Liquid fund maturity limits tightened, requiring shorter dated debt, mandated disclosure, and discontinuation of "Liquid Plus" nomenclature.
Liquid fund schemes and plans must confine investments to debt and money market instruments of progressively shorter residual maturities, with rules for computing residual and weighted average maturities and identical limits applying to securities with put/call options; settlement on non business days is deferred to the next business day. These conditions must be disclosed in offer documents and form binding investment allocation constraints. Transitional permission for specified inter scheme transfers is time limited, after which tightened limits apply. The nomenclature "Liquid Plus" must be discontinued and compliance confirmed within thirty days.

Prohibition on indicative portfolios and yields: mutual funds and distributors must cease such communications and ensure trustee oversight.
Mutual funds are prohibited from offering or disseminating any indicative portfolios or indicative yields for debt and fixed income schemes; no communication in any form by mutual funds or their distributors may present such indicatives. Asset Management Companies and Trustees must monitor compliance and report adherence in their statutory reports, pursuant to the regulator's statutory powers to protect investor interests.

Cenvat credit availability for branded goods: cases to be held pending the outcome of the admitted appeal.
Availability of cenvat credit for inputs used in manufacture of branded goods while availing SSI exemption based on value of clearance presents conflicting interpretations: an earlier apex decision disallowed simultaneous credit and exemption, whereas a later tribunal decision permitted it under subsequent notification wording. As an appeal against the tribunal decision has been admitted in the Supreme Court, the Board directs that such cases be kept pending in call book awaiting the outcome.

Non-retrospective application of regulatory amendment clarifies earlier-filed applications remain governed by prior policy handbook provisions.
The amendment is not retrospective: applications filed before the Public Notice are governed by the policy and handbook provisions in force prior to the Notice, and those prior provisions continue to determine the legal regime applicable to earlier-filed cases.

Free Sale and Commerce Certificates for non drug medical devices authorised for issuance, valid one year and subject to prescribed application requirements.
RAs are authorised to issue Free Sale and Commerce Certificates for medical devices/instruments not covered by the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940, which have usage in hospitals, nursing homes and clinics and are not prohibited for export; such certificates are valid for one year unless otherwise specified and must be issued in the Annexure 1 format based on applications made under the substituted Appendix 39 and Annexure A of HBP Vol. I with prescribed documents and declarations.

VAT return filing arrangements allow front office and extension counters for submission of quarterly returns and audited balance sheets.
Designated front office points and specially established front office extension counters will accept refund and non refund quarterly VAT returns and audited balance sheets during specified January filing dates, operating 10:30 AM-4:30 PM with a half hour lunch break; zonal in charges must arrange staff floor wise, date and numbering stamps will be issued to ward in charge in advance and returned by the close of the final acceptance day, and logistics and materials responsibilities are assigned to relevant administrative units.

Statutory certification exemption: film certification fees for mandatory regulatory licensing are not subject to service tax.
Because film certification is a statutory requirement under the Cinematographic Act performed by a public authority as part of its sovereign duties, amounts collected for such certification do not constitute consideration for a taxable service and are not subject to service tax; field formations should treat the activity as excluded under the administrative position that sovereign/public authority functions are not taxable.

Extension of filing deadline for DVAT reconciliation and original central declaration forms to a later specified date for pending quarters.
An extension of time is granted for furnishing the reconciliation return in Form DVAT 51 for the first and second quarters of 2008-09 and for submission of the original portions of Central Declaration Forms C, E I, E II, F, I, J and H, relying on specified provisions of the Delhi Value Added Tax Rules and Central Sales Tax Rules and instructing departmental dissemination and publicity of the extended filing timeline.

Return of bank guarantees permitted when undertaking to submit Drug Manufacturing Licence within three years accompanies EPCG authorisation.
Regional Authorities may return bank guarantees or letters of undertaking submitted in lieu of a Drug Manufacturing Licence for EPCG authorisations when the pharmaceutical unit provides a written undertaking to submit the requisite DML within three years from the date of issue of the EPCG authorisation.

Standard Input-Output Norms updated for aluminium cast exports; specifies aluminium scrap or ingot input requirements per unit export.
Amendment updates the Standard Input Output Norms for Aluminum/Aluminum Alloy Cast Articles: input entitlement per kilogram of aluminum content in the export product may be satisfied either by aluminum scrap or by aluminium/appropriate aluminium-alloy ingot, with specified alternative input allowances for each input type to be used for compliance under the Handbook of Procedures.

Export Obligation Period revised: specified inputs now subject to fixed EOPs under new appendix, extensions disallowed.
Export Obligation (EO) under Advance Authorisation begins from the Authorisation issue date and is generally 24 months, except for deemed exports tied to project contracts. For inputs listed in Appendix 30A, EO periods are the specific durations stated against each input and extensions of EO periods are not permitted; the Regional Authority must endorse this restriction on the Advance Authorisation. Appendix 30A specifies varied EO periods measured from customs clearance of the first consignment for spices, certain drugs, penicillin and salts, tea and coconut oil.

Amendment to VKGUY export list updates Handbook of Procedures entries and renumbers VKGUY product codes accordingly.
Amendment to the Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana export items list under authority of Paragraph 2.4 of the Foreign Trade Policy: the Handbook of Procedures, Vol. I, is revised to renumber specified serial entries and to substitute the corresponding VKGUY product codes to align with the new sequence; the change is administrative and limited to listing and coding of permitted export items.

Predominant material rule: classify footwear uppers by the material with greatest external surface area to determine tariff heading.
For footwear, the material of the upper is the material with the greatest external surface area (ignoring accessories). If leather is the predominant constituent of the upper and the outer sole is of rubber, plastics, leather or composition leather, the footwear is to be classified under the Drawback Schedule tariff item for leather uppers; similar predominance criteria apply to related headings. Footwear not falling under those primary leather-related tariff items must be classified as other footwear. Drawback Schedule entries are aligned with Customs Tariff four-digit descriptions and sub-classification follows the scope of the relevant sub-tariff items.

Market linked focus products designation for apparel exports linking specified foreign markets to eligible export procedures and incentives.
Appendix 37D is amended to add Table 12 designating Market Linked Focus Products: Articles of Apparel under Chapters 61 and 62 are linked to specified foreign markets and assigned an admissible export date, thereby bringing those apparel categories within the Market Linked Focus Products regime and its export procedural provisions under the Handbook of Procedures, Vol. I.

Export benefits under VKGUY expanded to include worked vegetable carving materials, enabling eligibility for export incentive claims.
An entry has been added to Table 15 of Appendix 37A of the Handbook of Procedures, Vol. I, under the VKGUY scheme, designating worked vegetable carving material and related articles as eligible for export incentives and specifying the product code and customs classification for which benefits will be admissible.

Foreign investment caps in print media set with government approval for facsimile newspaper editions and foreign magazine editions.
Policy permits foreign investment in facsimile editions of foreign newspapers with prior government approval and up to full ownership only when the investor is the owner of the original newspaper and the publisher is an Indian incorporated entity; such activity must comply with Ministry of Information & Broadcasting guidelines. Indian editions of foreign magazines dealing with news and current affairs may receive restricted foreign investment, including investment by NRIs/PIOs/FIIs, subject to prior government approval, the specified definition of "magazine," and the Ministry's guidelines for such publications.

Export release orders reinstated for sugar exports under OGL; customs formations must ensure compliance while advance authorisation dispensation continues.
Re introduction of export release orders for sugar exports under the Open General Licence is effective from 1 January 2009 because of reduced production; the prior waiver for OGL exports is revoked while the dispensation for advance authorisation exports continues. Customs field formations are directed to implement the reinstated export release order mechanism and ensure compliance with the Government's decision.

Bank Certificate of Export and Realisation revised forms prescribe verification and documentation requirements for DEPB claims.
The Public Notice replaces Appendix 22A (Bank Certificate of Export and Realisation) and ANF 4G (DEPB application form) in the Handbook of Procedures, prescribing revised templates and procedural requirements: applicant identification, exporter classification, application fee details, detailed export particulars, DEPB entitlement and capped value computations, and a mandatory Declaration/Undertaking. Appendix 22A mandates bank verification of invoices, shipping bills and realization of FOB values, prescribes exceptions where realization need not be given, and requires issuing banks to be authorised dealers with RBI permission.

Amendments to DEPB rates revise export entitlement rates and value caps for specified engineering, chemical and plastics products.
Amendments to the DEPB rates update export entitlement entries for specified product groups by modifying existing rates and adding new schedule items. The Director General of Foreign Trade, exercising powers under Paragraph 2.4 of the Foreign Trade Policy and Paragraph 1.1 of the Handbook of Procedures (Vol. I), directs immediate amendments to DEPB entries for Engineering Products, adds an entry for Epichlorohydrine under Chemical Products, and revises entries for Plastics, thereby changing entitlement rates and specified value caps for the listed products.

Examination norms for exports require declaration to claim Chapter three benefits; specified inspection rates will apply.
Exporters must declare on Free Shipping Bills their intention to claim benefits under Chapter 3 of the FTP; declared consignments will be subject to prescribed examination scales, including higher inspection rates for sensitive destinations and for consignments claiming additional schemes the inspection norms of those schemes will apply, while undeclared Free Shipping Bills remain subject to the existing "no examination except on specific intelligence" norm.