Central Excise amendment: clarifies Indian market price reference and mandates lodging claims within statutory time limit.
Amendment under rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 revises notification 19/2004-Central Excise (N.T.) by substituting "the market price" with "the Indian market price" in conditions paragraph (e) and inserting a requirement in procedures paragraph (b)(i) that the relevant documents or claims "shall be lodged" before the expiry of the period specified in section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944.

Customs tariff amendment substitutes tariff description to include specified types of fuses, altering exemption notification scope.
The Central Government, under sub section (1) of section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962, substitutes the column (3) entries at serial number 64 of Notification No. 25/2002 Customs to read: "Glass and ceramic cartridge fuses, blade fuses, automotive fuses, surface mount fuses, sub miniature fuses, micro fuses, resettable fuses and thermal fuses".

Customs exemption amendment inserts sub miniature, micro, resettable and thermal fuses into listed tariff entries.
The Central Government, invoking powers under section 25 of the Customs Act, amends the principal customs exemption notification by inserting "sub miniature fuses, micro fuses, resettable fuses and thermal fuses" into the description columns of specified List A tariff entries, thereby expanding the listed electrical protection components eligible for exemption.

Central Excise amendment substitutes reference to section 11AB with section 11AA in notification paragraph clause.
Exercising rule 19(2) and (3) powers, the Board amends Notification No. 31/2007 Central Excise (N.T.) by substituting the cited section reference in paragraph 6, clause (ii) with an alternative section reference, thereby correcting the statutory cross reference within that clause of the principal notification.

Central Excise duty rates for pan masala revised: new retail price and machine speed based tariff structure implemented.
The notification substitutes Table 1 to set the rate of duty per packing machine per month for pan masala and pan masala containing tobacco by retail sale price bands and three machine speed categories, including linear formulae for prices above the top band with an illustrative computation. It also substitutes Table 2 to specify duty ratio components allocating the total duty among central excise, additional excise under the Finance Act, National Calamity Contingent Duty, and zero allocation to education cesses, with separate ratios for pan masala and pan masala containing tobacco.

Commencement of service tax provision: specified sub clause of Notification No.05/2015 to come into force from appointed date.
The Central Government, under section 94(1) read with section 94(2) of the Finance Act, 1994, appoints 1st April, 2016 as the date on which sub clause (II) of clause (iii) of sub paragraph (a) of paragraph 2 of Notification No. 05/2015 Service Tax (dated 1st March, 2015) shall come into force.

Commencement of notification provision: clause (b) of paragraph one of the 2015 service tax notification appointed to commence.
The Central Government, exercising the power under sub section (2) of section 68 of the Finance Act, 1994, appoints 1st April 2016 as the date on which clause (b) of sub paragraph (i) of paragraph 1 of Notification No. 07/2015 Service Tax (dated 1 March 2015; G.S.R. 161(E)) shall come into force.

Packing machine duty rates revised to link levy to pouch retail price and machine packing speed for tobacco products.
Revises the per packing machine monthly duty by tying rates to the retail sale price per pouch and the machine's maximum packing speed; substitutes Table 1 and Table 2 prescribing tiered rates and formulae for chewing tobacco, filter khaini, jarda scented tobacco and unmanufactured tobacco, and replaces Table 3 to specify duty allocation ratios among excise components for those product categories.

Amendment to Central Excise notification: replaces reference to section 11AB with section 11AA, altering applicable provision.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs amends Notification No.42/2001-Central Excise (N.T.) by substituting, in paragraph 2, clause (v), sub-clause (b), the reference "section 11AB" with "section 11AA", thereby updating the statutory cross reference in the principal non tariff notification issued under sub-rule (3) of rule 19 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002.

Additional duty of customs specified for certain electronic components; populated PCBs partly excluded and concessional import procedures set.
Amendment to Notification No. 21/2012-Customs specifies the additional duty of customs for listed goods, carving out populated Printed Circuit Boards of mobile phones and tablet computers from a general goods entry, omitting and substituting certain entries to except specific mobile handset components and populated PCBs, inserting a concessional entry for o-xylene for manufacture of phthalic anhydride with an additional duty rate, creating nil-duty concessional entries for machinery and parts (excluding populated PCBs) used in semiconductor and LCD fabrication and chip assembly processes, and adding an additional duty entry for populated PCBs used in tablet and mobile handset manufacture, all subject to the Customs concessional import procedure.

Export duty amendment revises a customs notification: specified tariff lines exempted and chromium ores added as exempt.
The government amends Notification No.27/2011-Customs to revise Table entries: specified tariff lines under 2601 11 are substituted to record those goods as duty exempt; the duty column entries for two existing serials are replaced to reflect a substituted preferential rate; and a new entry for tariff heading 2610 inserts chromium ores and concentrates as duty exempt, thereby modifying the schedule of exemptions and rates in the principal notification.

Interest under section 11AA fixed for Central Excise, superseding prior notification and effective from April.
Fixes the rate of interest at fifteen per cent per annum for purposes of section 11AA of the Central Excise Act, 1944, superseding the 2011 notification insofar as it relates to the interest rate, and states that the notification comes into force on the first day of April, 2016.

Exemption scope revised for unbranded goods, introducing a retail price threshold that limits central excise exemption eligibility.
Amendment to Notification No.30/2004-Central Excise substitutes the Table entry at serial number 16, column (3), to exclude goods bearing or sold under a brand name with a retail sale price (RSP) of Rs. 1000 and above from the exempt class; enacted under section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 read with section 3(3) of the Additional Duties of Excise Act, and notified as No.15/2016-Central Excise dated 1 March 2016.

Commencement of clause (h) of the Finance Act 2015 effective from April, initiating service tax provision enforcement.
The Central Government, exercising the power under clause (h) of section 107 of the Finance Act, 2015, notifies 1st April, 2016 as the date on which that clause shall come into force, effectuating the operative commencement of the provision; issued as Notification No. 15/2016-Service Tax by the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue).

Interest rate under section 73B reduced, replacing the prior rate; change effective upon assent to the Finance Bill.
Prescribes a reduction in the rate of interest under section 73B of the Finance Act, 1994 by substituting "eighteen per cent." with "fifteen per cent." in the principal service tax notification, with the amendment to come into force on the day the Finance Bill, 2016 receives Presidential assent.

Municipal waste power project exemption: relief contingent on agreement with urban local body for long-term waste processing.
Amendment adds a proviso that exempts power generation projects based on municipal and urban waste from the specified condition if the manufacturer satisfies the Deputy Commissioner or Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise that there is a valid agreement with the urban local body for processing municipal solid waste for not less than ten years from the date of project commissioning.

Time limit for refund of CENVAT Credit set for service exporters; applications must follow prescribed filing timelines and documentation.
Amends Notification No. 27/2012 to require applications in Form A with specified documents for CENVAT Credit refunds on exported services to be filed: manufacturers pursuant to the Central Excise Act time limit; service providers within a prescribed period from receipt of payment in convertible foreign exchange when service preceded payment, or from invoice issuance where payment was received in advance.

Withdrawal of customs exemptions narrows tariff relief by omitting specified entries from the principal notification, altering exemption scope.
Amendment withdraws selected customs exemptions by omitting serial entries 9, 9A, 10 and 10A from the TABLE of Notification No. 39/96 Customs and deleting the corresponding references in paragraph 2 item (ix), exercising powers under section 25(1) of the Customs Act, 1962, and taking effect on the notified commencement date, thereby narrowing the goods eligible for exempt treatment under the principal notification.

Value limit for bona fide gifts imported by post or air freight increased, expanding duty-free eligibility under customs rules.
Amendment increases the value limit for bona fide gifts imported by post or as air freight by substituting the words "rupees ten thousand" with "rupees twenty thousand" in both the proviso and the Explanation to Notification No.171/93-Customs; enacted under the Central Government's powers under the Customs Act, 1962.

CENVAT credit amendments revise eligibility, apportionment and distribution, imposing detailed attribution, reporting and compliance requirements.
Amendments revise CENVAT credit eligibility, utilisation and distribution: expanding eligible capital goods and uses, removing certain exclusions, disallowing credit for Infrastructure Cess, prescribing spreading of credit for assignment of natural resource usage, extending registration validity, and creating a multi-option regime for attribution between exempted and non-exempted outputs with monthly provisional calculations, annual reconciliation, interest on shortfalls, reporting obligations, and special provisions for input service distributors, outsourced manufacturing units and manufacturer warehouses.