Arbitration under MSMED Act: MSEFC may arbitrate or refer disputes, with limitation law governing such arbitrations.
Section 18(3) empowers the MSEFC to arbitrate disputes itself or refer them for arbitration when conciliation fails, and Section 18(4) allows the MSEFC or accredited centres to act as arbitrator or conciliator between a supplier within its territorial jurisdiction and a buyer elsewhere in India. Arbitration under Section 18(3) is governed by the Limitation Act, 1963, while the Trade Receivable Discounting System (TReDS) operates as an electronic platform to facilitate discounting of MSME receivables. (AI Summary)

Limited Liability Partnerships: decriminalisation of technical defaults, small LLP relief, compounding, special courts and administrative adjudication.
The Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Act, 2021 de criminalises numerous procedural and technical defaults under the LLP Act, 2008 by converting many offences into civil defaults with monetary penalties, establishes a statutory definition and reduced penalty regime for "small limited liability partnerships" and start up LLPs, empowers Regional Directors to compound fine only offences and creates adjudicating officers for penalty adjudication with appeal to the Regional Director, authorises establishment of Special Courts for speedy trials, and enables prescription of accounting and auditing standards and the establishment of registration offices and registrars. (AI Summary)

Digital prepaid voucher e RUPI enhances targeted cashless benefit transfers and service payments while preserving beneficiary privacy.
e-RUPI is a digital prepaid voucher delivered by SMS or QR code to a named beneficiary, redeemable once at designated providers without a bank account, card, app or internet. Issued via partner banks and acquiring apps, it enables purpose specific, person specific funding for services with real time settlement to providers, reduces physical voucher costs, and enhances transparency and targeting of direct benefit transfers; developed by NPCI with financial and health authorities and initially accepted at a network of participating hospitals. (AI Summary)

Advocate on record entitlement to act and plead after completing prescribed training, examination, registration and compliance obligations.
An Advocate on Record is entitled to act and plead in the Supreme Court after meeting eligibility, completing one year of training under a Senior Advocate (with limited exemptions), passing a multi-paper examination on Supreme Court practice, procedure, relevant constitutional and statutory provisions, drafting and ethics, and registering with a prescribed office and clerk; registered advocates must notify contact details, maintain books of account separating client and own monies, and are subject to suspension or removal for misconduct with procedural show-cause safeguards. (AI Summary)

Income tax return eligibility and form selection clarifies which ITR forms and documents taxpayers must use.
Eligibility for filing depends on income composition and presumptive status: salaried individuals and those with house property or other income below the threshold use ITR1 (Sahaj); taxpayers with presumptive business or professional income should use ITR4; and firms, LLPs, AOPs, cooperative societies and similar entities generally use ITR5 subject to exclusions. Filing must be supported by Form 26AS evidencing tax deducted and deposited, and professional fees may apply depending on return complexity. (AI Summary)

Composite supply: diesel charges treated as part of DG-set rental consideration, triggering GST inclusion debate.
The advance-ruling issue was whether hourly charges labelled as reimbursement for diesel used in hired DG sets form part of the taxable consideration for the DG-set rental service or are a separate non-taxable supply of goods. The authority characterised the contract as a single composite supply with fixed rent and a variable diesel-related charge, treating the latter as integral to the rental consideration and therefore within the taxable value. The commentator disputes calling the hourly amount a reimbursement, contending it is an operational charge and stressing that explicit pure-agent treatment would affect taxability. (AI Summary)

Online appeal form constraints impede full Statement of Facts and Grounds; allow miscellaneous attachments for condonation and stay submissions.
Online appeal filing is constrained by e-form limits on Statement of Facts and Grounds of Appeal and by restricted keyboard characters, causing drafting and upload errors; a miscellaneous PDF attachment consolidating detailed SOF, GOA, condonation petitions and stay requests is proposed as a practical remedy pending software redesign. (AI Summary)

Customs compliance information centralised: portal provides searchable item level import and export regulatory requirements and procedures.
CBIC launched a Customs Compliance Portal offering public, item level guidance on import and export procedural and regulatory requirements across the Customs Tariff, including licences, certificates and Partner Government Agency clearances; searchable by tariff heading or goods description and covering post/courier, samples, re imports/re exports, self sealing and project imports, with a national map of Customs locations and agency contacts. (AI Summary)

Reasonable deadline extensions for tax e filing reduce uncertainty and permit incentives for early compliance.
The note advocates adopting reasonable and rational extensions for statutory filing deadlines in light of COVID-19 and portal-related e-filing difficulties, criticises successive short extensions and retrospective regularisation as creating uncertainty, and proposes a consolidated general circular, pecuniary incentives for early compliance, and an accumulated "credit days" mechanism operable via computerized systems. (AI Summary)

Place of supply rules for intermediary services determine GST liability when supplier or recipient is located abroad.
GST treatment of services as an intermediary depends on the exclusive statutory definition requiring agency/brokerage without supplying on one's own account, place of supply under section 13(8) which deems supply from the supplier's location when a counterparty is outside the taxable territory, and a narrow Notification Entry 12AA exemption for intermediary services related to goods where both supplier and recipient are outside the taxable territory, subject to specified documentary conditions. (AI Summary)

E-way bill blocking for non-filers reinstated, restoring access requires filing pending GST returns and statements.
Resumption of automated restrictions on E-way bill generation will block e-way bill creation for taxpayers with two or more consecutive non-filings of Form GSTR-3B or two or more non-filed statements of Form GST CMP-08 from 15 August 2021, and taxpayers are advised to file pending returns to restore access to the EWB portal. The GST portal also enables pre-login challan creation and payment, and has opened Form GSTR-9 for filing for the financial year 2020-21, with GSTR-9C for 2020-21 to be self-certified by taxpayers. (AI Summary)

Limited Liability Partnership amendments: decriminalisation shifts many offences to fines and introduces an adjudication and appeal process.
The Amendment replaces many criminal penalties with fixed monetary penalties and continuing daily fines for specified defaults, introduces section 76A establishing adjudicating officers (not below Registrar) to impose penalties after hearing, permits rectification to avoid penalties for certain defaults within thirty days, provides reduced penalties for small and start up LLPs, and creates appeal rights to the Regional Director with limited extension powers; non compliance with adjudicating orders attracts higher fines and individual defaulting partners may face imprisonment or fines. (AI Summary)

Inverted duty structure: exclude trading turnover from both Net ITC and adjusted turnover to preserve proportional refund calculation.
Refund computation under Rule 89(5) for inverted duty structure should not exclude input tax credit attributable to trading sales from Net ITC without also excluding the corresponding trading turnover from the "turnover of inverted rated supplies" and "adjusted total turnover." Circular guidance states Net ITC covers ITC on all inputs irrespective of rates, and treating inputs as trading purely by matching HSN codes risks distorting the prescribed proportional refund formula and producing disproportionate reductions. (AI Summary)

Classification of inedible vegetable oil mixtures: blended pooja oil falls under heading 15.18 and attracts GST treatment as an inedible oil mixture.
Pooja Oil, a blend of rice bran, gingelly, coconut, mahua and castor oils with fragrance, was held to be an inedible mixture or preparation of vegetable fats or oils falling under Heading 15.18 and classifiable under subheading 1518 00 40, because it is a multi-source blend not chemically modified and not otherwise specified in Chapter 15. (AI Summary)

Limited Liability Partnership amendment creates Small LLPs, prescribes accounting standards, retools penalties and establishes special enforcement mechanisms.
The Amendment creates a Small LLP category with prescribed contribution and turnover thresholds, empowers the Central Government to prescribe accounting and auditing standards for classes of LLPs, revises penalty structures converting many offences into monetary penalties or civil defaults, authorises Regional Directors to compound fines-only offences with specified limits and procedures, establishes Special Courts for speedy trial with defined summary-trial and jurisdictional rules, and provides for registration offices and appointment of adjudicating officers to impose penalties and direct rectification, with tailored relief for Small and start-up LLPs. (AI Summary)

GST classification of treated water: distinction between potable and purified water determines exemption or taxable supply under GST.
GST classification of water depends on whether the supply is potable water (treated only to be fit for consumption) which may qualify for exemption when not in sealed containers, or whether it attains the qualities of purified/demineralized water or is supplied for industrial use, in which case it is classifiable as taxable water under the appropriate GST schedule; advance rulings stress fact-specific analysis of treatment, end-use, and sealed-container status. (AI Summary)

Special Courts confer exclusive trial jurisdiction for designated offences and require appeals directly to the Supreme Court.
Special Courts are statutory tribunals designated by the Central Government in consultation with High Court leadership to try specified offences exclusively; declarations trigger mandatory transfer of prosecutions to the designated Special Court, which exercises jurisdiction over principals, conspirators, abettors and joinder offences, follows the criminal procedure code as a Court of Session, may tender conditional pardons for disclosure, and whose final orders are appealable directly to the Supreme Court. (AI Summary)

New tax regime option reduces rates but disallows most exemptions and chapter VIA deductions, affecting taxpayer choices.
The new tax regime under section 115BAC permits individuals and HUFs to elect lower slab rates in exchange for foregoing most exemptions and chapter VIA deductions, including HRA, LTC, standard deduction, 80C investments, housing loan interest and various business and sector specific allowances; limited allowances remain and salaried and non salaried taxpayers follow distinct elective procedures. (AI Summary)

TDS on purchases requires buyers above turnover threshold to deduct tax at source on high value goods payments.
Section 194Q requires buyers whose prior year business turnover exceeds the statutory turnover threshold to deduct tax at source at the prescribed rate on purchase consideration exceeding the purchase value threshold payable to resident sellers, at the time of payment or credit (including to suspense accounts). The provision excludes inter branch transfers and immovable property, applies net of separately shown GST, interacts with Section 206C(1H) so that valid buyer deduction precludes seller collection, and attaches specified deposit, filing, interest and penalty consequences for noncompliance. (AI Summary)

Invalidity of omnibus penalty notice - tribunal found notice legally defective but omitted consideration of costs and additional grounds.
The Tribunal held that the penalty notice was legally infirm as an omnibus/defective notice and addressed the related penalty point by reference to higher court precedent, while criticizing the Commissioner (Appeals) for dismissing an e proceeding despite the assessee's written submissions. The Tribunal reproduced only six of eight grounds and discussed four, omitting grounds on substantive merit and a specific ground seeking costs, leading the author to contend that the failure to decide those grounds and to award costs left claims of harassment and maladministration inadequately remedied. (AI Summary)