Washington, Sep 20 (AP) When President Donald Trump first ran for office, he called out China as a menace to the US economy, saying it had gutted America's factories and eroded the middle class. That tough talk helped Trump get to the White House a decade ago, but since then, he increasingly speaks in glowing terms about Chinese President Xi Jinping, the geopolitical rival Trump will fete on Thursday with a state dinner. “He's a great gentleman; we get along great,” Trump said this month. ... ... ...

Latur (Maharashtra), Sep 19 (PTI) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered removal of Maharashtra Cooperation minister Babasaheb Patil and seven other directors of the Latur District Central Cooperative Bank for exceeding the 10-year tenure limit. Patil belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar. Reacting to the development, he told PTI that he would not challenge the RBI's order, but the ten-year rule came into force in 2021 and it s... ... ...

Unidentified specific-purpose contributions recorded as corpus donations require consideration of whether they must also be treated as anonymous contributions for audit-report and income-tax return purposes. The issue includes the effect of unavailable donor names on filing the donor statement in Form 10BD and on corresponding disclosures in audit reporting and return filing.

Service of hearing notices and the resulting reasonable opportunity of hearing before the Commissioner (Appeals) require examination. The appellant contends that notices were not served and that CESTAT decided the appeal on merits without addressing that procedural objection. Verification is pending on whether a response concerning this issue was filed before CESTAT, with further hearing listed for 18 February 2026.

Remuneration paid to foreign nationals under a genuine direct employer-employee relationship falls outside GST because employee services in the course of employment are excluded from supply. Employment contracts, payroll, tax withholding, benefits and parity with Indian employees support direct employment rather than secondment or manpower supply. Such employees do not qualify as non-resident taxable persons where they make no supplies and have an Indian residence; their services therefore do not satisfy the conditions for imported services. Alternatively, where a related-party supply is assumed, absence of an invoice and full recipient input tax credit result in nil taxable value, leaving no IGST payable.

Biometric Aadhaar authentication is required from October 1 for domestic LPG consumers to book subsidised refills at the regulated retail selling price. Authentication can be completed through delivery personnel, distributor showrooms or designated mobile applications. Consumers unwilling or unable to authenticate may obtain LPG at the applicable market price without subsidy after registering their choice through specified digital channels. The framework distinguishes subsidised LPG linked to Aadhaar-authenticated consumers from market-priced LPG and seeks targeted subsidy delivery, reduced leakage, and prevention of diversion, duplicate connections and ineligible access.

Government grants for acquisition of depreciable fixed assets may be accounted for through the deferred income method. The asset remains recorded at gross book cost, and depreciation is charged on that full cost. The deferred grant is recognised in the Income and Expenditure Account systematically over the asset's useful life in the same periods or proportion as related depreciation. For tax computation, the grant is generally deducted from actual cost or written-down value, potentially creating differences between book and tax depreciation.

Directors of District Central Cooperative Banks and Central Cooperative Banks are subject to a maximum 10-year tenure under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, as amended by the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025. RBI directed removal of a director ineligible to continue under section 10A(2A)(i), read with section 56, following concerns that directors of Latur District Central Cooperative Bank had exceeded the permitted tenure.

GST classification distinguishes petroleum exploration, mining and drilling support under heading 9986 from professional, technical and business services under heading 9983. Operational oil and gas extraction support includes well-related and extraction-unit activities, but excludes geological, geophysical and related consulting. Geological and geophysical consulting and mineral exploration or evaluation fall within heading 9983. Services outside these specified entries must be classified under their respective headings and taxed accordingly.

Input tax credit on debit notes is determined, from 1 January 2021, by the financial year in which the debit note is issued rather than that of the underlying invoice. For ITC availed on or after that date, the amended rule governs debit notes issued either before or after that date. Where an e-invoice is generated in the prescribed manner, electronic production of the QR code containing the embedded Invoice Reference Number is sufficient instead of a physical tax invoice during movement of goods.

Upon expiry of the temporary global measure, an India-targeted 10 per cent Section 301 tariff, linked to forced-labour concerns, replaced it; the effective charge for most covered exports remained MFN duty plus 10 per cent. The current regime applies the Section 301 tariff to Indian exports except specified goods, with separate sectoral duties on steel, aluminium and auto components. Smartphones, medicines and energy products are exempt.

Income-tax Rules, 2026 now permit faceless assessment, reassessment or recomputation communications to be issued by electronic communication rather than by affixing a digital signature. Recovery-of-tax procedures are revised by deleting specified provisions, omitting an exception for arrest and detention, and correcting a cross-reference. The deadline in the valuer-registration and authorised income-tax-practitioner registration rules is extended to 31 March 2027. Revised Form 169 requires asset-specific valuer applications, eligibility and disqualification disclosures, supporting qualifications and a declaration of impartiality; revised Form 171 requires practitioner eligibility, qualifications, registration and disqualification particulars. The procedural amendments to rules 160, 176 and 225 apply from 1 April 2026, while the remaining changes apply from 17 September 2026.

Risk-based selective physical boarding of vessels at Paradeep, Dhamra and Gopalpur ports will be based on advance profiling of compliance history, voyage details, ports of call, itinerary, cargo, and declarations concerning crew effects, stores and satellite devices. Port operators must provide weekly berth lists, while the Boarding Section must assess risk and report physical boardings with recorded justifications. Where physical boarding is not selected, the master and shipping agent remain responsible for accurate, complete and truthful electronic declarations and compliance with customs requirements for onboard stores. Masters must safeguard declared stores and prevent unlawful unloading or consumption, while agents must promptly report logistical, itinerary and documentation changes. Cargo discharge and sailing operations proceed upon Entry Inward and advance port clearance.

Sea Cargo Manifest and Transhipment Regulations, 2018 will be operationalised across ports in phases from 1 September 2026. Cochin Port is scheduled for implementation from 21 September 2026. Shipping lines, shipping agents and other stakeholders operating through Cochin Customs must comply with the framework and timely file prescribed electronic messages through the Customs Automated System to facilitate smooth cargo operations and clearance.

Search-based assessments require estimated additions to rest on search material or valid rejection of books, while computation must use income actually returned. Key principles also include the presumption that sufficient own interest-free funds finance advances; limits on disallowances for tax-deduction defaults and cash payments; prevention of duplicate purchase disallowances; and treatment of operational compensation creating no enduring asset as revenue expenditure. Projected bank statements and loose papers require corroboration where books and recorded explanations support the transactions. These principles concern the sustainability of corresponding income-tax adjustments.

Rectification under Section 254(2) is confined to a mistake apparent from the record: an evident error on which no two views are possible. It cannot be used to review merits or reconsider matters requiring factual evaluation, legal interpretation, or debate. Adjudicating a deduction claim under Section 80P(2)(d) despite no corresponding ground in the appeal constitutes such an apparent mistake. The resulting remedy is recall of the earlier order and restoration of the appeal for fresh adjudication.

Unsecured-loan additions and consequential interest disallowances require verification where a joint overdraft account does not clearly identify individual loan transactions. Bank statements, ledgers and supporting records require examination to establish the nature and source of sums and each creditor's identity, creditworthiness and genuineness. The account's purpose and transaction trail require clarification before a reasoned appellate determination, with a remand report where necessary.

Foreign-leg LTC/LFC reimbursements fall outside the income-tax exemption for travel within India. Employers settling such claims possess the relevant travel particulars and must estimate taxable income and deduct tax at source; failure to do so may trigger assessee-in-default liability and interest. Separately, the statutory limitation for orders treating a deductor as an assessee in default depends, where relevant, on filing of TDS statements. Additional evidence establishing those filings may be admitted under the Tribunal Rules when material to an unadjudicated limitation ground, requiring fresh first-appellate determination for the relevant assessment years.

Cash deposits attributed to opening cash and family savings require material evidence to establish their source. Unsupported claims cannot explain deposits. Bank-certified cash withdrawals made by cheque on the taxpayer's behalf constituted an available source for part of the deposits; consequently, the unexplained-cash addition was partly sustained and partly deleted.

Cash deposits made during demonetisation were not unexplained money where salary slips and bank statements evidenced past salary savings and withdrawals. Assumptions that cash could not be retained for years or deposited in multiple instalments did not rebut the supporting documentary evidence. The addition under section 69A was therefore deleted for the depositor.