Approval of manufacturing process required for explosives; project report, compulsory safety plan and testing govern lawful production.
Manufacture includes breaking, re-making, altering or repairing explosives. Prior approval of the process from the Chief Controller is required via a project report specifying process details, material composition and limits, safety controls, testing arrangements and scrutiny fee. No change in process or composition may be made without licensing authority approval. The Chief Controller may require testing, order additional facilities, and require free submission of samples to testing stations. A comprehensive safety management plan must be adopted and submitted to the District Magistrate, and factory buildings, handling, disposal and training must comply with specified safety measures. (AI Summary)

Charitable trusts: registration, conditional income exemption, compliance (audit/forms) and targeted GST relief for specified activities.
Exemption under sections 11-12 is conditional on genuine charitable or religious objects, proper application or authorised accumulation of income in India, compliance with prescribed investment modes, and registration under section 12AA; section 13 denies exemption where income or property benefits founders, substantial contributors, managers, relatives or related concerns or where investments/uses fall outside permitted modes. Audit (Form 10B) and Form 10 filings are material for entitlement; CBDT guidance condones certain past delays. GST provides targeted exemptions for defined charitable, educational and medical services subject to prescribed thresholds and conditions. (AI Summary)

Dematerialization requirement for unlisted public companies: mandates issuance in demat form and ISIN registration before securities offers.
Unlisted public companies must issue securities only in dematerialized form and facilitate dematerialization of all existing securities, obtain ISINs for each security type, and ensure promoters, directors and key managerial personnel have dematerialized holdings before any issuance, buyback, bonus or rights offer. Companies must pay depository and registrar fees, maintain minimum security deposits, and are barred from offers or buybacks while in default. They must file certified Form PAS-6 semi annually reporting ISIN wise issued, dematerialized and physical holdings, reasons for differences, capital changes and processing delays, and promptly notify depositories of any discrepancies. (AI Summary)

Characterisation of rental income determines whether receipts are taxed as passive house property or as business income.
Whether receipts from letting immovable property are assessable under Income from House Property or under Profits and Gains of Business or Profession depends on facts: passive letting with limited deductions attracts house property treatment with a standard deduction and restricted interest allowances, whereas systematic commercial exploitation or organized services to occupiers will characterise receipts as business income allowing broader business expense deductions. The classification requires analysis of objectives, services rendered, contractual terms and operational complexity. (AI Summary)

Revenue neutrality limits extended limitation for reverse charge, affecting recovery and penalty where Cenvat credit neutralises liability.
Where reverse charge liability is offset by immediate availability of Cenvat credit, tribunals have held that extended limitation cannot be invoked because revenue neutrality negates intent to evade tax; bona fide interpretative positions attract no penalty. Non-compliance with registration and return obligations, however, may permit revenue authorities to issue notices and invoke extended limitation, so applicability turns on facts such as credit availability, disclosure in returns, and whether the non-payment reflects bona fide belief or deliberate suppression. (AI Summary)

E-commerce operator GST liability: operator must pay tax on passenger transport services supplied through its platform.
Where passenger transportation services are supplied through an e commerce operator's digital taxi aggregation platform, the statutory scheme deems the operator liable to pay GST on intra state supplies. Even if passengers pay drivers directly and the platform charges drivers only a subscription, the liability to pay tax is shifted to the operator because the services are supplied through its managed digital network, and the platform must discharge tax as if it were the supplier. (AI Summary)

Reassessment under section 147/148 limited where a section 143(1) intimation issued without a subsequent 143(2) scrutiny notice.
Reassessment under sections 147/148 is impermissible where the assessing officer had the return, audited accounts and tax audit report at the time of issuing an intimation under section 143(1) and did not issue the mandatory notice under section 143(2); the presence of a prescribed computation (including under section 115JA) and acceptance of the return by way of 143(1) intimation that was not followed by scrutiny indicates the officer treated the return as not requiring further inquiry, undermining later reopening and supporting reliance on precedent dismissing revenue's challenge in comparable circumstances. (AI Summary)

Reimbursement of expenses taxable under GST unless treated as pure agent; strict invoice and authorization conditions apply.
Reimbursement of expenses is generally included in the value of supply and attracts GST unless the supplier qualifies as a pure agent, in which case payments made to third parties on recipient authorization, separately invoiced, procured in addition to the supplier's own services, and meeting the pure agent criteria (contractual agency, no title, no personal use, and recovery only of actual amounts) are excluded from value of supply. (AI Summary)

Duty of lawyers as officers of court: assist the court, avoid misleading presentations, and uphold professional fairness.
Advocates, as officers of the court, must assist the court by presenting facts and law honestly, verify authorities before reliance, and avoid acting merely as a mouthpiece for clients. Misleading the court, reliance on overruled or repealed authorities, or conduct causing waste of judicial time can amount to professional misconduct. Counsel for the State or public institutions bear an elevated duty of care due to public interest and access to public records; settled adverse law must nevertheless be disclosed to the court. (AI Summary)

GST reform urged to broaden tax base and simplify compliance, with IT overhaul and filing relief measures.
The GST regime needs substantive reform: expand GST ambit to include petroleum, electricity, real estate and possibly alcoholic liquor; rationalize rates; simplify compliance; and provide a cooling period for filings while GSTN redesigns its IT platform. Authorities should consider extending annual return deadlines and implementing other procedural rationalizations. Recent judicial rulings on interest and arrest powers, and enhanced interagency information sharing, underscore the need for clearer rules and an administrable, taxpayer friendly GST framework. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit on fixed assets limited to taxable-use portion; motor vehicles credit permissible only for specified uses.
Input tax credit on fixed assets is restricted to the portion attributable to taxable business use where assets are used partly for business and partly for other or exempt purposes; proportionate claim and reversal follow Rule 43. Motor vehicles and conveyances are generally ineligible for credit except when used for further supply of such vehicles, passenger transportation, imparting training, or goods transportation. Unclaimed proportionate credit may be capitalised and depreciation claimed on that capitalised amount. (AI Summary)

Substantial question of law requires hearing of parties before dismissal to ensure proper formulation and speaking orders.
The article argues that determination of whether a substantial question of law arises in tax appeals requires hearing of parties so counsel can assist in assessing and framing the SQL; where parties are heard, the High Court should ordinarily formulate and decide the SQL or record reasons why no substantial question arises, and must issue speaking orders to permit proper appellate review and coherent development of law. (AI Summary)

Compulsory registration under GST limited: exempt suppliers remain outside registration unless receiving reverse-charge taxable supplies, mandate applies.
Entities exclusively making wholly exempt supplies are not required to register despite turnover-based thresholds because the exemption operates independently; the statutory list of categories triggering compulsory registration overrides the turnover rule but does not, by its wording, revoke the separate exemption for exclusively exempt suppliers, though an administrative ruling required registration on receipt of reverse-charge taxable supplies. (AI Summary)

Kerala Flood Cess on specified intra State B2C supplies requires separate invoicing and monthly electronic cess returns.
A temporary Kerala Flood Cess is levied on specified intra State B2C supplies to unregistered persons to fund flood relief; rates correspond to SGST tax slabs and the cess must be shown separately on invoices and collected at supply. Exemptions include composition option taxpayers, supplies exempt under GST notifications, and supplies between registered persons. Monthly electronic returns in Form KFC A with e payment are required; nil returns must be filed and no refund of cess is available. GST Act provisions apply mutatis mutandis to administration and compliance. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit apportionment requires proportionate reversal for exempt supplies under CGST law, reducing eligible credit accordingly.
Section 17(2) of the CGST Act requires that where supplies are partly for taxable and partly for exempt purposes, input tax credit must be restricted to the portion attributable to taxable supplies. If inputs are separately identifiable, credit attributable to exempt supplies is disallowed; if not, the proportionate reversal formula applies: (Total Input Tax x Value of Exempt Supplies) / Total Turnover, with the reversed amount blocked and the remainder available as eligible credit. (AI Summary)

Advance rulings clarify GST classification and rates, guiding exemptions, tariff heading interpretation, and input tax credit treatment.
Advance rulings under GST resolve classification, applicable rates, and exemption eligibility by applying notification definitions, tariff-heading interpretation, and the principle that specific entries override general entries. Recent AARs held: cold storage for items meeting the notification's agricultural-produce definition is exempt while processed items are taxable; marine parts used on fishing vessels qualify for a concessional rate but attract the general rate if used otherwise; specified medical implants and certain bulk drugs fall under concessional entries; polished limestone slabs classify as worked stone under the relevant heading; and ready-mix concrete supplies to SEZs were treated as exempt under stated government terms. (AI Summary)

GST audit requirement: mandatory Form GSTR 9C reconciliation and auditor certification to reconcile turnover, tax and input credits.
The statutory GST audit requires registered persons exceeding the turnover threshold to furnish audited accounts and a reconciliation in Form GSTR 9C, with Part A containing a five-part reconciliation (assessee details; turnover reconciliation; tax liability reconciliation with rate-wise reporting; input tax credit reconciliation; auditor recommendations) and Part B providing auditor certification in two formats depending on who prepared the reconciliation. (AI Summary)

Anti-profiteering provisions not attracted when tax incidence increased and no reduction in tax rate or input credit occurred.
Anti-profiteering scrutiny under Section 171 focuses on whether a supplier failed to pass on a reduction in the rate of tax or an increase in input tax credit. Here, invoice analysis showed total tax incidence rose with GST and net base prices post-discount remained stable or decreased slightly for some models. The investigative conclusion was that no reduction in the rate of tax or increase in input tax credit occurred that would activate the obligation to pass on benefit, and therefore anti-profiteering provisions were not attracted on these facts. (AI Summary)

Denial of exemption under section 10(38) and addition under section 68 upheld despite cross examination objections.
Denial of exemption for long term capital gains under Section 10(38) and confirmation of addition as unexplained credit under Section 68 are central. The High Court dismissed the taxpayer's appeal treating lower authorities' findings as concurrent, while the author argues the taxpayer's broader substantive grounds were insufficiently pressed and the court failed to frame and answer substantial questions of law as required. The article stresses that sale on the exchange, dematerialisation records, broker settlement and exchange surveillance mechanisms should have weighed against imputing sham transactions. (AI Summary)

Treatment of processing fees as interest: TDS obligation on payments to non-bank financial institutions, exempt for banks.
Processing fee charged to a borrower for loan-related services is included within the statutory definition of interest as encompassing service fees or other charges in respect of borrowed money. Therefore, a resident payer must deduct TDS on processing fees paid to financial institutions not governed by the Banking Regulation Act; payments to banks are exempt from such withholding under the relevant exemption for banks. (AI Summary)