<h1>Central excise amendments update exemptions, cenvat credit rules and duty rate regimes after the Budget announcement.</h1> Series of Central Excise notifications revise duty rates, exemption scopes and procedural rules: recession of the Clean Energy Cess notification; adjustments to effective duty rates and optional payment mechanisms with or without cenvat credit; specific duty determinations for pan masala and gutkha; exemptions for capital goods consumed captively, solar project machinery, bio CNG equipment, UN/international supplies, defence uses and certain AIDS programme items; and accompanying amendments to CENVAT Credit, valuation, pan masala capacity rules, MRP abatement and advance ruling eligibility.