MINISTRY OF LAW, JUSTICE AND COMPANY AFFAIRS (Legislative Department) New Delhi, the 16th December, 1999/Agrahayana 25, 1921 (Saka) The following Act of Parliament received the assent of the President on the 16^th December, 1999, and is hereby published for general information:- THE SECURITIES LAWS (SECOND AMENDMENT) ACT, 1999 No. 32 OF 1999 [16th December, 1999] An Act further to amend the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, the Securities and Exchange Board of Ind... ... ...

India-UAE Partnership Poised for Significant Transformation Through Investment and Innovation: Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal India-UAE Review CEPA Progress and Advance Joint Investment Projects The 14^th Meeting of the India-UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments (HLJTFI) took place in Mumbai today, co-chaired by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Government of India and His Highness Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of... ... ...

All sea-cargo stakeholders must register and apply through ICEGATE to operate under the Sea Cargo Manifest Regulations. During the transition period, they must test new-format messages and manifests alongside existing-format submissions. Entity-specific requirements apply: other notified carriers need a registered National Surety Bond; terminal operators and custodians receive auto-approval, with custodians first onboarding ICEGATE MFTP; and transhippers must execute a transhipment bond. Entities undertaking multiple roles need separate applications, and approval queries may be answered online, with additional documents examined manually where required.

For persons subject to audit and covered by serial number 2 in the table below Explanation 2 to section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the income-tax return filing due date for Assessment Year 2026-27 is extended to 21 November 2026. The specified date for furnishing the audit report for the same persons is correspondingly extended to 21 October 2026.

International transhipment of imported LCL cargo requires prior Customs permission, accurate manifest classification, and Customs-supervised unloading, segregation, storage and re-stuffing within a secure approved Container Freight Station. Local, foreign-bound transhipment and Inland Container Depot cargo must be separately identified, accounted for and moved under their respective procedures. Custodians must maintain prescribed records, prevent intermixing, execute a general bond for foreign-bound cargo, and ensure transhipment, delivery or onward movement within 30 days. Cargo remaining uncleared is subject to reporting, notice and disposal procedures.

Rejection of charitable registration and tax-exemption approval applications solely for non-compliance with notices is unsustainable unless proper service is established. Portal printouts showing that notices were issued, without identifying the service date or the applicant's email ID, do not prove effective service. Applicants must receive a reasonable and fair opportunity to submit supporting documentary evidence before adverse action. The applications require fresh determination after adequate notice and opportunity of hearing.

Section 15A of the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 permits investigation into restarting an industrial undertaking owned by a company in liquidation when its business is not continuing at the time the prescribed opinion is formed, regardless of the duration of closure. The required opinion must rest on material rationally connected to public interest and to production, supply or distribution. No prior hearing is required because an investigation only examines the possibility of restarting and imposes no immediate adverse civil consequence. Section 15A contains sufficient legislative guidance and does not offend Article 14; failed commercial negotiations or prior proceedings alone do not establish mala fides.

Coordinated customs enforcement targeted an organised gold-smuggling network that used courier consignments to distribute foreign-origin gold after cross-border entry. The operation led to seizure of 6.61 kg of gold bars under the Customs Act, 1962, and arrests of eleven associated persons. The network allegedly split gold into small consignments and used paper entities or persons without legitimate gold transactions to conceal distribution through courier channels.

Consideration for operating and arranging outbound package tours is not subject to service tax where tourist consumers consume the tours outside Indian territory. Taxability under the service-tax regime depends on the nature of the service and its territorial consumption. Although arranging outbound tours may fall within the amended definition of tour operator service, the overseas consumption of the tour prevents the consideration from being taxed as a domestic taxable service. Established decisions on the same issue support non-taxability of outbound package-tour consideration.

Trust and Company Services Providers may support permitted leasing activities by establishing trusts, companies, limited liability partnerships, and other bodies corporate; performing or arranging fiduciary, management, and nominee functions; and providing registered, business, correspondence, or administrative addresses where applicable law permits. They may act as trustees, directors, company secretaries, nominee shareholders, partners, designated partners, or equivalent persons. Additional services may be undertaken where permitted by the Authority.

Regulation 10L requires every Trust and Company Services Provider to identify conflicts of interest arising in the course of its business and, wherever appropriate, disclose them. Each provider must also maintain a documented conflict management policy, establishing a formal framework for identifying, disclosing and managing business-related conflicts.

Every Trust and Company Services Provider must maintain professional indemnity insurance cover commensurate with the scale and risk profile of its business. The cover must protect against claims arising from negligence, errors, omissions, or breach of duty. Compliance requires insurance protection calibrated to the provider's business scale and risk profile.

Trust and Company Services Providers that contravene applicable regulatory provisions, guidelines, circulars or directions are liable to enforcement action under the Act, including suspension or cancellation of registration. Before enforcement action arising from regulatory default is taken, the provider must be afforded a reasonable opportunity to be heard through written submissions.

Classification of hydrogen-cylinder skid vehicle rentals as a deemed sale or a taxable supply of tangible goods for use depends on the invoices evidencing the transaction's true nature. As those invoices were unavailable and had not been verified, service-tax liability remained undetermined. Fresh examination of the invoices is required through remand for fresh adjudication.

Trust and Company Services Providers must furnish operational information to the Authority in the prescribed manner, at prescribed intervals and in the prescribed form. Financial reporting to the Authority must be made in US dollars unless it specifies otherwise. The applicable reporting format, periodicity and any alternative reporting currency remain subject to the Authority's directions.

Trust and Company Services Providers may render services only to a Service Recipient that is a non-resident located in a jurisdiction not identified in the Financial Action Task Force public statement as a high-risk jurisdiction subject to a call for action. Services listed in the Fifth Schedule may be provided to an IFSC-based special purpose vehicle as the primary service recipient, notwithstanding Indian resident involvement. Contractual and fiduciary obligations are owed only to that special purpose vehicle.

Trust and Company Services Providers must appoint a Principal Officer and a Compliance Officer. Both officers must be based in an International Financial Services Centre and engaged as full-time employees. Each appointee must hold a professional or postgraduate qualification in finance, law, commerce, or a related field. The Principal Officer must additionally have at least five years' post-qualification experience in financial services activity. Existing Compliance Officers may be redesignated only where prescribed minimum requirements are satisfied.

Trust and Company Services Providers must maintain proportionate governance frameworks, internal audit or independent review mechanisms, and effective AML/CFT and KYC controls. They must keep accurate and accessible client, entity, service and constitutive records, retain them for at least five years after the client relationship ends, and apply data-security and confidentiality safeguards. Segregation of duties is required across client acceptance, service delivery, transaction execution and compliance oversight. Permitted leasing services must be maintained as a distinct and adequately resourced business line.

Regulation 10E requires Trust and Company Services Providers to ensure, at all times, that the provider entity and its principal officer, compliance officer, directors, partners, designated partners, and controlling shareholders are fit and proper persons. The applicable fit and proper standard is governed by Regulation 7.

Regulation 10D provides that the permissible services which may be undertaken by a Trust and Company Services Provider in an International Financial Services Centre are those specified in the Fifth Schedule to the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Techfin and Ancillary Services) Regulations, 2025.