Appointment of Director General (Safeguards) under customs safeguard rules to administer safeguard duty measures.
The Central Government, exercising powers under sub rule (1) of rule 3 of the Customs Tariff (Identification and Assessment of Safeguard Duty) Rules, 1997, appointed Shri R.K. Gupta, Additional Director General in the Office of the Director General of Inspection, Customs and Central Excise, New Delhi, as Director General (Safeguards) to administer and implement the said Rules; the appointment was later superseded by a 2003 notification.

Amendment to Customs exemption: substitution of January with July modifies timing for defence imports under statutory authority.
Amendment substitutes the word July for January in the Explanation to S. No. 15 of the Table to Notification No. 39/96 Customs, changing the temporal reference applicable to the customs exemption for imports for defence forces; the Central Government effected the change under its statutory authority in the public interest.

Customs House Agents licensing: revised application, qualification, seniority and supervisory review rules alter licence issuance and oversight.
The amendment mandates annual invitation of licence applications in January limited to a Commissioner's jurisdiction; requires applicants to be university graduates employed by a licensee with a permanent Form G pass and at least three years' Form G experience (relaxable to one year by the Commissioner); provides seniority in Form G experience and age as tie-breaker when applicants exceed licences; shifts certain authorities to the Chief Commissioner; allows proprietary or partnership licence-holders to authorise an additional employee to take the qualifying examination; permits Chief Commissioner review of Commissioner orders within one year; requires prompt reporting and fresh licence application on firm/company constitution change; and adds a tenth standard educational precondition for specified pass-holders.

Vessels carrying exclusively coastal goods exempted from specified Customs Act provisions, relieving certain procedural obligations under customs law.
The central government exempts vessels carrying exclusively coastal goods from specified operative provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 by way of a notification issued under the statute's exemption power, creating a targeted statutory exemption for carriage exclusively within the coastal trade.

Customs tariff amendment refines exempt raw materials and parts eligible for electronic goods manufacture under the notification.
Amendment exercises the sub-section (1) of section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962 to substitute specified entries in List A and insert new serial entries describing tariff headings and component descriptions (including lead tabs/paddle tabs, potentiometers, ceramic substrates and capacitors, metallised dielectric film, screen mesh, and voice coil materials) and to expand List B to add pre-calcined/pre-sintered ferrite powder for ferrite manufacture, thereby refining which raw materials and parts for electronic goods qualify under the notification.

Jurisdiction under Customs Act: Commissioner of Central Excise Hyderabad II authorized to exercise customs powers over Hyderabad cargo areas.
The notification amends a prior customs notification to substitute the relevant item so that the Commissioner of Central Excise, Hyderabad II shall exercise the jurisdiction in respect of the Airport, Inland Container Depot and Air Cargo Complex at Hyderabad notified under the Customs Act, overriding prior allocation among Hyderabad I, II and III.

Appointment of Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) revises designated Customs and Central Excise offices for appellate jurisdiction.
Amendment substitutes and inserts entries in the notification table under section 4(1) of the Customs Act to designate specified Commissioners of Customs and Commissioners of Central Excise as the roster of proper officers associated with the office of Commissioner of Customs (Appeals), thereby updating appellate designations and territorial allocation of administrative responsibility.

Appointment of customs officers: notification amends territorial jurisdictions for specified ports, districts and union territories.
Amendment to a customs notification substitutes territorial entries to designate customs appointments: serial no. 8 is defined as the port and airport of Visakhapatnam and areas under the Municipal Corporation of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh; serial no. 11, item (b) is defined to include the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and the Union territory of Daman and Diu; serial no. 17 is defined as the whole areas of specified districts in Karnataka including areas under Mangalore Port.

All Industry Drawback Rates amendment expands advance licence coverage and replaces schedule entries, altering drawback applicability.
The notification substitutes the first proviso to clause (b) of General Note 2 to include Advance Licences issued on or after 1st April, 1997 used to discharge export obligations under Notification No. 31/97-Customs, and directs substitution of entries in columns 2-6 of the drawback Table for the Serial/Sub serial numbers listed in column 1, replacing those entries with the Annexure entries.

Exemption to imports against special imprest licence expanded to specified list goods for refineries under Ninth Five Year Plan.
Amendment adds goods specified in List 8A of the Annexure to Notification No. 11/97 Cus to the Explanation of Notification No. 36/97 Cus, thereby authorising import of those goods against a special imprest licence for supply to refineries set up under the Ninth Five Year Plan, under powers conferred by section 25(1) of the Customs Act, 1962.

Exemption for imports under provisional credits limited to production inputs; such inputs cannot be transferred or disposed.
The substituted proviso confines exemption for imports against provisional credits to goods that are inputs required for use in production in the factory of the DEPB holder or in the factory of a supporting manufacturer specified in the DEPB, and prohibits transfer, loan, sale, parting with or disposal of such inputs in any manner, even after export credits have been earned to set off provisional credits.

Customs exemption amendment expands eligible importer to include Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited under notification.
Amendment to a customs exemption notification replaces the words identifying the sole eligible importer with a phrase naming both the Reserve Bank of India and the Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited, thereby expanding the class of persons entitled to import specified machines under that notification. The change is made under powers granted by the Customs Act and operates by substitution of the words in the Table entry against the relevant serial number and column item.

Land Customs Station appointment: Phulbari designated for nationals of adjacent countries' vehicle cross-border trade by land.
Phulbari is appointed as a Land Customs Station for import or export where the trader is a national of an adjacent country and the movement is effected in a vehicle of that country, and where the movement is by land from or to the neighbouring territory; this appointment substitutes the prior second proviso under the governing customs statutory powers.

Anti-dumping investigation initiated into metallurgical coke imports from China, enabling duties if dumping and material injury are established.
An anti-dumping investigation has been initiated into imports of Metallurgical Coke from China after a domestic petition alleging dumping based on comparisons of estimated normal value (cost of production in China) and export prices. Petitioners meet standing requirements and claim the imported product is a like article. Prima facie indicators of material injury include sharply increased import volumes, lost market share, declining profits, higher inventories and reduced capacity utilisation. Known exporters/importers and other interested parties are invited to submit prescribed information within forty days; non-confidential submissions will be available in a public file and the Authority may use facts available where information is withheld.

Exchange rate determination for exports: notified conversion rates govern valuation and conversion for export goods.
The Central Government, under the powers of sub-clause (i) of clause (a) of sub-section (3) of section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, supersedes Notification No. 34/97-NT-Customs and determines, insofar as these relate to export goods, the rate of exchange for each foreign currency listed in Schedule I and Schedule II, such rates to be effective from the commencement date stated and set out against each currency in the schedules.

Exchange rate determination for imported goods: prescribed rates govern stamp duty calculation and customs valuation under notification.
Central Government prescribes exchange rates for converting specified foreign currencies into Indian rupees for calculation of stamp duty under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 and for determinations under section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962 relating to imported goods, superseding Notification No. 33/97-Cus. (N.T.). The rates are set out in Schedule I (per one unit) and Schedule II (per one hundred units) and apply with effect from 1st September 1997.

Customs exemption amendment under notification expands list to include casein, resin (excluding acrylic) and polyurethane binders.
The Central Government amended Notification No. 11/97-Customs by substituting item (36) in List 3(A) to read: Casein, resin (other than acrylic resin) and polyurethane binders, exercising its powers under the Customs Act to effect the textual change in the miscellaneous exemption schedule in the public interest.

Import exemption amendment affects ophthalmic blanks import notification, altering tariff table entry under customs powers.
Amendment to Notification No. 11/97 Customs replaces the Table entry in column (6) against Serial No. 95 with "-" for imports of ophthalmic blanks for optical lenses, made by the Central Government under the power in sub section (1) of section 25 of the customs legislation as necessary in the public interest.

Anti-dumping duty on nitrile rubber imports Germany and Korea applied, exporters designated and rates set, effective from provisional date.
Pursuant to section 9A(1) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 read with Rules 18 and 20 of the 1995 Anti Dumping Rules, the Central Government imposes anti-dumping duties on acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) originating in or exported from Germany and the Republic of Korea. Duties are specified by exporter and by exporter other categories, stated per metric tonne, and are to be levied with effect from the date on which the provisional duty was imposed.

Safeguard duty procedures enable provisional and final duties to address serious injury from increased imports to domestic industry.
These rules provide for investigation and imposition of safeguard duty where increased imports cause or threaten serious injury to domestic industry: a Director General (Safeguard) examines evidence of increased imports, injury and causal link, issues public notices, conducts investigations with opportunity for interested parties to comment, may record preliminary findings and prompt provisional duty in critical circumstances, and makes final findings and recommendations on duty amount, duration and progressive liberalisation; duties are non discriminatory, time limited, refundable insofar as provisional duty exceeds final duty, and subject to periodic review.