TechFin and Ancillary Service Providers must appoint or designate a principal officer responsible for overall activities and a compliance officer responsible for compliance, record maintenance, implementation of applicable requirements, and organisational reporting. Principal officer appointment is optional, subject to approval, where services are exclusively provided to Group Entities in the IFSC. Both officers must be full-time employees and based in the IFSC.

TechFin and Ancillary Service Providers must comply with the Code of Conduct specified in the Fourth Schedule under the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Techfin and Ancillary Services) Regulations, 2025.

TechFin and Ancillary Services Providers must continuously ensure that the entity and specified officers, partners, directors, and controlling shareholders are fit and proper. The standard requires fairness, integrity, financial integrity, reputation, character, and honesty. Criminal, enforcement, regulatory, insolvency, financial, and mental-capacity disqualifications preclude eligibility. A person declared not fit and proper cannot apply for registration until the requirements are satisfied.

Registration as a TechFin and Ancillary Services Provider requires an application through SWIT with prescribed documents and fees. Deficiencies must be communicated and may be rectified within thirty days before rejection, subject to a reasonable opportunity for written submissions. In-principle approval may carry conditions, which must be fulfilled within one hundred eighty days unless extended. Registration may then be granted conditionally and remains valid unless suspended, cancelled, or accepted for voluntary surrender. Material changes affecting registration must be immediately disclosed.

Registration eligibility extends to companies and limited liability partnerships incorporated in the IFSC, branches of companies or LLPs incorporated outside the IFSC, and other forms permitted by the Authority. Partnership firms may apply if every partner belongs to a professional body or institute constituted by Parliament. Promoters or partners must not be from FATF-designated high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action.

Entities proposing to provide TechFin or Ancillary Services in an IFSC must obtain a certificate of registration before commencing operations. Existing authorised ancillary service providers and TechFin entities must transition to registration within the prescribed period, subject to a limited extension granted by the Chairperson for recorded reasons. They remain governed by their existing regulatory frameworks until registration is granted. Registration may be issued upon a compliance declaration and the Authority's satisfaction that applicable requirements are met.

TechFin and Ancillary Services are defined as technology solutions or support services that directly or indirectly aid arrangements for specified financial services. A registered TechFin and Ancillary Service Provider may supply scheduled services for that purpose but cannot undertake services included in the Third Schedule. Intermediary arrangements require demonstrable and traceable service flows, with both service stages facilitating specified financial services carried on by the Service Recipient. Group Entity relationships include parent-subsidiary, joint venture, associate, common-brand, qualifying equity or capital contribution, and network relationships.

Regulation 2 establishes a regulatory framework for TechFins and Ancillary Services Providers to make arrangements for carrying on specified financial services. The framework applies to the financial services identified in the statutory list governing the International Financial Services Centres Authority and establishes the regulatory basis for providers operating in relation to those services.

International Financial Services Centres Authority (TechFin and Ancillary Services) Regulations, 2025 are made under section 28(1), read with section 12(1), of the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019. Their short title identifies a regulatory framework concerning TechFin and ancillary services in International Financial Services Centres. They take effect on publication in the Official Gazette.

PowerTel's critical information infrastructure, including specified network, security, authentication, directory, domain name and anti-DDoS resources and associated dependencies, is declared protected systems under Section 70 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Access requires written authorisation by PowerTel and may be granted to designated employees, need-based managed service provider or vendor personnel, and consultants, regulators, government officials, auditors and stakeholders on a case-by-case basis.

Electronic filing of PGIRP-1 to PGIRP-6 for monitoring insolvency resolution processes involving personal guarantors to corporate debtors remains subject to an extended compliance timeline. The deadline for submission of all applicable forms is extended until 31 December 2026. Penalties for delayed submission or modification will be levied only after that date.

Section 270A imposes penalties for under-reporting or misreporting of income, but excludes under-reported income determined on an estimate where the Assessing Officer accepts the accounts as correct and complete. An interest-expenditure disallowance made on an estimated basis therefore cannot sustain a penalty under Section 270A when that exclusion applies. Penalty founded solely on such estimated disallowance is liable to be deleted.

Dynamic QR Code requirements apply to eligible business-to-consumer tax invoices issued by registered persons meeting the prescribed aggregate turnover threshold, subject to specified service, OIDAR, and export exclusions. The code must contain supplier, invoice, payment, value, and tax details and enable digital payment. Compliance is deemed where an invoice contains the code or appropriate payment cross-references for electronic or cash payments. For payments made after invoice issuance, the supplier must provide the Dynamic QR Code on the invoice. Each supplier remains responsible for compliance for supplies made through e-commerce platforms.

Each liquidation form due on or before 30 September 2026 and filed after its due date must be accompanied by a fee of Rs. 500 per month of delay, together with applicable GST. The requirement applies to delayed filings made through correction, updation, or any other post-due-date submission under Regulation 47B of the Liquidation Process Regulations.

GST applicability is raised for monthly reimbursement of internet charges where an internet service registered in an individual freelancer's name is repaid by a foreign client after bills are produced. The reimbursement is credited to the freelancer's bank account, requiring consideration of whether the related reimbursement invoice attracts GST.

Income-tax treatment is queried for gifts from children to parents where gifted funds are invested in fixed deposits and ULIP policies. Questions include disclosure of gift receipts in ITR-1 or ITR-2, the relevant reporting schedule, supporting documents, clubbing provisions for fixed-deposit interest, and any upper limit for gifts to close or specified relatives.

The inquiry concerns whether an individual exporting accounting services to foreign clients requires IEC code registration, whether the EDF form is compulsory for service exports, and what procedure is necessary for FEMA compliance. It identifies registration, EDF-form applicability and export-compliance procedure as relevant issues, without supplying a resolution of the requirements.

GST appellate pre-deposit for penalty-only orders is disputed because the amended regime effective from October 1, 2025 contains no transitional provision. Earlier provisions tied pre-deposit to tax in dispute, so an order imposing penalty alone with no tax demand did not attract deposit. The central issue is whether the new penalty pre-deposit applies by reference to the show-cause notice commencing adjudication or to the date of filing the GSTAT appeal. An interim arrangement permits the GSTAT appeal to be entertained without pre-deposit pending determination.

Proper-officer jurisdiction under GST requires both appointment as a Central Tax officer and assignment of the relevant statutory function. Existing appointment and power provisions supported allocation of demand-adjudication functions through CBIC instruments, including monetary limits. Assignment of functions differs from delegation of powers and does not necessarily require a separate delegation notification. Valid jurisdiction does not determine whether turnover discrepancies, tax computation, interest, penalty, digital-signature objections, or scrutiny procedures are correct; those issues require statutory appellate examination. The appeal route received case-specific protection from limitation-based rejection.

Section 37 of the ITA 2025 permits deductions for specified liabilities only in the tax year of actual payment when computing business or professional income. Covered items include statutory levies, employer welfare contributions, leave encashment, employee bonus or commission, qualifying loan interest, railway-asset payments, and overdue micro or small enterprise dues. Except for enterprise dues, payment by the return-filing due date preserves deduction for the year in which liability arose. Conversion of qualifying interest into a deferred instrument is not actual payment, and sums already deducted cannot be deducted again.