Appointment of Officers of Customs extends customs officer status to specified customs, excise, intelligence and narcotics personnel nationwide.
The Central Government, exercising the authority of sub-section (1) of section 4 of the Customs Act, 1962 and superseding the 1963 notification, appoints by description various categories as Officers of Customs nationwide, including customs appraisers, examiners, preventive officers, women searchers, ministerial and Class IV staff, specified Central Excise personnel posted to customs locations or serving in any place in India, and officers of national enforcement, intelligence and economic intelligence agencies.

Appointment of Customs Officers supersedes prior notification and designates national and rule based commissioners, deputies, and assistants.
The Central Government, exercising powers under the Customs Act, appoints the Director General of Revenue Intelligence and the Director General of Inspection, Customs and Central Excise as Commissioners of Customs with nationwide jurisdiction, and appoints Commissioners of Central Excise as Commissioners of Customs within territorial limits specified by the Central Excise Rules, 1944; deputy and assistant commissioners posted under those Commissioners are designated as Deputy Commissioners of Customs and Assistant Commissioners of Customs within their respective jurisdictions.

Appointment of Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) reallocates appellate jurisdiction over subordinate customs and central excise officers.
Appointment of Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) designates officers to exercise appellate authority over orders of subordinate customs and central excise officers under the power conferred by section 4(1) of the Customs Act, 1962, superseding the earlier notification and listing each Commissioner with the subordinate formations over which they will have jurisdiction, effective from dates to be notified in the Official Gazette.

Appointment of Chief Commissioners clarifies jurisdictional allocations for Customs and Central Excise, superseding prior administrative notification.
The Central Government appoints officers as Chief Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise under sub section (1) of section 4 of the Customs Act, 1962, assigning them jurisdiction over specified Central Excise and Customs commissionerates as listed in the Table and declaring these appointments effective from a date to be notified in the Official Gazette; this notification supersedes Notification No. 56/92 Customs (N.T.).

Appointment of Customs Commissioners designates commissioners, deputy and assistant commissioners for specified customs areas under the Customs Act.
Under the authority of sub-section (1) of section 4 of the Customs Act, 1962, the Central Government supersedes notifications No. 250/83-Customs and No. 251/83-Customs and appoints the officers listed in the Table as Commissioners of Customs, Deputy Commissioners of Customs and Assistant Commissioners of Customs for the areas specified in the Table, with effect from a date to be notified in the Official Gazette.

Settlement application procedure: formal filing, document certification and private Commission hearings enable structured resolution.
Rules prescribe that settlement applications be presented in Form No.34B to the Secretary or authorised officer and that the Commission forward copies to the Commissioner for initial and, where allowed to proceed, further reports within specified periods. Filings must include six-copy paper books with certified, indexed documents and affidavits supporting facts contrary to records; authorised representatives must file written authorisation. Proceedings are private, the Chairman may constitute Special Benches and direct publication of redacted rulings, and the Commission may proceed if the Commissioner fails to file reports within the prescribed time.

Customs notification amendment expands authorised agencies for EOU/FTZ facilitation, adding export corporations and central bank authorised agencies.
Amendments to four Customs miscellaneous exemption notifications expand the list of authorised agencies for EOU/FTZ facilitation: the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation, the Handicraft and Handloom Export Corporation, the State Trading Corporation, the State Bank and any agency authorised by the central bank, replacing earlier narrower designations and a prior reference to an agency nominated by the Ministry of Commerce.

Exemption for mint-origin metal strips when processed on job work and returned to the mint under central excise amendment.
Amendment adds an entry exempting strips of cupro-nickel and aluminium-magnesium where such strips are manufactured on a job work basis out of waste and scrap cleared from the India Government Mint and returned to that Mint, effected under the power of sub section (1) of section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 by amending the Table to Notification No. 62/95-Central Excises.

Customs port appointment amended to permit cargo including plant and machinery for specified power project at Paguthan.
The Central Government amends Notification No. 62/94-(NT)-CUSTOMS by substituting entries in the Table for Gujarat (serial number 5), replacing item (a) sub-item (iii) and item (b) sub-item (ii) in column (4) with provisions expressly permitting cargo including plant and machinery for the 655 MW Combined Cycle Power Project of M/s. Gujarat Torrent Energy Corporation Limited, Paguthan, District Bharuch.

Consulting engineer service tax exemption for foreign projects where charges are received in convertible foreign exchange.
A full exemption from service tax applies to the value of taxable services rendered by a consulting engineer to a client for any project based in a foreign country, conditional on the charges for such services being received in convertible foreign exchange; the Notification was stated to come into force on 7 July 1997 and was thereafter rescinded by a subsequent Notification.

Service tax liability clarified: bill-raising consulting engineers and manpower recruitment agencies treated as taxable service providers.
The Fourth Amendment to the Service Tax Rules, 1997, effective 7 July 1997, inserts sub-clauses into rule 2(1)(d) specifying that for services provided by a consulting engineer and by a manpower recruitment agency, the entity that raises a bill for services rendered to a client is to be treated as the relevant taxable service provider under the Service Tax Rules.

Service tax on consulting engineers and manpower recruitment agencies comes into force following government notification.
The Central Government, exercising powers under the Finance Act, 1997, appoints a date in July 1997 as the commencement date for imposition of service tax on services provided by consulting engineers and manpower recruitment agencies specified in the noted sub clauses of clause (41) of section 65 of the Finance Act, 1994, thereby bringing those taxable services into charge from that appointed date.

Specification of IDBI bond series under section 80L enables tax deduction recognition for the identified bond categories.
Central Government specified multiple IDBI bond series by distinctive numbers and face values-two Regular Income Bonds series and two Easy Exit Bonds series-issued by the Industrial Development Bank of India, Mumbai, for the purposes of income-tax deduction under section 80L.

Small Scale Exemption Scheme amendment updates notification cross references and clarifies valuation rules for specified goods.
The Central Government amends prior notifications implementing the Small Scale Exemption Scheme by substituting combined references to two notifications wherever a single earlier notification was cited, modifies Annexure conditions to reflect those substitutions, and replaces the valuation clause in the scheme to define value-applying special valuation rules for certain tariff items and general or tariff value rules for other specified goods.

Infrastructure facility classification expanded to include mass rapid transit, light rail, expressways and similar public transport facilities.
Notification designates specified transport and roadway projects as public facilities of similar nature to an infrastructure facility under sub clause (i) of clause (ca) of subsection (12) of section 80 IA, listing: mass rapid transit systems; light rail transit systems; expressways; intra urban/peri urban roads including ring roads, urban bypasses and flyovers; bus and truck terminals; and subways.

Obligatory income-tax return filing in specified urban agglomerations expands mandatory compliance within defined metropolitan and municipal areas.
The notification specifies areas in which obligatory filing of income-tax returns under the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 139 is required, listing urban agglomerations and defined metropolitan, municipal, cantonment or development authority areas (including Greater Bombay; Delhi and adjacent notified municipalities and development areas; Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kanpur Nagar, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Hyderabad and Secunderabad civil area, Pune, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh), and ties the filing obligation to statutory and notified boundaries under relevant planning, municipal and development Acts.

Excise duty exemption scheme for small-scale units: preferential reduced rates for initial clearances with conditions.
The notification grants a reduced-duty exemption for specified manufactured goods of small-scale units by applying reduced proportions of normal excise duty to the initial bands of aggregate clearances in a financial year. Manufacturers must file an irrevocable written option and prescribed particulars; clearances prior to option are included in the aggregate. Aggregation applies across factories and manufacturers, subject to a preceding-year turnover ceiling. Specific clearances and goods (including intra-factory inputs and certain branded goods) are excluded or treated as fully exempt, and limited brand-name exceptions and valuation definitions are prescribed.

Exemption for air travel agent commissions: excess invoiced value over airline commission excluded from service tax.
Exemption excludes from service tax the portion of the taxable service value attributable to air travel agents that exceeds the commission actually received from the airline for booking passage; only the commission received is treated as the taxable element of the agent's booking service.

Service tax exemption for mandap keepers limits taxable portion of gross charges where catering is supplied and conditions met.
Exempts from service tax the amount by which tax payable on a mandap keeper exceeds the tax calculated on sixty per cent of the gross charge for mandap use and associated facilities, including catering charges, subject to conditions: the mandap keeper must also supply catering with a bill showing catering charges included; must not have taken cenvat credit on inputs or capital goods; and must not have availed the separate catering-notification benefit.

Service tax option for air travel agents: fare based payment replaces standard percentage charge for all bookings yearly.
Amendment designates air travel agents who book passage and mandap keepers who raise bills as responsible for collecting service tax. It permits an air travel agent to elect a simplified fare based method to discharge service tax by paying a prescribed fraction of the basic fare of passage instead of the general percentage of the taxable service value; the election must apply uniformly to all the agent's bookings and cannot be changed during a financial year. "Basic fare" is defined as the part of the air fare on which commission is normally paid to the agent.