Foreign Trade Policy amendment: reclassification of handloom product codes affecting export bonus eligibility under the Handbook of Procedures.
The Handbook of Procedures Vol. I is amended to delete three specified handloom product codes from one focus-product description because they are already covered by an earlier focus-product listing, and a new serial entry is inserted in the Focus Product(s)/Sector(s) - Bonus Benefits table to record that those handloom product codes are covered by the earlier listing, clarifying their treatment for exports from the stated effective date.

Departmental litigation: tighter deadlines, mandatory Chief Commissioner approval, and stricter documentation to prevent procedural delays.
The Board mandates stricter accountability and institutional mechanisms to prevent delays and procedural defects in SLP and Civil Appeal processing: CA proposals must reach the Board within fifteen days of Tribunal orders and SLP proposals within twenty days of High Court orders; all proposals must be approved by the Jurisdictional Chief Commissioner and accompanied by a Commissioner's certificate confirming inclusion and legibility of all relevant documents. Commissionerates must preserve and forward technical literature and party submissions for Paper Books, provide legal research resources, refrain from sending draft SLPs/CAs, and adopt corrective measures with justification for any delays.

Residual category classification confirms new services need no individual notifications, allowing issuance of trade or public notices.
The Board clarifies that all services newly notified through the Finance Act, 2010 fall within the residual category (category (iii) of clause (3)) under the Export of Services Rules, 2005 and the Taxation of Services Rules, 2006; no individual notifications were issued for each service, and Trade Notices or Public Notices may be issued to inform taxpayers accordingly.

Deduction under Section 80P: Regional Rural Banks are excluded and prior circular deeming them cooperative societies withdrawn.
Deduction under Section 80P concerns relief to cooperative societies and whether Regional Rural Banks qualify; although a prior CBDT circular had deemed RRBs to be cooperative societies, an amendment excluded most cooperative banks from Section 80P and the Board clarifies that RRBs are not eligible for the deduction from the relevant assessment year, withdrawing the earlier deeming circular and directing field officers to take remedial action.

Adjudication limits for service tax expanded to allow Superintendents to decide lower-value cases with specified exclusions and reporting timelines.
Superintendents are empowered to adjudicate show cause notices specifying service tax or CENVAT credit up to a prescribed lower monetary threshold, excluding cases on taxability, valuation, exemptions, extended limitation periods, or those involving suppression, fraud, collusion or willful misstatement; wrongful availment of CENVAT credit within that threshold is included. Other officers retain tiered adjudication limits with Commissioners having unlimited jurisdiction. Commissioners must reallocate pending cases, issue corrigenda where required, ensure orders where hearings are complete are passed promptly, and submit compliance reports up the chain within specified timelines.

Inclusion of Broker Recoveries in Taxable Value: most broker-recovered charges are taxable while pure agent stamp duty and STT exclusions apply.
Transaction charges of stock exchanges, demat charges and regulatory fees recovered by brokers are includible in the service tax taxable value as consideration; stamp duty and security transaction tax paid by brokers on behalf of clients while acting as a pure agent are not includible, provided the conditions for exclusion under the Determination of Value Rules are met.

Equilibrium price not discovered: market orders matched at previous day's close and unmatched orders shifted to normal market.
Where an equilibrium price is not discovered in the pre-open call auction: if only market orders exist, match market orders at the previous day's close price and shift any unmatched market orders to the normal market order book at that price following time priority, with that price as the opening price; if no market orders are available to be matched, shift unmatched market orders (at the previous day's close price) and limit orders to the normal market order book following price-time priority.

Indelible package marking requirement replaces stencil-only rule, mandates permanent non overwrite markings and case by case officer relief.
All packages presented for export must bear markings that are indelible and permanent in nature; no overwriting of numbers or markings is permitted. Existing conditions of the original notice remain in force, and any difficulties in complying may be referred to the Deputy/Assistant Commissioner of Customs for case by case decisions.

All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback revised effective 20.9.2010; updated rates, new entries and procedural clarifications for exporters.
Notification revises the All Industry Rates (AIR) of Duty Drawback effective 20.9.2010, recalculating rates and caps across tariff chapters based on input prices, SION, import shares and applied duties while factoring fuel and service tax incidence. It introduces new entries and adjusts many sectoral rates (textiles, leather, metals, machinery, bicycles, carpets etc.). It clarifies that the customs component of AIR remains available despite Central Excise rebate or procurement without excise duty, restricts drawback where DEPB benefits are actually availed at export, and relaxes jewellery examination requirements to other trained appraisers/superintendents.

SEZ approvals and regulatory decisions: formal and in principle grants, co developer authorisations, de notifications and procedural deferrals.
The Board granted multiple formal and in principle approvals for sector specific and multi product SEZs where developers held land and state recommendations existed, approved conversion of some in principle approvals subject to contiguity guidelines, authorised co developer roles for infrastructure (subject to tax assessment by revenue authorities), granted extensions of approval validity, approved de notifications and withdrawals subject to refund certificates, set a 10% threshold for area changes not requiring Board approval if contiguity is maintained, and deferred policy items pending Department of Revenue input while disposing of various appeals by upholding, rejecting or restoring Letters of Approval as appropriate.

Cost recovery obligations for SEZ staffing require developers to fund pay, allowances and remit payments promptly.
Developers must bear all pay, allowances and related benefits of central government officers posted to SEZs, provide furnished accommodation and prescribed facilities, and commence liability from the officer's actual date of joining; failure to pay permits officer withdrawal and recovery with penal interest. Development Commissioners will compute tentative half-year recoveries, issue demands for remittance by challan to zonal accounts, adjust for dearness allowance and pay revisions, reconcile final annual outflows in subsequent demands, require proportionate sharing where ad hoc services are provided, and maintain detailed records for audit under existing procedures.

Re-crediting of duty credit scrips: manual registration permitted to clear pending CVD refund claims under conditions.
Customs will allow manual registration of duty scrips re credited by DGFT based on consolidated certificates from Commissionerates and permit manual filing of Bills of Entry to utilize the re credited amount, limited to cases where the duty payable does not exceed the scrip balance; re credit is to be used for basic customs duty and CVD only and not to generate further re credits for the 4% CVD.

Budget estimates 2011-12 require Ministries to submit certified RE/BE receipts and expenditure schedules in prescribed formats by set deadlines.
Budget Circular 2011-2012 prescribes formats, categories and deadlines for RE 2010-11 and BE 2011-12: Ministries must submit certified estimates of Revenue Receipts, Interest Receipts, Capital Receipts and Public Account transactions in prescribed appendix forms; prepare SBEs through staged proposed/pre-budget/final submissions with supporting schedules (charged expenditure, recoveries, loan/equity components, explanations for significant variations); and furnish Detailed Demands for Grants, statements on gender, SC/ST, guarantees, arrears and asset registers, complying with classification, reconciliation and fiscal-prudence instructions and specified submission modes and due dates.

Arrear recovery handbook: certificates, seven day demand notices, attachment and public sale procedures for tax dues.
The handbook consolidates recovery law and procedure for Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax: statutory bases (Customs Sections 28, 142; Central Excise Section 11 and applied Customs provisions; Service Tax Sections 73-73D, 87); delegated authority to authorised officers and creation of Recovery Cells; issuance of certificates and seven-day demand notices; attachment, inventory, proclamation and sale procedures under the 1995 Attachment Rules; priority distribution of sale proceeds; provisional attachment for Service Tax under Section 73C with approval and extension limits; and administrative rules on recordkeeping, monitoring, write-off and informer rewards.

Depository connectivity enables shift from trade-for-trade to rolling settlement subject to dematerialisation certification and no other grounds.
Stock exchanges may shift securities from Trade for Trade Settlement to Rolling Settlement for companies with connectivity to both depositories if at least fifty percent of non-promoter holdings are dematerialised and a certificate from the Registrar and Transfer Agent (or a practicing company secretary/chartered accountant where no separate RTA exists) is submitted; shifts must not proceed where other grounds for continuation of TFTS exist, and exchanges must report such actions in their development reports.

Special CVD refund: manufacturers claiming exemption cannot obtain refund; credit available only if excise paid.
Clarifies that Special CVD paid on imported inputs is eligible for CENVAT credit and can be utilized where the manufacturer pays excise duty on the final product; manufacturers availing full exemption for final products who do not pay excise duty cannot claim CENVAT credit or refund under the customs exemption notification, and refund is unavailable where the State VAT payment condition on inputs cannot be satisfied because inputs are consumed in manufacture.

Change of Customs House Agent notification required; department must be informed before filing, non-compliance treated as regulatory violation.
Whenever an importer or exporter changes its CHA, or a CHA accepts engagement from an importer/exporter, the change must be notified to the Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner, SIIB (Import) or (Export) before filing any import/export documents. New CHAs must obtain from the importer/exporter a letter stating earlier CHA details or that none existed and forward this with erstwhile CHA particulars to the department; importers/exporters must similarly intimate details of erstwhile and new CHAs prior to filing.

Signing correspondence with name and designation required; unnamed submissions may be returned or recorded with sender queried.
All departmental officers and trade members must include the name and designation (and telephone number if feasible) below the dated signature on all correspondence and replies; a Standing Order directs officers to do so, trade submissions filed personally without such identification may be returned for compliance, and mailed submissions lacking identification may be recorded while the sender is asked to furnish the required particulars.

FDI reporting: mandatory advance reporting, KYC and FC GPR filings on set timelines; banks must monitor compliance.
Indian companies must file an Advance Reporting Format with the non-resident investor's KYC to the Reserve Bank within 30 days of receiving consideration, issue FDI instruments within 180 days of inward remittance, and file Form FC GPR within 30 days of issue; delays or issuance/refund beyond 180 days without Reserve Bank approval constitute FEMA violations.

Line of Credit for export financing enables Indian exports to PTA Bank member countries with operative dates and commission rules.
Exim Bank provided a Line of Credit to PTA Bank to finance exports of goods and services eligible under India's Foreign Trade Policy to PTA regional members. The agreement is effective from August 25, 2010, with terminal dates for opening Letters of Credit and for disbursements set at 36 and 42 months respectively. Shipments must be declared on GR/SDF forms. Agency commission is ordinarily not payable, but RBI may permit up to 5% for exports requiring after sales service, payable by deduction from the invoice and with the reimbursable amount to the negotiating bank being 90% of the f.o.b./c&f/c.i.f. value minus commission; exporters may otherwise use own or EEFC funds and AD Category I banks must inform exporters.