Use of invoice: valuation principles unchanged, priority assessment of April and May RT 12 returns with supervisory approval before show cause.
Invoices are to replace gate passes and price lists from 1 April 1994 while valuation principles under Section 4 and the Valuation Rules remain unchanged; judicial decisions continue to guide assessable value determinations. Range officers are to be instructed via group discussions led by senior collectors on using invoices and specified documents for valuation. RT-12 returns for April and May 1994 must be assessed on priority, with Superintendents prevented from issuing show-cause notices or resorting to provisional assessment without Assistant Collector or Deputy Collector approval; Collectors must report evaluations to the Board by the prescribed deadlines.

Prior import requirement for raw cotton mandates import before export of cotton yarn under duty exemption scheme.
Licensing authorities must issue duty free licences for export of cotton yarn only with a specific condition that import of raw cotton shall precede export by the licencee to fulfil the export obligation; replenishment imports of raw cotton under the duty exemption scheme are not permitted and both quantity and value based licences must reflect this condition.

Monetary threshold for Central Excise prosecution raised to streamline initiation and conserve departmental resources.
Enhancement of the monetary limit for initiating prosecution under the Central Excise Act directs that prosecution be confined to matters exceeding a newly prescribed threshold, applied prospectively, to prioritise higher-value cases and ensure better utilisation of departmental manpower, time and resources.

Withdrawal of prosecution requires approval by a superior authority; once complaint is filed, judicial decision governs continuation.
Prosecution under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 requires evidence of mens rea before initiation and should be vigorously pursued. If adverse facts emerge after a Principal Collector has approved prosecution but before complaint filing, the Principal Collector may recommend withdrawal to the Board; withdrawal authority must be superior to the approving authority. Where a complaint is already filed, continuation or withdrawal is for judicial determination, and if the court orders withdrawal an Assistant Collector may act after formal Principal Collector authorization. Principal Collectors must closely scrutinize withdrawal requests.

Capital gains residency rule: Mauritius residents' gains from alienation of shares taxable only in Mauritius.
Paragraph 4 of Article 13 allocates exclusive taxing rights over capital gains from property not covered by earlier subparagraphs to the State of residence of the person deriving the gains; accordingly, capital gains realised by a Mauritius resident from the alienation of shares are taxable only in Mauritius under Mauritius law and not taxable in India. Paragraph 5 defines "alienation" to include sale, exchange, transfer, relinquishment, extinguishment of rights or compulsory acquisition.

End-use certificate narrowed to specified non-medicinal bulk drugs; certification required only for listed items.
The Board limits the requirement for an end-use certificate for claiming exemption in respect of 'other bulk drugs' to the specific substances listed in Annexure I, because those listed have significant non-medicinal uses; bulk drugs generally used in medicine and those in the DPCO Second Schedule need not be subject to the end-use certificate condition. Field formations and trade are to be notified of this restricted application.

Tax withholding on payments for any work expands to include services and transport, with prescribed withholding rates on pay-outs.
Section 194C mandates tax deduction at source from payments for carrying out any work, broadly including services, transport, advertising, broadcasting, telecasting, labour supply, materials incidental to work, and works contracts; applies to written and oral contracts, with withholding at 2% from contractors and 1% by contractors on payments to resident sub-contractors, calculated on payment amount and triggered on credit or payment. Exclusions include contracts in substance for sale of goods, hiring or renting of equipment, certain banking transactions, and amounts treated as salaries; a non-deduction certificate may be obtained where income is not taxable.

Application of Central Excise offences and penalties extends to the Additional Duties of Excise Act, effective upon presidential assent.
The amendment provides that provisions of the Central Excise Act and rules relating to offences and penalties shall apply to the Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957, taking effect from the date the Finance Bill receives presidential assent, thereby aligning enforcement and sanctioning under the Additional Duties Act with the Central Excise offences-and-penalties framework.

Office or place of profit limits revised, requiring company special resolution for substantial remunerations and central approval for larger ones.
Company consent by special resolution is required where an office or place of profit carries monthly remuneration at or above the prescribed threshold, and prior government approval in addition to company special resolution is required where monthly remuneration meets the higher prescribed threshold; the Central Government has revised those monetary thresholds upward by notification under the General Rules and Forms.

Delegation of enforcement powers to securities regulator enables filing of corporate offences complaints, ensuring coordination with company registrars.
Central Government authorized an officer of the securities regulator to file complaints under specified provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and required the regulator to furnish complaint details to the concerned Registrars of Companies and the Ministry to avoid duplication of action. The regulator must forward any applications for compounding of offences to the relevant Registrars, who will take appropriate action under extant law, and the notification reiterates earlier delegated complaint filing powers in respect of additional company law provisions.

High Power Committee clearance required - appeals may be filed to save limitation but must be referred promptly for suspension.
Before instituting litigation involving Government Departments and Public Sector Undertakings, every endeavour must be made to obtain clearance from the High Power Committee; appeals may be filed to save limitation but where filed without prior clearance the appellant must within one month refer the matter to the Committee and serve prior notice on the Under Secretary (Coordination) in the Cabinet Secretariat. The reference is effective only after lodging that notice, and once made the operation of the challenged order or proceedings is suspended pending the Committee's decision; if unresolved, the Committee must record reasons and grant clearance for litigation.

Foreign trade regulation now combines facilitation and control, with policy power centralised and civil adjudication of breaches.
The Act shifts foreign trade law toward development and regulation, empowering the Central Government to formulate and non delegably announce an Export & Import Policy and making that Policy part of the statutory framework alongside rules and orders. Contraventions are treated as civil offences adjudicated administratively; possession of an Importer-Exporter Code is mandatory; and adjudicating authorities may accept monetary settlements for admitted contraventions.

Excise duty classification: duty on EPZ/EOU rejects and DTA supplies must be credited to Union Excise Duties subhead.
Duty on sale of rejects and on production sold into the Domestic Tariff Area by EPZ and 100% EOUs is chargeable under Section 3 and should be credited to the sub head 0038 Union Excise Duties; trade and field formations are to be informed to ensure uniform accounting and remittance.

Bank guarantee realization: effect revenue recovery upon formal court order, prompting banks to honour guarantees per regulatory guidance.
Realisation of revenue under a bank guarantee is to be effected only upon receipt of a Court's order; banks had required certified copies of judgments before honoring guarantees, and a regulatory circular to commercial banks was issued to address compliance and payment procedures under guarantees in such cases.

Deduction under section 115J follows the computation method of sections 80HHC and 80HHD, not their quantified amounts.
Clause (iii) requires that the net profit shown in the profit and loss account be adjusted as per the Explanation's specified additions and deductions and that the deduction from book profits be computed by applying the procedural proportionate methods used in the export-deduction rules; if the business is exclusively eligible the full adjusted amount is deductible, otherwise the relevant export-related turnover or receipts proportion is applied to the adjusted amount to determine the deduction.

Exemption eligibility for cold finished bright steel bars affirmed, clarifying they qualify for specified central excise relief.
Cold rolled/cold formed/cold finished bars and rods commercially known as bright bars are eligible for benefit under the specified central excise notification. The manufacturing process-acid pickling, surface smoothing, lime neutralization, cold drawing through dies and final polishing/straightening-produces cold finished bright bars and does not amount to disqualifying further working; accordingly those bright bars qualify for the excise exemption.

Guarantee commission not remuneration: department withdraws circular treating it as managerial remuneration, no approval required.
Guarantee commission paid to directors for personal surety on company loans is not to be treated as managerial remuneration, and the Department has withdrawn its earlier circular that classified such payments as remuneration and required central approval, aligning administrative practice with the judicial view that standing surety payments are not remuneration for services.

Centralised numbering system standardises excise orders and circulars, requiring CX.3 register, prescribed prefixes and central allocation.
A centralised numbering regime requires all Central Excise Wing instruments to bear sequential multi part numbers (running serial/serial in year/two digit year-CX) with statutory prefixes for orders under specified provisions. CX.3 will maintain a central register and allocate running numbers; no section may issue instruments without a number from CX.3, and copies of numbered instruments must be circulated to concerned formations. Earlier orders have been re numbered for reference to ensure consistency and ease of field reference.

Reporting requirement for seizures and prosecutions: mandatory monthly progress reports and a management information system to track recovery.
Require monthly consolidated progress reports on significant seizures, prosecutions and recoveries in Central Excise and Customs to the Director General (Anti Evasion) and through Chairman (CBEC), addressing gaps where seizure and prosecution progress information did not reach decision makers. Establish a reporting requirement and implement a departmental management information system for uniform monthly reporting by field formations to ensure visibility of prosecution and recovery actions and submission of reports to Ministers and the Finance Ministry.

Luxury tax exclusion from room charges clarifies Expenditure-tax scope, withdrawing prior guidance and adopting contrary interpretation.
The Board accepts the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal's view that luxury tax and similar State levies do not form part of room charges under section 2(10) of the Expenditure-tax Act, 1987, and withdraws earlier circulars that had required inclusion of such taxes in the room-charge base for Expenditure-tax applicability.