Supply of restaurant food: GST classification amended, alters input tax credit eligibility and replaces declared tariff with value of supply.
Amendment revises GST rate entries to reclassify restaurant and institutional food supplies, exclude event based/occasional catering, replace the term declared tariff with value of supply for specified items, deny input tax credit where such credit has been taken for specified supplies, retain separate treatment for Indian Railways catering, define multimodal transportation and multimodal transporter for goods transport services, and distinguish e-book supplies from other telecommunications and information services.

Import restriction on petcoke: allowed only for cement, lime kiln, calcium and gasification industries on actual user basis.
Import of petroleum coke for fuel purposes is prohibited; imports are permitted only for cement, lime kiln, calcium carbide and gasification industries when used as feedstock or in the manufacturing process on an Actual User basis. Detailed guidelines for regulation and monitoring of such permitted imports will be issued by the environmental authority in consultation with customs and trade regulators.

Commencement of Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act provisions to come into force on appointed commencement date.
Appointment of the commencement date for the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2018: the Central Government designates the 1st day of September, 2018 as the date on which the Act's provisions shall come into force.

Standing Committee under CGST Rules constituted to coordinate consumer protection and related regulatory functions among departmental representatives.
Order constituting a Standing Committee under sub rule (4) of rule 97 of the CGST Rules, 2017 read with Section 168 of the CGST Act, 2017 to coordinate consumer protection and related regulatory functions under GST. The Committee's membership is specified: Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs (Chairman); Secretary, Department of Expenditure or Financial Adviser (Vice Chairman); senior officials from CBIC including Member (GST); representatives from Rural Development, FSSAI, Information and Broadcasting, Higher Education, BIS; and the Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary in charge of the Consumer Welfare Fund as Member Secretary.

Anti profiteering designation replaces safeguards directorate in Telangana GST Rules, altering administrative references and rule cross references.
The amendment substitutes references to the Directorate General of Safeguards and "Director General of Safeguards" with the Directorate General of Anti profiteering and "Director General of Anti profiteering" in rules 125, 129, 130(2), 131, 132(1) and 133 of the Telangana GST Rules, effecting consistent administrative designation across those provisions and specifying an operative commencement.

Jurisdiction as Special Court: specified existing courts designated to exercise securities and depositories statute jurisdiction.
Designation of specified existing trial courts as Special Courts empowers them to exercise jurisdiction under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act and the Depositories Act within their respective states and union territory, following concurrence of the respective High Court Chief Justices and noting a substitution amending the Jammu and Kashmir entry.

Exchange rate determination for specified foreign currencies to apply to import and export valuation under customs rules.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, exercising powers under Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, prescribes conversion rates of specified foreign currencies into Indian rupees for valuation of imported and exported goods, with distinct rates for imports and exports, effective from 17th August, 2018, and superseding an earlier notification except for antecedent actions.

Reduced SGST rate for handicraft goods set by specified tariff entries, exempting intra state supplies above listed rates.
Exemption reduces SGST on intra state supplies of listed handicraft goods to the concessional rates specified by tariff entry; the measure applies where state tax would otherwise exceed the rate shown in the Table, and it relies on the State GST Act authority. The notification defines handicraft goods as predominantly hand made items with distinctive aesthetic or cultural features and enumerates tariff classifications and corresponding reduced SGST rates for multiple categories of handicraft products.

Input tax credit restriction: specified goods lose post-cutoff credit entitlement and unutilised balances will lapse.
Amendment excludes entitlement to input tax credit for goods at serial numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,6A,6B,6C and 7 for supplies received on or after 1st August, 2018, and provides that any unutilised input tax credit balance remaining after payment of tax for and up to July, 2018, in respect of inward supplies received up to 31st July, 2018, shall lapse.

GST exemptions updated: new exempted goods and substituted entries added to state tax rate schedule, effective from July.
Amendments to the State GST rate schedule insert and substitute tariff entries to add exempted or specially classified goods-including sal/siali/sisal leaves and sabai grass products, vegetable materials for broom manufacture, sanitary towels and tampons, rakhi (excluding Chapter 71 articles), deities of stone/marble/wood, khali dona and goods of specified leaf materials, and coir pith compost subject to brand-related conditions. De-oiled rice bran is substituted under heading 2306 with an explanation applying the exemption from 25th January, 2018. These amendments take effect on 27th July, 2018.

GST rate amendments affect tariff classifications, inserting and substituting specific goods across rate schedules and exclusions.
Amendment revises the Jharkhand State GST rate notification by inserting, substituting and omitting specific tariff entries across Schedules I-IV, relocating discrete goods into the 2.5%, 6%, 9% and 14% rate bands through product specific HS headings and description changes, adjusting value thresholds and exclusions for apparel, packaging and composited goods, and adding or removing serial entries to refine taxable classifications; the changes take effect from the stated effective date under the State Act's rate making authority.

Definition of business: government activities as public authorities excluded from taxable business scope under the state rate notification.
Inserted explanation narrows the scope of the relevant State tax rate entry by specifying that the term business does not include any activity or transaction undertaken by the Central Government, a State Government or any local authority when engaged as public authorities, thereby excluding governmental public authority functions from the taxable concept of business under that notification entry.

State tax notification amendment expands references to Union territories and municipalities under article 243W, effective from July.
The amendment inserts the words "or Union territory" after "State Government" and the words "or to a Municipality under article 243W of the Constitution" after "Constitution" in the first paragraph of Notification No. 14/2017 - State Tax (Rate), thereby broadening the notification's territorial and institutional references; the amendment is issued as Notification No. 16/2018 - State Tax (Rate) and is made effective in July 2018.

Services by individual Direct Selling Agents to banking and NBFC recipients inserted into State Tax Rate table.
A new Table entry is inserted specifying services supplied by individual Direct Selling Agents (DSAs), other than bodies corporate, partnerships or LLPs, to a banking company or a non-banking financial company (NBFC) located in the taxable territory. The notification also inserts a definition of "renting of immovable property" to include allowing access, occupation, use or similar facilities, with or without transfer of possession or control, including letting, leasing and licensing.

GST exemptions expanded to include social welfare, agricultural support, institutional and specific government service exemptions.
Amendment expands nil-rate exemptions under the Jharkhand State GST notification by inserting multiple new exempt service entries and making technical substitutions. Key insertions include exemption of services by old age homes to resident seniors subject to a monthly cap inclusive of boarding and maintenance; exemption for construction of electricity distribution infrastructure up to a farmer's tube well for agricultural use; warehousing of minor forest produce; provident and pension fund services; FSSAI licensing and testing services to food business operators; artificial insemination of livestock; assignment-of-royalty collection services to ERCCs subject to reconciliation and limitation; and a capped membership-fee exemption for non-profit bodies. The changes include wording adjustments and effective date of 27th July, 2018.

Tax payment obligation: pay GST liabilities from electronic cash or credit ledger by the prescribed monthly return due date.
Every registered person furnishing FORM GSTR-3B must discharge tax, interest, penalty, fees and other amounts payable under the Act by debiting the electronic cash ledger or electronic credit ledger, as applicable, not later than the statutory due date for furnishing the return.

GST classification of food supplies updated: restaurants, railways and event caterers assigned distinct tax rates and input credit conditions.
Amendments reclassify supplies: restaurant and similar food services are assigned a concessional rate subject to the condition that input tax credit on goods and services used in supplying the service has not been taken; institutional canteens (non-event/ non-occasional) and supplies by Indian Railways and its licensees are included. Event-based and occasional food supplies at exhibitions, conferences and marriage halls are taxed separately at a higher rate. Multimodal transportation is defined and treated distinctly, and e-books supplied online are listed under telecommunications, broadcasting and information supply services. Effective 27 July 2018.

GSTR-1 filing deadline extended for high-turnover registered persons; monthly outward-supply details now due by the following month's mid-month.
Extension of the deadline for furnishing details of outward supplies in FORM GSTR-1 is granted for a specified class of high-turnover registered persons; for each monthly period from July to March the outward-supplies statement may be filed until the eleventh day of the month succeeding that month.

Commencement of constitutional amendment: central government appointed the amendment's provisions to come into force by notification.
The Central Government, exercising the notification power conferred by the Act, appointed 15 August 2018 as the date on which the Constitution (One Hundred and Second Amendment) Act, 2018 shall come into force; the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment published this appointment as S.O. 3989(E) dated 14 August 2018 under a Joint Secretary's signature.

Provisional assessment finalisation sets document submission deadlines, extension hierarchy, finalisation procedures and penalty for non-compliance.
Regulations create a procedural framework for finalising provisional assessments under the Customs Act: required documents or information must be produced within prescribed periods with written requisitions; a tiered extension regime allows the proper officer, Additional/Joint Commissioner, and Commissioner to extend time for reasons recorded; the proper officer must finalise assessments within a set period from receipt of required material or intimation, subject to Commissioner-authorised extension; finalisation follows section 18, permits adjustment from security, requires speaking orders if final assessment differs, and mandates cancellation of bonds and return of security if no dues remain.