Baggage rules updated; deferred import duty payments shifted to monthly for eligible importers, creating a new eligibility class.
The baggage regime is replaced by Baggage Rules, 2026 to clarify temporary carriage of goods, avoid unnecessary detention, and restructure Transfer of Residence benefits by duration of stay, effective 02.02.2026; deferred import duty payment frequency is changed from 15 days to monthly and a new class of eligible importers is created by amending the Deferred Payment of Import Duty Rules, 2016.

Basic Customs Duty changes: several commodities moved to nil duty while potassium hydroxide sees a 7.5% levy increase.
Amendments to Basic Customs Duty effective 2 February 2026 alter duty incidence for specified imports: monazite, sodium antimonate for solar glass, nuclear power generation goods and control/burnable absorber rods, and specified microwave-oven manufacture components are moved to nil duty, while potassium hydroxide is newly subject to a 7.5% basic customs duty; consult the notification for full descriptions.

Customs BCD exemptions extended to BESS, aircraft parts, nuclear projects, specified drugs and select critical minerals.
BCD exemptions are expanded to cover capital goods for Battery Energy Storage Systems and to extend relief for aircraft raw materials and components (including engines) for manufacture or maintenance when imported by defence Public Sector Units, subject to the IGCRS Rules, 2022 and an end use certificate from a Joint Secretary level officer. Exemptions for goods for specified Nuclear Power Projects are broadened irrespective of capacity and extended through 30.09.2035. Lists in the customs notification are updated to add medicines and rare diseases for personal import exemptions, and select critical mineral entries are being consolidated into the tariff with the prior notification to be rescinded.

Customs duty exemptions: 102 conditional entries extended, 22 allowed to lapse, and select unconditional exemptions omitted.
A review of notification No. 45/2025 Customs extends validity of 102 conditional exemption/concessional BCD entries to 31.03.2028, allows 22 conditional entries to lapse on 31.03.2026, and omits specified unconditional exemptions effective 02.02.2026 so applicable BCD rates will apply from the First Schedule. The review also removes or prescribes sunset clauses, modifies certain entries (including mergers, description changes, and extended time limits), and incorporates some rates into the Tariff.

Budget changes extend BCD exemptions for listed goods to March 31, 2028 and omit redundant notification entries.
Extension of certain BCD exemptions to 31.03.2028 is prescribed for specified notifications covering precious stones on approval/return basis, goods imported for execution of export orders for jobbing, copper products from reverts, and gold/silver from copper anode slime exported for toll smelting. One standalone exemption for castor oil cake manufactured in SEZs and brought to DTA lapses on 31.03.2026, and a notification exempting works of art and antiques for public exhibition is given a sunset date of 31.03.2028. Selected exemption entries in notification No. 36/2024-Customs are omitted effective 02.02.2026 as redundant, with BCD rates to operate via the First Schedule of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.

Social Welfare Surcharge changes extend specific customs exemptions, add SWS on personal-use imports, and exempt electronic toys.
Amendments to notification No. 11/2018-Customs consolidate and preserve SWS exemptions for specified graphite, quartz, silicon dioxide and related items; reassign concessional BCD for sub heading 2106 90 to the First Schedule while retaining SWS incidence; modify the spent catalyst/ash exemption description to remove a lapsed cross reference without altering exemption; impose SWS on all dutiable personal use imports under heading 9804; and exempt parts and goods under heading 9503 (electronic toys) from SWS.

New aircraft rubber pneumatic tyres continue to attract 0.5% agriculture infrastructure and development cess from 02.02.2026.
New pneumatic tyres of rubber used on aircraft under tariff item 4011 30 00 will continue to attract a 0.5% Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess. The notification entry is amended to omit reference to a removed exemption entry with effect from 02.02.2026, without changing the 0.5% AIDC rate for these goods (other than those with nil basic customs duty).

Chewing and related tobacco NCCD schedule rates raised to 60% from May 1, 2026, while effective rate stays 25%.
Seventh Schedule to the Finance Act, 2001 is amended to raise NCCD rates from 25% to 60% for HS 2403 99 10 (chewing tobacco), HS 2403 99 30 (jarda scented tobacco) and HS 2403 99 90 (other tobacco products including gutkha) effective 01.05.2026, while a notification will maintain the applied effective rate at 25%.

Biogas/CBG in blended CNG: value and related taxes excluded from transaction value for central excise from 02.02.2026.
The value of Biogas/Compressed Biogas (CBG) contained in blended CNG, and the central, state, union territory or integrated taxes paid on that Biogas/CBG, are excluded from the transaction value for computing central excise duty on blended CNG; the exclusion is effected by amending the existing notification framework and takes effect from 02.02.2026, with the prior GST-only relief rescinded.

Unblended diesel additional excise duty implementation deferred until 31.03.2028 by amendment to existing notification effective immediately.
The additional excise duty of Rs.2 per litre on unblended diesel is deferred until 31.03.2028 by amendment of Notification No. 11/2017 Central Excise through Notification No. 02/2026 Central Excise (01.02.2026), thereby postponing the levy of the higher duty on unblended diesel.

Goods and Services Tax: amendments remove discount-agreement link, expand refund scope, and allow interim appellate authorities.
Amendments remove the requirement that a post-sale discount be linked to an agreement and prescribe issuance of a credit note under section 34 when input tax credit is reversed; section 34 is amended to reference section 15. Section 54 is amended to extend provisional refunds to inverted duty structure claims and to remove the sanction threshold for refunds on exported goods with tax paid. Section 101A gains sub-section (1A) allowing the Central Government to notify an existing authority or tribunal to hear appeals under section 101B pending the National Appellate Authority, with sub-sections (2)-(13) not applying where such empowerment occurs, effective 01.04.2026.

Place of supply for intermediary services will follow the IGST Act default provision after omission of the specific clause.
The amendment omits clause (b) of sub section (8) of section 13 of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 so that the place of supply for intermediary services will be determined by the default provision in section 13(2) of the IGST Act, aligning intermediary services with the Act's general place of supply framework.

Education consultancy commissions treated as exportable services, not intermediary services, where foreign institution is the contracting recipient.
The Court held that the intermediary test focuses on whether a person merely "arranges or facilitates" a supply, excluding those who supply on their own account; where agreements and consideration establish a principal-to-principal supply to foreign educational institutions, the services qualify as export of services and not intermediary services, making place of supply the recipient's location and supporting refund entitlement.

GST arrests: Court set aside bail premised on format defects where substantive compliance and no demonstrable prejudice existed.
The High Court held that a challenge to the legal sustainability of a bail order is distinct from cancellation for supervening conduct and, on the facts, found substantive compliance with CGST arrest safeguards (including authorisation recording reasons to believe and supply of arrest memo and grounds) and BNSS Sections 47-48 when assessed through a prejudice oriented test; absence of statutory headings or non enclosure of detailed grounds with the relative did not, without demonstrable prejudice, justify the magistrate's bail order, which was set aside and the bail bonds cancelled with liberty to apply afresh.

Section 153C: amended trigger applies if seized material is received post amendment, widening third party assessment scope.
The substituted text widens the jurisdictional trigger for third party assessments from strict ownership to where books or documents "pertain to" or contain information that "relates to" the other person; the first proviso's deeming fiction makes the date of receipt of seized material by the other person's Assessing Officer the operative reference point, so if receipt, satisfaction and issuance of notice occur after the amendment, the amended provision governs, subject to the requirement of recorded satisfaction that the material bears on determination of total income.

Transfer pricing assessments: outer statutory limitation governs final orders; DRP deadlines do not enlarge the overall limitation.
The tribunal permitted admission of additional legal grounds based on facts on record and held that the outer statutory limitation governs final assessments in eligible-assessee transfer pricing cases. The dispute-resolution procedural deadline requires prompt action after directions but does not enlarge the overall limitation; statutory extension available for transfer pricing references is to be applied to the outer limit, and external judicial limitation extensions do not extend the time for completing original assessments.

Digital material recovered in a third party search cannot alone justify invoking Section 153C without a direct nexus to the non searched person.
Section 153C jurisdiction requires seized or requisitioned books of account or documents from a search that relate to or pertain to a non searched person; digital images recovered in a third party search that did not name or connect the petitioners could not sustain Section 153C. The Assessing Officer's reliance on post search forms, voluntary supply of documents, public domain inquiries, and an inferential consideration mismatch rendered the recorded satisfaction de hors the statutory trigger, allowing writ relief for jurisdictional defect.

GST refund and recovery proceedings founded solely on omitted rules lapse absent express saving clause.
Omission of Rule 89(4B) and Rule 96(10) without an express saving clause causes pending proceedings and non-final orders founded solely on those rules to lapse, except for transactions past and closed. The General Clauses Act's preservation principle does not apply to omissions effected by subordinate rules/notification, and transitional or laying provisions of the parent statute do not operate as omnibus saving clauses. Consequently, undisposed show cause notices and orders dependent only on the omitted rules were quashed and affected refund applications were remitted for reconsideration after hearing within a stipulated period.

GST electronic service by portal or email may not trigger appeal limitation absent verifiable communication or retrieval evidence.
Whether portal upload or e-mail intimation automatically triggers the limitation period under Section 107 depends on whether such electronic modes fall within the statutory deeming fictions of Section 169(2) or Section 169(3). Although Section 169(1)(c)-(d) and Rule 142 permit electronic service, the express deeming consequences are confined to specified modes; absent acknowledgement or verifiable retrieval logs, IT Act presumptions of dispatch/receipt do not alone establish communication for appeal limitation.

Electronic evidence admissibility in customs proceedings: contemporaneous extraction records and Section 108 statements can satisfy the certificate requirement.
The Court held that contemporaneous extraction/printing records, device particulars, and un-retracted Section 108 statements acknowledging computer printouts can constitute substantive due compliance with Section 138C(4) of the Customs Act, 1962; a certificate not in prescribed format will not automatically invalidate admissibility where authenticity is not disputed, while other statutory evidentiary issues (including Section 138B) remain open for adjudication.