Trade policy amendments expand duty credit entitlements and sectoral import concessions for exporters and service providers.
The Foreign Trade Policy 2004-2009 amends export promotion schemes and customs notifications to expand sectoral concessions and revise entitlement mechanics: AEZ units receive conditional BG exemptions and EPCG installation flexibility; Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojana provides transferable duty credit scrips for agricultural exports with CENVAT/drawback adjustments; Target Plus and Served From India replace earlier status and DFCEC schemes with tiered and sectoral duty credit entitlements; DEPB, EPCG and DFRC provisions and procedural rules (including BG/LUT execution, second hand capital goods imports, and regularisation of export obligation defaults) are modified and operationalised through specified notifications.

Advance License and EPCG bond and bank guarantee norms revised with specified BG exemptions, security levels, and compliance conditions.
Revised norms require bonds covering duty forgone for Advance License and EPCG imports, backed by BG, cash security, or financial-institution guarantees. BG amounts for clearance vary by category: nil for exporters meeting the Rs 5 crore and track-record criteria, PSUs, star export houses and certain manufacturer-exporters; 25% for other manufacturer-exporters; 100% for others. Exemption requires no prior export-obligation default, certified proof of export performance or duty payment, and no penalisation under Customs, Central Excise, FEMA or Foreign Trade laws in the previous three years.

DEPB benefit eligibility confirmed for exports using inputs acquired under DEPB, allowing duty credit entitlement.
The DEPB Scheme is a post-export duty remission mechanism issuing transferable duty credit scrips that neutralize deemed import duty on exported goods. Inputs imported against DEPB and the scrips themselves are freely transferable. Exporters who source inputs via DEPB, or purchase DEPB scrips or inputs imported under DEPB, remain eligible to claim DEPB benefits on their exports. A previous contrary instruction is withdrawn.

Foreign investment regulations amended under FEMA restricting transfer or issuance of securities to non-residents; banks must inform clients.
The Reserve Bank notified the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2004 (FEMA No.122/2004-RB dated 30.8.2004), amending rules governing transfer or issuance of securities to non-residents. The circular also references FEMA.105/2000-RB (notified 21.10.2003) as included in the Master Circular on Risk Management and directs Authorised Dealer Banks to inform their constituents; issued under sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, without prejudice to other statutory permissions.

Stay petitions: Revenue should oppose unconditional relief, insist on bank guaranteed conditional stays and pursue vacation in higher courts.
Departmental representatives must prioritize opposing stay petitions before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, filing written submissions to resist unconditional relief and to seek that any stay be made conditional and secured by a bank guarantee; where conditions under the Appellate Tribunal Rules (including Rule 35A) are not met, the Bench's attention must be drawn in writing. If a stay is granted, senior tax officers should promptly examine the legal position and take immediate, case by case steps to vacate or modify the stay or move the High Court on priority.

Clearance of imported metal scrap requires pre-shipment inspection and designated-port examination for unshredded consignments.
Imports are split into consignments already en route/landed and future shipments. For en route/landed consignments, 100% physical examination is required before clearance; sealed containers may be re-warehoused to manufacturer premises for inspection with police assistance at importer cost and reconciliation with port records. Future imports in shredded form may enter without pre-shipment certificates, but unshredded, compressed or loose scrap must arrive only at designated customs stations with an approved pre-shipment inspection certificate; lacking that certificate, consignments face 100% examination and penal action, while certified consignments are subject to prescribed sampling regimes and full examination of selected containers.

Foreign exchange management: department nomenclature change prompts amendments to current account rules and regulatory directions.
The Reserve Bank renamed its Exchange Control Department to the Foreign Exchange Department and the Government notified this change in the Official Gazette; amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000 were issued and notified. Authorised Dealers must inform their constituents and customers. The circular is issued under sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act and is without prejudice to permissions required under other laws.

Bank guarantees for foreign airlines may be issued by authorised dealer banks without prior RBI approval, subject to reporting.
Authorised dealer banks are permitted to issue bank guarantees in favour of foreign airlines or IATA on behalf of IATA approved travel agents without prior Reserve Bank approval; if a guarantee is invoked the AD bank must send a detailed report to the Chief General Manager, Foreign Exchange Department, Reserve Bank of India, explaining the circumstances leading to invocation, and amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Guarantees) Regulations, 2000 will be issued to reflect this delegation.

Clubbing of export FOB values permits combining unit and parent exports to determine Star Export House eligibility.
FOB exports of EOU/EHTP/STP/BTP and SEZ units may be clubbed with FOB exports of their parent company in the DTA, or vice versa, for determining Star Export House Status. The Development Commissioner of the SEZ is the registering authority for SEZ units and developers and no separate Registration cum Membership Certificate is required where Policy provides. Clearance of capital goods, including second hand, into DTA is permitted under the EPCG Scheme or otherwise on payment of applicable duty and per the Import Policy in force on the date of clearance. A textual insertion of "concession" is made in a specified paragraph.

Import of metallic waste and scrap permitted subject to port-specific restrictions and mandatory pre-shipment inspection and contractual assurances.
Amendment permits import without licence of specified items while conditioning metallic waste and scrap imports: shredded scrap may clear through all ports without pre-shipment inspection, unshredded/compressed/loose scrap is confined to designated ports and requires a pre-shipment inspection certificate plus a contractual assurance that consignments do not contain arms, explosives or radioactive contamination; criteria and application requirements are set for enlistment of Inspection and Certification Agencies, and woollen/synthetic rags, PET bottle waste and ships are permitted under specified standards and Ministry guidelines.

Type Approval Certificate under EEC directive valid if issued by WP.29 signatory; country of origin not required.
A Type Approval Certificate for imports under Import Licensing Note No. (7) to Chapter 87 must conform to the EEC directive on vehicle type-approval and be issued by testing agencies notified in the relevant policy circular; for the European Union, the certificate need not be from the country of origin but must be issued by a signatory country to the 1958 Agreement under WP.29, with signatory lists available via UNECE.

Service Tax account heads opened for newly taxable services; education cess accounting and temporary codes specified.
Opening of new account heads for twelve services newly subject to service tax and specification of account codes for tax collections and an "other receipts" sub head (for interest and penalties). Temporary code numbers for Education Cess on Customs, Excise and Service Tax are provided pending final heads. Subordinate officers are instructed to direct assessees to remit under these heads and to report compliance to the Pay and Accounts Office.

Debonding conditions: EOUs require an undertaking plus a bank guarantee, with specified adjustments for deposits and prior rulings.
Debonding of EOU/EHTP/STP units requires an undertaking and a 10% bank guarantee of the duty demand at debonding, calculated on the SCN net of any deposits; SCN amounts based on issues where the CESTAT has ruled for the assessee and the department has appealed are excluded from the base for computing the 10% guarantee. Existing valid bank guarantees furnished with the B-17 bond may be adjusted to cover the 10% requirement, but duty paid during investigation cannot substitute for the guarantee though it reduces the demand used to compute 10%.

Cenvat credit option for EOUs enables duty-paid procurement with credit and revises DTA sale and valuation rules.
Amendments allow EOUs/EHTP/STP to procure spares and consumables within export-linked entitlements (excluded from NFE), extend an option to avail Cenvat credit when procuring on payment of duty (including service tax credit) subject to Cenvat Credit Rules and job-work controls, revise DTA sale treatment to require payment for duty foregone where imported equivalents attract nil basic duty/CVD, treat inter-EOU supplies as deemed imports for recipients, permit limited textile leftover clearance on customs valuation, align capital-goods depreciation to graded SEZ rates, increase certain gem and jewellery consumable entitlements, and provide conditional waiver of bank guarantees.

Exemption from GR/PP filing for low value exports and gifts required; customs must implement the amended FEMA regulations.
The RBI amended Regulation 4(d) and 4(e) of the Foreign Exchange Management (Exports of Goods and Services) Regulations to exempt certain low value exports and gifts from GR/PP declaration requirements. The Central Board of Excise and Customs directs customs field formations to implement this waiver strictly and to notify all concerned so that field practice conforms to the exemption.

Dual depository connectivity allows shifting scrips from trade-for-trade to normal rolling where no other grounds exist.
Companies in Annexure A established connectivity with both depositories by 30.06.2004 but remain in the Trade for Trade Segment (TFTS); stock exchanges may shift such scrips to the Normal Rolling Segment (NRS) provided no other specific grounds justify continuation in TFTS, and must report the action taken in the Monthly Development Report for November 2004, Section II item no. 13.

Additional duty on HSD imports not exempt for EOUs - recoveries required under Finance Act amendment.
The additional duty on imported High Speed Diesel under the Finance Act amendment is payable in addition to customs duties and is not covered by EOU exemption notifications, which apply only to duties in the Customs Tariff First Schedule and duties levied under Section 3; authorities are directed to review past assessments and recover unpaid duty where applicable.

Notification circulation: corrigendum and formal declaration that a company does not function as a Nidhi company, prompting registry updates.
The Ministry circulates Gazette notifications to Regional Directors and Registrars of Companies forwarding a corrigendum to an earlier notification and a notification that M/s Singh Mutual Benefit Company Ltd does not function as a Nidhi company, instructing recipients to acknowledge receipt and update records and compliance status accordingly.

Import of furniture under EPCG Scheme permitted for hotels following official circular clarification in trade policy.
Import of furniture is permitted to hotels under the EPCG Scheme; hotels may obtain import authorisation for furniture within the Scheme's framework, subject to the Scheme's terms and compliance obligations, as an administrative clarification.

Import restrictions on metallic waste and scrap limit imports to shredded or compacted forms with mandatory inspections.
Import of metallic waste and scrap is permitted only in shredded and compacted form, except that unshredded and uncompacted material may enter solely via major ports and the Tughalakabad inland container depot, with customs required to conduct 100% inspection of such unshredded and uncompacted consignments; hazardous, toxic, and radioactively contaminated waste is excluded, items below values set by notification are excluded, and scrap from countries affected by rebellion or war requires exporters to furnish specified documents at clearance.