Land Customs Stations designation enables baggage clearance for Indian enclave dwellers arriving from Bangladesh via specified road routes.
Designates Shahebganj and Haldibari in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, as Land Customs Stations for clearance of baggage of Indian enclave dwellers arriving from Bangladesh via the road routes connecting Shahebganj-Bagbandar and Haldibari-Chilahati, under clauses (b) and (c) of sub section (1) of Section 7 of the Customs Act, 1962, with the designations effective until 30th November, 2015.

Record-retention period extended by amendment, increasing the statutory preservation timeframe for specified records under PMLA rules.
The Fourth Amendment Rules, 2015 substitute the retention period in rule 9A(1) of the Prevention of Money laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, replacing the prior ninety day requirement with a longer statutory preservation period; the amendment is effected by Central Government notification and comes into force on publication in the Official Gazette.

Appointment of Tribunal Member: Government appoints Rajeev Kher to the Competition Appellate Tribunal, tenure and service rules apply.
The Central Government, under section 53C read with section 53F of the Competition Act, appointed Shri Rajeev Kher as Member of the Competition Appellate Tribunal effective 28th September, 2015, for a tenure of five years or until he attains age sixty five or until further orders, whichever is earlier. His terms and conditions of service are governed by the Competition Appellate Tribunal (Salaries and Allowances and other terms and conditions of service of Chairperson and other Members) Rules, 2009.

Refund applications from diplomatic missions may be admitted late if sufficient cause and prior timely filing are shown.
The amendment permits the Commissioner to admit delayed refund, additional, or revised refund applications from Embassies, High Commissions and international organisations listed in serial No. I of the Sixth Schedule up to one year from the end of the relevant quarter, provided the Commissioner is satisfied there was sufficient cause and that a true and correct application for refund was submitted within the original three-month limit from the end of the relevant quarter.

Taxation of petroleum products adjusted with revised schedule entries assigning new duties to specified products and ATF.
Amendments revise schedule classifications under the Delhi Value Added Tax Act by excluding electric motors, switchgears and starters from a Third Schedule sub-entry and by substituting the Fourth Schedule petroleum products row while inserting a separate entry for Aviation Turbine Fuel, with effect from the day after issuance.

Annual Return form updated: substituted form prescribes detailed disclosure and electronic filing requirements for companies.
The notification substitutes the Annual Return form in the Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014 with a revised Annual Return form to be filed under section 92 of the Companies Act, 2013; the form prescribes structured disclosures of company identification, business activities, holding/subsidiary details, share capital and transfers, indebtedness, shareholding patterns, board and KMP particulars, meeting attendance, remuneration, compliance and penalty reporting, certification requirements for certain companies, required attachments, and electronic filing with digital signature.

Investment vehicle access by non-residents permits acquisition and transfer of units subject to remittance, ownership and sectoral conditions.
Non-residents (excluding Pakistan and Bangladesh) including RFPIs and NRIs may acquire, hold, transfer or redeem units of regulated Investment Vehicles (REITs, InvITs, AIFs) subject to Schedule 11: payment by inward remittance (including NRE/FCNR debit); disposals as per SEBI or RBI rules; pledge of units permitted to secure credit; AIF Category III with foreign investment limited to RFPI-eligible instruments; downstream investments treated as foreign if Sponsor/Manager/Investment Manager is not Indian owned and controlled and must conform to sectoral caps and LLP specific rules; reporting to RBI/SEBI required.

Real estate business exclusion covers township development, specified construction, roads, bridges and regulated REIT activities under capital account rules.
The 2015 amendment substitutes the explanation to Regulation 4(b) governing the meaning of real estate business. Real estate business excludes township development, construction of residential or commercial premises, construction of roads or bridges, and Real Estate Investment Trusts registered and regulated under the SEBI (REITs) Regulations, 2014. The amendment took effect upon publication in the Official Gazette on 16 November 2015.

Duty drawback rates prescribed for exports, with eligibility, exclusions and procedural declaration requirements.
Notification fixes All Industry Rates of duty drawback effective 23 November 2015 and supersedes the prior notification; it prescribes schedules of ad valorem and specific per unit drawback rates and caps aligned at four digit tariff level, with notes on interpretation, inclusion of packing, classification rules, and measurement definitions. Drawback is payable only upon satisfaction of procedural requirements under the Drawback Rules; exclusions apply for manufacture/export under bonded/advance licence/EOU/FTZ/EPZ/SEZ or where Cenvat/rebate under Central Excise Rules has been availed, with specific declarations, caps and verification processes specified.

Provisional drawback reform: amendment mandates specified provisional payment by customs and adjusts provisional claim disclosures.
The Second Amendment revises Drawback Rules, omitting clause (v) of rule 3(1) and rule 6(4), and modifies rule 7 so that a Provisional drawback amount as specified by the Central Government shall be paid by the proper officer of Customs; applications must state provisional drawback already paid, and rule 7(5) is omitted.

Tariff values fixation for specified commodities updated, substituting prior tables to set customs valuation benchmarks.
The Central Board of Excise & Customs, under section 14(2) of the Customs Act, 1962, substitutes TABLE-1, TABLE-2 and TABLE-3 of Notification No. 36/2001 Customs (N.T.) to fix tariff values as benchmarks for customs valuation. The substitution prescribes tariff values for specified commodities including edible oils (crude and refined palm and soybean oils and palmolein), brass scrap, poppy seeds, areca nuts, and specified categories of gold and silver where certain notification benefits are availed.

Tax credit rules: cigarette input tax credit reduced under amended Delhi VAT rules, altering credit calculation.
The amendment to rule 7 restricts input tax credit on cigarettes by inserting a proviso disallowing credit entirely in one context and adding a sub rule prescribing a reduction formula {(R-2) 100/R} percents where R is the rate of tax. It also amends Form DVAT 16 by adding field A3.7.1 to record tax credit disallowed on account of sales under the Central Sales Tax regime.

Ecommerce sales reporting requirement: dealers must disclose web portal transactions in the specified annexure and include them in VAT returns.
Dealers selling through e commerce web portals must furnish tax rate wise details in a newly inserted Annexure 1E, filing separate Annexure 1E for each e commerce company and including all Annexure 1E sales in Annexure 2B; technical amendments also omit specified sub fields and columns and renumber columns across Forms DVAT 16, 30, 31 and Annexures 2A/2A(1), and amend Annexure 1 headings to refer to the rate of tax applicable as per section 4.

Extension of filing deadline for first and second quarter online VAT returns in Forms EC-II and EC-III.
The Commissioner, exercising authority under section 27 of the Delhi Value Added Tax Act, 2004, has issued a notification extending the last date for online filing of first and second quarter VAT returns for 2015-16 in Forms EC-II and EC-III, thereby modifying an earlier notification and postponing the electronic filing deadline for those specified quarterly returns.

Composition option for Swachh Bharat Cess allows alternative payment calculation instead of statutory cess rate within a year.
Inserts sub rule (7D) in rule 6 permitting persons liable under sub rules 7, 7A, 7B or 7C to discharge Swachh Bharat Cess by paying an amount equal to total service tax liability under those sub rules multiplied by 0.5 and divided by 14, during any calendar month or quarter, instead of paying the statutory cess rate; the option, once exercised, applies uniformly to such services and cannot be changed during the financial year.

Swachh Bharat Cess applicability extended by applying prior service tax notification provisions mutatis mutandis to the cess.
The notification provides that the provisions of Notification No. 30/2012 - Service Tax shall be applicable mutatis mutandis for the purposes of the Swachh Bharat Cess, importing the earlier notification's definitions, chargeability and compliance mechanisms into the cess under delegated powers in the Finance Act.

Swachh Bharat Cess on abated value now charged only on specified taxable portion under service tax valuation rules.
Specifies that Swachh Bharat Cess is leviable only on the percentage of taxable value specified for each service in Notification No. 26/2012-Service Tax, i.e., on the abated portion, and clarifies that the value of taxable services for this cess shall be determined in accordance with the Service Tax (Determination of Value) Rules, 2006.

Section 35AC eligibility extended for rehabilitation project, enabling tax-deductible expenditure for three further financial years.
Notification designates the Centre for Rehabilitation and Development, Chitrakoot carried out by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University as an eligible project under section 35AC for a further three-year period beginning with financial year 2015-16, on the recommendation of the National Committee, without any change in the approved cost of Rs. 30.00 crore including a corpus fund of Rs. 10.00 crore, thereby preserving its entitlement to tax-deduction treatment for that period.

Deduction under Section 35AC: project cost cap increased for notified vocational and hostel expansion, enabling larger qualifying expenditure.
Notification under Section 35AC increases the maximum recognised project cost for the notified vocational courses and girls' hostel expansion carried out by Jamia Islamia Ishaatul Uloom, substituting the earlier notified cost figure with an enhanced ceiling while retaining the corpus fund component, thereby revising the upper limit of qualifying expenditure deductible under the section following the National Committee's recommendation.

Eligible project extension under income tax deduction provisions grants further multi-year eligibility and raises approved project cost.
The Central Government re-notifies the Jamiah Uloomul Quran reconstruction scheme as an eligible project for deduction under the Income-tax Act, extending its period of eligibility for a further three financial years beginning 2015-16. The notification also amends the earlier sanctioned project cost by increasing the maximum allowable project cost, following the National Committee's recommendation that the project is being executed properly and warrants extension and cost revision.