Assessments under the compounding scheme based on purchase-sales turnover mismatches require an effective personal opportunity for the assessee to explain the discrepancy before proposals are finalised. Purchases not reflected in sales for a particular year may represent closing stock, and the assessee must be allowed to establish that position through supporting evidence. Finalising assessments without calling for such an explanation breaches the principles of natural justice and makes the assessments unsustainable.

Director remuneration is classified for GST according to employment status and the nature of payment. Payments to independent directors and other non-employee directors are taxable services for which the company bears GST under reverse charge. For employee-directors, remuneration recorded as salary and subjected to salary-related tax deduction is excluded as an employment service. Separately recorded professional or technical service fees fall outside the employment exclusion and are taxable under reverse charge.

Protected-system status is conferred on computer resources relating to Bandhan Bank's Core Banking Solution and Unified Payments Interface Switch, along with associated dependencies. Bandhan Bank may authorise access by written order for designated employees, managed-service-provider personnel or third-party vendors on a need-based basis, and consultants, regulators, government officials, auditors, or stakeholders on a case-by-case basis.

Section 69A(1) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, read with rule 3 of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009, authorises designation of a Central Government officer for the public information-blocking framework. The Director (National Cyber Coordination Centre) is designated as the Designated Officer for the purposes of those Rules and must hold a rank not below Joint Secretary.

Service tax refund may be sought before the competent tax authorities after withdrawal of the pending application. The applicant retained liberty to file an appropriate refund claim in accordance with law. The airport operator indicated that it would cooperate if such a claim were made. Refund entitlement remains subject to determination under the applicable statutory process.

CENVAT credit distributed by a principal manufacturer through input service distributor invoices may be availed by an authorised contract manufacturing unit operating under a registration-exemption notification in the pre-1 April 2016 regime. Rule 7 permitted credit distribution to manufacturing units without requiring that they be owned by the distributor. Where the contract manufacturer produced goods exclusively for the principal, discharged excise duty on the principal's assessable value, and the input services formed part of that value, the credit remained available. This approach prevents cascading of duties and taxes on dutiable final products.

Before filing, an applicant must register by furnishing required particulars, including a mobile number and email address corresponding with PAN and IEC records. Submitting these details triggers an OTP, and OTP validation completes registration. Following login, the applicant must complete Annexure 1 and Annexure 2, upload supporting documents and the prescribed declaration, verify entries using view or preview functions, make corrections where necessary, and select Save and Submit to file a complete application.

Central Government designation of the Press Information Bureau Fact Check Unit establishes that unit as the Central Government's fact check unit for purposes of the specified intermediary due-diligence provision under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The designation applies in relation to any business of the Central Government.

Intermediaries must publish user-facing terms, prohibit specified unlawful content, operate grievance channels, remove or disable unlawful information upon qualifying court or government action, preserve specified records, and provide lawful investigative assistance. Significant social media intermediaries additionally require India-based compliance, nodal and grievance officers, monthly compliance reporting, complaint tracking, notice and dispute processes for voluntary removals, and voluntary account verification. Messaging services must identify the first originator only under qualifying judicial or competent-authority orders, subject to necessity and less-intrusive-means safeguards.

Reassessment proceedings under the amended framework require prior compliance with Section 148A, including an opportunity for the assessee, and must use the faceless mechanism. A jurisdictional assessing officer cannot initiate reopening under the former procedure after that framework applies. Reopening commenced under the unamended process, without the mandatory preliminary procedure and faceless route, is without jurisdiction and unsustainable in law.

Disallowance of expenditure relating to exempt income does not arise where no exempt income is earned in the relevant assessment year; revenue circulars do not alter that settled position. Compensation paid to secure an occupant's vacation of premises and obtain limited leave-and-licence use is revenue expenditure where it enables only temporary use and creates no enduring capital advantage. Both principles support the assessee's treatment of the expenditure.

Revised All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback neutralise Customs duty on inputs and residual Central Excise duty on specified petroleum products used in exported goods. Claims under the regular AIRs require the relevant tariff item to carry the suffix "B", while alternative AIRs for garment exports under Special Advance Authorization require suffix "D". Rates were increased or rationalised across specified sectors, new tariff items were introduced for chemicals, textiles, electrical and electronic goods, and caps apply where an upper limit on drawback is necessary.

AEO-T1 applications may be filed and processed through an online platform, with digitised AEO certificates issued electronically. Manual filing and processing remain available until 31 March 2019 to support transition without delaying time-bound applications. AEO-T1 and AEO-T2 certificate validity, periodic status review, and onsite post-clearance audit intervals are aligned at three years. AEO-T1 holders are not subject to regular transactional post-clearance audit, and reviews may be initiated at any time where AEO compliance conditions appear compromised.

Conditional stays of tax demand may continue on reduced payment terms where recorded financial hardship justifies modifying an earlier deposit condition. Despite non-compliance with the original payment direction, the required deposit was reduced from Rs. 40,00,000 to Rs. 25,00,000, payable in three instalments. Upon payment, the stay petitions before the Tribunal stand allowed, and recovery of the demand remains stayed until disposal of the related appeals.

Online gaming intermediaries enabling permissible online real money games must display a visible verification mark, disclose deposit, withdrawal, winnings, charge, identity-verification and deposit-protection information, and must not provide or facilitate credit for gaming. A permissible online real money game requires verification by a designated online gaming self-regulatory body. Verification depends on absence of wagering on an outcome and compliance with due-diligence obligations, contractual-age requirements, and safeguards addressing user harm, children, addiction, financial loss, and fraud.

Online goods registration through ICEGATE may be sought by importers and Customs Brokers through their website login for eligible Bills of Entry. Applications may be made after applicable duties have been paid and the goods have arrived at the customs station. ICEGATE verifies whether a Bill of Entry is eligible and ready for registration, and displays a specific error where registration cannot proceed because of ineligibility or non-readiness.

Reasonable cause arising from ill-health supports condonation of a short delay in filing a first appeal, enabling adjudication on merits. An appeal should not be dismissed ex parte for failure to cure notified defects unless the appellant has received adequate opportunity to comply and be heard, consistent with natural justice. Where these procedural safeguards are absent, both appeals require fresh merits adjudication: the first after condoning the delay and the second after providing a reasonable hearing opportunity.

Advance debiting or defacement of country-of-origin certificates before registration is confined to fully facilitated Bills of Entry not prescribed for assessment or examination. Bills of Entry sent for assessment must follow the established Assessment Group procedure. Stakeholders must generate IRN and DRN for uploaded documents and link additional documents to the relevant Bill of Entry. Country-of-origin certificates, IGCRD intimations, and similar documents debited or defaced by groups should be uploaded in e-Sanchit before registration.

Arm's-length pricing requires independent international transactions to be benchmarked separately unless they are demonstrably closely linked; one most appropriate method must be selected, and comparable-price and net-margin evidence requires verification before recomputation. Commission paid to foreign agents for services rendered outside India does not require withholding where the income is not chargeable to tax in India, preventing corresponding disallowance. Export-sale-linked additional consideration and business-nexus interest form eligible undertaking profits for the export deduction. Unit-specific expenses may be directly allocated and common expenses apportioned by quantities sold; an allocation error alone does not justify rejecting books. A corrected computation of an existing export-deduction claim may be considered without a revised return.

Country of Origin certificate debiting for eligible import Bills of Entry must be completed before registration, followed by upload of the debited certificate through e-Sanchit. Out of Charge officers verify the electronic record before clearance. Advance debiting is confined to fully facilitated Bills of Entry without prescribed assessment or examination. Entries routed to assessment groups follow the established group-level debiting and defacement procedure, while post-registration procedures continue. Similar duty-exemption certificates and permits handled by assessment groups should be uploaded before registration.