Authorised Dealers may handle export and import of goods and services, and merchanting trade, undertaken before 1 October 2026 where such transactions previously required Reserve Bank approval under the earlier export and import framework and related Master Directions. The authority applies from 1 October 2026.

Sales-confirmation material obtained after completion of assessment does not make the assessment defective merely because it was unavailable for consideration, particularly where the assessee did not furnish confirmations despite a notice seeking them. Judicial review under Article 226 is confined to jurisdictional error or breach of natural justice and is not a substitute for statutory appellate scrutiny on the merits. Where neither jurisdictional error nor a natural-justice violation is shown, challenge to the assessment must proceed through the available statutory appeal rather than writ intervention.

Provisional attachment of bank accounts under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 ceases to have legal effect one year after the attachment order. The statutory time limit applies to every attachment made under the provisional-attachment power and prevents its continuation beyond that period. Where the one-year period has elapsed, the bank-account attachment cannot remain operative.

Draft Warehousing Operations Regulations, 2026 would require public and private warehouse licensees to use the electronic portal and a digital warehouse management system for receipt, storage, transfers, removals and accounting of warehoused goods. Transport would generally require a one-time-lock and transit-risk insurance, subject to specified exemptions. Licensees would verify locks and goods, report discrepancies, maintain auditable electronic records, submit monthly returns, and permit removals for home consumption or export only upon electronic clearance orders. Non-confirmation, discrepancies and contraventions would trigger information demands, risk-based verification and action under the Customs Act.

MOOWR licensing permits duty-deferred storage, manufacture and other operations involving imported goods in a private warehouse. Customs duty and import IGST are deferred until finished goods are cleared into the domestic market, while exports do not attract import duty. The issue raised is whether supply of welding machines to a customer procuring equipment under this arrangement should receive treatment comparable to a high-seas sale.

Technology risk governance must treat technology architecture as a first-order enterprise risk, alongside conventional financial risks, because the availability and integrity of core banking, payments, onboarding, credit, fraud-monitoring and reporting systems determine whether customers can access essential financial services. Banks may outsource technology functions but retain accountability for access controls, concentration, recoverability, data protection and exit options. Effective resilience requires secure architecture, asset visibility, timely remediation of vulnerabilities and legacy systems, identity and access management, effective controls, third-party oversight, post-incident learning, and regular recovery testing.

Section 12AB(1)(b) permits registration to be granted or rejected only upon prescribed statutory satisfaction; it does not authorise conditional registration or suspension of an approved registration's effect pending future litigation. A quasi-judicial authority may exercise only powers expressly conferred, and any later cancellation or withdrawal must follow the statutory mechanism. Accordingly, a condition making charitable registration and consequential tax benefits contingent on future Supreme Court proceedings is ultra vires and ineffective; registration operates according to law without that contingency.

Under the Transactional Net Margin Method, comparable companies must be functionally similar to the tested party. A mixed technical and software service provider without reliable segmental information cannot be benchmarked against a software-development service provider, particularly where an exceptionally high margin requires examination of normal business conditions; it should be excluded. Likewise, a company undertaking digital publishing, typesetting, digitisation, and content or product development performs knowledge-process functions rather than routine ITES and should be excluded. Transfer-pricing benchmarking must proceed using comparable sets stripped of functionally dissimilar entities.

Regulation 5 periods are reduced from fifteen months to nine months and, under the first proviso, from eighteen months to twelve months. Exporters on the Caution List as of 30 September 2026 remain governed by earlier listing orders until removal. Authorised Dealers may handle pre-1 October 2026 export, import and merchanting trade transactions that previously required approval under the earlier framework.

A common adjudicating authority is appointed for R&M India Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, to adjudicate identified customs show cause notices. The Principal Commissioner/Commissioner of Customs, Airport and Air Cargo Commissionerate, Bengaluru, is designated to exercise the powers and discharge the duties of the specified Deputy Commissioner of Customs and Assistant Commissioner of Customs in relation to those proceedings.

Anti-dumping duty on specified Jute Yarn/Twine, Hessian Fabric and Jute Sacking Bags from Bangladesh and Nepal is re-quantified through a producer-, origin-, export-country- and product-specific duty matrix. Individual producer rates require a valid commercial invoice containing a signed producer-origin declaration; otherwise, the all-other-producer rate applies. The duty on Jute Sacking Bags from Bangladesh also applies to Jute Sacking Cloth, subject to named producer exclusions and a conditional end-use exemption for eligible manufacturers complying with prescribed import procedures and undertaking not to convert the cloth into bags.

India's global economic engagement prioritises trade and economic partnerships to strengthen participation in global value chains and supply chains, facilitating cross-border movement of goods and services. The approach is linked to projected semiconductor demand and development of artificial-intelligence capabilities, alongside innovation, deep-tech startup support and private-sector space activity. The startup ecosystem is described as having expanded substantially, with current policy emphasis on deep-tech innovation and participation in global markets.

The ongoing review of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement seeks to enhance trade flows, address trade asymmetries, and deliver a balanced, effective, user-friendly, and trade-facilitative arrangement for businesses. It forms part of India's commitment to mutually beneficial trade partnerships and regional trade arrangements.

GST self-assessment depends on accurate GSTR-1 reporting, GSTR-2B credit communication, GSTR-3B tax settlement and annual reconciliation. GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B mismatches require timely reconciliation, payment of any justified differential with interest, or a satisfactory explanation. Input Tax Credit remains conditional on supplier payment of tax to the Government, making vendor due diligence and continuous credit reconciliation essential. Accurate return data also supports electronic processing of refunds for accumulated credit on zero-rated supplies. Curable clerical errors should be assessed on substantive records and without prejudice to revenue.

Tax deduction at source on online-game winnings under section 194BA applies from 1 April 2023. The person responsible for paying such winnings must deduct tax at 30% on net winnings after accounting for entry fees where applicable. Section 194BA is excluded from the higher-deduction regime for non-filers under section 206AB, so the prescribed 30% deduction applies even where the recipient has not furnished an income-tax return.

Rule 138(10) is treated as the exclusive mechanism for extending an E-Way Bill during exceptional transit delays. The transporter must update Part B and act within the stipulated period around expiry; a fresh or secondary E-Way Bill for the same invoice is not an alternative route. Section 129 proceedings apply the preponderance-of-probabilities standard, requiring reliable evidence of any claimed breakdown. Altering an invoice identifier to bypass duplicate-bill portal controls, especially with a changed dispatch location, is distinguished from a minor clerical error and treated as deliberate portal circumvention.

Input tax credit reversal linked to delayed supplier payment must rest on verification of specific purchase invoices remaining unpaid beyond 180 days and cannot be inferred from the aggregate trade-payables figure in a year-end balance sheet. Trade payables may comprise recent purchases within ordinary contractual credit periods. Any reversal demand should follow supplier- and invoice-level verification and be confined to cases of actual non-payment beyond the prescribed period.

Udyam Registration Number recovery is available without fee through the official Udyam portal where the enterprise can receive a one-time password on the mobile number or email recorded during registration. The user selects the applicable Udyam Registration or older Udyog Aadhaar Memorandum option, validates the one-time password, and retrieves all registration numbers linked to the registered contact detail. Where access to that contact detail is unavailable, online recovery cannot be completed and support channels should be used. Loss of the number does not require a fresh or duplicate registration.

Section 144 of the CGST Act creates a rebuttable presumption that documents tendered by the prosecution are genuine unless disproved. Loose sheets, slips, and diaries are not ordinarily books of account and require authentication and independent corroboration before supporting a tax addition. Entries in accounts alone cannot establish liability. Seized material must have a clear legal and factual nexus with an actual taxable supply. Investigation, search, and seizure must also be undertaken by a proper officer, since subsequent proceedings cannot rest on an invalid foundation.

GST exemption for in-patient diets depends on the supplier's own supply. A hospital may supply prescribed food as an ancillary part of exempt healthcare, but an independent caterer supplying food to the hospital makes a standalone taxable food supply. Ultimate consumption by in-patients and institutional communications do not alter classification. A mistaken reliance on a healthcare clarification does not by itself establish fraud-based non-payment; liability may proceed under the normal-demand route, with cum-tax valuation where tax was not separately collected.