India and Japan are considering a review of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement to make the bilateral trade framework more contemporary and expand its scope, scale and commercial opportunities. The review is linked to balanced trade and to identifying export barriers arising from procedural requirements, language issues and time involved in market access. Regulatory compliance assistance may support product registrations required for overseas markets, including costly chemical registrations and pharmaceutical registrations.

Arunachal Pradesh State GST revises the Serial No. 1 entry for specified supplies distributed through government-approved welfare programmes. The entry covers unit-container food preparations for free distribution to economically weaker sections and Fortified Rice Kernel (Premix) supplied for ICDS or similar approved schemes. The related condition replaces "food preparations" with "goods", and the amendments take effect from 1 October 2021.

The special procedure applicable to registered persons engaged in manufacturing certain goods is amended under the Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The amendment inserts the expression that the procedure is to be followed with effect from 1 January 2024. The inserted effective-date expression is deemed to have been inserted with effect from 31 July 2023.

Constitution of the Tamil Nadu Authority for Advance Ruling under section 96(1) of the Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 reconstitutes the State advance-ruling body. The reconstitution supersedes the preceding membership constitution, replacing the existing composition. The Authority consists of an Additional Commissioner of GST and Central Excise and a Joint Commissioner (Commercial Taxes) holding full additional charge.

Special-procedure arrangements for registered persons manufacturing specified goods are discontinued by rescinding the earlier framework under the Tamil Nadu GST law. The rescission is deemed effective from 1 January 2024. Things done and omissions occurring before rescission are preserved, so withdrawal of the earlier procedural regime does not disturb their legal effect.

Arunachal Pradesh GST rate schedules are amended retrospectively from 1 July 2017. Mineral or chemical fertilisers under tariff headings 3102, 3103, 3104 and 3105 are inserted in the 2.5% State tax schedule when not clearly intended for non-fertiliser use. Specified Schedule II entries are omitted, while nitrogenous fertilisers clearly not intended for use as fertilisers are placed in the 9% State tax schedule. The Schedule I coverage for Chapter 30 is expanded, and spectacles are revised to exclude corrective spectacles.

Loan Utsav 2026 provides a limited-period reward bundle to eligible customers whose personal loan is successfully disbursed during the campaign period, subject to applicable terms and conditions. Personal loans are collateral-free and available subject to eligibility, customer profile, documentation and applicable loan terms. Applicants may choose a loan amount and repayment tenure based on their requirements. Extended tenures can reduce monthly EMI obligations but may increase total interest payable. Customers should review interest rates, EMI, processing charges, other loan costs and repayment capacity before accepting a loan offer.

Schedule I prescribing a 2.5% rate under the State goods and services tax framework is amended by substituting the tariff-code entries against serial numbers 165 and 165A with "2711 12 00, 2711 13 00, 2711 19 10". The amendment is confined to substitutions in column (2) and does not alter the stated schedule rate. The substitutions are deemed to have taken effect from 4 January 2024.

The concessional GST rate for composite works contracts supplied to Government Entities excludes works intended for commerce, industry, business, or profession. The exclusion of public-authority activities from business applies only to the Central Government, State Government, and local authorities, not to Governmental Authorities or Government Entities. Tourism ropeway construction is business-oriented, is not covered by entries concerning roads, bridges, terminals, or railways, and falls under entry 3(xii), attracting GST at 18%.

Arunachal Pradesh SGST registration exemption is corrected by omitting the words "section 23" appearing in the first line after the words "section 3 of" in Notification No. 2/2017-State Tax dated 28 June 2017.

Arunachal Pradesh State Tax rate schedule is corrected at two entries. Serial number 59 is amended by replacing the reference to heading "9" with "7, 9 or 10". Serial number 102 is amended by replacing the reference to heading "2302" with "2301, 2302". These corrections apply for the purposes of Notification No. 2/2017-State Tax (Rate).

Cash deposits made during the demonetisation period were treated as satisfactorily explained where they were linked to earlier withdrawals retained for the assessee's daughter's marriage. The inference that substantial marriage expenditure must have depleted those funds could not be sustained without material disproving the explanation. A simple marriage conducted at a Gurudwara with close relatives was not shown to be inconsistent with retention of the withdrawn cash. The addition as unexplained money was therefore deleted.

Reverse-charge liability for specified supplies of goods applies to listed recipients comprising the Central Government, excluding the Ministry of Railways (Indian Railways), State Government, Union territory, and local authority. The recipient entry is substituted with deemed effect from 20 October 2023, expressly excluding the Ministry of Railways from the Central Government category.

Separately supplied laterals and parts of sprinklers or drip irrigation systems attract the GST rate applicable to those systems where they are classifiable under the specified irrigation-equipment heading and are suitable solely or principally for such use. Parts of general use, if classifiable under another heading under the applicable Section and Chapter Notes, attract GST at the rate applicable to that respective heading.

The State tax exemption schedule inserts serial number 94A under tariff heading 1901 for powder-form food preparations of millet flour containing at least 70 per cent millets by weight. Eligibility is limited to products that are not pre-packaged and labelled and takes effect from 20 October 2023. Pre-packaged and labelled goods remain outside the exemption entry.

Schedule I at 2.5 per cent gains entries for molasses and pre-packaged, labelled powdered food preparations of millet flour containing at least 70 per cent millets by weight. Schedule III at 9 per cent includes the specified millet-flour preparation and adds spirits for industrial use, while Serial number 1 in Schedule IV at 14 per cent is omitted. The amendments are deemed operative from 20 October 2023.

Unclaimed TDS credit relating to professional receipts already offered to tax may be sought through rectification under Section 154 where a return processed under Section 143(1) omitted TDS reflected in Form 26AS or AIS. TDS credit is linked to assessment of the corresponding income under Section 199 read with Rule 37BA. The rectification request should provide a TDS-wise reconciliation showing the deductor, corresponding professional receipt, inclusion in presumptive turnover, income offered, and credit claimed.

Entry 23A exempts annuity consideration only for access to a road or bridge under heading 9967. Road construction is classified separately under heading 9954, including construction of highways, streets, roads, bridges and tunnels. Where road-construction consideration is partly paid upfront and partly through deferred annual instalments called annuities, the payment structure does not change the nature of the service. Consequently, deferred annuity payments for road construction do not qualify for the exemption applicable to road-access annuities.

Erratum inserts an omitted concluding commencement clause in the annexure governing amendments under the Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The clause gives deemed retrospective commencement to the operative measure, treating it as having entered into force from 8 October 2024. It fixes temporal application from that specified prior date and expressly records the commencement basis applicable to the annexure's amendments.

India-Japan startup cooperation is proposed to advance through a deep-tech capital corridor, a two-way innovation bridge, manufacturing and technology integration, and joint startup pitching platforms. Collaboration is directed towards patient capital, early-stage research, deep-tech commercialisation, technology validation, precision manufacturing, investment and market access. The partnership also emphasises MSME integration with startups and global supply chains, co-investment mechanisms, plug-and-play infrastructure, and institutional links among universities, research institutions, incubators and industry.