Limitation compliance: ensure appeals are filed on time and avoid mechanical condonation applications or administrative inaction.
Field formations must ensure appeals and petitions are filed within the prescribed limitation periods and avoid mechanical condonation of delay applications; supervisory officers must personally monitor timely filings, flag important nationwide cases to the Board's policy section and Commissioner (Legal), and examine appeals dismissed for limitation with a view to corrective measures, including disciplinary action.

Cost recovery charges: uniform rules for staffing, quarterly payment, and benchmarked exemption procedure for customs facilities.
Guidelines set a unified regime for posting customs staff on cost recovery basis and for collection, exemption, and withdrawal of cost recovery charges: applicability to facilities notified after 26 June 2002 (with exceptions); defined staffing norms by facility; creation/continuation of posts with one-year initial validity and DGHRD processing; quarterly advance payment at a uniform rate of 1.85 times monthly average post cost plus allowances; delayed payment tolerances with interest; exemption eligibility tied to Department of Expenditure permission and meeting prescribed performance benchmarks, with exemptions effective prospectively from the fourth month and subject to monitoring and possible withdrawal.

Mandatory upload of drug consignment labels and IRN in e Sanchit required for specified imports; BE filing blocked otherwise.
Importers and customs brokers must upload prescribed supporting documents to e Sanchit and declare the documents' IRN numbers in the Bill of Entry; the EDI system will block filing of Bills of Entry for specified CTHs unless the mandated document codes and IRN details are provided. For goods requiring Drug Controller clearance, the Label of Consignment (doc code 0110DC) must be uploaded, its IRN declared in the Supp Docs table, and a codified undertaking (statement code 0110DC) confirming intact packaging and non deterioration must be declared in the Statement Table.

Customs ICES e-Sanchit: Mandatory upload of specified import documents and IRN declaration; label and undertaking required for drug items.
Uploading specified supporting documents to e-Sanchit and declaring their IRN numbers in the Bill of Entry is mandatory for listed CTHs w.e.f. 15.01.2021; the ICES system will disallow filing of Bills of Entry for applicable CTHs unless the prescribed document codes and IRN details are provided. For items requiring Drug Controller clearance, the Label of Consignment must be uploaded and the codified undertaking (UTG DC007) declared in the Bill of Entry.

Policy relaxation online submission required; manual applications will not be accepted, with paperless processing and support channels provided.
Applications for policy or procedure relaxation under the Foreign Trade Policy must be filed exclusively through the DGFT's online e PRC module; manual hard copy submissions and physical documents will not be accepted. The e module provides a paperless, contactless electronic workflow for submission, communications, clarifications, corrections and approvals. Users are directed to the DGFT website for module navigation and to online Help/FAQs, and may use the Helpdesk ticketing, a toll free helpline, or an email contact for assistance.

Cumulative gross exposure in ETCDs clarified: specified short positions excluded; mutual funds barred from writing options.
Specifies that, for calculating cumulative gross exposure in Exchange Traded Commodity Derivatives (ETCDs), short positions up to the quantity of underlying goods received in physical settlement and short positions up to the long position in the same goods shall be excluded; additionally mutual funds are prohibited from writing options or purchasing instruments with embedded written options in goods or on commodity futures.

Relaxation of LODR compliance: electronic-mode general meeting exemptions extended, maintaining waiver of physical report and proxy requirements.
Extension of LODR relaxations permits listed entities to conduct general meetings through electronic modes and preserves the exemption from sending physical annual reports and from requiring proxies for meetings held via video conferencing or other audiovisual means; stock exchanges are directed to notify listed entities and disseminate the circular, which takes immediate effect under the regulator's statutory powers.

GST audit selection and procedure: zone categorisation, profiling, audit calendar, reporting and officer targets.
The circular prescribes zone wise classification and turnover based taxpayer categories for selecting registered persons for GST audit for 2017 18 and 2018 19, mandates formation of Zonal/Local Audit Review Committees, allocates profiling duties to Joint/Deputy/Assistant Commissioners, requires preparation and circulation of Pre Audit Draft and Final Reports via the departmental audit module, mandates audit team formation and online issuance of audit notices, sets timelines for taxpayer communication and replies, fixes audit completion deadlines in view of limitation provisions, and assigns quarterly functional targets to audit officers.

Condonation of delay for restored companies permits waiver of additional filing fees for eligible overdue e form filings within a limited window.
A scheme waives additional filing fees for companies restored on the Register following disposal of restoration appeals in the defined restoration period, allowing eligible companies to file overdue e forms with the Registrar within a limited window by paying normal filing fees. The waiver excludes filings for increase in authorized capital and specified charge related documents and does not grant immunity from civil or criminal proceedings.

Remuneration compliance: arm's-length lower pay accepted as transitional relief where prescribed minimum was missed.
An eligible investment fund must pay an eligible fund manager remuneration not less than a prescribed minimum; a proviso allows seeking Board approval if remuneration is lower. The Board granted transitional relief for prior years permitting arm's-length lower remuneration to be treated as compliance, while requiring future remuneration to adhere to the prescribed sub-rule and any applications for lower remuneration to follow the Board's stated procedure.

No Bill of Coastal Goods required for purely coastal vessels; coastal manifest rules apply at EXIM berths.
Filing of a Bill of Coastal Goods is not required for vessels carrying exclusively coastal goods; such vessels are exempted under Notification No. 56/2016, and where coastal goods are handled at EXIM berths a coastal arrival and departure manifest must be filed under Notification No. 57/2016, with masters or agents submitting the prescribed manifests for unloaded, carried-forward, or loaded goods.

Input tax credit reconciliation requires reversal of excess claims where supplier-uploaded invoices do not support cumulative eligible credit.
Input tax credit for February through August 2020 must be reconciled cumulatively with invoices and debit notes uploaded by suppliers up to the due date for the September 2020 FORM GSTR-1. Aggregate credit claimed in the corresponding FORM GSTR-3B returns cannot exceed 110% of cumulative eligible credit supported by uploaded supplier invoices. The limit does not override substantive eligibility conditions. Excess credit identified on reconciliation must be reversed in Table 4(B)(2) of the September 2020 FORM GSTR-3B; non-reversal is treated as ineligible credit availed in September.

Waiver of bank guarantee extended for carriers transhipping EXIM cargo via Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, subject to existing eligibility criteria.
Waiver of Bank Guarantee is extended for carriers undertaking transhipment of EXIM containers through Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, applying the waiver conditions of Circular No.45/2005: carriers meeting the volume-based eligibility qualify for exemption, and jurisdictional Commissioners may exempt lower-volume carriers with good track records; the relief applies across modes of carriage and to shipping lines, ICDs, CFSs and other carriers.

AGM through video conferencing permitted for companies with delayed meetings, subject to compliance with prescribed procedural requirements.
AGMs may be conducted via video conferencing or other audio visual means for companies with meetings due in 2020 or becoming due in 2021, subject to compliance with the procedural requirements in paragraphs 3 and 4 of General Circular No. 20/2020. This clarification does not extend the statutory time for holding AGMs under the Companies Act, 2013, and non-compliance with timelines may attract legal action.

CSR funding eligibility for vaccination awareness permitted, subject to compliance with Companies (CSR Policy) Rules and related circulars.
Spending of CSR funds for awareness campaigns and public outreach on the COVID-19 vaccination programme is an eligible CSR activity under Schedule VII entries concerning promotion of health care, preventive health care and sanitization, promoting education, and disaster management; companies may undertake these activities subject to compliance with the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014 and Ministry circulars.

Waiver from recording of UIN on invoices allowed where attested invoice copies are submitted to the jurisdictional officer.
A waiver permits suppliers who omitted the UIN on invoices for the specified months to rely on attested invoice copies for refund claims, provided the copies are attested by an authorised representative of the UIN entity and submitted to the jurisdictional officer; the State has adopted the central circular mutatis mutandis and treats the instruction as clarificatory while inviting reports of implementation difficulties.

Quarterly return monthly payment scheme allows eligible taxpayers to file quarterly GSTR-3B with monthly tax deposits.
The QRMP Scheme allows registered persons with aggregate turnover up to five crore rupees to file FORM GSTR-3B quarterly while making monthly tax payments for the first two months of each quarter. Eligible taxpayers may use the Invoice Furnishing Facility to report selected invoices in the first two months, and must deposit monthly tax by the 25th day of the next month using either the Fixed Sum Method (portal pre-filled amount based on prior cash tax) or the Self Assessment Method. Deposits are adjusted against the quarterly GSTR-3B; interest and late fee rules apply as specified.

Input tax credit cumulative applicability restricts ITC claimed across months, requiring reconciliation and reversal where records lag.
Clarification prescribes cumulative application of sub-rule (4) of rule 36 for February-August 2020: taxpayers must reconcile ITC claimed in FORM GSTR-3B for those months with invoices uploaded by suppliers until the due date of FORM GSTR-1 for September 2020. The cumulative ITC claimed must not exceed 110% of the cumulative eligible credit reflected in supplier uploads; excess ITC must be reversed in Table 4(B)(2) of FORM GSTR-3B for September 2020, otherwise it will be treated as ineligible ITC.

MSME AEO accreditation: reduced eligibility thresholds, simplified annexures, faster processing, and lower bank guarantee requirements.
MSME applicants with a valid MSME certificate receive relaxed AEO T1/T2 accreditation: document-handling threshold reduced to ten with minimum five per half-year, business activity period reduced to two years, legal/financial compliance period shortened to two years, annexures consolidated into MSME Annexure 1 (general compliance), Annexure 2 (legal, records, financial solvency) and Annexure 3 (security for T2 only), processing times shortened (T1: 15 working days; T2: 3 months), and bank guarantees reduced to 25% (T1) and 10% (T2) of non-AEO levels; continuous MSME certification must be maintained.

Section 119 order corrigendum updates table entries for Singapore and Brazil and inserts authoritative source footnotes.
Corrigendum under section 119 amends the table at paragraph 7 by replacing the Singapore and Brazil rows with revised 2019 filing-related date entries, and inserts a footnote beneath paragraph 7 listing nine web sources as the basis for the updated table information.