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By: - Bimal jain
Disclosure of a field visit report relied upon for cancellation of GST registration is necessary before deciding an application for revocation. A registered person must receive the foundational material and a meaningful opportunity to answer the allegations. Revocation is a substantive statutory remedy, and rejection requires an opportunity of hearing. Procedural fairness also requires specific allegations and disclosure of supporting material; vague assertions do not permit an effective response. Fresh consideration may require supply of the report, an opportunity to respond, and further business-place verification where necessary.
By: - DR.MARIAPPAN GOVINDARAJAN
Debt recovery proceedings allow banks and financial institutions to seek recovery before the Debts Recovery Tribunal where jurisdiction is linked to the account-holding branch, a defendant's location, or the cause of action. Applications require prescribed pleadings, fees, supporting documents, asset disclosures and service on respondents. Defendants must file their defence and may raise set-off or counterclaims. Summons may require asset disclosure and restrict transfers. The Tribunal may order security or attachment to protect recovery, determine claims and interest, identify secured assets, and direct distribution of sale proceeds.
By: - Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal
GST search and seizure incorporates criminal-procedure safeguards for searches of premises and persons, search warrants, access to closed places, disposal of articles, and officer-led searches. The corresponding Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita framework is identified as applicable following replacement of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Searches require valid authorisation founded on recorded reasons, document identification number compliance, a valid warrant, independent witnesses, a lady officer for residential searches, and a panchnama listing recovered material. Videography may be used in sensitive premises.
By: - Raj Jaggi
Corporate guarantees for subsidiaries may be taxable GST supplies between related persons even without consideration, where they provide credit support in the course or furtherance of business. Rule 28(2) remains a valid valuation mechanism where actual consideration is absent or unascertainable, but it cannot compel a higher notional value when lower actual consideration is ascertainable. Its application to guarantees furnished before 26 October 2023 is impermissible, though continuing guarantees may be assessed from that date. Section 74 cannot rest solely on a bona fide interpretative dispute.
By: - YAGAY and SUN
ISO 22301:2019 requires a Business Continuity Management System based on risk assessment, Business Impact Analysis, continuity strategies, incident response, crisis management, disaster recovery, performance evaluation, and continual improvement. Organisations identify threats, determine critical activities, acceptable downtime, recovery priorities, and resource needs, then establish recovery arrangements and test them through exercises and audits. Core requirements include defined scope, leadership commitment, policy, resources, competent personnel, communication, documented information, operational controls, and corrective action. The framework supports resilient essential operations, compliance, supply-chain continuity, and stakeholder confidence.
By: - Raj Jaggi
Service-tax double collection under reverse charge is treated as an exceptional refund situation. Section 11B limitation and unjust-enrichment safeguards ordinarily govern service-tax refunds, but limitation cannot legitimise retention where the same tax has been recovered from both a service provider and the service recipient legally liable under complete reverse charge. Article 265 requires legal authority for tax collection and retention. The principle may have cautious relevance to GST reverse-charge and duplicate-recovery disputes, without creating a general exemption from refund limitation.
By: - YAGAY and SUN
IATF 16949:2016 is an automotive-sector quality management system framework operating with ISO 9001:2015. It requires prevention-oriented quality controls across planning, operations, supplier oversight, traceability, change management, performance evaluation and continual improvement. Risk prevention is supported through Failure Mode and Effects Analysis, control plans, statistical process control and measurement systems analysis. Product-safety and contingency processes address safety characteristics, escalation, traceability and operational disruptions. Customer-Specific Requirements must be integrated into relevant processes, while supplier development and auditing must assess process effectiveness and product conformity.
By: - YAGAY and SUN
Customs origin establishes the legal economic nationality of goods and governs preferential tariff eligibility, trade remedies, import controls and country-specific customs treatment. Determination requires correct product identification and tariff classification, identification of the applicable trade agreement, and application of wholly obtained, substantial transformation, product-specific, regional value content and tariff-shift criteria. Minimal processing generally does not confer origin. Preferential claims require direct consignment where applicable, a Certificate of Origin and supporting production, cost, supplier and transport records. Importers claiming preference generally bear responsibility for demonstrating compliance with applicable Rules of Origin.
By: - YAGAY and SUN
GST Input Tax Credit is available to registered persons for eligible inward supplies used or intended for business, subject to statutory conditions, prescribed documents, receipt of supplies, supplier compliance and return filing. Credit is restricted by blocked-credit rules, apportionment for exempt or non-business use, time limits and reversal requirements, including where supplier payment is delayed. Eligible ITC must be correctly classified and utilized according to statutory sequencing. Complete records, purchase-return reconciliations, supplier review and segregation of taxable, exempt and non-business supplies support compliance and reduce disputes.
By: - YAGAY and SUN
Bill-to-Ship-to transactions separate invoicing and commercial ownership from physical delivery. Under Customs law, importer identification depends on ownership, import rights, Bill of Entry filing and customs obligations, while valuation, origin, classification and supporting documents require careful review. Under GST law, the directing intermediate buyer is deemed to receive goods for Place of Supply purposes and may claim Input Tax Credit subject to statutory conditions, even where delivery is made directly to the final customer. Accurate invoices, e-way bill details, transport records and consistent contractual documentation are essential.
SARFAESI alternative remedy requirement bars direct writ challenges to bank-recovery measures where specialised statutory recourse remains available.
SARFAESI challenges to bank-recovery measures should ordinarily be pursued through the efficacious statutory remedy before the competent forum. Writ jurisdiction should not bypass the specialised legislative mechanism, particularly where disputed factual questions may arise. A direct writ challenge to SARFAESI proceedings is therefore not maintainable when an effective alternative statutory remedy is available.
Clandestine clearance and undervaluation require independent corroborative evidence; return mismatches and accounting variances alone cannot sustain duty demands.
Clandestine manufacture and clearance cannot be established solely from mismatches among ER-1, ER-4, ER-6 and trial-balance figures or estimated input-output ratios. Reliable corroboration, such as evidence of excess inputs, electricity, labour, transport, buyers, cash transactions or unaccounted sale proceeds, is required; without it, the related duty demand is unsustainable. Undervaluation likewise cannot rest only on differences between auto-generated ER-4 sale values and ER-1 clearance values. Where records reconcile the figures and no evidence proves consideration beyond invoice values, undervaluation and the consequential duty demand fail.
Clandestine removal and undervaluation demands require independent corroborative evidence; disclosed facts cannot support extended limitation for suppression.
Clandestine manufacture, removal and undervaluation cannot be established solely from mismatches in ER-1, ER-4 and ER-6 returns, trial balance figures, or estimated input-output ratios. Cogent corroboration, such as evidence of excess raw-material procurement or consumption, electricity use, labour, transport, buyers, sale proceeds, or unaccounted transactions, is required; reconciliations and a Chartered Accountant's certificate may explain discrepancies. Auto-generated ER-4 inventory and production values do not by themselves prove actual sale value or differential consideration. Extended limitation cannot rest on suppression where the relevant returns and accounts were disclosed and the same facts were already known through earlier proceedings. Duty demands on these grounds are unsustainable.
CENVAT credit reversed under protest becomes refundable when the underlying demand is conclusively annulled as time-barred.
CENVAT credit reversed under protest pursuant to a show-cause notice is refundable where the underlying demand has been annulled as time-barred and that determination has attained finality. The reversal represents credit not payable because no liability survives after the extended limitation period is held unavailable. The principle denying refund of voluntarily paid duty against a time-barred but otherwise legally due demand does not apply where the demand itself has been set aside. Refund of the reversed CENVAT credit is therefore available.
Statutory limit on adjournments supports dismissal for non-prosecution after repeated unexplained absence and postponement requests.
Adjournments cannot be granted beyond the statutory maximum of three where repeated requests are made without adequate justification. Continued absence and mechanical adjournment requests led to dismissal of the appeal for non-prosecution. The statutory limit restricts further postponement after three adjournments, requiring parties to prosecute matters diligently.
Composite construction contracts cannot be taxed as pure construction services without proper works-contract classification and notice.
Composite construction contracts involving transfer of property in goods and services could not be taxed as Construction of Complex Service, which applies only to pure service contracts. Works Contract Service provided the statutory mechanism for taxing composite contracts by excluding the value of goods. Service-tax demands proposed under Construction of Complex Service could not be sustained by reclassifying the activity under a different taxable category without notice to the assessee. Re-adjudication also had to comply with binding remand directions on classification. The confirmed demands on composite construction activities were therefore unsustainable and set aside.
Commercial advertising space and municipal property rentals remain taxable, but extended recovery requires proven deliberate tax suppression.
Commercial provision of advertising space, including hoarding space on billboards and public places, was taxable under the pre-1 July 2012 service-tax regime. Renting immovable property, including vacant land used commercially as market places, was also taxable; municipal leasing to traders for consideration was a commercial activity rather than a sovereign or mandatory statutory function. Tax recovery was restricted to the normal limitation period because extended limitation requires evidence of deliberate suppression with intent to evade tax, and mere failure to declare or pay tax was insufficient. Penalty was consequently reduced proportionately.
Sanitation conservancy exemption protects cleaning manpower services to Governmental Authorities, while bona fide compliance defeats extended service-tax limitation.
Sweeping and cleaning manpower supplied to a Governmental Authority qualifies as exempt sanitation conservancy services where the authority is constituted under State law and performs municipal functions. The remaining taxable turnover may qualify for the small service provider exemption. Regular filing of ST-3 returns and a bona fide belief in exemption do not support invoking the extended limitation period; consequently, the service-tax demand and related penalties are unsustainable.
Interest on mistaken deposits accrues until refund payment when the amount is not tax and no statutory rate applies.
Interest on refunds of amounts paid by mistake of fact is payable at 12% per annum where the payment constitutes a deposit rather than tax and no statutory interest rate governs such refunds. The limitation framework for tax refunds does not apply to recovery of a mistaken deposit. Entitlement to interest continues from the date of deposit until the refund is paid; payment of the principal refund does not extinguish the right to interest for the period of retention.
Frozen proceeds-of-crime funds cannot be used to pay another company's salary and statutory liabilities under an interim arrangement.
Frozen funds alleged to constitute proceeds of crime could not be released under an interim arrangement to discharge salary and statutory liabilities of another company identified as the primary accused. The respondent's asserted loan arrangement did not justify using funds held by it for obligations that were not its own. The interim direction permitting such use of the frozen funds was set aside.