DEPB credit eligibility for made ups: guidance on admissibility and documentation requirements for yarn dyed fabrics, clarified for exporters
Admissibility for DEPB credit depends on Customs Board circulars; DGFT circular is to be ignored. Handloom exports require HEPC certification. For non handloom made ups, shipping bills are admissible if the fabric was cleared by the manufacturer against an AR 4/AR 5 form or if visually determinable processing (e.g. printing) shows the fabric was processed; otherwise Customs may demand a test report to establish prescribed processing.

Port clearance requirement: valid Marine Shipping Act licence or authorised surveyor clearance required before foreign vessels depart Indian coast.
Customs shall not grant port clearance to foreign-flag vessels unless they produce a valid licence under the Marine Shipping Act; if no licence is produced, the vessel must obtain clearance from the Mercantile Marine Department or an officer authorised by the Directorate General of Shipping as Surveyor of the port, particularly where the vessel is engaged in coastal operations such as servicing offshore platforms, drilling, tugs or supply duties.

Service tax liability shift: clearing and forwarding agents must now directly pay service tax and comply with registration and returns.
Clearing and forwarding agents are now directly liable to pay service tax on taxable services they render; the taxable value remains the gross remuneration or commission received from the principal or client. Existing requirements for registration, returns and assessment continue to apply, and Commissioners must issue trade notices with procedures for registration, document maintenance, filing and payment to facilitate implementation and compliance.

Self-certification sealing: exporters may provide tentative sealing dates and times, and authorities may permit shortened intimation periods.
Under the self-certification/self-sealing facility, exporters may furnish tentative dates and times for sealing, stuffing and clearance in the export plan; specific details in the export plan may be accepted as due intimation, and the Assistant/Deputy Commissioner may permit a shorter period for furnishing intimation when tentative dates are submitted.

Payment by cheque during bank closures permits provisional credit and deposit procedures to ensure excise collection continuity.
The circular permits a time limited procedure allowing assessees to pay central excise dues by sending cheques and TR 6 challans to the Chief Accounts Officer when nominated banks are uniformly unable to transact due to strikes, sudden closures or natural calamities. Assessees must send cheques by registered post or special messenger with a declaration of sufficient funds and copy the Range Officer; provisional credit may be taken in the P.L.A. on the strength of such cheques. The Chief Accounts Officer must notify Range Officers, deposit cheques after banks reopen using TR 6 challans, maintain records, debit bank charges to the P.L.A., and ensure penal action on dishonour.

Management consultant classification clarified: secretarial industrial legal services are excluded from that scope and reclassified.
Services limited to secretarial assistance-filing returns and forms and maintaining records-by ESI, PF and other industrial law practitioners do not change or improve management and therefore are excluded from the scope of the term Management Consultant for service tax classification; prior guidance treating them as management consultants should be modified and practitioners informed.

Central Government approval requirement for research-related tax deductions now governs filing, transfer, and validation processes.
Amendment requires Central Government to grant approvals for research-related deductions formerly given by the prescribed authority; fresh applications for later assessment years must be filed in Form 3CF with the Central Government, and pending applications held by DGIT(E) as of the notification date for those later years are transferred to the Central Government. The DGIT(E) with the Secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research remains the authority for earlier assessment years, and approvals already granted before notification for later years remain valid.

Assessment of political parties: all returns to be examined under section 143(3), standardising scrutiny procedure across cases.
The Board directs that all assessments of political parties, whether returns are voluntary or in response to notice, shall be made under section 143(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, applying to pending returns for which a statutory notice under section 143(2) can now be issued and to returns received in future.

Refund procedure: require bank advice, written intimation before adjustment, regional approval ceilings and interest entitlement.
Require enclosure of bank advice with refund vouchers and prompt transmission to banks; CCITs to use RBI returns and inspections must comment on timeliness and address accuracy. Written intimation is mandatory before adjusting refunds against demands. CCIT/DGIT shall set regional monetary ceilings for prior superior approval of refunds, allowing separate ceilings for corporate and non corporate cases. Where superior approval is needed, the assessing officer must calculate and grant interest up to the date the voucher is signed after approval without separate sanction.

Sample clearance limit for export-oriented units expanded, allowing duty-paid disposals into the domestic market under the Exim Policy.
EOU/EPZ/EHTP/STP units may supply or sell samples into the Domestic Tariff Area for display and market promotion on payment of applicable duties, subject to a ceiling of up to one percent of the previous year's export value and a separate higher maximum for new units going into production; this circular modifies earlier Board instructions and directs publication of a public notice and reporting of implementation difficulties to the Board.

EPCG import approvals decentralised to licensing authorities; mining imports and cotton yarn export restriction relaxed for qualifying fulfilment.
EPCG operational clarifications: licensing authorities are authorised to approve imports of DG sets below 1000 KVA; conveyor belts and OTR tyres for mining are allowable imports; domestic sourcing of capital goods under EPCG may be processed by licensing authorities without EPCG committee referral under Exim Policy and Handbook of Procedures; and the 41-count restriction for cotton yarn is relaxed for calendar year 1999 so all cotton yarn exports in 1999 qualify for EPCG export-obligation fulfilment.

Tariff classification clarification: DGFT list assigns ITC Exim codes and conditional classifications for specified imported products.
DGFT published item-specific clarifications assigning ITC(HS) Exim Codes for various products following committee review of classification requests; the list pairs commodity descriptions with Exim Codes and records form- or use-based qualifications where classification varies by nature of import, revises or withdraws prior entries, and provides guidance to ensure uniform customs classification and trade processing.

SIL option permits exporters to claim preceding licensing year benefits subject to specified filing and documentation conditions.
A new provision, paragraph 12.8(A), allows exporters who held recognition under the prior and current policies to irrevocably elect to claim SIL based on exports in the preceding licensing year, subject to conditions: the option must be exercised on filing and endorsed on the certificate; exports before 1 April 1997 follow the earlier policy and Handbook rates; exports on/after 1 April 1997 require application in Appendix 20D with SIL on proceeds realised annually; applications must be filed within six months from the licensing year end or 90 days after renewal/recognition; paragraph 12.8(e) remains applicable.

Fitting duty-paid air conditioning parts in vehicles does not constitute manufacture of a separate car air conditioner under excise law.
Acquiring duty-paid parts and fitting them into a vehicle at various locations does not create a separate commodity; therefore such fitting does not result in manufacture of a new excisable item classified as a car air conditioner.

Advertising agency classification: creation of advertisements attracts service tax, mere printing and publishing of directories does not.
The Ministry concluded that compilation, printing and publishing of telephone directories, Yellow pages and business directories that consist of printing readymade advertisements supplied by advertisers are akin to newspapers and do not attract service tax as an advertising agency. However, if those persons undertake activities of making or preparation of advertisements - such as designing, visualising or conceptualising - the charges for those creative services are taxable and liable to service tax.

Canalised export of Niger seed: NAFED added as eligible associate shipper under revised designation rules.
The circular amends paragraph 2 of the export policy to include The National Agricultural Co-operative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) as an additional eligible associate shipper; it confirms that TRIFED may designate NAFED, The National Dairy Development Board Ltd (NDDB), The Madhya Pradesh State Cooperatives Oilseeds Growers Federation Ltd, The Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation Ltd, and Bihar and Andhra Pradesh government nominated agencies as associate shippers for the canalised export of Niger seed.

Export licensing entitlement expanded: fulfilment of prior export obligations allows further licences within the same licensing year.
Amendments provide that exporters who fulfil the export obligation on earlier licences are entitled to further licences in the same licensing year; insert the advance licence with actual user condition into special licence listings; extend application of published norms to include paragraph 7.5; permit prorata enhancement requests before or after export up to 100% of the obligation with calculations on revised SION where applicable; require chartered engineer certification for service provider capital goods claims; modify credit application timelines and limit DEPB declaration requirements to specified rates.

Currency carriage rules permit higher denomination notes on foreign-going vessels for crew wage disbursement, subject to RBI conditions.
Permission is extended to foreign-going Merchant Ships to carry Indian currency notes of Rs. 100/- denomination on board for disbursement of wages, subject to the usual conditions prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India. Customs officers are directed to issue a Public Notice to inform relevant personnel and to report any implementation difficulties to the Central Board of Excise & Customs.

Publication of appellate orders: departmental website to post case gists and revenue details for internal use by commissioners.
The Chief Departmental Representative has begun posting gists of appellate decisions and appeals/stays on a central Website, with the format to be modified to include the amount of revenue involved in each appeal and, where a stay is passed in brief, the amount required to be deposited; Chief Commissioners are directed to use the Website and instruct Commissioners to rely on the posted information rather than circulate separate copies of gists or judgments.

Percentage of fly ash calculation must use the dry finished product weight to determine exemption eligibility.
The proportion of fly ash must be calculated with reference to the finished asbestos cement product in dry condition: weight of fly ash divided by weight of the asbestos cement product (dry) expressed as a percentage. Commissioners may require manufacturers to maintain accounts in the proforma previously prescribed by the Board when specifying records to be kept.