Punjab Goods and Services Tax framework extends the period specified in rule 137 from four years to five years, effective 30 November 2021. FORM GST DRC-03 now expressly covers tax intimation through FORM GST DRC-01A and payment contexts including scrutiny, audit, inspection, investigation and specified return mismatches. Its revised payment table records tax period, place of supply, tax components, total amount, cash or credit ledger utilisation, and debit-entry details.

Swachh Bharat Cess and Krishi Kalyan Cess paid on eligible taxable services used for exporting goods are refundable under Notification No. 41/2012-ST. The Finance Act, 2015 and Finance Act, 2016 treat the respective cesses as service tax for refund purposes and apply service-tax refund provisions to them. A harmonious reading of those provisions with the notification supports refund eligibility for export-related services, consistent with the principle that taxes should not be exported.

Registered exporters must submit FORM GST RFD-11 through the common portal. An LUT is deemed accepted upon online generation of an acknowledgement bearing an Application Reference Number, and no physical documents need be submitted. An LUT of an exporter later found ineligible to furnish an LUT instead of a bond is liable to rejection ab initio.

GST portal IT-grievance redressal addresses system-wide technical failures that prevent a class of taxpayers from timely filing prescribed forms or returns, provided collateral evidence demonstrates a bona fide attempt to comply. Relief may permit filing of a form or return or amendment of one already filed. The mechanism is confined to Common Portal problems affecting a large taxpayer group and excludes individual difficulties caused by local internet or power failures.

Completed assessments under Section 153A permit additions only where incriminating material is found during the search. Statements or information obtained through post-search collateral enquiries cannot replace that jurisdictional requirement, particularly where a loan was already disclosed in the books and balance sheet. An unsecured loan is not liable to addition as unexplained cash credit where confirmation, PAN, tax return records, audited financial statements and bank evidence establish the lender's identity, creditworthiness and the transaction's genuineness. Banking-channel repayment and interest payments with tax deduction further support the disclosed loan.

Punjab GST amendments extend the specified rule 117 timelines to 31 March 2020 and 30 April 2020, update SEZ registration particulars in FORM REG-01, and revise return-defaulter notices in FORM GSTR-3A. They also replace FORM INV-01 with an e-invoice schema prescribing Invoice Reference Number registration, structured supplier, buyer, payment, delivery, item, tax, total, transport and digital-signature data, together with cardinality, format and mandatory or optional field specifications.

GST treatment of unincorporated joint-venture cash calls depends on whether the payment is merely pooled capital or consideration for a service. Contributions used solely to acquire machinery for the joint venture are capital contributions and transactions in money, where no activity is undertaken for another for consideration. Conversely, an operating member that uses its own machinery to perform exploration and production activities supplies a service when it recovers related costs from members according to their participating interests.

Intervener standing in writ proceedings does not extend to appellate standing where the intervener was not a party to the writ petition. Participation before the Single Judge solely as an intervener confers no appellate right superior to that of parties to the writ action. The intervener may nevertheless make submissions before the appropriate court on the underlying issue.

State and Union tax authorities cannot simultaneously initiate action against the same assessee for identical tax periods. Parallel proceedings by both authorities for the relevant periods are impermissible, and only one authority may exercise jurisdiction for those periods. This prevents overlapping enforcement action concerning the same taxable person and period.

GST classification of bus body building and tyre retreading depends on the principal supply and the essential nature of the composite supply. Retreading is generally a service, while supply of retreaded tyres from the supplier's own old tyres is a supply of goods. Priority Sector Lending Certificates and similar tradeable certificates are goods subject to their specific classification, while duty credit scrips receive nil-rate treatment. Electricity transmission or distribution is exempt, but separately charged ancillary electricity services and government loan guarantees supplied for consideration are taxable.

Input tax credit conditions distinguish a bar on credit being taken from a restriction on its utilisation. Where credit is not taken, it cannot be entered into the Electronic Credit Ledger for goods or services used in the relevant supply. Where credit is not utilised, it may be availed and pooled but cannot be set off against tax on the specified railway service. Such credit may remain available for other eligible taxable outward supplies.

Rule 8 governing Punjab GST registration is amended, generally with effect from 11 September 2024, to replace the Aadhaar-authentication process for applicants other than persons notified under section 25(6D). Where common-portal data analysis and risk parameters identify an Aadhaar-authenticating applicant, completion additionally requires biometric-based Aadhaar authentication, a photograph, and verification of original uploaded documents at a facilitation centre notified for this purpose.

Input tax credit on foreign-exchange conversion, card and account-operation charges may be claimed where these are business overheads. Banking companies and financial institutions may issue a consolidated monthly tax invoice or another qualifying document. A bank statement may support the credit claim where it contains the prescribed invoice particulars. Where GSTR-2B entries do not reconcile with bank deductions, a consolidated invoice may assist reconciliation.

Transfer-pricing comparability under the transactional net margin method requires a separate functions, assets and risks analysis for every proposed comparable. Retaining Infosys BPO Ltd., where its suitability was not challenged, does not establish the functional comparability of other high-end ITES entities. Low-end ITES/BPO providers should not be benchmarked against Eclerx Services Ltd., whose analytics and knowledge-process outsourcing functions materially differ. ICRA Techno Analytics Ltd.'s segment, involving business analytics, operational solutions and internally developed customised software, is likewise functionally dissimilar. The appropriate comparable set therefore excludes dissimilar KPO and business-analytics entities when determining the arm's-length price.

Appeals against orders imposing penalty without a tax demand require payment of ten per cent of the penalty at the first appellate stage and a further prescribed payment for appeal to the Appellate Tribunal. A track-and-trace mechanism may be prescribed for notified goods and persons dealing in them. Covered persons may be required to affix unique identification markings, furnish information and machinery details, maintain records, and pay prescribed system-related amounts. Contravention attracts an additional penalty equal to the higher of the specified fixed amount or ten per cent of the tax payable on the goods.

Revisionary jurisdiction requires an assessment order to be both erroneous and prejudicial to the Revenue; Explanation 2 does not displace these twin conditions. Where scrutiny examined JDA receipts, capital-gains treatment, records and explanations, revision cannot substitute another plausible view or commence a fishing inquiry. A landowner's revenue share under a Joint Development Agreement is long-term capital gain where the land remains a capital asset and the developer alone bears construction, approvals, marketing, funding and project risks. Deferred receipt of agreed consideration does not, by itself, create an adventure in the nature of trade or business income.

Provisional attachment of a bank account under Section 83(2) ceases to operate once the statutory one-year period from the attachment order expires. Expiry of that period causes the attachment to lapse, requiring the bank account to be de-frozen. The respondents accepted that the attachment had expired under the statutory time limit and no continued restraint could be maintained.

A supplier's output tax liability cannot be reduced through a credit note where a registered recipient has not reversed attributable input tax credit, or where the tax incidence has been passed on to another person. Appeals against penalty-only orders require prescribed pre-deposits. Specified goods may be subject to a unique identification marking regime requiring affixation of markings, information reporting, record maintenance and machinery disclosures, with additional penalties for contravention.

Specified intra-State supplies of handicraft goods are exempt from tax under Punjab GST to the extent tax exceeds listed rates of 1.5%, 2.5% or 6%, subject to tariff classification and descriptions. Handicraft goods must be predominantly handmade, though tools or machinery may be used, and must have substantial ornamentation or other distinctive aesthetic, artistic, ethnic or cultural features distinguishing them from mechanically produced goods. Handmade or hand-embroidered shawls are subject to different rates based on sale value.

Registered persons must electronically furnish FORM GSTR-3B for January, February and March 2018 by the prescribed monthly due dates. Tax, interest, penalty, fees and other payable amounts must be discharged, subject to the statutory payment framework, no later than the applicable return-filing due date through debit to the electronic cash ledger or electronic credit ledger, as applicable.