Interest on delayed GST payments: 18% for late tax payment, 24% for undue input tax credit claims.
Section 50 mandates interest on delayed tax payments at a rate not exceeding 18%, with interest computed from the day after tax was due and applied to amounts paid from the electronic cash ledger; undue or excess input tax credit claims attract interest at a rate not exceeding 24%. Section 73 requires issuance of a show cause notice and an order within three years before quantifying tax, interest and penalty for non-fraudulent short payment or erroneous refund. The Karnataka High Court emphasized that interest quantification and bank attachment cannot validly proceed without the Section 73 notice and that Section 75(12) does not authorize recovery absent such notice. (AI Summary)

Penalty under section 271(1)(c) challenged as wrongly imposed on companies relying on return preparers and auditors.
Confirmation of penalty relied on the assessee being an AOP of large companies and on an assessment that the assessee was consciously aware and knowingly furnished inaccurate particulars. The author argues a company/AOP acts through human agents and a Return Preparer Team (RPT); errors may arise from interpretation or computation despite use of professionals and auditors. Therefore, attributing subjective knowledge or deliberate concealment to a corporate assessee because of its size or AOP status is an insufficient basis for sustaining the penalty without fuller factual and evidentiary enquiry. (AI Summary)

Scope of advance ruling limited to enumerated GST questions; procedural and customs matters fall outside AAR jurisdiction.
The AAR's jurisdiction is limited to the questions enumerated in section 97(2) of the GST Act; matters outside that list-including customs classification at import, pre GST CENVAT admissibility, e way bill procedures, GSTR 1 reporting entries, correction of past invoices, refund calculation formulae, contractor undertaken supplies, and place of supply determinations-are beyond the AAR's scope and are treated as not maintainable. (AI Summary)

Input Tax Credit disclosure: require full credit, separate ineligible and reversal entries to ensure correct GST reporting and reconciliation.
Taxpayers must report full Input Tax Credit in the primary credit table and separately disclose ineligible credits and proportionate reversals in designated reversal fields of the return. Omitted or misreported ineligible credits and reversals should be corrected through annual or periodic returns as specified. Failure to provide the detailed breakdown may trigger scrutiny and potential penalties, and accurate disaggregation is required to support revenue reconciliation and intergovernmental compensation based on return data. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit reversal for exempted de oiled rice bran; de oiled mahua cake classified as taxable enabling input credit.
AAAR held that input tax credit attributable to supplies of de oiled rice bran (treated as exempt supplies) must be reversed under the GST input reversal mechanism, while de oiled mahua cake was classified as taxable under the tariff and its supply is taxable with corresponding entitlement to input tax credit under the GST input credit provisions. (AI Summary)

Legacy dispute resolution scheme enables taxpayers to obtain specified relief and finality on past indirect tax liabilities upon declared payment.
The Sabka Vishwas Scheme allows taxpayers to settle legacy central excise, service tax and allied tax disputes by filing a declaration and paying a prescribed amount for percentage-based relief on tax, interest and penalty. Eligibility requires proceedings or appeals with final hearing pending as of the cut-off; excluded are erroneous refunds, unquantified investigations, and Settlement Commission matters. Payment must be made in cash after electronic notification of the payable amount; on payment and proof, a discharge certificate is issued and proceedings (except certain higher court cases) are deemed withdrawn, with payment non-refundable and non-creditable and limited exceptions for subsequent periods or false declarations. (AI Summary)

Anti-profiteering obligation: suppliers must pass on tax-rate reduction benefits to consumers despite denial of input tax credit.
Anti-profiteering review found that the supplier increased base prices after a statutory reduction in GST rate and, because of those increases and denial of input tax credit, did not pass on a commensurate benefit to consumers; the authority quantified the shortfall, required price reduction and financial remediation, ordered further investigation beyond the initial review period, and directed revenue authorities to ensure recovery and enforcement under the anti-profiteering framework. (AI Summary)

Additional depreciation eligibility: new plant and machinery receives a one time enhanced deduction in the year of acquisition if conditions met.
Additional depreciation grants a one time extra deduction for new plant and machinery used in manufacture, production or power generation, allowed in the previous year of acquisition and installation; exclusions include ships and aircraft, previously used assets, installations in office or residential premises, office appliances and road transport vehicles, and assets whose entire cost is already deductible. Enhanced rates apply for specified backward areas and administrative guidance treats printing and transmission activities as eligible. (AI Summary)

Audit documentation obligations under GST ensure sufficient working papers to support audit procedures and evidence retention.
Audit documentation under GST must comprise written and electronic working papers sufficient for an experienced auditor to understand the nature, timing and extent of procedures, results obtained, and significant judgments. Required items include engagement and offer letters, audit plan and programme, detailed observations with documentary references, evidence such as returns and invoices, written representations, risk assessment records, and indexed electronic file lists cross linked to statutory return parts. Documentation supports planning, accountability, peer review, future audits, and must be retained and protected as the auditor's property consistent with record retention and confidentiality obligations. (AI Summary)

Depreciation on block of assets: accounting write off does not preclude tax depreciation if ownership and use continue.
Tax depreciation is governed by statutory block of assets rules and Depreciation Schedules (DPM/DPA) and is independent of accounting depreciation; an accounting write off of goodwill does not, by itself, extinguish the tax block or preclude depreciation if ownership and use continue and statutory WDV and schedule entries support allowance. (AI Summary)

Liquidation Process Reform narrows liquidation timeline and adds consultation committee to guide liquidators' sale and cost decisions.
The 2019 amendment restructures liquidation procedure by creating a stakeholders' consultation committee to advise the liquidator, defining liquidation cost components, and revising liquidator fees tied to realizations and distributions. It mandates contributions by financial creditors for shortfalls, prescribes public announcement and claims procedures, establishes a presumption where secured creditors do not elect relinquishment, prioritizes sale as a going concern with defined fallback, shortens distribution timelines, and reduces the statutory liquidation completion period while allowing the liquidator to seek extension with justification. (AI Summary)

Advance tax preferred over TDS/TCS for earlier revenue collection and reduced refunds, improving administration and compliance.
Advance tax is recommended over TDS/TCS for earlier revenue collection, reduced refunds, simplified administration, and stronger enforcement through instalments and interest on delayed payments; year end TDS/TCS amounts remain adjustable against advance tax, and the author proposes exempting regular ITR filers from withholding while retaining TDS/TCS for those without PAN and expanding final tax collection categories for operational ease. (AI Summary)

Special voting rights shares enable promoter control under strict issuance, governance, lock in and conversion conditions.
Introduction of Special Voting Rights Equity Shares creates a regulated class of equity with superior voting power, issuable to executive promoters/founders subject to eligibility, shareholder resolution authorisation, holding and integer voting ratio limits, lock in and pledge prohibitions, transfer restrictions, and eligibility toward minimum promoters' contribution. Listed issuers with outstanding SR shares must disclose SR rights, meet due diligence and prospectus requirements, observe governance enhancements requiring substantial independent director representation across the board and committees, treat SR shares pari passu for dividends, and comply with specified conversion triggers, compulsory conversion events, and an overall cap on SR shareholder voting power. (AI Summary)

Waiver of ITC-04 filing, but mandatory challan disclosure for outstanding job worker consignments must still be reported.
Notification 38/2019 waives filing FORM GST ITC-04 for July 2017-March 2019, except that principals must report in serial number 4 of FORM ITC-04 for April-June 2019 the challan details of goods sent to a job worker during July 2017-March 2019 which were not received back by the principal or not supplied from the job worker's place of business as on the reference date. The article reiterates job work time limits (one year for inputs, three years for capital goods), challan requirements under Rule 45, and that prior due date extensions had been issued but no further extension for April-June 2019 was indicated as of early September 2019. (AI Summary)

Profiteering prohibition: raising base prices to nullify a GST rate cut denied consumers the benefit and triggered enforcement measures.
Supplier increased base prices of products when the GST rate was reduced, maintaining pre-reduction cum-tax prices so customers paid higher base prices and additional tax; this was treated as denial of the benefit of tax rate reduction and characterised as profiteering, requiring price reductions and deposit of amounts realised with interest into consumer welfare funds, with recovery measures for non-compliance. (AI Summary)

Taxability of interest on short term funding hinges on whether funding is part of the supply contract or a separate loan.
Whether interest charged by a del credere agent for temporary funding is taxable depends on whether the funding forms part of the contractual supply (includible in the value of supply) or constitutes a separate money to money loan (potentially exempt under the relevant notification), and on whether the agent acts in a representative capacity determined by objective indicia such as invoicing and transfer of title. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit reconciliation needed to align GSTR-2A and GSTR-3B claims before statutory deadline; act urgently.
A registered person may claim input tax credit only up to the due date of the return under section 39 for the month of September following the end of the financial year or the filing of the relevant annual return, whichever is earlier; taxpayers must reconcile invoice-wise GSTR-3B claims with GSTR-2A and, where suppliers have omitted or misclassified invoices in GSTR-1, request corrections so adjustments can be made before the statutory cutoff. Rule 69's matching explanation requires claimed credit not exceed output tax paid on the corresponding supplier invoice, making invoice-level verification, supplier communication, and maintenance of legal-name and contact records essential to secure eligible credits. (AI Summary)

Incorporation of Section 8 companies: licence allotted at incorporation; SPICe filing replaces prior standalone licence process.
Section 8 companies can be incorporated by conversion or direct SPICe filing, with licence numbers allotted at incorporation. Applicants must prove promotion of social welfare and prohibition of dividend distribution, and file constitutional documents, professional declarations, recent financial statements and reports where applicable, detailed asset and liability statements, a three year income and expenditure estimate, certified corporate resolutions, applicant declarations, and lists of promoters, directors and key managerial personnel. A public notice must be published and filed; the Registrar may require external approvals, exercise discretion in granting licences, impose licence conditions, and direct insertion of conditions into the memorandum or articles. (AI Summary)

Annual return due date extensions require Council recommendation and written reasons, prompting calls for administrative reasonableness and predictability.
Section 44 mandates annual returns by registered persons by the thirty-first day of December following the financial year; the transitional return for July 2017-March 2018 was subject to successive notified extensions. A proviso now authorises the Commissioner to extend filing time limits for specified classes only on the Council's recommendation, for reasons recorded in writing, and by notification. The successive short-term extensions for 2017-18 reveal concerns about administrative reasonableness, unproductive work and uncertainty, and the author urges predictable, advance extensions to minimise hardship. (AI Summary)

Due date extension for returns claiming TDS/TCS credit to permit reconciliation and avoid penalising taxpayers for third party delays.
Returns claiming TDS/TCS credit need extra time and procedural flexibility because taxpayers must reconcile income with Form 26AS and pursue remedial steps where credits are delayed; delays in TDS/TCS reflection can create advance tax shortfalls and interest exposure. Where taxpayers' final position is refund or no further tax, postponing filing deadlines imposes no revenue loss, reduces revised returns and disputes, and avoids penalising taxpayers for third party reporting failures. Assessing officers and processing units should be empowered to extend due dates or condone delay, and penalties or late fees should be waived where returns are ultimately correct. (AI Summary)