Service Producer Price Indices based on 2022-23 set out provisional first-quarter estimates for FY 2026-27 and final fourth-quarter estimates for FY 2025-26 across financial, insurance, telecom, railway and air-passenger services. Latest quarterly data show negative year-on-year inflation for securities transaction and banking services, while banking service contribution, pension-fund management, insurance, telecom and railway services record positive inflation. Aggregate weights are not assigned because the covered services do not represent the entire service sector; sub-service weights are used to derive service-level PPIs.

India-Morocco economic cooperation is being advanced through discussions on trade diversification, market access, investment, industrial cooperation, customs, agriculture, food safety, energy, digital transformation and logistics. A proposed food safety Memorandum of Understanding would support exchanges on imported-food safety and quality, testing laboratories, analytical methods, import procedures, quality control, sampling, testing, packaging and labelling. Proposed cultural cooperation would promote professional exchanges, heritage conservation and institutional linkages.

Wheat export policy is amended by changing the export status of Durum Wheat-Other and Wheat from "Prohibited" to "Free". The revised policy applies immediately to the specified products under the relevant ITC (HS) export codes.

Export policy for wheat or meslin flour, including atta, maida, samolina (rava/sirgi), wholemeal atta and resultant atta, classified under ITC (HS) code 11010000, is revised from Prohibited to Free. The revised export policy takes immediate effect under the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy, 2023.

Foreign-exchange market conditions led the rupee to close marginally lower against the US dollar after reversing initial gains. The USD/INR pair traded within a narrow range amid a stronger dollar index, weak domestic equity markets, importer demand, crude-oil concerns and geopolitical uncertainty. Market commentary indicated a slight negative bias for the rupee, although possible US-dollar weakness could provide support at lower levels. India's foreign-exchange reserves increased during the referenced reporting week.

Transitional Value Added Tax and Entry Tax credit is unavailable for utilisation where the latest operative adjudication or appellate order under the earlier regime had held that credit inadmissible. Such disputed credit, even if reflected in the electronic credit ledger, remains unavailable while the adverse order operates, and its utilisation attracts recovery, interest and penalty. Blocked credit ineligible under input tax credit restrictions cannot be transitioned or utilised; improper transition similarly attracts recovery, interest and penalty. An undertaking is required for disputed or blocked credit exceeding the prescribed threshold.

Under the second proviso to section 35B(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944, the Tribunal may decline to admit appeals involving an amount below the prescribed threshold. A recurring issue does not by itself justify admission where no evidence establishes that show-cause notices were issued for subsequent periods. Appeals below the threshold may therefore be dismissed without examination of their merits when recurring liability remains unsubstantiated.

Educational activity remains charitable where a trust pursues its stated objects and applies funds to educational purposes. Donations to charitable institutions, together with necessary administrative and operational expenditure, do not justify refusal of donation-deduction approval merely because recipient institutions lack separate approval, absent diversion of funds for private benefit. Fee collections, donations and grants used to fund educational operations do not by themselves establish commercial activity or negate income-tax exemption. Investments in buildings and furniture may constitute charitable application of income. Unsubstantiated concerns over corpus-donation documentation, without evidence of manipulation or non-charitable use, do not warrant denial of fiscal benefits.

Export-related GST refunds permit credit refunds despite drawback limited to basic customs duty, allow return-data corrections through prescribed amendment procedures, and permit retrospective LUT acceptance or export-time extensions where actual exports are established. Only one deficiency memo may ordinarily be issued, subject to unrectified or later substantive deficiencies. Transitional credit is excluded from Net ITC, and refund where invoice and shipping-bill values differ is limited to the lower value. Goods exports do not require proof of foreign-exchange realisation, and refunds should not be withheld for minor procedural lapses.

GST treatment of transactions involving an unincorporated joint venture depends on whether members' contributions are merely transactions in money or constitute consideration for a supply. Cash calls pooled solely to acquire machinery for joint-venture use are capital contributions and not taxable where no activity is performed for another for consideration. Where an operating member uses its own machinery to undertake activities for the joint venture and recovers costs from other members, the arrangement constitutes a taxable supply of service. Taxability depends on the facts and joint-venture contractual terms.

Challenges to prosecution sanction should ordinarily be raised before the criminal court conducting the proceedings, particularly where validity, genuineness, application of mind, or the material considered by the sanctioning authority involve disputed facts. Statutory objections to sanction, including any resulting failure of justice, may be pursued before the Special Judge and in appellate or revisional proceedings. A writ court may decline to exercise territorial or discretionary jurisdiction where the criminal proceedings, charge sheet, cognizance and trial are connected to another forum offering an efficacious remedy. Reconsideration of an earlier refusal to sanction is permissible on fresh material, material infirmity, or previously unconsidered relevant facts, but not on identical material.

GST valuation and trade discount treatment are considered where a restaurant supplier pays referral fees attracting GST while supplying food and beverages at a lower rate. The issue is whether 20 may be treated as a trade discount under section 15(3) of the CGST Act, so that GST is determined on 80 rather than the full supply value, having regard to contractual terms and applicable CBIC guidance.

E-way bill exemption applies to Tvl. Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd for self-propelled movement of its manufactured vehicles within Tamil Nadu for road testing and return to the same premises, otherwise than by way of supply. The facility requires a value-based bond, authorised triplicate delivery challans, prescribed trade plates, dispatch-and-return records, and monthly accounts submitted to jurisdictional tax officers. It does not extend to vehicles consigned or transported to another person for testing.

The writ petition concerning service tax was dismissed for want of prosecution after the petitioner repeatedly failed to appear despite a prior warning that appropriate orders would follow further non-representation. No substantive service-tax issue was decided, and the dismissal resulted from the petitioner's continued absence.

Bus body building and tyre retreading require classification as composite supplies by identifying the principal supply from the transaction's essential nature. Retreading is generally a service where the retreading process predominates, although retreaded tyres supplied from the supplier's own old tyres are goods. Priority Sector Lending Certificates are taxable goods, with input tax credit available to the purchasing bank. Electricity transmission or distribution is exempt, but ancillary consumer services are taxable. Government guarantees given to business entities for guarantee commission or other consideration are taxable.

Proportionate lease premium paid for leasehold land was treated as capital expenditure and therefore disallowed as a revenue deduction, consistently with the position adopted in earlier assessment years. Declarations under Section 158A, accepted by the Assessing Officer, required the eventual High Court decision on the identical question of law to be applied to the relevant assessment years. The disallowance remained confirmed, subject to consequential application of that decision.

Assessment framed against an entity that ceased to exist on amalgamation is invalid where that defect remains unchallenged. Unsecured loan credits cannot be treated as unexplained when the record establishes the lenders' identity, financial capacity and transaction genuineness, particularly where the principal loan is squared up on amalgamation. A further expenditure addition is unsustainable to the extent the disallowance was already made in the computation and the balance comprises substantiated ordinary business expenses. Deletion of both additions was sustained on the available records.

Refund of unutilised IGST credit distributed through an Input Service Distributor to an SEZ unit was raised under Section 54 of the CGST Act and Rule 89 of the CGST Rules governing supplies to SEZ units. The special leave petitions were disposed of as not pressed because the tax effect was below the CBIC monetary threshold for litigation. No substantive determination was made on the SEZ unit's entitlement to input tax credit refund or on the interpretation of the refund provisions.

HSBC India's branch expansion is directed at extending wealth, international banking, and corporate banking services to affluent, high-net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and non-resident Indian customers in emerging commercial centres. The Nashik opening forms part of a broader branch-expansion programme undertaken after Reserve Bank of India approval to establish additional branches in key cities. The programme is intended to expand delivery of banking and financial services, including support for cross-border wealth management, overseas investment by Indian companies, and foreign investment into India.

Automation under the IGCR Rules, 2022 applies to export-oriented units from 1 September 2024, replacing the existing procedure for concessional-duty imports. EOUs must obtain an IGCR Identification Number through ICEGATE and register an IGCR bond to file bills of entry claiming IGCR benefits. The process also applies to clearances from special economic zones to EOUs upon activation of the relevant module.