Customs warehousing security: exemptions and staged bank guarantee requirements govern transit and storage obligations.
Security for warehoused goods is subject to exemptions for specified governmental, project, energy, maritime and diplomatic consignments, while other imports must furnish transit insurance in favour of the President and bank guarantees on extensions. Non-sensitive goods require no security for the first year, 25% bank guarantee after one year, 50% after two years and full duty plus interest after three years; sensitive goods attract higher staged guarantees in public warehouses and require upfront bank guarantees when moved to private bonded warehouses. Warehousing extensions and security are administered by the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner at the port of import.

Pre-shipment inspection recognition: additional agencies authorised to issue PSICs subject to bank guarantee and membership conditions.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade includes additional entities as Pre-Shipment Inspection Agencies in Appendix 2G, authorising them to issue Pre Shipment Inspection Certificates subject to a fixed recognition period and compliance conditions. Recognised agencies must submit a prescribed bank guarantee within the specified deadline or face denotification, and must maintain updated membership certificates and office contact details. An annexure lists approved spectrometers and survey meters authorised for PSIC issuance for each agency.

Composition tax change for restaurant/halwai dealers requires opting into new scheme or withdrawal; non compliance triggers tax and penalty.
Dealers in restaurant and halwai businesses eligible for the new composition regime must withdraw the earlier composition option or file to opt into the new composition scheme within the prescribed period; those continuing under the obsolete composition rate are liable to assessment as non composition taxpayers at standard tax rates and to penalties, and tax officials are directed to detect non compliance and initiate recovery and penalty proceedings.

CST reimbursement procedure updated, clarifying supplier registration, payment evidence and claim documentation for EOUs and technology park units.
Amendments revise procedural and documentary requirements for reimbursement of Central Sales Tax (CST) on supplies to EOUs and technology park units and modify ANF 7A claim form entries. Appendix 6H now requires supplier registration numbers with date of issue, refines supplier particulars under the CST Act, corrects an undertaking to individual liability, expands payer/payee descriptions to include DTA/EOU/SEZ/EHTP/STP suppliers and removes cheque/DD wording. ANF 7A realigns advance authorization column references and clarifies required contract, ARO or invalidation letter copies for supplies made to project authorities or under authorization schemes.

Bad debt deduction writing off in books suffices for tax deductibility; withdraw appeals contesting irrecoverability.
A claim for deduction of a bad debt is admissible if the debt or part thereof is written off as irrecoverable in the assessee's books of account for the relevant year and it fulfils the conditions stipulated in the governing statutory provision; accordingly, no appeals should be filed on the ground that irrecoverability was not independently established, and pending appeals on that issue may be withdrawn.

FATCA and CRS implementation clarified: further guidance issued and posted for financial institutions by government on official website
Clarification issued concerning implementation of FATCA and CRS for Indian financial institutions: India signed an Inter Governmental Agreement with the United States for FATCA and joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement for Automatic Exchange of Information under the CRS. A Guidance Note (31 Aug 2015, updated 31 Dec 2015) and prior clarifications (19 Feb 2016) were supplemented by a further clarification dated 26 May 2016, published on the Income tax Department website to guide identification, reporting and due diligence obligations of reporting financial institutions.

Impact of Audit Qualifications disclosure: listed entities must file quantified effects alongside annual results and management commentary.
Listed entities must disclose the impact of audit qualifications when submitting annual audited financial results: a declaration for unmodified opinions and a prescribed Annexure I statement for modified opinions. Management may explain qualifications, must estimate impacts if auditors do not quantify (or state reasons), and auditors must review and comment. These statements are monitored by stock exchanges and non-compliance will be subject to exchange action and reporting to the regulator.

Quota allocation under Indo Sri Lanka FTA: pepper import licences issued with utilization, surrender and three year debarment rules.
Allocation of Black Pepper import quotas under the Indo Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement for 2016 17 assigns listed firms specified quantities; no allocations were made for Vanaspati Bakery, Shortening & Margarine and Desiccated Coconut due to absence of applications. Quota holders must obtain licences from Regional Authorities, submit utilization certificates to DGFT by the prescribed deadline, may surrender unutilized quota for re allocation, and face a three year debarment for failure to utilize or timely surrender quota.

Charitable purpose registration: exceeding commercial receipts threshold denies exemption for the year but cancellation not mandatory.
Where receipts from commercial activities exceed the proviso threshold in a particular year, the institution's income is not exempt for that year, but temporary excess alone does not mandate cancellation of registration if there is no change in the nature of activities; cancellation must follow statutory grounds and procedures, and unjustified cancellation may attract tax on accreted income under Chapter XII EB.

Single application for EDI exports enables combining shipments from different EDI ports in one MEIS claim.
MEIS filing is simplified to allow a single application to include shipping bills from multiple EDI-enabled ports for the same licensing year (maximum 50 shipping bills), while Non EDI ports continue to require separate applications. Duty Credit Scrips (including splits) will be issued with a single port of registration; for EDI exports this may be any one of the exporting EDI ports, whereas for Non EDI exports the port of export is the port of registration. ANF 3A is revised and applicants must provide specified shipping bill details and statutory declarations.

Drawback scheme: data call for model-wise export and import value details, including assessable imports and duty paid, under deadline.
Requirement to provide model-wise data for motor cars exported under the drawback scheme, including exporter and model details, variant, engine capacity and length, number of cars exported under the scheme, FOB value, assessable import values of components/parts/raw materials imported by the manufacturer and by tier 1 and tier 2 vendors, and totals of Basic Customs Duty and education cess paid on those assessable values.

FATCA and CRS compliance: internet banking self certification, TIN exceptions, custodial valuation and reporting steps clarified for financial institutions.
Financial institutions may obtain self certification via the customer's internet banking account. FIs need not collect a TIN where the jurisdiction does not issue one, nor from persons eligible but not yet assigned a TIN, though they should record and later obtain it. Custodial account valuation for reporting must use values communicated by depositories to participants/brokers. Registration and submission procedures for FATCA and CRS reports are set out in a Notification and a Systems Directorate User Manual covering Form 61B.

Caution listing of exporters tightened under EDPMS integration; banks must report advance remittances and old export data.
AD Category I banks must integrate reporting into the Export Data Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS) to automate cautioning and de cautioning of exporters, report all inward remittances (including advance and outstanding receipts) and electronic FIRCs, discontinue separate quarterly and half yearly returns by uploading overdue advance particulars and migrating Export Outstanding Statement data into EDPMS, and implement necessary IT and operational changes to process transactions only through revised EDPMS message formats.

Foreign exchange compounding orders to be publicly disclosed and computation guidance for penalties published online.
Reserve Bank will publicly host compounding orders on its website and publish the guidance note used to compute amounts under section 13 of FEMA. The guidance prescribes a fixed-plus-variable computation matrix for categories of contraventions, sets ceilings (including a 300% cap and interest-based limits for small contraventions), provides graded multipliers for certain cases, allows neutralisation of undue gains, trebling in specified guarantee reinvestment situations, and enhancement for repeat contraventions; procedural rounding and office-specific ceilings are explained and illustrative calculations are appended.

Minimum transaction thresholds for ACU dollar and euro accounts reduced, easing funding and repatriation requirements.
The Reserve Bank has revised the minimum amount and multiples for receiving and paying in ACU Dollar and ACU Euro accounts, lowering the thresholds for funding or repatriating excess liquidity via the Asian Clearing Union. Authorised Dealer Category I Banks are directed to notify their constituents. The directions are issued under sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and are without prejudice to other statutory permissions or approvals.

Mandatory e-filing of appeals: deadline extension permits late electronic submissions to be treated as filed in time.
Mandatory electronic filing of appeals required under Rule 45 encountered implementation problems (awareness gaps, technical issues, phased EVC availability, word limits and jurisdiction mapping). The Board extended the filing window so that e-appeals due by 15 May 2016 may be filed electronically up to 15 June 2016 and will be treated as appeals filed in time; taxpayers who filed paper appeals must file the corresponding e-appeal within the extended period to obtain the same treatment.

Krishi Kalyan Cess accounting codes allocated to record levy, interest, refunds and penalties for taxable services.
Krishi Kalyan Cess is imposed on all taxable services except those fully exempt or otherwise not liable; the Controller General of Accounts has allocated a dedicated Minor Head for the cess and new sub heads to record tax collections, interest receipts, refund deductions, and penalties.

Jurisdiction for income declarations clarified: file declarations with the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner exercising jurisdiction over you.
The circular clarifies that declarations under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 must be made to the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner who exercises jurisdiction over the declarant as notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes; the notified territorial Principal Commissioner/Commissioner is the officer to whom such declarations are to be submitted.

Licensing of Special Warehouses: new regulatory regime and strict transitional timelines for duty free and store warehouses.
Insertion of Section 58A establishes a licensing regime for special warehouses where dutiable goods may be stored under customs lock; the Board has specified eligible classes of goods and issued related regulations. Existing warehouses storing goods for duty free shops, ship stores, airline stores and diplomatic stores must apply within prescribed timelines to continue operations beyond a three month transitional period, with expedited processing obligations on Commissioners and post application compliance steps prior to issuing licenses.

E-payment of customs refunds via RTGS/NEFT to beneficiary bank accounts with UTR-based reconciliation.
Framework requiring electronic payment of sanctioned customs refunds and rebates through RTGS/NEFT via a designated bank (RBI Kolkata for INCCU4). Claimants must provide a one-time bank-certified authorization (Annexure A). Refund authorities will forward a signed statement of sanctioned orders, a consolidated cheque and a soft copy (Annexure B) periodically; the bank credits beneficiary accounts after deducting RTGS/NEFT charges. Reconciliation uses UTRs and a periodic bank scroll sent to the PAO for reconciliation and discrepancy reporting.