Actual electricity charges separately recovered at the same amount charged by the electricity distribution company, without markup, are treated as pure-agent recoveries under clause 3.3 of Circular No. 206/18/2023-GST. Electricity supplied with premises maintenance is ordinarily ancillary to the maintenance service and forms part of a composite supply despite separate billing. The circular's deeming rule nevertheless applies to separately metered HVAC and non-HVAC consumption and proportionately allocated common-area consumption recovered at actual cost. Those recoveries are excluded from the value of the maintenance service and do not attract GST, even where the independent pure-agent test is not otherwise met.

The first proviso to section 98(2) bars admission of an advance-ruling application where the question raised is already pending or has been decided in proceedings under the GST Act concerning the applicant. Classification and applicable-rate questions for dried and cured tobacco leaves had already been decided in enforcement proceedings involving the applicant. The application for advance ruling was therefore rejected as inadmissible.

Ruled or lined loose paper sheets produced by cutting uncoated paper remain within Heading 4802, rather than Heading 4820, because loose sheets cut to size are excluded from the finished-stationery heading. Paper is classified under tariff item 48026190 in rolls and 48026290 in sheets. The end-use exemption for paper used in specified notebooks depends on actual use by the manufacturer; supplies through intermediaries remain independently taxable. Recipients of uncoated paper reels have no reverse-charge liability because the goods are not notified for reverse charge, while input tax credit remains subject to statutory conditions. Documentary requirements cannot be imposed where the exemption notification does not prescribe them.

End-use-based GST exemption for uncoated paper and paperboard under tariff heading 4802 depends on established actual use in manufacturing exercise books, graph books, laboratory notebooks or notebooks. Classification turns on actual use rather than intended use, paper grade or specifications; supplies used for other purposes remain taxable. Questions on supplier verification, documentary requirements and liability for a purchaser's misuse fall outside an advance ruling on notification applicability where the notification contains no such mechanisms. Revised Central and corresponding State GST rate entries take effect from 22.09.2025, leaving no stated ambiguity on the rate transition date.

Reassessment sanction under the extended limitation regime depended on the date by which the three-year period from the end of the relevant assessment year expired. Where that period expired during the TOLA-covered period, the authority under section 151(i) could grant sanction only until 30 June 2021. Orders under section 148A(d) and consequential reassessment notices issued later required sanction from the competent specified authority under section 151(ii). Approval by the Principal Commissioner under section 151(i) after that date invalidated jurisdiction to revive reassessment proceedings, resulting in the order being quashed.

Section 179 director-liability proceedings must comply with natural justice before a company's tax dues are fastened on a director. Determining liability without considering the director's reply and supporting documents breaches that requirement. The High Court quashed the liability order because the response and accompanying material had been overlooked, and remanded the matter for a fresh decision in accordance with law and natural justice within 12 weeks.

Section 54F applies only where the transferred long-term capital asset is not a residential house; exemption is therefore unavailable when both the original and replacement assets are residential properties. Section 54 requires the same assessee to sell the original residential property and purchase or construct the new property within the stipulated period. Investment solely in a spouse's name does not satisfy this requirement, as spouses are distinct legal entities and the husband's sale cannot be clubbed with the wife's sole acquisition. Consequently, capital-gains exemption under sections 54F and 54 was denied.

Live sports broadcasting rights do not transfer copyright in a live telecast capable of generating royalty income; therefore, consideration attributable to the live feed is not royalty. Repeat or other non-live telecast rights remain within royalty treatment. Composite media-rights consideration is apportioned using established viewership data: 93% for live broadcasting and 7% for non-live broadcasting. Tax-disallowance for failure to deduct tax applies only to the payment allocated to non-live rights, requiring consequential recomputation of the disallowance.

The deductee-paid-tax exception applies to non-deduction of tax on External Development Charges where the payee has filed its return, included the relevant receipt in income, and paid the tax due. Verification of these statutory conditions is required before imposing liability for tax default and consequential interest. Liability for non-deduction and interest does not arise if the prescribed conditions are satisfied. The assessment was set aside and remanded for verification of the payee's compliance with those conditions.

Section 50C(1)'s proviso permits stamp-duty valuation on the date consideration was fixed rather than the registration date where the two dates differ. In a rehabilitation-related land transfer, statutory proceedings, resolutions, banking-channel advance receipt and a sanctioned scheme may collectively establish that consideration crystallised before registration, even without a conventional sale agreement. Later increases in guideline value or stamp-authority valuation cannot retrospectively replace that agreed consideration absent independent evidence of higher fair market value. The beneficial proviso operates retrospectively to relieve hardship. Accordingly, valuation applicable when consideration was fixed was adopted and the long-term capital gains addition was deleted.

Internal comparable uncontrolled transactions should be preferred over external comparables for benchmarking fixed-rate Masala Bond interest where they arise in the same period and offer greater comparability. A floating external benchmark is inconsistent with the strict comparability required under the CUP method, resulting in deletion of the related transfer-pricing adjustment. Specialised operational and maintenance services received from an associated enterprise are not shareholder activities; where receipt and need are evidenced, their arm's length price cannot be fixed at nil without comparable uncontrolled transactions. The related adjustment was deleted. TDS credit requires factual verification, while interest for advance-tax deferment is chargeable only on returned income, not assessed income.

Revision proceedings require the designated statutory authority to issue the notice in the correct official capacity. A Chief Commissioner issuing a notice as Principal Commissioner, without an express Board order authorising exercise of that function, lacks jurisdiction and invalidates the resulting revision. Revision for notional annual letting value of professionally used properties also cannot rest on a change of opinion where the Assessing Officer examined ownership, use and house-property treatment and adopted a plausible view. Explanation 2 to section 263 does not apply where genuine inquiry and verification occurred. Properties transferred by gift are not assessable in the transferor's hands. The revisional order was quashed.

MEIS duty credit scrips received under the Foreign Trade Policy 2015 are treated as revenue receipts taxable as income from assessment year 2016-17. Applying the purpose test, the rewards offset export-related costs and infrastructure inefficiencies and enable more profitable conduct of export business. Their computation by reference to completed exports, recurring nature, transferability and unrestricted usability support their revenue character; they are not linked to capital investment, establishment or expansion, nor earmarked for a capital purpose. Government assistance "by whatever name called" covers MEIS rewards, including grants or cash incentives, without limitation by ejusdem generis.

Rule 37BA(2) declaration requirements are procedural where a trust has offered interest income to tax and tax was deducted on that income under the trustee's PAN. The absence of the declaration or a corresponding Form 26AS entry in the trust's PAN does not, by itself, defeat substantive entitlement to TDS credit. Credit should be granted where the trust establishes that the income was included in its taxable return and the deducted tax relates to that income.

Reassessment founded solely on investigation material and statements already available during prior search assessment and revision proceedings constitutes reliance on stale material and a change of opinion. Repackaging existing information does not create fresh jurisdiction to reopen assessment. Where lender-company confirmations are obtained before issuing the reassessment notice but their responses are not addressed, the reopening lacks an adequate basis. Approval based on the same pre-existing material is mechanical and does not cure the jurisdictional defect. The reassessment proceedings and consequential additions were therefore deleted.

For a non-searched person, the block period for assessment under section 153C is computed from the date seized material is handed over to, or satisfaction is recorded by, the Assessing Officer having jurisdiction over that person, rather than from the search date. Applying that rule, the relevant assessment years fell outside the permissible period, making the assessments time-barred and depriving the Assessing Officer of valid jurisdiction. ITAT upheld the relief granted to the non-searched person and dismissed the Revenue's appeals, following Supreme Court and High Court precedent.

Condonation of delay requires sufficient cause founded on bona fide diligence and circumstances beyond the litigant's control. Voluntarily offering a receipt to tax, accepting the intimation, and remaining inactive for more than a decade did not meet that standard; awaiting litigation concerning another entity's registration, mistaken belief about registration, later legal developments, difficulty locating records, and professional consultation were insufficient. The inordinate delay in filing the first appeal was therefore not condoned, and the appeal was dismissed without considering the claimed exemption. The taxability of the one-time benefit remained open.

Section 153(5) applies where effect can be given without making a fresh assessment or reassessment. Where a Tribunal remand requires the Assessing Officer to undertake fresh consideration, the limitation period for fresh assessment under section 153(3) applies; the proviso to section 153(5) also covers matters requiring verification or an opportunity of hearing. Foreign currency may be treated as unexplained money where the taxpayer provides inconsistent explanations and fails to prove its source through satisfactory evidence, including acquisition from authorised dealers. FEMA confiscation for excess possession does not by itself establish the currency's source for income-tax purposes. The addition as deemed income and the associated tax treatment were sustained.

Section 115BBI applies only to income having the statutory character of specified income; an electronic-return reporting or computational mismatch does not create that character. Income validly accumulated for charitable purposes in an earlier year and applied during the relevant year remains outside that provision unless conditions governing the accumulation were breached or the income otherwise became specified income. Where return schedules and a revised audit report disclose the available accumulation and its application, section 143(1) processing cannot selectively rely on an omitted Schedule A entry while disregarding corresponding disclosures. The adjustment treating the applied accumulation as specified income was deleted.

Cost of improvement of a residential flat requires capital expenditure that adds to or alters the capital asset. Routine repairs and removable articles, including furnishings and de cor not embedded in the property, merely remain associated with the flat and do not qualify; their disallowance was sustained. The description assigned to an item is not conclusive for alleged permanent installations. Their eligibility depends on whether each item is capital in nature and forms an integral addition or alteration to the flat. As the installation and nature of the remaining items had not been examined item-wise, the claim was restored for verification of supporting material and a reasoned determination after hearing the taxpayer.