Centralized registration for jewellery manufacturers allows single-site compliance subject to billing and recordkeeping requirements and premises reporting.
Where a manufacturer of specified articles of jewellery operates a centralised billing or accounting system for goods produced at multiple factories or premises, the manufacturer may opt to register only the one factory, premises or office from which such centralised billing or accounting is done and where accounts and records of receipts of raw materials and finished excisable goods, including goods returned from job workers, are kept; the manufacturer must give details of all premises (other than job workers') from which such specified goods are removed, and may alternatively take separate registrations for premises where accounts are maintained.

Excise non-recovery: directed non-payment of duty on animal-feed grade di-calcium phosphate for specified past period.
A central government notification directs that excise duty on Di Calcium Phosphate (animal feed grade) of rock phosphate origin, not levied due to a prevailing practice during 1 February 2008 to 1 February 2014, shall not be required to be paid; the direction is issued under the government's statutory administrative power to relieve past duty liabilities where such a practice existed.

Export of excisable goods without payment of duty extended to include Kholongchhu hydro-electric project under bonded export rules.
Amendment adds Kholongchhu Hydro Electric Project in Bhutan to the projects eligible for export of excisable goods without payment of Central Excise duty under bond by substituting the marginal heading and revising the project list in paragraph 1(5) of Notification No. 45/2001-Central Excise (N.T.), pursuant to rule 19 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002.

Cenvat credit restrictions bar using specified duty credits for Swachh Bharat Cess and allow credit for commission sales services.
The CENVAT Credit (Second Amendment) Rules, 2016 amend the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 by adding an Explanation in rule 2 to include services by way of sale of dutiable goods on commission basis as sales promotion, and by inserting a proviso in rule 3(4) that the CENVAT credit of any duty specified in sub-rule (1) shall not be utilised for payment of the Swachh Bharat Cess.

Cenvat credit entitlement restored: ship breaking units may claim full CVD credit following rule proviso removal.
The proviso to rule 3(1)(vii) of the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 is omitted by the CENVAT Credit (First Amendment) Rules, 2016, effective from 1 March 2015, thereby allowing ship breaking units to claim the full credit of countervailing duty paid on inputs and input services where the proviso had previously limited the availment of credit.

Basic Excise Duty increase on petrol and diesel announced, substituting higher tariff entries effective 31 January 2016.
Amendment increases the Basic Excise Duty on petrol and diesel by substituting higher per litre rates for the entries in serial numbers 70 and 71 of the tariff table in Notification No.12/2012 Central Excise, with the change taking effect from 31 January 2016.

Sunset clause for excise exemptions limits their duration and excludes goods undergoing only minor processing in Jammu and Kashmir.
Amendments add a sunset clause to Notifications No.56/2002 and No.57/2002, limiting exemption applicability to no later than 31st March, 2016, and insert a provision excluding from the exemption goods in the State of Jammu and Kashmir that have been subjected only to preservation, cleaning, packing or repacking in a unit container, labeling or re-labelling, sorting, or declaration/alteration of retail sale price and not to any other processes amounting to manufacture.

Increase in Basic Excise Duty on petrol and diesel via amendment to tariff notification, effective mid-January.
Substitutes revised Basic Excise Duty entries in the table of Notification No.12/2012-Central Excise at serial numbers 70 and 71, replacing column (4) rates for items (i) and (ii) to increase duties on petrol and diesel (branded and unbranded). Made under section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944, the amendments take effect from 16 January 2016 and further amend the principal notification and its prior amendment.

Basic excise duty increase on petrol and diesel implemented, amending notification to raise per litre rates effective January second.
Amendment increases the Basic Excise Duty rates for petrol and diesel by substituting revised per-litre entries in the Table of Notification No.12/2012-Central Excise for the specified serial numbers and item entries, enacted under section 5A(1) of the Central Excise Act as a public interest measure and effective from 2 January 2016.