Diplomatic refund claims: designated protocol officers authorized to receive and process refunds for diplomatic entities.
Designates specified protocol officers as Central Excise Officers and invests them with the powers of Assistant or Deputy Commissioner of Central Excise, within the stated jurisdictions, for the purpose of receiving refund claims filed by diplomatic missions, consulates, diplomatic agents, or career consular officers under section 11B of the Act.

Effective Rate of Duty amended to Nil for recorded smart cards and recorded proximity cards and tags under new tariff entries.
Notification No. 31/2007 inserts two tariff entries, S.No. 22A and 22B, covering recorded smart cards and recorded proximity cards and tags under Chapter 85 subheadings, and prescribes an effective rate of duty of Nil for those entries.

Advance Rulings procedure: prescribed short processing timeframe for applications and uniform authority name substitution in regulations.
The regulations amend the 2005 Procedure Regulations by substituting the revised bracketed name of the Authority throughout the principal regulations and by modifying regulation 9(2) to require initial action on applications as far as possible within ten working days from receipt, replacing the prior phrase "at the earliest." The amendments commence on publication in the Official Gazette and are made under the specified statutory powers.

Central excise exemption for defence programme supplies requires a Programme Director certificate before clearance, with a time limit.
Exemption added for machinery, equipment, instruments, components, spares, jigs, fixtures, dies, tools, accessories, computer software, raw materials and consumables supplied to the Long Range Surface to Air Missile Programme of the Ministry of Defence, conditional on production, before clearance, of a certificate from the Programme Director that the goods are intended for the Programme; the exemption is time limited and ceases to have effect on or after the stated expiry date.

SION-based usage norms revised, allowing self-declared/ad hoc inputs and clarifying deemed import treatment for EOUs and STP units.
The notification permits non-capital goods to be treated as used for export production or home-consumption clearance if proven to the officer within a prescribed period or extended for sufficient cause; where no SION exists, waste, scrap and remnants up to two percent are allowed, and units may use self-declared norms pending ad hoc fixation by the Development Commissioner and must align with Board of Approval norms within the prescribed adjustment period. It also clarifies that certain supplies from EOUs, STP and EHTP units and specified deemed exports are to be treated as imported goods.

Effective rate of duty amended: new Nil-duty entries and a tariff-code substitution alter classifications and rates.
Notification amends three Central Excise notifications by inserting tariff item 2202 90 30 for flavoured milk of animal origin at Nil duty; inserting tariff heading 5607 90 for goods of jute or other textile bast fibres of heading 5303 at Nil duty; and substituting the description at S. No. 17 to add tariff code 8523 51 00 alongside 8471 70 and 8473 30, under the power conferred by section 5A(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944.

Exemption extension for cement and steel in tsunami-affected housing extends statutory relief period under Central Excise notification amendment.
The notification amends Notification No. 32/2005-Central Excise by substituting the figures, letters and word in paragraph 5 to extend the period during which cement and steel used in construction of houses in specified tsunami-affected areas are exempt from central excise. The amendment is made under sub-section (1) of section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944, read with section 91 and section 93 of the Finance (No.2) Act, 2004, and records prior publication and earlier amendment details.

MRP-based duty on medicaments clarified by adding 'Chapter or Heading No.' and updating tariff heading references.
The Government, invoking section 4A authority, substitutes every occurrence of the word "Chapter" in Notification No. 2/2005 with "Chapter or Heading No.", and replaces the column (2) entries for the first two serial entries in the notification's Table with the specified tariff heading references, thereby clarifying the tariff-classification basis for MRP-based excise on medicaments.

Net Foreign Exchange criteria allow one-time debonding under Advance Authorization on duty payment for exiting user industries.
Amendment permits a one-time clearance or debonding of goods under Advance Authorization for an exiting user industry that meets positive NFE criteria in Para 6.18(g) of the Foreign Trade Policy, subject to payment of applicable duty. It also defines NFE as Net Foreign Exchange Earnings per Para 6.5 of the Foreign Trade Policy and Para 6.10.1 of the Handbook of Procedure, to be calculated as explained in Annexure-I to Appendix 14-I-G of the Handbook of Procedure, volume 1.

Settlement of Excise Cases: application, prescribed form and deposit requirements permit resolution of admitted central excise liabilities.
Applications for settlement must be submitted in Form SC(E)-1, filed in quintuplicate, signed by authorised persons according to the applicant's status, and accompanied by a prescribed application fee. The applicant must deposit the additional excise duty accepted for settlement and interest by TR-6 challan in quintuplicate with specified distribution of copies. The Settlement Commission forwards the application, annexures and supporting statements when seeking a report, and may order provisional attachment, whereupon the Commissioner may authorise an officer to attach property and prepare an inventory to be provided to the applicant, the Commissioner and the Commission.

Cenvat credit expansion: Secondary and Higher Education Cess becomes eligible for credit and cross-utilisation across goods and services.
The CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 are amended to include the Secondary and Higher Education Cess on excisable goods and on taxable services as eligible credits under rule 3, and to revise sub rule (7) utilisation provisions so that credit of education cess and Secondary and Higher Education Cess may be applied towards payment of excise duty, service tax and specified additional duties, with cross utilisation permitted between goods and services cess liabilities.

Rescission of central excise notification: government revokes earlier exemption notification while preserving prior actions taken.
The Central Government, invoking powers under the Central Excise Act and the Finance Act, rescinds Notification No. 18/2007 (published as G.S.R. 147(E)) issued on the 1st March, 2007 by issuing Notification No. 25/2007; the rescission is subject to a savings clause preserving acts or omissions done before the rescission.

Post service restriction: Commission Chair and members must serve a minimum tenure before seeking other appointments.
The amendments redefine selection for Commission leadership-Chairman from serving Members with minimum remaining service, Vice Chairmen by bench seniority, and Members from serving Chief Commissioners-specify updated pay scales for Chairman, Vice Chairmen and Members, and impose a requirement that holders must serve at least two years before seeking or accepting other appointments; existing incumbents remain governed by prior conditions until their terms expire.

CENVAT Credit reversal required when inputs or capital goods are written off; credit may be reclaimed if later used in manufacture.
The amendment inserts a provision requiring a manufacturer to pay an amount equivalent to CENVAT credit taken where an input or capital good is fully written off or a full write-off provision is made; if that input or capital good is later used in manufacture of final products, the manufacturer may re avail the equivalent credit subject to the other provisions of the CENVAT Credit Rules.

Central excise tariff amendments expand duty classifications and add conditional nil-duty provisions for aircraft and aviation uses.
The notification amends Notification No. 6/2006 by adding tariff entries and duty rates, including insertion of polysulphone membranes to an ultra-filtration entry, adding refrigerated motor vehicles and certain chapter entries with specified duties, and inserting nil-duty entries for aircraft and aircraft parts subject to new Annexure conditions. The Annexure conditions grant nil duty where aircraft are procured for approved flying training or by approved non-scheduled operators and used exclusively for those purposes, or where goods are procured for servicing, repair or maintenance of such aircraft, with definitions for "operator" and non-scheduled services.

Effective rate of duty on packaged cement revised to introduce distinct per tonne and retail price linked ad valorem bands.
Substitutes the S.No.1A tariff entry to classify packaged cement into two retail price bands, prescribing a specific per tonne duty for the lower band and an ad valorem duty linked to retail sale price for the higher band, applicable to goods cleared in packaged form; also replaces the column(3) description at another serial number with a broadened "All goods" entry.

Effective Rate of Duty amendment revises specified tariff entries, altering duty descriptions and substituting certain entries to nil.
Amends the tariff table in Notification No.3/2006-Central Excise by substituting specified entries: S.No.18A column (3) is replaced with a higher fixed amount; S.No.28 and S.No.30 column (4) are substituted with Nil; and S.No.37 and S.No.38 column (4) are substituted with specified rates per thousand, thereby altering the effective rates of duty for those tariff entries.

Refund of unutilised CENVAT credit: provisional and verified refund mechanisms require monthly statements and declarations by manufacturers.
Prescribes procedure for claiming refund of unutilised CENVAT credit: manufacturers must file a declaration with the jurisdictional Assistant or Deputy Commissioner detailing finished goods, manufacturing formula, input usage, tariff classification and duty paid; submit a monthly statement by the seventh day of the next month with input balances, values, duty, CENVAT credit taken and utilised, production and closing stock; after verification the jurisdictional officer may refund the unutilised balance and, if verification is delayed, must pay an 80% provisional refund by the thirtieth day of the month following the month under consideration.

Refund of CENVAT credit may be allowed where manufacturers in specified areas cannot utilize input credit for notified final products.
New rule 5A permits refund of CENVAT credit to manufacturers in specified areas who, having cleared final products notified by the Government, cannot utilize credit on inputs for payment of excise duties on those notified final products; refunds exclude credits relating to exempt or nil-rated final products and are subject to procedure, conditions and limitations specified by notification. The rule clarifies that "duty" means the duties specified in sub rule (1) of rule 3 of the CENVAT Credit Rules.

Exemption modifications narrow central excise relief: specified goods excluded and limited-process operations no longer trigger exemption in certain states.
Amendments refine excise duty exemptions for goods produced in Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim by expressly excluding pan masala, goods under Chapter 24, plastic carry bags below the specified micron threshold and certain petroleum-derived goods, inserting a uniform limited-process exclusion that denies exemption where only preservation, cleaning, packing/repacking, labelling/re-labelling, sorting or retail price declaration/alteration have been performed without other processes amounting to manufacture, and updating annexures and temporal provisos to harmonise applicability.