Excise duty payment deadline: March liabilities must be discharged by 30 March, with e-payment urged and revenue returns required.
The directive requires discharge of central excise duty liability for March/quarter ending March by 30 March 2007, urges use of the e-payment facility, and directs field formations to ensure compliance. A telegraphic summary of provisional revenue for March must be faxed to the Statistics Section by 12:00 noon on 31 March 2007, and officers compiling revenue figures must be in office on 31 March to obtain accurate returns from assesses.

Service tax on international in-bound roaming treated as taxable telephone service, liable for payment by domestic providers.
Domestic telecom operators provide a telephone connection service to international in bound roamers by assigning a temporary internal identification number and enabling making or receiving of calls; this service is consumed in India, not an export, and amounts received through the home network for such roaming are subject to service tax, with collection applicable from 15.1.2007 onward.

Export of software now includes development, data entry, processing, analysis and call center services for export.
The term "export of software" in notification no. 153/93-Cus is clarified to include manufacture or development of software, data entry and conversion, data processing, data analysis and control data management, and call center services for export, aligning its scope with activities permitted for STP units under notification 52/2003-Cus; a Public Notice is to be issued and implementation difficulties referred to the Directorate General of Export Promotion.

Bank Guarantee requirement for EPCG manufacturer-exporters mandates specified registration documents to obtain the reduced guarantee.
Execution of a reduced bank guarantee under the EPCG scheme is permitted for qualifying other Manufacturer Exporters at JNCH, subject to submission of one of the prescribed registration documents with PAN: certified Central Excise registration, permanent SSI registration from District Industries Centre, Secretariat for Industrial Assistance registration, or other manufacturer-exporter registration supported by prior export performance certified by a Chartered Accountant or Export Promotion Council.

Foreign Direct Investment ceiling increase: compliance period for telecom providers extended until early April under amended press note.
The Government amended Press Note 5 (2005 Series) to extend the correction period for existing licence-holding telecom service providers to comply with the FDI conditions specified in that Press Note, thereby modifying the operative timeframe within which affected companies must regularise their foreign investment arrangements under the Press Note.