Vessels Sharing Agreements exemption permits liner shipping cooperation temporarily, subject to bans on price fixing and required filings.
The Central Government temporarily exempts Vessels Sharing Agreements in the liner shipping industry from section 3 of the Competition Act, subject to prohibitions on price fixing, capacity limitation, and market or customer allocation; the Director General, Shipping will monitor such agreements and operators must file copies and related documents within the notification's specified timeframes.

Exemption under section 10(46) shields specified unscheduled interchange fund income, subject to non commercial and filing conditions.
Exemption under section 10(46) is notified for the State Load Despatch Centre Unscheduled Interchange Fund-West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited in respect of: residual money in the unscheduled interchange pool balance account; interest on fixed deposits and auto-sweep accounts; and income incidental to or related to unscheduled interchange, subject to conditions prohibiting commercial activity, requiring unchanged activities and income nature, and compliance with return filing under clause (g) of sub-section (4C) of section 139, for specified financial years.

Delhi VAT dealers must file returns with digital signatures when gross turnover exceeds fifty lakh rupees.
Dealers whose gross turnover exceeded fifty lakh rupees must file returns in Form DVAT 16 or DVAT 17 with digital signatures from the tax period 15 January 2016 onward; new registrants must file with digital signatures in periods following the year their turnover first exceeds fifty lakh. Where Delhi VAT returns require digital signatures, Central Sales Tax Form 1 must also be so filed; optional voluntary digital filing is permitted; filers using digital signatures need not submit Form DVAT 56 and must continue digital filing even if turnover later falls below the threshold.

Filing deadline extension for Form CR-II mandates submission for the first three quarterly periods by the March deadline.
The Commissioner directs that returns in Form CR-II for the first three quarterly periods of the financial year (April-June; July-September; October-December) must be filed by 15 March 2016, modifying an earlier notification while leaving its other provisions unchanged; the direction takes immediate effect.

Filing deadline extension for Form DP-1 requires all dealers to submit the form online by the revised deadline.
The Commissioner has partially modified a prior notification to require all dealers to submit Form DP-1 online by the revised deadline, issued under the statutory powers conferred by the Delhi Value Added Tax Act, with the remaining provisions of the earlier notification to remain unchanged.

Rate of interest under Customs Act set for statutory interest provision, superseding prior notification and taking effect thereafter.
Fixes the rate of interest applicable under the Customs Act interest provision, superseding the earlier notification and preserving prior actions; declares the notification to come into force from the stated commencement date and reflects the Department of Revenue's exercise of statutory rate-setting authority.

Concessional import rules require manufacturers to notify intent, furnish bonds and maintain records to secure duty exemptions.
Rules set the framework for manufacturers to claim customs duty exemptions under an exemption notification by providing prescribed information to Central Excise and Customs, obtaining registration where required, furnishing a continuity bond to cover the duty differential and interest, maintaining bill of entry wise accounts, submitting quarterly returns, and obtaining permission for re export or domestic clearance of unutilised or defective imported goods; non compliance permits invocation of the bond and recovery of duty differential with interest.

Customs duty free allowance revised, adds drone declaration and specifies eligibility, prohibited and dutiable goods rules.
Amends the Customs Baggage Declaration Regulations, 2013 by requiring all passengers who have anything to declare or are carrying dutiable or prohibited goods to declare; inserts a drone declaration in Form 1; and substitutes the duty free allowance Table to differentiate passenger categories and origins, specifying separate allowances and specific entries for gold jewellery, alcohol, tobacco products, and one laptop exemption.

Duty-free baggage allowances and exclusions for travellers, transfers of residence, and crew baggage concessions clarified under new rules.
Prescribes baggage rules setting duty-free allowances and exclusions for various traveller categories, including residents, tourists, infants and persons transferring residence; specifies jewellery limits for returning residents; conditions and aggregate value caps for household and personal effects tied to duration abroad; lists excluded items in annexures; addresses unaccompanied baggage timeframes and crew baggage concessions; and confirms currency movements remain subject to foreign exchange regulations.

Standard Exchange Scheme exemption shields aviation parts from excess customs duty when valued at agreed standard exchange cost.
Exempts aircraft parts imported under the Standard Exchange Scheme from customs duty to the extent that duty exceeds what would be leviable if value were the Standard Exchange Cost plus insurance and freight both ways, subject to conditions: parts not new and being repaired or overhauled; a Standard Exchange Agreement between importer and exporter; importer registration with the Director General of Civil Aviation; finality of Standard Exchange Cost; prohibition on drawback claims; and production of exporter's certificate at clearance.

Customs exemption for waste-based power projects: valid ten-year municipal solid waste processing agreement must be proved to customs.
The amendment provides that condition (ii) shall not apply to power generation projects based on municipal and urban waste if the importer proves to the satisfaction of the Deputy Commissioner of Customs or the Assistant Commissioner of Customs that there is a valid agreement between the importer and urban local body for processing of municipal solid waste for not less than ten years from the date of commissioning of project.

Customs tariff amendment expands specified cold storage projects to include cold chain, pre-cooling units, packhouses, sorting and ripening chambers.
Amendment expands the entry for serial number 41 under heading 9801 by substituting "Cold storage, cold room (including for farm level pre-cooling)" with "Cold storage, cold room (including for farm level pre-cooling), cold chain including pre-cooling unit, packhouses, sorting and grading lines and ripening chambers", thereby broadening the projects covered under the tariff notification.

Chartered Engineer certificate requirement for export declarations enables approval for manufacture or processing prior to export.
A Chartered Engineer's certificate must accompany export declarations where Standard Input Output Norms are available, certifying input-output ratios. Approval to manufacture or process for export before export hinges on that certificate and the declaration, with authorised officers permitted to verify the declaration at the factory. The amendment substitutes references to the CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004, bars manufacturers/processors from availing CENVAT credit in this scheme, adjusts the claims lodgement timeframe to the period under the Central Excise statute, and updates Form ARE-2 accordingly.

Concessional duty removals: procedural, bonding and recordkeeping obligations govern eligibility and recovery where goods are not used as intended.
Rules prescribe that an applicant manufacturer must file Form I with the Assistant or Deputy Commissioner, execute a bond or letter of undertaking, and send a copy to the supplier; suppliers rely on that information to remove subject goods at concessional duty while maintaining records of invoices, quantities and duty paid. Applicant manufacturers must maintain invoice-wise accounts and submit quarterly Form II returns. If goods are not used for the intended purpose, the applicant (or, if non-existent, the supplier) is liable to pay the difference in duty with interest, and specified recovery provisions apply; returned defective or surplus goods are added to supplier's non-duty paid stock.

Project imports amended to include cold chain, pre cooling units, packhouses, sorting and ripening chambers in customs list.
The Project Imports (Amendment) Regulations, 2016, effective 1 March 2016, substitute the entry at serial number 3H in the Project Imports Regulations, 1986 to expand "Cold storage, cold room (including for farm level pre-cooling)" to explicitly include "cold chain including pre-cooling unit, packhouses, sorting and grading lines and ripening chambers," thereby bringing these facilities within the specified project imports description under section 157 of the Customs Act, 1962.

Customs exemption amendment excludes chargers, batteries, wired headsets, speakers and specified solar tempered glass from blanket 'All goods' relief.
Notification No. 19/2016-Customs amends Notification No. 24/2005-Customs by inserting, against serial number 39, an exception to the words "All goods": excluding charger or adapter, battery, wired headsets and speakers of mobile handsets including cellular phones, and solar tempered glass or solar tempered (anti-reflective coated) glass from the scope of that phrase.

Single registration for closely located interlinked factory premises allowed, subject to movement accounting and commissioner-imposed conditions.
Substitutes condition (3) of Notification No.36/2001 to permit single registration where multiple premises of the same factory within a close area under a Range Superintendent have interlinked manufacturing processes and are not covered by area-based exemptions, subject to proper accountal of movement of goods between premises and any conditions or limitations the Commissioner of Central Excise may impose.

Annual return requirement expands: revised filing, revision window and per day late fee provisions imposed for service taxpayers.
Revises Service Tax Rules, 1994 to (i) redefine legal services classification and omit a listed item; (ii) extend simplified threshold provisions to include one person companies and Hindu Undivided Families and update a cross reference to the Central Excise Rules, 2002; (iii) prescribe a taxable percentage for certain single premium annuity policies; and (iv) introduce a mandatory annual return with specified due date, exemption by notification, a one month revision window for timely filers, and a per day late filing charge subject to a maximum where returns are filed late.

Service tax liability allocation clarified: who must pay service tax for lottery agents and non-senior advocates defined.
Amendment prescribes the extent of service tax payable by the service provider and any other person liable for service tax, omits sub-clause (ib), replaces sub-clause (ic) to specify services by selling or marketing agents of lottery tickets to lottery distributors or selling agents of the State Government, expressly covers legal services by a firm of advocates or individual advocates other than senior advocates, omits Sl. No. 1B, substitutes table entries for Sl. No. 1C and Sl. No. 5, and removes the words "by way of support services" for Sl. No. 6; effective from the first day of April, 2016.

Tariff classification amendment updates exempted central excise headings by substituting specified tariff codes in the exemption table.
Amendment to the exemption Table of Notification No. 6/2005-Central Excise substitutes specified tariff headings in column (2) at four serial numbers, using powers under section 5A of the Central Excise Act and section 85 of the Finance Act, 2005 to implement Budget-related changes to the list of exempted goods, thereby modifying classification entries without altering the exemption framework.