Substantive benefit protection: refund of unutilised input service credit cannot be denied for technical errors; sanction balance.
The tribunal held that the substantive benefit of a refund claim for unutilised input service CENVAT credit cannot be denied on purely technical grounds where no statutory condition required such denial; it set aside the appellate order and directed sanction of the withheld balance refund with interest from three months after filing until sanction. (AI Summary)

Refund limitation under CGST bars late claims; taxpayers must issue credit notes to neutralise excess GST payments.
Where a refund claim for erroneously paid GST is barred by the statutory limitation, the taxpayer must neutralise alleged excess payments by obtaining and issuing proper credit notes; the taxpayer must also rely on return-rectification provisions and maintain records proving the mistaken payment and the non-benefit of input tax credit to the recipient. (AI Summary)

State responsibility for ensuring smooth traffic passage may excuse e-way bill lapses when delays are beyond a party's control.
The State bears responsibility for failing to ensure smooth passage of traffic when such failure causes delivery delays and expiry of e-way bills; absence of intent to evade tax was found where traffic blockage due to agitation prevented timely delivery, but suppliers, buyers and transporters must show due diligence and cannot shift their own negligence onto the State. (AI Summary)

High sea sale transactions occur outside national territory, so IGST is collected only at importation upon customs clearance.
High sea sales occur when title to goods is transferred after dispatch from the foreign port or airport of origin but before clearance for home consumption; such transfers are treated as outside Indian territory and are not imports for GST purposes. The qualifying act is endorsement or transfer of documents of title before the goods cross the Customs frontiers of India. IGST on such goods is leviable and collected only at the time of importation when a Bill of Entry is filed and Customs duties are assessed, and value additions from HSS transactions form part of the taxable value at clearance. (AI Summary)

Wrong portal filing requires notice to appellant so they can refile and delay may be condoned.
When an appeal is uploaded to the incorrect GST portal, revenue authorities must notify the appellant of the filing error so the appellant can refile before the appropriate portal; such notification preserves the appellant's ability to seek appellate remedies and supports condonation of delay caused by the wrong-forum filing. (AI Summary)

Place of supply for road goods transport determines whether recipient or supplier bears GST liability based on recipient status.
Place of supply for road transportation services is determined by the recipient's status: for services to a registered person the place of supply is the location of that registered person; for services to an unregistered person it is the location where the goods are handed over for transportation. Who pays freight determines the recipient for place of supply purposes, and this allocation controls whether tax is intra state or inter state and whether reverse charge or the supplier's option to pay applies. (AI Summary)

Officer misconduct costs increased to deter taxpayer harassment; state may recover costs from responsible officials.
Supreme Court upheld the High Court's quashing of the tax demand and penalty where goods were not delivered due to a road blockade, increased the costs awarded to the supplier to equate with the wrongly raised demand, ordered payment within four weeks, and allowed the State to recover the costs from the person(s) responsible for the unnecessary litigation; the author advocates suspension and debarment of erring officers as a stronger deterrent to taxpayer harassment. (AI Summary)

GST recovery framework: confirmed indirect tax demands treated as arrears and recovered under the CGST statutory scheme.
Consolidated guidance classifies confirmed indirect tax demands as arrears and excludes unconfirmed or investigatory demands; recovery of arrears is to be pursued under the CGST statutory scheme, specifically governed by the Code's recovery provisions and corresponding CGST Rules, with jurisdictional principal commissioners responsible for effecting actual recovery. (AI Summary)

Summons as a last resort: cannot coerce cooperating taxpayers; purpose must be stated and adequate notice given.
Summons under the CGST framework must be a last resort and not used to coerce an assessee who is cooperating by furnishing requested documents and offering further details through consultants. Revenue should first list specific documents and queries, allow consultants to supply information within prescribed time, and then decide if personal attendance of a director is necessary. Any summons for personal attendance must state its purpose and give at least seven days' notice. (AI Summary)

Assessment of Unregistered Persons permits best judgment tax assessment with notice, hearing, prescribed forms and limitation period.
The proper officer may make a best judgment assessment of a person who failed to register or whose registration was cancelled but who remained liable to pay tax; the officer must issue FORM GST ASMT-14 stating grounds, allow the person an opportunity to be heard, and thereafter pass an assessment order in FORM GST ASMT-15 within the statutory limitation period, with required electronic summaries uploaded as prescribed by Rule 100. (AI Summary)

Presumption of tax evasion cannot rest on expired e way bills when delays result from traffic obstruction by third parties.
Non-extension of an e-way bill due to traffic blockage or agitation does not create a presumption of tax evasion; where delay in transit is caused by factors beyond the consignor's control, detention and punitive treatment based only on e-way bill expiry is unjustified. The courts found no intent to evade tax, declined further interference, and directed costs to be imposed and recovered from the revenue authority and those responsible for causing the obstruction and unnecessary litigation. (AI Summary)

Securities Transaction Tax: insurance companies must collect and remit STT on ULIP unit purchases with strict compliance and penalties.
Insurance companies are designated collectors and remitters of STT on equity oriented units in ULIPs they purchase, obliged to collect at the prescribed rate, remit monthly to the Central Government, and file an annual electronic return in Form 2A signed by an authorised managing or whole time director. Failures to collect, pay or file attract interest, daily monetary penalties (subject to caps), assessment within the statutory limitation, rectification procedures, refund obligations, and potential criminal liability for false verification. Income tax procedural and recovery provisions are applied to STT matters. (AI Summary)

Tax reform proposals seek equitable rates, broader tax net and procedural simplification alongside enhanced social security measures.
Citizen budget proposals span tax reform to correct corporate-individual anomalies, broaden the tax base to informal roadside businesses, consider taxation of agricultural income, raise sin taxes, simplify deductions and TDS/TCS compliance, and clarify customs/GST treatment for medical devices. Parallel social security measures recommend guaranteed pensions and medical benefits for seniors, expanded deposit insurance, broader PF/retirement coverage for informal workers, extended health coverage under Ayushman Bharat, compulsory or subsidised crop insurance for small farmers, and use of idle public land for leased employment-generating activity. (AI Summary)

Deemed service under Section 169: registered post with acknowledgement creates presumption, requiring issuance of certified copies to enable appeals.
Section 169 creates a deemed service fiction for decisions, orders and notices sent by prescribed modes, including registered post with acknowledgement, email, portal hosting, publication or affixture; where registered post with acknowledgement exists the statute presumes service, but practical delivery failures and portal limitations justify issuance of certified copies on request to enable pursuit of statutory remedies. (AI Summary)

Tax policy reform: calls to rebalance rates, expand deductions, and raise excise on tobacco to curb consumption.
Public submissions to the Union Budget 2022-23 press for comprehensive tax policy reform: raising excise on tobacco and alcohol to curb consumption and fund health; rebalancing corporate and individual tax treatment; expanding and simplifying deductions for education, medical expenses and housing by consolidating disparate provisions into unified reliefs; and widening tax-preferred savings. Complementary demands include increased public spending on healthcare, education, science and technology, measures to boost employment-especially in rural and tourism sectors-and administrative reforms to civil services and social-security coverage for informal workers. (AI Summary)

Intermediary status clarified: subcontracted service supplier is not an intermediary; recipient is the contracting foreign principal.
The AAAR held that the supplier's provision of installation, up gradation, training and related services under distinct hourly rates constitutes a composite supply, and that the foreign contracting principal who pays the supplier is the recipient for GST purposes. Where the foreign principal subcontracts actual performance to the Indian supplier and does not itself perform the services, those services do not fall within the definition of intermediary under the IGST Act, and the parties are separate legal persons rather than mere establishments of a distinct person. (AI Summary)

Advance ruling procedure clarifies e Advance Ruling Scheme with electronic filing, allocation, hearings and publication safeguards.
The e Advance Ruling Scheme digitizes the advance ruling process: electronic filing of prescribed forms, payment of fee, Registrar scrutiny and defect cure, random automated allocation to the Board for Advance Rulings, electronic service of notices, video conference hearings, submission of additional facts under affidavit, confidentiality of proceedings, pronouncement and possible publication of rulings, rectification of apparent mistakes, and appeal to the High Court. (AI Summary)

GST exemption for handling services of state-distributed garments when supplied to state government under public distribution schemes.
GST not leviable on handling charges for inspection, collection, storage, transportation and related services supplied to the State Government in connection with free distribution of dhoties, sarees and school uniforms. The AAR held that such handling activities can constitute Pure Services-distinct from supply of goods-and, when supplied to the State Government and linked to functions entrusted to local bodies under Article 243G/243W, fall within the exemption under the relevant Notification. (AI Summary)

Limitation suspension for judicial and quasi judicial proceedings reinstated, extending excluded COVID period and prescribing restart and minimum filing window.
The Supreme Court restored and extended its COVID limitation exclusion for computing limitation in suits, appeals, applications and proceedings under any general or special law, providing a fixed minimum window to file if limitation expired during the excluded period. The exclusion explicitly applies to limitation computation under arbitration, Commercial Courts and negotiable instruments provisions and to outer limits for condonation and termination of proceedings, while the relief is confined to judicial and quasi judicial processes and does not suspend routine statutory or investigatory actions. (AI Summary)

Allocation of salary costs as consideration triggers GST on inter unit facilitation services and requires ISD compliance.
Allocation and recovery of employee salary costs and other amounts by a head office from branch offices for procuring common input services constitutes consideration for a taxable supply of services between distinct units; the head office cannot claim Input Tax Credit for such services used by branches, must register and comply as an Input Service Distributor if distributing credit, and valuation of facilitation services should follow the rule proviso providing for open market value where applicable, with amounts properly characterised as pure agent costs excluded from assessable value. (AI Summary)