Bonded warehouse licensing requires a prescribed application, 30-day processing, centralized verification, and licences valid until surrender.
Prescribes a standardized Form for new bonded warehouse licences requiring corporate, site, security, financial and goods details and specified declarations; bond officers must inspect and report within 15 days and Principal Commissioner/Commissioner decide within the next 15 days, completing licensing within 30 days. Centralized antecedent verification to DRI/DGCEI is to be used and post-verification permitted for certain declarations. Licences remain valid until surrender or cancellation with annual submission of insurance and solvency evidence required.

Solvency certificate requirement: bank solvency must match maximum duty exposure for private warehouse licensing, with specified exemptions.
Applicants for private bonded warehouse licences must furnish a solvency certificate from a scheduled bank equal to the maximum customs duty exposure on goods stored; applicants must indicate that maximum duty when applying, and Principal Commissioners/Commissioners of Customs will require a solvency certificate matching that amount. Exemptions apply to Central/State/UT administrations and undertakings, EOU/EHTP/STPI units under Foreign Trade Policy rules, and AEO/ACP holders governed by their circulars.

Ex-bond bill of entry filing now mandated on ICES, with import station assessment and ICEGATE verification before warehouse clearance.
Section 68 clearance requires filing the ex-bond bill of entry on ICES and assessment by the customs station of import. The importer must present the assessed bill and the proper officer's clearance order to the warehouse bond officer, who shall verify particulars via ICEGATE and permit removal by affixing a dated signature. On any mismatch, the bond officer shall withhold removal and inform the Deputy or Assistant Commissioner to resolve the issue with the customs station of import.

Security under section 59(3) Customs Act: exemptions, transit insurance and staged bank guarantee requirements for warehoused imports.
Security under section 59(3) requires an importer who executes a warehousing bond to furnish security; specified public bodies, power and project imports, petroleum, shipbuilding inputs, manufacture-in-bond units, diplomatic and duty free consignments, and ship/airline stores are exempt. Transit requires comprehensive transit risk insurance in favour of the President of India, subject to narrow operational exceptions. For storage, no security is needed for the first year, with progressive bank guarantee requirements for extensions; sensitive goods attract higher guarantees and private bonded warehouse storage requires a bank guarantee equivalent to duty at import.

Licensing of Special Warehouses: transitional license requirement for warehouses storing duty free, ship, airline and diplomatic stores.
Section 58A mandates licensing of Special Warehouses for goods destined for duty free shops, ship stores, airline stores and diplomatic stores, with the Board specifying eligible end uses and issuing related licensing and custody regulations. Existing warehouses may operate under Customs lock during the transitional period but must apply for Section 58A licences within the prescribed application window; Commissioners will streamline processing for existing licensees and licences must be obtained to continue storage beyond the transition. Duty free shops in customs areas are point-of-sale, not warehouses.

Bond requirement for warehousing: importers must execute triple duty bonds covering movement and accounting of goods.
Importers must execute a triple duty bond at the customs station of import for goods deposited in a warehouse; the bond remains valid until goods are cleared for home consumption or export and covers movement from import station to warehouse, inter-warehouse transfers, and proper accounting while stored. The prescribed bond formats, finalized with the Ministry of Law & Justice, supersede earlier bond formats and are to be followed as per the Board circular.

One-time-lock requirement for removal of goods to warehouse: affix serially numbered seal and record details to ensure custody.
Removal of goods from a customs station to a warehouse requires affixation of a one-time-lock (serially numbered bottle seal) by the proper officer, with the OTL number and date/time endorsed on the bill of entry and transport document; customs stations must record the OTL number, bill of entry, truck/container number, date/time and officer details, and warehouse or bond officers must inspect seals and permit unloading only if intact.

Indirect Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme permits declarants to halt appeals by declaring liabilities and paying prescribed tax, interest and penalty.
The Indirect Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme allows declarants with specified pending appeals to file a declaration in prescribed form with the Designated Authority, whose acknowledgement stays appellate proceedings. Declarants must pay tax, interest and a prescribed penalty, report payments in the prescribed form, and upon proof of payment the Designated Authority must issue a discharge order in the prescribed form. The scheme excludes matters arising from search and seizure, pre scheme prosecutions, narcotics or prohibited goods, specified criminal offences, and certain detention orders.

Proper officer doctrine: transfer SCNs issued by DGDRI, DGCEI or Preventive to the Call Book pending adjudication.
The Board instructs that, pending resolution of a judicial challenge to the retrospective validation in sub-section (11) of Section 28, all show cause notices issued by DGDRI, DGCEI, SIIB or Preventive prior to the notification assigning them as proper officers and pending adjudication are to be transferred to the Call Book, with any implementation difficulties reported to the Board.

Grandfathering of ODI positions permits continued holdings under FPI regime subject to eligibility and Regulation 22 compliance.
ODI subscribers who held positions under the FII regime may continue under the FPI regime only if they comply with Regulation 22 and meet eligibility criteria in SEBI circular CIR/IMD/FIIC/20/2014 and other SEBI norms; non compliant entities, including certain unregulated funds, may only hold existing positions until expiry or until the specified cut off, and cannot take fresh positions or renew old ones. Fresh ODIs may be issued only to entities meeting the same eligibility and compliance conditions.

Export authorization for specified SCOMET categories to Iran requires IMWG clearance and concurrence of disarmament division.
Authorization for export of specified SCOMET items to Iran is conditional on compliance with Annex B to UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015). Categories 0, 3 (other than 3D), 4, 5 and 7 are covered. The licensing authority, whether DGFT or Department of Atomic Energy as applicable, must complete the IMWG or applicable internal process and then seek concurrence of the Disarmament and International Security Affairs Division as part of the authorization procedure.

Officer nomination amended in trade notice: designated Assistant Commissioner replaced following transfer, other notice provisions unchanged.
The trade notice amends Trade Notice No.06/2015 by substituting Shri P. Joseph Xavier Regis, Assistant Commissioner, as the nominated officer for the Taxpayer's Service Centre in the Tirupati Commissionerate in place of Shri Shokendar Kumar due to the latter's transfer to Kurnool Division; all other provisions of the earlier notice remain unchanged.

Single Window Simplification: streamlined ADC clearance for non-pharmaceutical and declared non-pharmaceutical-use consignments via integrated electronic declarations.
The notice directs that items identified on the PGA Exemption Category (PEC) list as chemicals not drugs be declared in the Integrated Declaration to avoid ADC referral; allows electronic declarations that dual-use items are non-pharmaceutical grade and contain no API and that end-use is non-medicinal to normally prevent ADC referral; mandates risk-based sampling with ADC-drawn samples where required and forbids repeat sampling of the same tested batch; accepts digitally signed integrated declarations as substitute for hard-copy undertakings; and maps ICES locations to nearest ADCs for regulatory routing.

Common registration for first stage dealers and importers permits optional single registration and a consolidated quarterly return.
An assessee registered as a First Stage Dealer is exempted from separate importer registration (and vice versa) on an optional basis, and may file a single quarterly return that lists all First Stage Dealer transactions for the period followed by all importer transactions in the same return table; implementation difficulties should be reported to the Board.

Full payment requirement under Income Declaration Scheme: declarations valid only if tax, surcharge and penalty are timely paid and compliant.
Declarations under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 are valid only when full payment of tax, surcharge and penalty on the undisclosed income is made by the specified date; part payment invalidates the entire declaration. The Scheme applies to residents and non residents but excludes persons with pending Settlement Commission proceedings or for assessment years where specified assessment notices were issued by the cut off; notices issued after the cut off may be closed if a valid declaration is paid and Form 4 is furnished. PAN is mandatory; valuation reports must be obtained though not necessarily attached to Form 1.

Single Window clearance simplified for drugs and cosmetics consignments through PEC declarations and risk based ADC referrals.
Single Window clearance for drugs, cosmetics and related items is simplified: chemical items out of regulatory scope should be declared under the PEC to avoid ADC referral; dual use items/excipients that are non pharmaceutical grade and contain no API and have non medicinal end uses need not be referred to ADC when so declared; risk based sampling will limit re sampling of already tested batches; digitally signed integrated declarations will substitute for hardcopy undertakings; ICES locations are mapped to nearest ADCs and IT upgrades will enable regulator access.

Foreign Direct Investment policy updates expand automatic entry for many sectors while retaining conditional government approval for strategic areas.
The FDI policy amendments adjust sectoral entry routes and conditions: Reserve Bank approval is unnecessary for establishment of business places where sectoral approval exists for Defence, Telecom, Private Security and I&B; specified agro activities under "controlled conditions" permit full FDI under the automatic route; manufacturing may sell domestically including via e commerce; Defence, telecom/media, civil aviation, private security, single brand retail and pharmaceuticals have revised caps and conditionalities requiring government approval beyond prescribed thresholds, security clearances, sourcing and R&D maintenance obligations, and disclosure of technology transfer.

Panel selection of standing counsels initiated; advertisement, interviews, and performance-based recommendations required for vacant zonal slots.
A fresh panel of Senior and Junior Standing Counsels will be constituted to fill vacant zonal slots for CBEC indirect taxation matters, rescinding certain prior inclusions. Eligibility follows existing Board instructions; where Chief Commissioner slots are vacant, the Review Committee will act as the Committee of Chief Commissioners. Selection requires advertisement, application scrutiny, interviews of all applicants, assessment of communication skills, overall performance as the primary criterion, and examination of reputation; recommendations must be forwarded to the Board within the prescribed timeline.

Opening of RMS containers permitted for sampling without prior approval from Joint or Additional Commissioner, subject to allied agency tests.
Docks and shed officers are authorized to open RMS-facilitated containers to draw samples without prior permission of the Joint or Additional Commissioner so that allied agencies (e.g., FSSAI, AQ, PQ, ADC) may obtain samples for examination and testing before according clearance, consistent with the procedures referenced in the earlier Public Notice.

Increase in All Industry Rates for drawback on gold and silver jewellery requires exporter declaration of no CENVAT or rebate.
Revised All Industry Rates (AIR) of duty drawback for exports under tariff items 711301, 711302 and 711401 are effective from 24.06.2016 and are subject to a mandatory exporter declaration that the goods were manufactured and exported without availing CENVAT credit or rebate under rule 18 and not under rule 19(2) of the Central Excise Rules, 2002; Customs officers must ensure and record this declaration at the Let Export Order stage.