MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 27th May, 2025 S.O. 2459 (E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by section 79A of the Information Technology Act 2000 (21 of 2000) the Central Government hereby notifies Centre of Excellence in Digital Forensics (CoEDF), 6th Floor, Block K, New International Training Centre Building, National Forensics Sciences University, Sector 9, Gandhinagar-382007, Gujarat as Examiner of Electronic Evidence within Indi... ... ...

Proposed GST reforms would remove the statutory arrest mechanism, raise the prosecution threshold, reduce residual penalties and introduce a minimum aggregate tax threshold for specified demand notices. They would also expand input tax credit and refund eligibility, automate key refund stages, simplify registration and e-commerce registration, and introduce return-mismatch correction and objections to credit blocking. Transit interception would be intelligence-led and restricted, while export, reverse-charge e-invoicing, zero-rating, intellectual-property treatment and selected goods and services would receive targeted changes. Legal effect remains subject to enactment, prescribed conditions and implementation measures.

GST return mismatches are identified as a recurrent basis for tax demands notwithstanding the need to establish actual short payment. An alternate mechanism for amendment of liability and input tax credit (ITC) in returns is proposed to take effect from the April 2027 return period. The mechanism is intended to enable correction and reconciliation of return data, reduce mismatch-based demand notices and system-generated intimations, and strengthen ITC integrity throughout the supply chain.

Sections 122(1A) and 132(1) are analysed as requiring cumulative proof that a person orchestrated a covered fraudulent transaction and personally retained its illicit economic benefit. Liability is not based solely on office, professional involvement, signing or filing records, or receipt of an ordinary commercial payment. Proof should identify both the act of orchestration and a financial trail establishing the benefit retained. The same threshold is applied to civil penalties, prosecution, and arrest-related action, with coercive measures not resting on suspicion or incomplete evidence.

Income deemed to be received includes prescribed recognised provident-fund accretions, transferred provident-fund balances, and specified employer or Central Government pension contributions. Specified dividends are treated as income in the tax year when declared, distributed, or paid, while interim dividends are income when unconditionally made available to the entitled member. Differences in drafting may require fresh interpretation, and deeming rules may create timing mismatches where income is accounted for or realised in a later year.

Proposals contemplate reducing the maximum general penalty under section 125 and introducing a common minimum monetary threshold for demand notices under sections 73, 74 and 74A, including pending unadjudicated cases when implemented. Comprehensive officer guidelines would address notice and order quality, timeliness, fraud-based grounds, and natural-justice safeguards. Recommended changes to blocked input tax credit would cover specified business inputs and losses. An optional ARQP scheme is approved in principle for eligible small B2C taxpayers.

GST confiscation challenges ordinarily proceed through the statutory appeal. Direct writ intervention requires an established jurisdictional defect, genuine denial of natural justice, infringement of fundamental rights, or a challenge to the governing law. Allegations concerning document supply, hearing, evidentiary evaluation, findings or reasons must be tied to a specific defect; where they require examination of the record, they generally remain matters for appellate review. Compliance with filing conditions, including limitation and pre-deposit requirements, remains necessary.

The resolution professional supervises repayment-plan implementation and may seek directions from the Adjudicating Authority. Completion requires a notice and implementation report to persons bound by the plan and the Adjudicating Authority. If the plan ends prematurely, the resolution professional must report payments, reasons, and unsatisfied claims; a debtor or unsatisfied creditor may seek a bankruptcy order. PGIRP-5 records implementation, discharge, and premature-closure information, while quarterly PGIRP-6 records process status, stays, withdrawals, delays, and completed activities.

Excise-duty liability cannot rest solely on a discrepancy in an ER-6 return where the corresponding ER-1 return is available but not examined and no independent evidence establishes unaccounted or clandestine clearance. The extended limitation period is unavailable where the relevant ER-6 return and the assessee's explanation were already within departmental knowledge, because suppression is not established. A show-cause notice issued after the normal period is therefore time-barred, leaving the related duty demand and penalty without an adequate evidentiary or limitation basis.

Extended limitation for central excise and erroneous-refund recovery requires suppression of facts with intent to evade duty. Below-cost cement sales under an area-based exemption, without evidence of additional consideration flowing back, do not by themselves establish suppressed value or evasion, particularly where refund claims underwent departmental verification. For freight transactions before 1 July 2012, service tax liability under the applicable rule is confined to freight actually paid; the excess collected from customers is transportation profit rather than taxable freight. Consequently, the excise, service-tax and refund-recovery demands, with related interest and penalties, were unsustainable, while the independent fixed penalty under Section 77 remained operative.

CENVAT credit on capital goods is disallowed only where they are exclusively used to manufacture exempt final products. Where a manufacturer produces both dutiable and exempt biscuits and no exclusive exempt use is established, credit on capital goods, inputs and input services remains available; the reversal demand is unsustainable. Recording credit availment and utilisation in RG-23C registers and ER-1 returns negates suppression of facts or wilful misstatement. The extended limitation period therefore cannot apply, leaving the associated interest and penalty unsustainable.

Extended-period service-tax recovery from a subcontractor requires established suppression, misstatement, fraud, collusion, or comparable conduct intended to evade tax. A bona fide belief that no separate liability arose after the main contractor paid service tax on the full contract consideration, combined with conflicting views on subcontractor taxability, does not establish those conditions. Limitation therefore prevents an extended-period demand where the required default and intent are not proved.

Statutory payments to State Governments are outside service tax only when they are taxes; payments constituting consideration or fees for services attract service tax under the reverse charge mechanism. Rural infrastructure and road development levy and forest transit fee were characterised as fees for services rather than taxes and were therefore liable to reverse-charge service tax. As payment of the tax entitled the assessee to corresponding Cenvat credit, no mala fides arose and the demand was limited to the normal limitation period. Cenvat credit becoming available after payment may be refunded in cash under the CGST transitional provisions.

Transportation of goods by road does not create further service-tax liability for the provider where the recipient has discharged the tax under the reverse charge mechanism. The absence of a consignment note, together with tax payment by the recipient, supports the conclusion that no additional tax is payable by the transport service provider. Consequently, a service-tax demand and associated penalty against the provider are unsustainable in these circumstances.

Original works relating to a single residential unit, other than as part of a residential complex, qualify for service-tax exemption. Where the recorded construction agreement and acknowledged contract value establish that the full receipt relates to construction of the residential house, the service recipient's inability to explain the payment mode does not by itself prove consideration for separate taxable works. The entire construction consideration is therefore exempt, with no service tax or penalty payable.

Leasing an excavator falls outside the taxable category of supply of tangible goods where the lease transfers the lessee's exclusive right to use the equipment. Section 66E(f) of the Finance Act, 1994 applies only where goods are hired or leased without such transfer. Exclusive control, operation, maintenance and related expenses borne by the lessee support treatment as a deemed sale. VAT paid on the consideration is consistent with the transaction being a transfer of the right to use, leaving no service tax payable on the lease charges.

Contractual recoveries from transporters for short or damaged cement deliveries are liquidated damages for failure to perform, not consideration for agreeing to tolerate a breach under Section 66E(e). Where service tax has already been paid on freight, such compensation cannot be taxed again as a declared service; the related service-tax demand and interest were annulled. As the underlying non-payment allegation did not survive, the Section 78 penalty was also set aside. Penalties under Sections 77(1)(a) and 77(2) for contravention of Section 70 remained operative as independent compliance penalties.

Reverse-charge liability for goods transport agency services rests with specified freight-paying corporate recipients; where they have discharged tax, the service provider cannot face duplicate service-tax and interest recovery. Income-tax return turnover alone does not establish taxable-service liability without verification of the nature of services. Extended limitation requires suppression with intent to evade, which registration and information received from the Income Tax Department did not establish. Mandatory pre-show-cause-notice consultation applies unless an identified exclusion operates; failure to consult renders the demand unsustainable. With no surviving substantive demand or suppression, the equal penalty is unsustainable, while a separate penalty for statutory contravention remains applicable.

Service Tax demands founded on return and challan discrepancies require verification of underlying transactions, service-wise quantification, and consideration of revised returns and statutory treatment. Manpower supplied to body corporates may shift tax liability to recipients under reverse charge. Contracts involving materials may constitute works contract services, attracting applicable partial reverse charge and valuation treatment, subject to CENVAT credit adjustment. Services for authorised SEZ operations may receive exemption despite procedural-form lapses where substantive eligibility is established. Mandatory pre-show cause notice consultation is material where its omission prevents reconciliation and consideration of statutory benefits; failure may prejudice the validity of demand proceedings.

Section 5(1) attachment requires recorded, reasoned grounds showing that property is likely to be concealed, transferred, or dealt with to frustrate confiscation. That requirement is not met for assets under lawful seizure, court custody, or bank mortgage because they remain beyond the affected person's effective control; attachment may be reconsidered if those restraints cease. Section 50 statements may support attachment where coercion is unsubstantiated and no prompt formal retraction exists. Where direct proceeds have been dissipated, equivalent-value assets may be attached. Persons claiming legitimate acquisition must corroborate funding through reliable banking and contemporaneous evidence; income-tax returns alone do not establish untainted funds.