Special Additional Excise Duty on aviation turbine fuel cleared for export is revised by substituting the applicable Central Excise table rate entry with Rs. 15 per litre. The substitution is made in the public interest under Section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944, read with Section 147 of the Finance Act, 2002, and takes effect upon publication in the Official Gazette.

Special additional excise duty on exports of petrol and diesel is revised by substituting rate entries: Rs. 0.5 per litre for serial number 1 and Rs. 20 per litre for serial number 2. Made under the Central Government's exemption-making powers, the revised duty structure operates as a further amendment to the existing Central Excise framework and takes effect upon publication in the Official Gazette.

To secure uniform implementation of the Goa Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, the Commissioner of State Taxes directs that the central clarification on place of supply of online services supplied to unregistered recipients apply mutatis mutandis. The central position is to be followed with necessary adaptations in administering the State GST framework, and implementation difficulties may be brought to the Commissioner's notice.

APEDA and InD Events Dubai have entered into a memorandum of understanding to support India's participation as Official Partner Country at Gulfood 2027. The partnership is directed at increasing global visibility for India's agricultural and processed food products, connecting Indian exporters with international buyers, and expanding market-access and business-engagement opportunities. Participation will bring together exporters, farmer producer organisations, MSMEs, startups, commodity boards and government institutions through product showcases, curated business-to-business meetings, conferences and industry engagements.

Faceless assessment orders completed under sections 143(3) and 144B remain subject to revisionary jurisdiction under section 263 because they are made in exercise of the Assessing Officer's functions assigned under Board directions. Where deduction claims are accepted without any enquiry, the assessment can be erroneous and prejudicial to the interests of the revenue. Material areas requiring verification included the Ind AS rent deduction against lease-liability cash outflow and the bad-debt deduction after adjustment against the provision for bad debts.

Inverted-duty refund eligibility under GST depends on accumulated input tax credit arising from inputs taxed at rates higher than the output supply. Identical principal input and output goods taxed at the same rate do not by themselves bar refund where higher-rated ancillary inputs are used in business. Packaging materials, labels, cartons and plastic containers may qualify as inputs when necessary for marketing or supplying finished goods. Claims should demonstrate the rate differential, business use of such inputs and resulting credit accumulation.

Vested appellate rights attach when adjudicatory proceedings commence. The substituted pre-deposit condition in Section 107(6), effective from 1 October 2025 for penalty-only orders, does not govern appeals arising from show cause notices issued before that date. The applicable appellate condition is the law in force when the lis begins, not the date of the adjudication order or appeal. A later order cannot impose a newly introduced pre-deposit requirement on an appeal arising from an already commenced proceeding.

Composite GST show cause notices spanning multiple financial years raise a jurisdictional and limitation-based challenge where liabilities for distinct assessment periods are consolidated into one demand proceeding. Annual returns, tax liabilities, due dates and statutory limitation periods operate separately for each financial year. Combining several years in one notice may merge separate due dates, limitation periods, factual grounds and compliance obligations, impairing the taxpayer's ability to provide a year-specific response.

Section 16(5) retrospectively permits registered persons to avail input tax credit for invoices or debit notes relating to financial years 2017-18 through 2020-21 where the return under section 39 was filed by 30 November 2021, notwithstanding the general time limit. The retrospective benefit is subject to a bar on refunds of tax already paid or credit already reversed. Reported High Court reasoning characterizes the provision as curative and requires verification of the GSTR-3B filing date when applying the eligibility condition.

SVB and transfer pricing apply the arm's length principle to related-party imports but address opposite risks: customs examines whether import values are too low for duty purposes, while transfer pricing examines whether pricing shifts profit out of India. Customs valuation applies sequential methods and tests related-party influence on price, whereas transfer pricing uses the most defensible method. One-time SVB positions and annually refreshed transfer pricing documentation can diverge; inconsistencies across agreements, filings, SVB submissions, and customs declarations require periodic comparison and coordinated ownership.

Composition-scheme taxation at 0.5% remains available where finally determined taxable turnover is below the prescribed threshold, notwithstanding belated revised returns. Once the department accepts turnover within that threshold, it cannot impose the higher non-composition rate without cogent evidence that turnover exceeded the limit. The time limit for revising returns is procedural and does not displace substantive eligibility where differential tax and interest have been paid. Denial of the composition rate solely because revised returns were delayed is invalid.

Inter-State sale under section 3(a) of the CST Act depends on whether the sale contract occasions movement of goods across State boundaries. Branch or stock transfers are distinguished from inter-State sales, subject to the dealer's burden of proof under section 6A. The Time Bound Supply Scheme requires examination as a framework or as an offer capable of forming a contract, including whether the contractual arrangement is inextricably linked to movement of goods. Binding remand findings are also relevant.

Cenvat credit is admissible for countervailing duty paid at the concessional rate under Notification No. 12/2012-Customs. Rule 3(1)(vii) of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 permits credit of additional duty levied under the Customs Tariff Act where it is equivalent to the specified excise duty. Countervailing duty paid at 2% under the Customs exemption remained equivalent duty for this purpose. The restriction under the separate Notification No. 12/2012-Central Excise did not apply to credit of countervailing duty paid under the Customs notification.

Sales tax subsidy granted under the Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme, 2010 through VAT/CST challans is excluded from the assessable value of excisable goods where the assessee remits the full VAT/CST collected from customers to the State. Because the challans merely discharge future VAT/CST liabilities, without reducing the sale price or allowing retention of collected tax, the subsidy is not additional consideration for the sale and does not enter transaction value under the Central Excise Act. Consequently, no excise duty or penalty arises on that subsidy.

Recovery of CENVAT credit beyond the normal one-year limitation period requires fraud, collusion, wilful misstatement, or suppression of facts with intent to evade duty. Departmental awareness of the receipt of left-over bulk cement and prior permission to avail credit on that quantity negate allegations of suppression or intent to evade. In the absence of evidence supporting the conditions for extended limitation, the demand for the relevant period was time-barred and could not be sustained.

Investigation-stage deposits refunded after an excise demand becomes unsustainable are treated as amounts retained without legal entitlement, rather than as excise-duty refunds. Sections 11B and 11BB therefore do not govern interest on such deposits, because they address duty refunds and delayed statutory refunds. In the absence of an applicable statutory interest provision for pre-Section 35FF deposits, compensatory interest is payable from each date of deposit until actual refund. The applicable rate is 12% per annum, with the interest to be calculated and paid within eight weeks.

Clandestine manufacture and clearance of Pan Masala and scented chewing tobacco require cogent, positive and corroborative evidence covering raw-material procurement, production, input consumption, transport, buyers, consideration and financial flow-back. An unverified third-party transport record of unproved authorship and reliability cannot establish receipt or consumption of laminates without supporting transport records or witness verification. Arbitrary conversion of box entries into laminate weight and presumptions based on alleged paired sales cannot prove manufacture or removal of chewing tobacco. Successive presumptions and estimated calculations cannot replace proof of each taxable event; consequently, the excise-duty and NCCD demand was unsustainable.

Processed milk arising as an integral intermediate stage in the continuous manufacture of sugar-boiled confectionery, whether captively consumed or sent to job workers, is not an exempted final product for CENVAT credit purposes. Rules 3 and 6 apply to inputs or input services used in manufacturing final products, requiring the manufacturing process to be assessed as a whole. A technological or unavoidable intermediate product used to make the dutiable ultimate product does not trigger the Rule 6 obligation merely because it is not independently cleared. The resulting demand is unsustainable.

Personal-hearing notices under the Central Excise Act require acknowledgement or other material establishing service; mere issuance does not provide a valid opportunity of hearing. Non-service was corroborated by counsel appearing before the same appellate authority in a separate matter on the same date, indicating non-receipt in the interest dispute. Determination of the interest issue on merits without addressing the denied hearing was improper. The appellant's claim requires fresh reconsideration by the Commissioner (Appeals).

Tribunal remand directions requiring reconsideration of classification, valuation and the extended-period demand must be followed in fresh adjudication. Technical reports and approved classifications must be considered where the remand expressly requires their use in redetermining classification. An adjudicating authority cannot adopt an evidentiary approach contrary to those directions, and an appellate authority cannot confirm that approach without independent application of mind. Orders made in disregard of the remand mandate are invalid and require fresh adjudication after the assessee is given a hearing.