GST enforcement officers must comply meticulously with statutory procedures. Issuing an order in GST MOV-09 after seven days from issuance of a show-cause notice in GST MOV-07 is contrary to section 129(3) of the OGST Act, 2017. Proper Officers must follow the prescribed timeline so that demands raised on important issues are not undermined by statutory anomaly.

Composite leave-and-licence receipts from residential flats held as stock-in-trade, coupled with electricity, lift, cleaning and maintenance services, are taxable as business income where the flats are commercially exploited through a leasing business. Classification turns on the true source of receipts, the taxpayer's intention as demonstrated by actual operations, and whether letting is a business activity rather than mere ownership-based rental income. Operating restrictions preventing sale or creation of third-party interests, together with composite service-based licensing, support assessment under Profits and Gains of Business or Profession rather than Income from House Property.

Odisha's Commissioner of State Tax rescinds Notification No. 4450/CT&GST dated 10 March 2023 under sub-rule (1) of Rule 108 and sub-rule (1) of Rule 26 of the Odisha Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017. The rescission withdraws the prior regulatory measure issued under those procedural provisions.

Acceptance of corresponding sales and declared trading profit prevents the entire value of allegedly bogus purchases from being treated as unexplained expenditure under Section 69C. Where purchase invoices, ledger accounts and payment records support the transactions and the goods are directly correlated with undisputed subsequent sales, non-production of suppliers identified as hawala dealers does not justify taxing the full purchase amount. Only the reasonable profit element embedded in the disputed purchases may be added. The addition was therefore restricted to 6% of the disputed purchases after adjustment for gross profit already declared.

Designated officers at mapped facilitation centres must conduct biometric Aadhaar authentication for GST registration applicants, photograph applicants, and verify original documents corresponding to uploaded registration-application documents. Supervisory officers oversee these functions. Territorial Range Heads may change officer deployment within their concerned ranges. The deployment applies from 7 January 2025.

Customs EDI systems require exporters and Customs Brokers to declare Certificate of Origin details at item level in Shipping Bills for exports to New Zealand under the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. The prescribed declaration is mandatory for every item, while exports outside a preferential trade arrangement must use Info_CD NCPTI. A Shipping Bill cannot be filed without the required declaration. The declared Certificate of Origin number and date must match the Certificate of Origin issued by the designated issuing authority.

Customs EDI filing for exports to New Zealand requires item-level Certificate of Origin declarations in Shipping Bills for preferential tariff treatment under the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. Every item must carry Info_Type "ORC", Info_Qfr "EPT", and Info_CD "FTANZD"; exports outside a preferential trade agreement must use Info_CD "NCPTI". Non-declaration prevents Shipping Bill filing. Certificate of Origin numbers and dates must exactly match those issued by the designated issuing authority.

Notification No. 12/97-Customs (N.T.) is amended to add Anekollu in Krishnagiri District, Tamil Nadu, to the listed Inland Container Depots. The newly inserted entry permits unloading of imported goods and loading of export goods, including any specified class of such goods, at that location. This extends notified customs handling facilities to Anekollu for import unloading and export loading operations.

Payments received by the International Rice Research Institute are excluded from the application of Chapter XIX of the Income-tax Act, 2025. The exclusion is subject to the conditions prescribed under the United Nations (Privileges and Immunities) Act, 1947, read with the relevant Ministry of External Affairs notification. It takes effect from publication in the Official Gazette.

National Social Security Board is constituted for a three-year term under the Code on Social Security, 2020, with representation from workers, employers, unorganised workers, Parliament, Central ministries and departments, and State labour administrations. The Board is also assigned welfare functions for gig workers and platform workers. For those functions, its general membership is replaced by representatives of aggregators, app-based workers and trade unions, social-security institutions, labour-welfare experts, and State labour officials.

Anti-dumping duty on titanium dioxide originating in or exported from China PR is confined to specified end uses. Titanium dioxide used in food, pharmaceutical, skin-care, textile and fibre applications, and nano or ultrafine material below 100 nm, is excluded. Importers claiming exclusion must make an electronic Bill of Entry declaration and undertake to pay applicable anti-dumping duty and interest if goods are supplied for non-excluded uses. Diversion or use contrary to the declared end use triggers recovery of anti-dumping duty, consequential differential duty and interest, without limiting further action under customs law. The prior implementation circular is superseded.

Input tax credit claimed by a purchasing dealer cannot be determined mechanically solely because registered suppliers allegedly failed to deposit tax. The proper officer must independently assess the purchaser's liability under the applicable provision, consider documentary material supporting supplies, hear the parties, and issue a reasoned speaking order. Findings that the purchaser's material supported the supplies and that fraud was not established remain undisturbed, while the merits of the credit claim remain open for lawful determination.

Regular bail in alleged fraudulent input tax credit claims may be granted despite continuing further investigation where no recovery or discovery remains, offences carry a limited maximum sentence, and are triable by a Magistrate. Expiry of the statutory period and proposed witness examinations alone do not warrant indefinite custody. Risks of evidence tampering or evasion can be managed through conditions under the triple test. Prolonged detention pending a trial likely to take time constitutes pre-trial punishment and conflicts with the principle that bail is the rule and jail the exception. Bail was granted subject to conditions securing participation and protecting evidence.

Clean slate principle does not extinguish GST liabilities when a corporate debtor is sold as a going concern in liquidation. Such a sale transfers identified assets and liabilities as a single package, preserves the corporate identity, and requires the purchaser or new management to assume pre-existing, current and moratorium-period liabilities. The statutory priority for distribution of realised liquidation assets does not apply to a going-concern sale. GST demand proceedings require fresh adjudication where no effective reply was filed and transfer-of-business liability requires consideration, subject to a 25% deposit of disputed tax and a detailed reply.

Rule 86A requires a meaningful pre-decisional opportunity before input tax credit is blocked. Where a claimant must produce records and substantiate the credit claim, a three-day notice is insufficient and reduces the hearing requirement to an empty formality. Administrative and quasi-judicial action must be right, just and fair, rather than arbitrary or oppressive; denial of fair hearing may render the action void from inception. The High Court quashed the blocking order and consequential actions, directed unblocking of the credit, and permitted fresh action only after an adequate opportunity to produce records and be heard.

Belated filing of Form ITC-03 requires consideration when determining a taxpayer's eligibility for the composition levy under Section 10 read with Rule 3. Denial based solely on non-filing, particularly where the taxpayer's reply was not considered, should be reassessed after taking subsequent compliance and the taxpayer's response into account. Acceptance of composition eligibility may affect consequential tax proceedings under Section 74, while collection and payment of composition tax may continue without prejudice to the tax authorities' rights.

Section 76(1) applies to every person who collects an amount as representing GST and does not pay it to the Government, without limiting its scope to unauthorised collections or unregistered persons. A registered supplier that collects GST through valid invoices but files nil or no returns and fails to remit the collection falls within the provision, regardless of whether the underlying supplies are taxable. The prescribed penalty equals the tax collected and not remitted. On that basis, the appellate deletion of penalty was reversed and the penalty restored.

Input tax credit eligibility rests on the claimant, who must substantiate invoices, supplier payment, transport or goods receipt, and supplier ledger evidence. Retrospective cancellation of a supplier's registration alone remains unresolved as a basis for denying credit. Where credit is inadmissible, consequential interest requires quantification by the proper officer. Failure to pay a supplier within 180 days requires reversal or addition of equivalent credit to output tax liability with interest; unavailable FORM GSTR-2 does not remove that liability, and later payment permits re-availment without extending the deadline. Statutory minimum penalties apply separately under Central and State enactments and aggregate under the integrated tax regime.

GST refund claims for tax paid at an excess rate must be made within the statutory two-year limitation period. Where excess GST was reported and paid through a GSTR-3B return, limitation runs from the relevant return filing and payment date, not from later discovery of the payment error. Neither the Proper Officer nor the appellate authority has an enabling power to condone delay or grant a refund after limitation expires. Absence of unjust enrichment does not cure a time-barred claim because direct refund provisions apply only to refunds otherwise admissible under the statutory scheme.

Section 74 applies only where unpaid or short-paid GST is attributable to fraud, wilful misstatement, or suppression of facts with intent to evade tax, supported by material on record. Delayed filing of returns alone does not satisfy those conditions where the subsequently filed returns correctly disclose turnover and tax liability, no material information remains undeclared, and tax with applicable interest has been paid before proceedings begin. Where Section 74 is inapplicable, liability may still require determination under Section 73 read with Section 75(2) by the original adjudicating authority within the statutory time limit.