing.
Faceless Assessment requires electronic submission of bills of entry via ICEGATE and e-Sanchit and central assignment to designated Faceless Assessment Groups for verification; port authorities retain examination, inspection, custody of documents and processing of bonds. Faceless groups may accept self-assessments, raise consolidated electronic queries, order testing or examinations to be executed by shed officers, provisionally assess or transfer exceptional cases to Port Assessment Groups, and must issue speaking orders when re-assessing, with appeals to the Commissioner (Appeals). All communications are exclusively electronic.

Multi Cap fund asset allocation mandates equal minimum investments across large, mid and small cap segments, compliance required.
SEBI requires Multi Cap funds to maintain a minimum equity investment of 75% of total assets, with at least 25% allocated to each of large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap equity and equity-related instruments; existing schemes must comply within one month from AMFI's next stock list publication (January 2021).

E Office deployment mandates electronic submissions in searchable PDF with contact details and a designated official email for filings.
Launch of E-Office requires stakeholders to use electronic communication to Nhava Sheva-V Commissionerate, with submissions in PDF (preferably searchable), provision of mobile and email for issuance of a Diary Number, use of the designated email [email protected] for official correspondence, lodging of hard copies at the Central Receipt Unit on the ground floor of JNCH, and reporting difficulties or suggestions to the Additional Commissioner of Customs, NS-V.

E-Office launched as official electronic filing channel; submit searchable PDF, include contact details; designated official email for correspondence.
Launch of an e-Office system at Nhava Sheva-II, JNCH promotes a paperless environment and urges stakeholders to send communications electronically in PDF (preferably searchable) and to include mobile number and email so the allotted Diary Number may be used for reference. The email [email protected] is designated as the official single point of contact for electronic official communications. Hard-copy submissions shall be made at the Central Receipt Unit (CRU) on the ground floor of the JNCH building, and stakeholders may report difficulties or suggestions to the undersigned.

Preferential origin verification: importers must retain proof of origin and face compulsory checks if reasonable care is not demonstrated.
Guidelines implement section 28DA and CAROTAR to operationalise verification of Rules of Origin and Certificates of Origin for preferential tariff claims. Importers must hold and produce prescribed minimum information demonstrating compliance with origin criteria; mere submission of a CoO does not absolve the importer's duty of reasonable care. Verification may be initiated for doubts as to genuineness or accuracy of origin, or randomly; officers must first seek information from the importer, and, with required approvals and complete documents, forward representative verification requests to the Board's nodal point, using the central repository for signature/seal comparison.

Certificate of Origin requirements in Bill of Entry: mandatory item declarations, COO upload, CUF02 self declaration, and document defacement.
Importers claiming preferential duty must enter item wise COO particulars in the Bill of Entry SW INFO TYPE table, upload the COO to the electronic repository and declare its IRN, make the CUF02 self declaration in the STATEMENT table, indicate transit country as required, and ensure COO documents are marked defaced in the system before Out Of Charge; PTA/FTA notification to COO document code mappings are provided.

Imports: mandatory COO declarations, eSanchit upload with IRIN, CUF02 self declaration and document defacement required for preferential claims.
Where an FTA/PTA notification is claimed, the Bill of Entry must capture item wise COO particulars (issuing country code, COO number and issue date, origin criterion, accumulation/cumulation), the relevant COO must be uploaded to eSanchit with its IRIN entered in the supporting document table, the standardized importer declaration CUF02 must be filed in the BE STATEMENT table, and COO documents must be marked defaced in the system before Out Of Charge.

Rules of Origin verification: importers must provide specified origin information and exercise reasonable care before foreign verification is sought.
Guidance prescribes that COO verification may arise from certificate defects, mismatched signatures/seals, doubts on compliance with product-specific or regional value criteria, or random selection; importers must furnish a prescribed minimum data set and exercise reasonable care for accuracy before authorities initiate verification with partner country Verification Authorities. CAROTAR requires bill of entry modifications for required declarations and mandates use of an ICES repository for specimen signatures/seals, with alternative measures for non-EDI locations and referral to the Board when specimens are unavailable.

Risk-based enforcement targets set for vigilance units, covering dealer profiling, search operations, bogus ITC control and complaint review.
Functional targets were prescribed for Vigilance/Enforcement units under the Uttar Pradesh GST framework to ensure uniform implementation of inspection, search and seizure provisions and time-bound enforcement action. Each unit must undertake monthly data analysis of at least ten dealers chosen from specified risk-based categories, prepare dealer profiles from returns and portal data, and submit monthly case profiles for top-priority search proposals. The circular also assigns quarterly and half-yearly responsibilities to field officers for preparing case profiles and supervising search operations, with minimum search targets fixed for the units.

Relaxation of filing deadline: CRA-4 cost audit reports can be filed late without penalty due to pandemic-related disruption.
Relaxation allows CRA-4 cost audit reports for FY 2019-20 submitted by the cost auditor to the board by 30th November, 2020 to not be treated as violation of rule 6(5); companies may file e-form CRA-4 within 30 days of receipt of the report, or, if AGM extension was availed, within the timeline under the proviso to rule 6(6) of the Companies (Cost Records and Audit) Rules, 2014.

System driven disclosures enable automated identification and public dissemination of insider trading-related transactions by tagged entities.
Implementation of system driven disclosures automates continual disclosure obligations under Regulation 7(2) for promoters, promoter-group members, designated persons and directors by requiring listed companies to provide PAN or demat details to a designated depository, which will tag demat accounts at ISIN level and share daily transaction and corporate-action feeds with stock exchanges; exchanges will identify, consolidate and disseminate trades that trigger disclosure obligations on their websites on a T+2 basis.

Portfolio Managers in IFSC must meet registration, net worth, certification, client eligibility, minimum investment and fund segregation rules.
The guidelines apply SEBI PMS Regulations and IFSC Guidelines to Portfolio Managers in IFSC, permit branches of SEBI-registered intermediaries and separate companies/LLPs, require Board approval and parent entity responsibility for branch compliance and ring-fencing, and prescribe registration procedures and fees. Operational rules mandate certification standards (NISM for Indian securities), minimum net worth of USD 750,000 (with parent/subsidiary specifications), client eligibility per IFSC Guidelines Clause 9(3), minimum client investment of USD 70,000, and segregation of client funds in IFSC Banking Unit accounts, with applicability subject to conditions by SEBI, RBI and other authorities.

Virtual personal hearings mandated for adjudicatory and appellate proceedings, with standardized video conferencing and document protocols.
Personal hearings in adjudication and appellate proceedings under customs, central excise, GST and related fiscal statutes are mandated to be conducted through video conferencing with prescribed procedures. Authorities must notify parties of the video conference hearing, provide official contact details and an assistance officer, and ensure secure links. Parties must submit scanned authorisations and photo ID by official email, maintain decorum, join via approved applications from official or authorized facilities, and reduce oral submissions to a written record of personal hearing sent by email within one day; modifications must be signed and returned within three days.