Suspension of insolvency proceedings temporarily shields pandemic related debts but raises recovery and clarity concerns for creditors.
The article explains that reforms suspend fresh initiation under the insolvency regime for one year while raising the minimum default threshold, aiming to prevent pandemic related borrowing from triggering insolvency; it flags risks to recovery discipline, workload relief for tribunals, ambiguity on voluntary filings and pre versus post lockdown defaults, and stresses need for clearer MSME specific measures and statutory review. (AI Summary)

Cenvat credit validity where credit taken before restriction; later utilisation cannot be disallowed by revenue.
Where Cenvat credit was validly availed under the unamended definition of input service prior to the statutory restriction, the fact of prior lawful availment determines the taxpayer's ability to utilise that credit thereafter; utilisation occurring after the amendment is not to be disallowed by the department solely on the ground that the amended definition came into effect. (AI Summary)

Special audit in GST: Commissioner nominated audit with mandatory approval, time limits, hearing rights, and expense coverage.
Special audit under GST permits an Assistant Commissioner-level officer, with prior Commissioner approval and by FORM GST ADT-03, to require a registered person to have records audited by a Commissioner-nominated chartered or cost accountant. The nominated auditor must file a certified report within ninety days (extendable once), material proposed for use against the assessee requires an opportunity of being heard, the Commissioner pays auditor expenses, and findings are communicated in FORM GST ADT-04 with potential initiation of assessment proceedings for tax shortfall or wrongful credit. (AI Summary)

Principal-to-principal property development not classifiable as real estate agent or site formation service due to deficient classification.
Developer granted exclusive, irrevocable rights to develop and sell plots, financed and executed infrastructure and approvals, and sold plots on a principal-to-principal basis while owners retained title for conveyance. The show cause notice alleged composite services as real estate agent and site formation but failed to specify the particular taxable category or essential character as required for classification; the notice's vagueness rendered the proposed levy unsustainable. The developer's independent sale and the nature of the development activities did not fit within the definitions of real estate agent or site formation service. (AI Summary)

Exempt supply narrowed in GST but enlarged for reversal of input tax credit, affecting credit reversal rules.
GST narrows the class of exempt supply compared with Service Tax, but enlarges the exempt supply definition solely for calculating reversal of input tax credit; this limited expansion includes supplies subject to reverse charge, transactions in securities, sale of land and specified sales of buildings, and supplies whose taxability is conditional on non-availability of input tax credit, with reversal obligations applying to inputs in stock and to capital goods immediately before the triggering event. (AI Summary)

Transitional Input Tax Credit rights preserved despite retrospective amendment; litigation avenues remain for missed Tran form filings.
The note examines the conflict between the taxpayer's right to carry forward pre GST input tax credits and the rule based filing requirement for Form Tran 1, noting High Court authority treating accrued transitional credit as a vested right and construing portal difficulties broadly. It explains that a retrospective amendment validated rule making power to prescribe time limits but did not, in the authors' view, displace the substantive rationales of the High Court decisions. Taxpayers are advised to seek nodal officer portal enablement and, if refused, file writ petitions. (AI Summary)

Transitional input tax credit time bar imposed retrospectively, challenging prior vested right recognition and prompting constitutional contestation.
The memorandum explains that retrospective amendments to Section 140 impose a time limit for claiming Transitional Input Tax Credit accrued before GST, thereby undermining prior judicial findings that such credit was an accrued vested property right; it contends that, unless struck down, the amendment displaces ordinary limitation principles and may be challenged on constitutional grounds including property protection and double taxation. (AI Summary)

Advance rulings under GST create inconsistent precedents, binding only on applicants and increasing litigation and taxpayer uncertainty.
Advance rulings under GST, intended to provide certainty, are limited to specified legal questions and are binding only on the applicant and the applicant's jurisdictional authority; however, AARs/AAARs staffed without judicial members have produced conflicting, often revenue favouring precedents, and the unconstituted NAAAR leaves no effective appellate forum, causing litigation, inconsistent recovery practices, and taxpayer uncertainty. (AI Summary)

Taxability of development services: plotted development treated as a taxable service distinct from sale of land, GST applies to developer share.
Where a joint development agreement combines transfer of plots with obligations to provide infrastructure and carry out development works, the activity of developing the land constitutes a taxable service while pure sale of land remains outside supply. The developer's provision of surveying, levelling, infrastructure, marketing and sale functions and recovery of costs from purchasers makes development the dominant activity; tax consequences are assessed on the developer's share of project receipts determined on market value principles, with contractual features like revenue sharing and escrow relevant to tax characterisation. (AI Summary)

Name reservation extensions provide additional filing time for expiring reservations and resubmissions, protecting filings from NTBR status.
Extension measures allow additional filing time for name reservations and RSUB resubmissions with expiries between 15th March 2020 and 31st May 2020: company name reservations (SPICe+ Part B) and change-of-name reservations (INC-24) and LLP name reservations (FiLLiP/Form 5) receive statutory reservation-period extensions beyond 31st May 2020; RSUB deadlines for companies and LLPs get an additional 15 days beyond 31st May 2020, with case-by-case treatment for SRNs already marked NTBR. IEPF-5 eVerification SRNs in the window may be filed until 30th September 2020 and will not be moved to pending-for-rejection until that date. (AI Summary)

IBC suspension risks undermining creditor recoveries and market discipline, while raising initiation threshold affects access to remedies.
Regulatory changes impose an embargo on fresh initiations under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, extend the suspension period beyond initial measures, raise the initiation threshold substantially, exclude Covid related debts from triggering insolvency, and propose a dedicated insolvency framework for MSMEs. The measures aim to ease business compliance and bolster liquidity, but they are likely to impede creditor recoveries, impair bank balance sheets through elevated NPAs and provisioning, delay restructurings and valuations, and affect insolvency professionals and adjudicatory fora; voluntary filings and interaction with other recovery laws need clarification. (AI Summary)

Asset classification of golf course as plant for depreciation, where integrated operational installations serve the business.
The tribunals examined whether a golf course, when capitalised with irrigation systems, water tanks, sprinklers, bunkers and technical installations used to operate the course commercially, constitutes plant rather than non depreciable land or a building. Where such integrated operational installations function as tools of the taxpayer's business and costs are capitalised accordingly, the tribunal characterised the asset as plant for depreciation purposes, while remitting factual details to the assessing officer when necessary to verify construction and capitalisation records. (AI Summary)

Movable vs immovable classification: detachable glass partitions treated as movable, preserving input tax credit eligibility.
Applying the two-fold annexation test-extent of annexation and object of annexation-the detachable sliding and stackable glass partitions fixed by nuts and bolts but capable of dismantling and reuse are classified as movable property because they are not embedded in the earth and are affixed for temporary demarcation and privacy rather than permanent enjoyment of the land, rendering procurement eligible for input tax credit and outside the GST exclusion for construction of immovable property. (AI Summary)

Taxation of development rights under GST: valuation, characterisation and timing determine GST and capital gains consequences.
The document analyses GST and income tax issues arising in Joint Development Agreements, focusing on whether transfer of development rights (TDR) is an immovable property or taxable service, and on valuation controversies where notifications prescribe a deemed one third land deduction and valuation by reference to similar saleable units. It questions the legal validity of valuation machinery issued by rate notifications instead of rules, highlights timing and ITC consequences from changeovers in notifications and rates, and outlines income tax ambiguities under the provision charging capital gains on completion certificates, including scope, timing, indexation and proportionality. (AI Summary)

Legislative competence: Rule 36(4) may exceed rulemaking power by restricting input tax credit based on invoice uploads.
Rule 36(4) conditions availment of input tax credit for invoices not uploaded by the supplier by capping credit relative to uploaded invoices; the author contends the rule exceeds the rulemaking power because the enabling provision permits procedural rules only and does not authorize substantive restrictions on the right to claim input tax credit, rendering such a restriction beyond legislative competence. (AI Summary)

Departmental audit under GST enables authorised officers to examine records and trigger recovery or adjudication on adverse findings.
Departmental audit under GST empowers the Commissioner or an authorised officer to examine a registered person's records at their business premises or office, following issuance of a prescribed notice. Audits must commence when requested records are provided or when audit is instituted on-site, be completed within a statutory period subject to limited extension by the Commissioner, and produce findings in a prescribed form; adverse findings may trigger recovery or adjudication proceedings under the tax law. (AI Summary)

Export policy extensions sustain incentive continuity and procedural relaxations to ease trade and customs compliance during the pandemic.
DGFT extended the foreign trade policy and continued MEIS and SEIS filing reliefs, extended validity of status holder certificates, and lengthened timelines under advance authorization, DFIA and EPCG including IGST and compensation cess exemptions. Customs waived late fees for certain late bills of entry and exempted customs duty and health cess for specified medical imports; e sealing implementation was deferred. Rebate claim deadlines and GSTR 1 filing tolerance were also relaxed. Guidance on freight negotiation, FOB terms, Interest Equalization Scheme support for export credit, and online ECGC facilitation were provided to sustain trade operations. (AI Summary)

Transitional Input Tax Credit window now subject to prescribed time and manner for claiming and taking credits.
The amendment makes entitlement to transitional input tax credit subject to being taken "within such time and in such manner as may be prescribed," applying that temporal and procedural qualification to carried forward CENVAT credit, unavailed capital goods credit, credits in respect of inputs held in stock and inputs received after the appointed day, and credits relating to special categories of taxpayers, while allowing reclamation of previously reversed credits only in accordance with the prescribed time and manner. (AI Summary)

Product linked fixed deposit scheme secures an automatic overdraft facility to mobilise stable retail deposits and liquidity.
Proposal creates a bank product linking a mandatory fixed deposit to a zero balance savings account and an automatically generated overdraft account secured by a lien of 90-95% of the deposit; KYC is completed at account opening. The linked savings account offers standard cheque and ATM access, free SMS, normal savings interest crediting, and overdraft usage after savings are exhausted. Overdraft interest is charged monthly at a margin above the fixed deposit rate, and incoming credits first repay overdraft before appearing as savings balance. (AI Summary)

GST compliance by insolvency professionals: obtain distinct registration, claim first-return input tax credit, and access cash-ledger refunds.
When an insolvency resolution professional assumes control of a corporate debtor, the professional must obtain a distinct GST registration (unless all returns were filed prior to appointment), file an initial return covering appointment to registration, claim input tax credit in that first return even where invoices bear the corporate debtor's GST identifier without complying with normal temporal and reconciliation limits, and may obtain refund of unutilized cash-ledger balances deposited under the erstwhile registration. (AI Summary)