Maintenance of books of accounts may be centralised at principal place with written intimation, preserving input tax credit eligibility.
Principals and auctioneers handling tea, coffee, rubber etc. must declare warehouses as additional places of business and, ordinarily, maintain books of accounts at each such place; where difficulties exist they may maintain those books at their principal place of business after written intimation to the jurisdictional proper officer, and remain eligible to claim input tax credit subject to other statutory conditions.

Advance Ruling applications may be filed manually with online fee payment requirement and prescribed forms.
Advance ruling applications and appeals may be filed manually in quadruplicate in the prescribed forms where the portal module is unavailable; applications must state the question sought, be accompanied by the fee deposited online via a generated temporary ID with printed challan, and be signed by authorised persons with self attested annexures and supporting documents. Appeals by officers use a separate prescribed form and attract no fee. All filings must be presented to the jurisdictional State Authority or State Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling.

Countervailing duty rebatability as drawback clarified; brand-rate claims required when inputs bearing CVDs were used.
Countervailing duties are rebatable as Duty Drawback but, since they are excluded from All Industry Rates, refund of such duties must be claimed by applying for a Brand Rate; drawback is payable only where inputs that suffered Countervailing Duties were actually used in the exported goods, as confirmed by verification for fixation of the Brand Rate. If imported goods subject to Countervailing Duties are exported as such, drawback on export as such will include the incidence of those duties, subject to other conditions.

Indian rupee payments at duty free shops allowed via INR cards; prices to be displayed in INR, no conversion fees.
Duty Free Shops must accept payments in Indian rupees via INR debit and credit cards without requiring prior currency conversion, and must display all prices in Indian rupees. INR card payments in arrival halls remain subject to the existing Indian currency ceiling for incoming passengers, while INR card payments in departure halls for outgoing passengers face no limit. DFSs must not impose foreign-exchange conversion charges on INR card transactions; payments in foreign currency, if chosen, shall be charged using the Customs Act exchange rate.

FPI investment limits in government securities revised, raising caps while preserving existing allocation and monitoring conditions.
Revises FPI caps in government debt effective January 1, 2018 by increasing the upper ceilings for central government securities overall and for Long Term FPIs, and by raising both general and long term State Development Loan limits; existing allocation and monitoring conditions continue to apply and custodians are to notify FPI clients.

Shareholding disclosure: PAN-based consolidation required to prevent duplicate reporting of specified securities holdings.
Disclosures of holdings of specified securities must include the PAN of the first holder in joint holdings and the shareholding of promoters, promoter group, public shareholders and non-public non-promoter shareholders must be consolidated by PAN and folio number to avoid multiple disclosures, applying to both physical and dematerialized holdings.

Countervailing duty rebate as duty drawback requires brand rate verification that CVD bearing inputs were used in exports.
CVD levied under the Customs Tariff Act is rebatable as drawback but, because CVD is excluded from All Industry Rates, CVD-specific drawback must be claimed via Brand Rate under the Drawback Rules; admissibility depends on verification that inputs which bore CVD were actually used in the exported goods. If imported goods on which CVD was paid are exported as such, drawback under the Customs Act may include the CVD component as part of total duties paid, subject to other statutory conditions.

Countervailing duty rebate as drawback clarified; brand-rate application required where inputs bearing such duty were used in exports.
Countervailing Duties are rebatable as duty drawback but are excluded from All Industry Rates; drawback on such duties must be claimed via Brand Rate applications and is admissible only where verification confirms the inputs that bore countervailing duty were actually used in the exported goods. If imported goods subject to countervailing duty are exported unchanged, drawback may include the countervailing duty component as part of total duties paid, subject to other conditions.

IGST applies when ownership of imported goods in a bonded warehouse is transferred before ex-bond clearance.
Transfers or sales of imported goods deposited in a customs bonded warehouse before clearance constitute a supply and, being before goods cross the customs frontier, are treated as inter-State supplies subject to IGST; the value of such supply is determined under the CGST/IGST valuation provisions and IGST is payable notwithstanding that customs duties remain deferred and are collected later at ex-bonding on the value fixed under the Customs Act.

Reverse charge liability for IFSC SEZ units: procure specified input services without integrated tax by furnishing Letter of Undertaking.
Units in IFSC SEZ receiving input services chargeable on reverse charge are deemed suppliers and liable for integrated tax, but may procure such services without payment of integrated tax by furnishing a Letter of Undertaking in lieu of a bond, subject to the procedural conditions and exceptions applicable to such undertakings; the clarification applies mutatis mutandis to IFSC SEZ units and aligns reverse-charge treatment with zero-rated import of services for authorized operations.

E-way bill misuse prevention through vehicle inspection, invoice scrutiny, and checks on undervaluation and misdeclaration of goods.
Instructions were issued for inspection of vehicles to prevent misuse of the e-way bill system by evasion through split invoicing and undervaluation of goods. Where goods are transported in a vehicle through more than three invoices each below the threshold value, detailed physical verification of the vehicle is to be carried out, and the invoices are to be collected for further examination of the trader by the investigation unit. Detailed checking is also required where traders attempt to avoid the e-way bill requirement by misdeclaring costly goods as cheaper goods, transporting unbranded goods in place of branded goods, or showing substantial undervaluation.

Wrong office selection in e-way bill registration must be corrected to restore proper monitoring and officer login visibility.
Correction of wrong office selection in e-way bill registration was directed so that the correct tax assessing office could be mapped on the GST portal based on the trader's business address, enabling downloaded e-way bill information to appear in the proper officer's login. Assessing officers were instructed to verify jurisdiction through the registration register, update the office through the e-way bill portal using the GSTIN, and ensure that all previously downloaded e-way bills became available under the newly selected office for effective monitoring, with strict compliance required by the specified deadline.

First Appellate Authority under Right to Information Act appointed for CGST South; appeals from CPIO orders to be filed with authority.
Mr. R. L. Meena, Additional Commissioner, CGST South, Delhi, is appointed as First Appellate Authority under section 5(1) and 5(2) of the Right to Information Act. Appeals from orders of the CPIOs within this Commissionerate shall lie with the Appellate Authority, and pending applications/appeals in the territorial jurisdiction will be dealt with by designated CPIOs or the appellate authority as appropriate.

Duty free shops must display prices in Indian rupees and accept INR card payments, with arrival/departure payment limits.
Payments at duty free shops may be made directly in Indian rupees via INR credit or debit cards without conversion; DFSs must display all prices only in Indian rupees and ensure INR card payers are not charged in foreign currency or made to bear conversion charges. Arrival-hall INR card payments remain subject to the existing incoming-passenger payment limit, while departure-hall INR card payments are not limited; foreign-currency payments, if requested, must use the exchange rate notified under customs law.

Forwarding of specified import samples to designated outside laboratories to expedite testing and customs clearance.
JNCH field formations may directly forward samples of goods listed in the Annexure to designated outside laboratories when Revenue Laboratories cannot test them; sampling must follow the receiving laboratory's prescribed technique and Annexure specifications. Live or hazardous consignments require urgent forwarding and Groups/Docks must enable expedited online receipt of test reports. If testing exceeds three days, the importer may warehouse goods under section 49 of the Customs Act. Testing fees are payable by the importer or exporter. The procedure excludes cases where Partner Government Agencies draw samples and is a standing order for staff.

Countervailing duty drawback: claim via brand rate where inputs incurred CVD; exported goods may include CVD.
Countervailing Duties are rebatable as drawback but are not included in All Industry Rates; therefore drawback for such duties must be claimed through a Brand Rate application under the Drawback Rules and will be admissible only where verification confirms the inputs that incurred the Countervailing Duty were actually used in the exported goods. If imported goods subject to Countervailing Duty are exported as such, drawback will include the incidence of Countervailing Duty as part of total duties paid, subject to other conditions.

e-Way Bill system: inter-State mandatory Feb 1; intra-State implementation by states before June 1; provisional refund relaxations.
The Council approved rollout of a nationwide e-Way Bill System: trial inter-State operation by 16 January and compulsory inter-State operation from 1 February, with States free to implement intra-State e-Way Bills on any date before 1 June, 2018. States with existing systems may continue until migration. The Council also authorised provisional and final refunds without electronic matching for specified categories (zero-rated supplies, inverted duty, IGST on zero-rated supplies, deemed exports) subject to an undertaking to repay if legal conditions for input tax credit are not met.

Re-export requirement for imported durable containers: timely proof or extensions are mandatory or enforcement action may follow.
Imported durable containers are exempt from customs duty subject to a bond obliging re-export within six months or payment of duty; liners/shipping agents registered under Continuity Bonds must re-export or seek extensions per Notification No. 104/94 and Circular No. 83/98. Due to frequent failure to submit Transshipment Applications as proof of re-export, liners/shipping agents are directed to file proof with the ITP Cell within one week after sailing or obtain extensions at least one month before bond expiry, failing which action under the Customs Act, 1962 will follow.

Electronic sealing requirement phased from voluntary adoption to mandatory use for eligible exporters and approved premises.
Exporters with RFID e-seals stuffing containers at approved premises where readers are available may voluntarily adopt e-sealing immediately; the regime will transition to mandatory application for exporters permitted self-sealing and AEO exporters or those availing supervised stuffing at their premises for export through the Customs jurisdiction, with a later mandatory start for a specified ICD. EDI registration validity at the Port of Export is extended until the ICD mandatory start date. Difficulties should be notified to Customs.

Electronic sealing of export containers now mandatory for specified exporters; approved vendors and verification procedures prescribed.
Electronic sealing of export containers is mandated for specified entitled exporters at the Custom House, Tuticorin, who must obtain e seals from listed approved vendors; e sealed containers may be taken to any CFS or ICD for standard export formalities, and will not be opened for examination unless system selected, with Customs officers performing seal verification and gate reading to allow export when readings are in order.