GOVERNMENT OF GOA Department of Finance Office of the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes No. CCT/26-4/2022-23/F/3307 Panaji, 7th February, 2023. Subject: -reg. Ref .: Circular No. 190/02/2023-GST dated 13th January, 2023 issued under Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 by the GST Policy Wing, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, GOI, New Delhi. Circular (No. 21/2022-23-GST) Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custo... ... ...

Electronic trading platforms in an IFSC require registration unless an express exemption applies. Registration depends on financial soundness, governance, risk controls, business viability, net worth and continuing fit and proper status. Operators must maintain fair trading rules, participant due diligence, surveillance, market-abuse controls, resilient systems, algorithmic-trading safeguards, approved clearing and settlement arrangements, business continuity, cyber resilience and a compliance officer. They must preserve secure platform data, submit required returns and audited financial statements, and cooperate with supervisory inspection, inquiry, investigation and audit.

Electrically operated vehicles remain classifiable under HSN 8703 and subject to 5% GST even where a battery is not fitted at supply. Fresh mangoes are exempt, sliced and dried mangoes receive 5%, and other dried mango forms, including mango pulp, attract 12%. Treated sewage water is exempt, while Nicotine Polacrilex gum intended to assist tobacco-use cessation falls under tariff item 2404 91 00 and attracts 18%. Fly ash-content condition applies only to fly ash aggregates; pulse-milling by-products used as cattle-feed ingredients fall under heading 2302 at 5%.

HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA AND HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE NIRAL R. MEHTA For the Petitioner(s) No. 1,2,3,4,5 : Mr Mihir Joshi, Sr. Advocate With Mr Dhaval Shah(2354) For the Respondent(s) No. 1,2,3,4 : Mr Cb Gupta(1685) ORAL ORDER (PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA) 1. By this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have prayed for the following reliefs. "(a) Your Lordships be pleased to issue a Writ of Certio... ... ...

Wage ceiling for the purposes of Chapter III of the Code on Social Security, 2020 is fixed at Rs. 25,000 per month, effective upon publication in the Official Gazette. This replaces the earlier wage-ceiling determination, without affecting acts done or omissions made before its supersession. The prescribed threshold governs the application of Chapter III under the Code from the effective date thereafter.

Charitable exemption under Sections 11 and 12 remains available except to the extent of the benefit conferred on a specified person where trust resources, such as unpaid security-guard services, are used without adequate consideration under Section 13(2)(d); taxation is limited to the value of that benefit. For valuation references made before 1 October 2014, rejection of books of account was necessary before a valid reference could be made under Section 142A. Section 142A(2), permitting a reference irrespective of the accounts' correctness or completeness, applies only from that date. A construction-cost addition based solely on a valuation report from an invalid reference lacks support without independent corroborative material.

Statutory GST dues of taxpayers whose insolvency proceedings have been finalised are to be treated under the Goa GST Act in accordance with the corresponding central GST clarification, applied mutatis mutandis. The guidance is clarificatory and seeks uniform treatment, with implementation difficulties referable to the Commissioner of State Taxes.

GST applies to payments for refraining, tolerating or doing an act only where an express or implied agreement creates a specific obligation and consideration is paid for an independent supply. Liquidated damages, statutory penalties, cheque-dishonour fines, employment-bond recoveries and compensation for breach are not taxable where they merely compensate loss, deter default or penalise violations without any reciprocal supply. Conversely, late-payment fees, early-termination charges and cancellation amounts may be ancillary consideration naturally bundled with the principal supply and are assessed according to that supply.

Depreciation for power undertakings is calculated on the actual cost of each individual asset, requiring separate tracking of actual cost, depreciation allowed and written down value. On disposal, destruction or discard of an asset, terminal depreciation may be available for the shortfall between written down value and moneys payable, if written off in the books. Extending the block-of-assets method to these undertakings is proposed to simplify compliance and permit an election between actual-cost and written-down-value methods.

GST audit under Section 65 and demand adjudication under Sections 73, 74 and 74A are analysed as separate functions. Audit involves investigation and recording discrepancies in Form GST ADT-02, while adjudication requires an impartial assessment of show-cause notices, replies, evidence and hearings. When the same officer performs both roles, the analysis identifies confirmation bias, pre-determination and breach of nemo judex in causa sua. Orders passed in this manner are presented as jurisdictionally defective, with writ jurisdiction available in appropriate cases involving natural justice violations or continuing recovery action.

GST adjudication must observe personal-hearing safeguards through a real opportunity to be heard before orders are passed. Section 126 protects curable minor procedural lapses from penalty and requires penalties to be fact-specific and commensurate with the breach. Section 74 penalties require positive proof of deliberate suppression; audit mismatches and pre-show-cause-notice payments alone are insufficient in the described circumstances.

Section 122 penalty notices issued before October 1, 2025 raise a function-specific proper officer question requiring examination of the statutory notifications, the later circular, and the relationship between Sections 73, 74 and 122. The objection is not treated as a patent absence of jurisdiction and may be examined in a Section 107 appeal along with natural justice, multiple-penalty and taxable-person grounds. Appeals arising from pre-October 1, 2025 show-cause notices remain governed by the earlier Section 107(6) pre-deposit framework, notwithstanding later adjudication orders.

Voluntary AEO cooperation is structured around expanding MSME participation, preparing programmes for bilateral mutual recognition, and ensuring that recognition produces border-level facilitation. The HELP approach combines handholding, expanded benefits, lower entry barriers and process simplification without reducing safety, security or validation standards. Programme comparison, legal information exchange, validation, digital AEO identification, data-sharing templates, risk treatment, border instructions and aggregated performance data are intended to support operational mutual recognition while preserving each administration's autonomy.

Section 74 requires proof of fraud, wilful misstatement, or suppression; an ITC mismatch or excess credit alone is insufficient. Suppression entails deliberate non-declaration of information required in GST filings or failure to provide information requested in writing. Where mismatch arises from supplier default and relevant facts are disclosed in returns, authorities must establish a nexus between wrongful ITC availment and the alleged culpable conduct. Pre-notice payment of ITC and interest after verification, without intent to evade, is treated as a matter for section 73 rather than section 74.

Mandatory customs pre-deposit under Section 129E is treated as a binding threshold for appeals, with the Commissioner and CESTAT lacking power to admit an appeal without compliance. High Court proceedings may be used to seek judicial consideration of waiver, reduction, or time for payment where financial distress is pleaded. Tecmax received a time-bound opportunity to make the deposit and restore its CESTAT appeal, while Sea Queen, which directly invoked writ jurisdiction claiming inability to pay, was found not to have established an exceptional case. The differing treatment raises concerns about consistent application of financial-distress and exceptional-case standards.

Classification of Styrene Butadiene Rubber Latex under the VAT schedule turns on its nature and composition as rubber, not its synthetic origin, latex form, or end uses. The unqualified term "rubber" in the specified entry encompasses SBR Latex because no express exclusion confines that entry to natural rubber. Where a commodity reasonably falls within a specific entry, it should not be placed under the residuary classification. SBR Latex is therefore covered by the specified entry for rubber and taxable at the corresponding rate rather than as unclassified goods.

Prospective operation of a notification amendment prevents its application to imports covered by bills of lading issued before the amendment commenced, unless retrospective effect is expressly provided. A later amendment therefore cannot be used to refuse consideration of provisional release for such goods. Provisional release must be considered under Section 110A on the legal framework applicable when the bills of lading were issued, and release may be granted subject to lawfully imposed conditions.

Refund claims for tax paid on licence fees and conservancy charges by an airport duty-free outlet could not be rejected solely as time-barred where binding Division Bench precedent in substantially similar circumstances required their processing. Revenue accepted the precedent's applicability. The High Court therefore set aside the limitation-based rejections and required processing of the claims with applicable interest.

Section 67 of the CGST Act permits searches of authorised premises, including an advocate's cabin, where the competent authority has material supporting reasons to believe. Advocate-client privilege protects professional communications according to their nature and circumstances, rather than every item in an advocate's possession; cloned data may be used only for material relevant to the investigated entity, subject to safeguards for privileged and unrelated client information. Ongoing-investigation records in sealed cover need not be disclosed where disclosure could prejudice the investigation. Search, summons and seizure do not require a prior show-cause notice or personal hearing. Administrative directions cannot curtail statutory search powers, and procedural departures invalidate a search only where a mandatory statutory requirement affecting authorisation or jurisdiction is breached.