Suspension of Standard Input-Output Norms: immediate suspension of specified chemical-product SIONs under DGFT regulatory authority.
Exercising authority under Paragraph 2.4 of the Foreign Trade Policy and Paragraph 1.1 of the Handbook of Procedures (Vol. I), the Director General of Foreign Trade suspends operation of specified Standard Input-Output Norms for the product group "Chemicals & Allied Products"-SION- A-84, SION- A-197, SION A-2287, SION A-2476, SION A-2583, and SION A-3139-with immediate effect until further order.

Commercial Paper investment limit for SEBI registered foreign investors reduced, remaining funds reallocated within overall corporate debt cap.
The RBI reduced the Commercial Paper sub limit available to SEBI registered FIIs, QFIs and long term investors to USD 2 billion while retaining the overall corporate debt limit at USD 51 billion. The reduced CP sub limit remains part of the aggregate corporate debt ceiling and may be deployed for other corporate debt investments. Eligible investors include FIIs, QFIs and specified long term investors; SEBI will issue operational guidelines and all other existing investment conditions remain unchanged.

Advance authorisation treatment clarified: pre-existing authorisations exempted from sequencing and excluded from scheme entitlements.
Clarifies that Advance Authorisation and Duty Free Import Authorisation issued before August 14, 2013 are exempt from the sequencing requirement; imports under AA/DFIA are outside the 20:80 mechanism and accounted separately without conferring further import entitlements. Nominated agencies may supply gold to Replenishment Scheme exporters and import for that purpose, with such imports separately accounted. From the third lot onwards, permissible import quantity is the lesser of five times the exports proved or the quantity permitted in the first or second lot. Refiners may import a prescribed proportion of licence for the initial months and DGFT may notify additional refiners and quotas.

Holding company guarantee exemption continues for loans to subsidiaries used for principal business until statutory notification.
The Ministry clarifies that, until the Companies Act, 2013 provisions are notified, the exemption in clause (d) of sub section (8) of Section 372A, 1956 shall apply to guarantees or securities provided by a holding company for loans advanced by banks or financial institutions to its subsidiary, provided such loans are exclusively utilized by the subsidiary for its principal business activities.

Seaport transshipment module enables electronic processing and issuance of transshipment permits for FCL cargo movements.
The notice implements an ICES electronic module for processing FCL sea to sea transshipment by declaring Destination Port/CFS in the IGM, filing a paper Bill of Transshipment at the Service Centre, and subjecting requests to system validation checks. Applicants must match IGM details, hold valid TP bonds and PLA balances, and ensure no BE filed at Gateway for specified lines. On successful validation the system debits bond and TP fee, updates records, grants a unique TP number and enables destination access; EDI messaging and re credit procedures are to follow.

Objection Hearing Authorities designated for 2A/2B mismatch and statutory form objections; hearing schedule and venue provided.
Designation of Assistant Commissioners as Objection Hearing Authorities for 2A/2B mismatch objections and for objections relating to Statutory Forms, with instructions to forward relevant files to a specified room in Vyapar Bhawan and to conduct hearings in that room during prescribed working hours on all working days.

Dematerialisation requirement for settlement: exchanges may shift securities to normal rolling settlement upon certified dematerialisation and no continuing TFTS grounds.
Companies that have established connectivity with both depositories may be shifted from Trade for Trade Settlement to normal Rolling Settlement provided a required proportion of non promoter holdings are in dematerialised form certified by the Registrar and Transfer Agent or, if no separate RTA exists, by a practicing Company Secretary or Chartered Accountant, and provided there are no other grounds for continuation of TFTS; stock exchanges must report the action to the regulator in their development reports.

Software escrow safeguards urged to ensure seamless broker transition and contractual protections against vendor service failures.
Stock brokers should adopt safeguards against software vendor failure by exploring a software escrow arrangement, reducing reliance on a single vendor, and including contract terms that grant access to design and development specifications if the vendor fails to provide services, require broker training and expertise development, impose penalty clauses for trading disruptions or software glitches, and obligate vendor cooperation in audits including forensic audits. Stock exchanges must implement systems to effect these measures, amend bye laws and notify and disseminate the requirements to brokers.

Effective date of amended excise rates: amended cigarette duty rates apply from enactment date, not from provisional introduction.
The circular clarifies that while a provisional declaration under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act gave the Finance Bill rates force of law from the date the Bill was introduced, official amendments converting the ad valorem component into higher specific excise rates became operative only upon assent and enactment; therefore the amended tariff rates for cigarettes apply from the date the Finance Act came into force and not from the provisional declaration date.

FDI reporting requirement revised: amended FC-GPR mandates Brownfield/Greenfield status and investee incorporation date disclosure.
Form FC-GPR has been revised to require Indian companies to report, within the prescribed reporting timeframe, details of consideration received for issuance of shares and convertible debentures and to capture explicitly whether the investment is Brownfield or Greenfield and the investee company's date of incorporation.

Additional income-tax on distributed income applies to dividends only, not to redemptions, repurchases, or bonus units.
The levy of additional income-tax under the provision applies only to income distributed to unit-holders as dividends by mutual funds or specified companies; receipts on redemption or repurchase of units and allotment of bonus units are not treated as distributed income for this purpose and therefore are outside the scope of the additional tax. Transfer of units may remove the exemption and attract capital gains tax as applicable.

Disallowance under section 14A: expenses can be disallowed even if no exempt income was earned in the year.
The Board clarifies that disallowance under section 14A read with Rule 8D applies even where an assessee has not earned exempt income in the year, because the statutory wording ''includible'' and ''income under the Act'' and Rule 8D's formulas tie disallowance to investments yielding exempt income rather than to receipts in the year.

Use of 'National' in company names restricted; government stake required, and 'Bank'/'Exchange' require NOC.
Companies and LLPs must not include the word National in their names unless they are government companies with Central or State government stake; registrars must enforce this rule. Use of the word Bank is permitted only with a No Objection Certificate from the banking regulator, and use of stock Exchange or Exchange requires a No Objection Certificate from the securities regulator.

Restriction on use of 'National' in company names; allowed only for government companies with government stake, ROCs to enforce.
Companies and LLPs must not use the word National in their registered names unless they are government companies with Central or State government stake; Registrars of Companies must enforce this prohibition. The word Bank requires a No Objection Certificate from the Reserve Bank of India, and the words Stock Exchange or Exchange require a No Objection Certificate from the Securities and Exchange Board of India as preconditions for name approval.

Reverse charge on foreign bank processing fees: Indian banks must remit service tax as recipients under law.
Foreign banks' commissions and processing charges for forwarding import/export documents and realisation of proceeds are services provided to the Indian bank that corresponds with the foreign bank; the Indian bank, being the recipient under the implied contractual regime created by international banking rules, is liable to discharge service tax under the reverse charge/recipient liability mechanism and must comply, including for past periods.

Export of prohibited goods under advance authorization requires proof of manufacture from imported inputs and strict compliance.
Export of otherwise prohibited items under Advance Authorization is allowed only where the resultant product is manufactured from inputs imported under that authorization; the exporter must submit an undertaking listing imports and exports so the customs officer can record satisfaction in the EDI field that the goods exported are not the prohibited items. Stringent operational conditions apply including pre import linkage, notified SION/norms, designated EDI ports, a fixed short export obligation period with no extensions, actual user restrictions, and mandatory re export of defective inputs.

ITR V filing deadline relaxation allows speed post submission for e filed refund claims and mandates processing after receipt.
CBDT relaxes and extends the time for furnishing signed ITR V for electronically filed returns with refund claims for the specified assessment years, allowing submission by speed post by the extended date for returns e filed within the time under section 139. Such returns shall be processed within six months from the end of the month in which ITR V is received and intimation sent to the assessee; interest on refunds will be determined under section 244A. Taxpayers may verify ITR V receipt via the Income tax e filing portal.

Software testing requirements: expedited approval for limited changes while preserving risk-management integrity and preventing unauthorized modifications.
Stock exchanges may permit expedited approval for bug fixes, exchange-driven broker software changes, and vendor software already tested in mock environments; schedule mock testing, system-auditor certification and approval to facilitate transitions; waive mock testing and audits for changes limited to look-and-feel that do not affect risk-management or connectivity; require brokers to restore systems to production state after testing and implement controls to prevent unauthorized changes; and amend rules and notify members to implement these measures.

Risk based inspection framework for depository participants mandates adaptive sampling and combined qualitative quantitative scoring to prioritize inspections.
Depositories must adopt a risk based inspection framework covering specified operational and compliance areas, use an Adaptive Sample Size methodology with base samples and risk based multipliers, and compute a Total DP Risk Score by summing normalized quantitative and qualitative area scores. DPs are categorized by percentile into risk bands that determine inspection frequency and sample sizes; joint inspections and off site inspection tools are required, and depositories must amend rules, communicate requirements, and share risk ratings for common DPs.

Extension of filing deadline for hard copy VAT quarterly returns; online filing window remains as scheduled.
The Commissioner, Value Added Tax, exercising powers under rule 49A of the Delhi Value Added Tax Rules, 2005, extends the last date for filing the hard copy third quarter return of 2013 14 to 10/02/2014, while the online filing portal will close at midnight of 7th February 2014; the circular instructs departmental officers and stakeholders to implement and publish the extension.