Dispensing of customs baggage declaration: domestic passengers on international flights' domestic leg need not file the form.
Domestic passengers on the domestic leg of an international flight are not required to file the Customs Baggage Declaration form, and Chief Commissioners of Customs are directed to ensure strict implementation at all airports; the Circular was later rescinded by a subsequent circular effective in 2026.

Re-export procedure: streamlined permission and documentation centralises approvals for warehoused goods export.
Streamlined procedure requires the bonder exporter to apply to the Bond Section where goods are warehoused; upon verification and conditional permission, a provisional entry is made in the Bond Register and a sealed permission letter is sent to the Export office and warehouse Bond Officer. The party then files the permission and generates the Shipping Bill at the exporting Commissionerate; after assessment, the Bond Officer records Shipping Bill details and authorises movement to the export port under supervision or seal. Following examination and LEO at export, final Shipping Bill is submitted to Bond Section for cancellation or debit in the Bond Register.

Verification timeline under section 245 reduced to expedite refunds by halving response period for taxpayers and assessing officers
CPC will issue reminders to assessing officers or taxpayers to confirm, correct or accept arrear demands; failure by an assessing officer to respond will lead CPC to issue refunds without adjustment with the assessing officer remaining responsible for non adjustment, while failure by a taxpayer to respond will permit CPC to adjust the demand and issue any balance refund. The prescribed response period has been temporarily reduced to a shorter timeframe for notices issued in the remaining part of the financial year to expedite clearance of refund backlog.

Consortium not an AOP where members have separate work, risk and profits, clarifying tax treatment.
A consortium for EPC/Turnkey contracts is not to be treated as an AOP if each member independently executes and bears risk for its demarcated scope of work, incurs expenditure only for that scope, earns profits or bears losses based on its performance, retains control of men and materials for its work, and common management is limited to administrative inter-se coordination; sharing of contract price at gross level for billing convenience does not alter this. The circular excludes cases involving Associated Enterprises, where the Assessing Officer will decide on AOP status.

GSP certificate authorization: Tobacco Board empowered to issue certificates for tobacco products under FTP framework.
An amendment to Appendix 2C of the FTP 2015-20 adds Tobacco Board, Guntur to the agencies authorised to issue GSP Certificate of Origin, thereby empowering the Tobacco Board to issue GSP certificates for tobacco and tobacco products under the Foreign Trade Policy.

Continuity bond permits one-year port clearance for vessels, subject to post-arrival submission of required certificates within seven days.
The Board authorised steamer agents to submit a one year continuity bond/guarantee in the annexed format to obtain Advance/EDI Port Clearance, thereby obviating execution of a fresh bond at each entry. Clearance under the continuity bond is conditional on submitting specified certificates within seven days of the vessel's sailing, and failure to comply will invite action under the Customs Act, 1962. The bond must be executed before the Preventive General Dy./Asst. Commissioner of Customs on prescribed stamp paper and is renewable, issuing a reference number for covered vessels.

Denomination restriction on Indian currency lifted for foreign-going vessels, with customs directing public notices and reporting of issues.
The Board notes that RBI revised guidelines do not restrict denominations of Indian currency carried by Indian travellers or ship captains, withdraws the earlier denomination restriction for merchant ships, directs jurisdictional Chief Commissioners to issue public notices, and requests reporting of any implementation difficulties to the Board.

No duplicate IEC issuance: rely on online verification and printed portal records instead of applying for duplicates.
There is no provision under the current Foreign Trade Policy for issuance of a duplicate Import Export Code certificate; users are advised not to apply for duplicate IECs if the original is lost or misplaced. Instead, stakeholders must rely on the DGFT online portal to verify IEC authenticity and may retain printed copies of the online record for transactional use, as the online database is the authoritative source for third party checks.

Revisional powers of Commissioner under section 263: departments must report pending litigation on pre amendment assistant commissioner orders by deadline.
Revisional powers of the Commissioner under section 263 are in question where orders were passed by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner before Explanation (a) and (b) were added; departments must report any pending litigation on that issue to the designated legal office by the prescribed internal deadline, and failure to report will be treated as confirmation that no such litigation is pending.

Infrastructure readiness for tax investigation IT modules required, with local procurement and data entry deadlines to ensure rollout.
The Board directed local procurement of network and computer infrastructure up to Inspector level and submission of network node requirements to ADG (S)-4 by 15 March 2016 to ensure readiness for the revamped Investigation and Search & Survey Modules of ITBA. Systems Directorate will release Excel offline utilities for pending TEPs and STRs, and PD account deposit data must be captured in the prescribed Excel format; all data-entry tasks and infrastructure provision are Top Priority with a compliance report due to the Board by 15 March 2016.

Categorization of suspicious transaction reports updated: legacy category 'A' to be treated as category 'F1' under post-Finnet rules.
The Board directs that pre-Finnet category 'A' Suspicious Transaction Reports shall be read as category 'F1' in the post-Finnet period; references to P1 STRs in the SOP on STRs and related feedback communications are to be interpreted as F1, pursuant to an explanatory letter from the Financial Intelligence Unit and communicated to all DGsIT (Invest.) and DGIT(l&CI).

Electronic payment of refunds: direct bank credit via RTGS/NEFT with bank certified authorization and net receipt after charges.
A system of electronic payment of refunds/rebates requires direct credit to the assessee's/exporter's bank account via RTGS/NEFT through designated authorized banks. Claimants must submit a one time bank certified authorization and a cancelled cheque for fresh claims, with self attested copies for subsequent claims and similar certification for pending claims by the specified deadline. Refund sanctioning authorities will forward a signed beneficiary statement, a consolidated cheque, original authorizations (retaining duplicates), and a soft copy to the bank; banks will credit accounts after deducting applicable RTGS/NEFT charges recoverable from claimants.

Disposal of time-expired bonded goods requires staged notices, detention, verification and auction with recovery of outstanding dues.
A staged administrative procedure governs time expired bonded goods: maintain warehouse lists and bond registers; issue a formal notice one month before expiry for clearance or extension; on noncompliance issue notices under section 72(1) and section 72(2), compile importer responses, verify absence of investigative or appellate holds, obtain supervisory approval to forward goods for public auction, and, if auction proceeds are inadequate, initiate statutory recovery of the balance.

Time-barring under section 143: centralised lists provided for identifying pending assessments and ensuring completion on the system.
Directorate extracted AST data to identify cases pending scrutiny and processing that are approaching time bar and placed detailed lists on itaxnet and ITD/AST MIS Reports. Supervisors and Assessing Officers are instructed to use these centralised lists to ensure assessments are completed on the system, upload order details to correct discrepancies, and lodge Helpdesk complaints for system issues so that AST/ITBA reflects the accurate position.

Benchmark-based lending: internal MCLR and Base Rate frameworks require banks to price loans by benchmark plus spread.
Banks must adopt a Board approved interest rate policy and price rupee advances (subject to specified exemptions) by reference to an internal or external benchmark plus a bank defined spread. The internal benchmarks are the Base Rate and the Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR), the latter comprising marginal cost of funds, negative carry on CRR, operating costs and a tenor premium; MCLR is tenor linked and published at specified maturities, reviewed monthly (or quarterly where permitted), and governs reset mechanics of floating rate loans.

Interest Rate Regulation: banks must follow board approved, uniform, transparent deposit interest policies with benchmark linkage.
These Directions require scheduled commercial banks to adopt board approved, publicly disclosed and uniform interest rate policies for domestic and specified non resident deposit accounts, mandate non negotiability and transparency of rates, prescribe interest calculation conventions (including daily product for savings and benchmark linkage for floating term deposits), set rules for tenor and size based rate differentiation, govern premature withdrawal interest and penalty disclosure, allow limited additional interest schemes for staff and senior citizens, regulate conversion and treatment of non resident deposits on return to India, and prohibit incentive based deposit mobilisation except narrow permitted exceptions.

EDF waiver for free-of-cost exports: status holders' entitlement now capped by revised annual limit, banks to consider requests.
Status Holders' entitlement to export freely exportable items free of cost for export promotion is limited by an annual monetary cap and a percentage based cap on average annual export realization, with the revised rule applying the lower of the two limits; AD Category I banks may consider requests for EDF waiver from Status Holder exporters under this revised norm, and banks should inform constituents of the change under FEMA authority.

Public grievance mobile app enables lodging, reminders and tracking of complaints on CPGRAMS via Android smartphones.
A mobile application for the CPGRAMS portal is available for Android devices via the portal QR code or link; after installation users can lodge grievances, send reminders or clarifications, and track the status of redressal directly from their smartphones.

Custom Broker Licence renewal requires prescribed documentation, timely submission and formal payment before endorsement.
Renewal under Reg.9(2) of CBLR, 2013 requires application at least 90 days before licence expiry, with supporting documents: licence copy; list of approved employees and identity card expiries; PAN of proprietor/firm; association membership; three-year filing and duty/export data; details of suspensions, inquiries, fines, show cause notices; and security particulars. A declaration must confirm no change in constitution/address, no government dues, maintenance of accounts and KYC, and surrender of invalid employee ID cards. Processing is targeted within 30 working days after a complete application; approved renewals are posted publicly. On intimation, the broker must pay the renewal fee via TR-6 challan and submit the endorsed receipt for endorsement of renewal.

Infrastructure cess implementation restores Bill of Entry filing with system entries enabling exemption claims under the budget amendment.
ICES 1.5 has been updated to incorporate Budget changes and is available for filing Bills of Entry; the system implements a new Infrastructure Cess automatically on goods under CTH 8703, while eligible importers may claim exemption under Notification 001/2016 by following specified Service Center or RES entry procedures (marking duties, selecting notification and serial number, or populating SBEDUTY with Notification No., Sl. No., Duty type 'E' and Addl. Duty Flag 'I').