Tariff value revision updates notified for palm oils, soyabean oil, metals, seeds, nuts, gold and silver
Central Board of Excise & Customs, under sub-section (2) of section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, substitutes TABLE-1, TABLE-2 and TABLE-3 of Notification No. 36/2001-Customs (N.T.) to prescribe revised tariff values for specified goods including crude palm oil, RBD palm oil, palmolein variants, crude soyabean oil, brass scrap, poppy seeds, areca nuts, and certain forms of gold and silver used for customs valuation.

General Anti Avoidance Rule guidance invited to clarify implementation and solicit stakeholder inputs on common transactional structures.
The notice invites stakeholder inputs to inform a Guidance Note on the General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR) under Chapter X-A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, effective from assessment year 2018-19 and operationalised by Rules 10U-10UC. Submissions must avoid hypotheticals and, for real-world structures, describe commonly occurring sectoral arrangements, identify the specific provision in question, explain the doubt with supporting facts, and follow prescribed electronic or postal channels.

Customer Rights enforcement urged; banks must strengthen grievance redress, suitability checks and controls against mis selling and cyber fraud.
Banks must embed and operationalise a Charter of Customer Rights into board approved Customer Rights Policies subject to regulatory monitoring; designate and delineate roles for PCCOs, nodal officers, and Internal Ombudsmen to ensure prompt grievance redress and root cause remediation; and remediate systemic risks including mis selling of third party products, electronic banking frauds and misuse of accounts through stronger monitoring, periodic inspection of sales practices, technology enabled grievance systems and compliance with KYC and fair charging norms.

IBRD loan agreement enables urban water supply modernization, advancing city-wide continuous piped water access and institutional reform.
Execution of IBRD loan and project agreements designates KUIDFC as implementing agency for a Karnataka Urban Water Supply Modernization project to provide city-wide continuous piped water and strengthen city-level service delivery through four components: capital investment, institution building, technical assistance, and project management. Initial implementation covers Hubballi-Dharwad with provision for other eligible cities to join.

Public debt management: FY16 borrowings revised down; long dated issuances, T bill repayment and low rollover risk noted.
Quarterly debt and cash management for Jan-Mar 2016 revised FY16 gross and net market borrowings to Rs. 5,85,000 crore and Rs. 4,40,608 crore; Rs. 84,000 crore of dated securities were issued in Q4 with auctions per the calendar, a long weighted average primary issuance maturity (15.74 years) and a cut off yield around 7.89-7.90%. Treasury bill issuance followed the calendar, net T bill repayment occurred amid a surplus cash position, outstanding public debt marginally decreased to Rs. 5,573,332 crore, weighted average maturity of outstanding dated stock was 10.50 years, and rollover risk was characterised as low.

Indirect transfer taxation: rules for determining fair market value and reporting by Indian concern invited for comment.
Income from transfer of a foreign company or entity's share or interest is deemed to accrue in India where that interest derives its value substantially from assets located in India; valuation requires computing fair market value of Indian and global assets under prescribed rules, applying a threshold that Indian asset FMV comprises at least half of total asset FMV. Separately, the Indian concern through which the foreign entity holds assets must comply with prescribed reporting requirements; draft rules and forms have been published for public comment.

Offshore fund regime: funds with India based managers require CBDT approval through a committee review and conditions.
A special tax regime for offshore funds with fund managers in India was implemented by statute and rules, with application of the regime contingent on adherence to notified rules and forms. Rule-based implementing provisions establish an administrative approval process: funds must apply to the Member (Income tax), CBDT, and a Board constituted Committee of senior international taxation and transfer pricing officials reviews applications and recommends whether approval should be granted and on what conditions.

Income Declaration Scheme clarifies eligibility and immunities for voluntary asset declarations under the finance legislation.
The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 establishes a statutory process for voluntary declaration of undisclosed income and assets, prescribing eligibility criteria, categories of assets, periods for making declarations, immunities granted to declarants, and classes of persons excluded from relief; published FAQs explain these operative provisions and will be updated as needed.

Finance Act 2016 amendments expand indirect tax regime with new cesses and disclosure and dispute resolution schemes.
Amendments effected by the Finance Act, 2016 revise multiple taxation statutes and associated rules, introducing new levies and procedural frameworks across direct and indirect tax regimes. The Act amends Income Tax, Service Tax, Customs and Central Excise law and updates subordinate rules and notifications. It establishes the Krishi Kalyan Cess, Infrastructure Cess and an Equalisation Levy, and institutes an Income Declaration Scheme together with Direct and Indirect Tax Dispute Resolution Schemes, requiring adjustments to tariffs, notifications and compliance procedures to implement collection and assessment changes.

Viability Gap Funding approved for two Rajasthan PPP projects: in principle road approval and final power transmission approval.
The Empowered Institution approved Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support under the central PPP support scheme for two Government of Rajasthan projects: an in principle approval for the Chomu-Chandwaji highway road project and final approval for the Bikaner-Sikar power transmission project, at a meeting chaired by the Additional Secretary (Investment), Department of Economic Affairs.

FRBM framework review initiated; committee to recommend targets, deficit range feasibility and alignment with credit cycles.
Constitution of a five member expert committee to review and recommend a roadmap for the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management framework, including review of past operation, assessment of factors informing FRBM targets, feasibility of a fiscal deficit range in place of fixed targets, alignment of fiscal stance with credit cycles, and assessment of expected impact on the general government deficit; supported by the Budget Division and authorised to consult stakeholders and determine procedures.

Exchange of Information requests require clear identification, foreseeable relevance, and justified nondisclosure to obtain beneficial ownership information.
Exchange of Information requests to the BVI must accurately identify the entity, seek RA-held due diligence and beneficial ownership records where nominee arrangements exist, and demonstrate foreseeable relevance to Indian tax administration. Requests should be focused and justified, avoid routine nondisclosure requests without documentary reasons, and ensure timely responses to BVI clarifications and prescribed feedback on received information.

Advance payment of income tax at authorised bank branches or online to avoid end period congestion and receipt delays.
The Reserve Bank urges taxpayers to remit income-tax dues sufficiently before the deadline at RBI counters, authorised agency bank branches, or via online payment facilities offered by those banks to avoid end-period congestion; twenty-nine agency banks are authorised to accept such payments and the Bank provides additional counters where possible.

Gold Monetisation Scheme: banks urged to mobilize more gold, expand CPTC agreements and ease collateral requirements.
Gold Monetisation Scheme progress was reviewed; banks were directed to intensify mobilisation of gold, expand tripartite and bipartite agreements with CPTCs and refiners, enrol eligible jewellers as CPTCs in underserved areas, and adopt a practical approach to guarantees or collateral, while IBA and World Gold Council will run a government supported media campaign. Separately, Sovereign Gold Bond tradability was to commence soon and a further tranche will be issued.

Income declaration scheme enables taxed disclosure of undisclosed income with conditional immunity and asset valuation rules.
The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 allows persons to declare undisclosed income or asset investments for taxation under Chapter IX, with declared amounts taxed at prescribed rates plus cess and penalty. Declarations filed within the scheme window may be made online or with principal Commissioners; asset declarations use fair market value as on the scheme start date, while foreign assets under the Black Money Act are excluded. Declared assets are exempt from wealth tax and declarations attract immunity from scrutiny and prosecution under specified laws, subject to compliance conditions and transfer requirements; non payment or misrepresentation voids the declaration and triggers regular assessment and penalties.

Tariff value notification: substitution of valuation tables fixing import values for specified commodities under customs law.
The Central Board of Excise & Customs, exercising powers under sub-section (2) of section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, substitutes TABLE-1, TABLE-2 and TABLE-3 of the cited notification with updated tariff valuation schedules, fixing US dollar tariff values per metric tonne (and per unit weight for precious metals) for specified commodities including palm oil products, crude soybean oil, brass scrap, poppy seeds, areca nuts, gold and silver.

Blood donation camp organised by departmental staff and civic club, yielding significant voluntary participation and units donated.
A blood donation camp at Jeevan Deep Building was organised by the Fibre Club of the Department of Financial Services with Lions Club Pitampura, inaugurated by the Department Secretary, and yielded 101 units of blood from departmental officials and nearby offices as part of an organised inter organisational volunteer public health initiative.

Income Declaration Scheme invites stakeholder submissions for clarification ahead of implementation following publication of scheme texts.
The notice announces the Income Declaration Scheme and the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme as incorporated in the Finance Bill, indicates their expected commencement upon enactment, states that the complete texts are published as part of the Bill, and establishes a public consultation process inviting stakeholders to submit issues for clarification by specified channels and with required envelope marking prior to implementation.

Employee offer of government shares secured unprecedented participation, with allotments made at the prescribed employee discount.
The Government conducted a disinvestment in Indian Oil Corporation Limited including an Employee Offer permitting allotment to eligible employees up to 0.5% of paid up equity at a 5% discount to the OFS cut off price; the employee window ran on specified dates, employee participation was approximately forty percent and constituted the highest post OFS employee response, and the employee offer price was calculated by applying the prescribed discount to the OFS cut off.

Indirect tax collections growth signals stronger early-year revenue performance and progress toward budget targets.
Indirect tax receipts for April 2016 totaled Rs. 64,394 crore, a 41.8% year-on-year increase, contributing 8.3% toward the 2016-17 BE target and reflecting a 17% growth excluding additional revenue measures. Central Excise rose 70.7% to Rs. 28,252 crore, Service Tax rose 27.9% to Rs. 18,647 crore, and Customs rose 22.5% to Rs. 17,495 crore versus the same month in the prior year.