CENVAT credit distributed by a principal manufacturer through input service distributor invoices may be availed by an authorised contract manufacturing unit operating under a registration-exemption notification in the pre-1 April 2016 regime. Rule 7 permitted credit distribution to manufacturing units without requiring that they be owned by the distributor. Where the contract manufacturer produced goods exclusively for the principal, discharged excise duty on the principal's assessable value, and the input services formed part of that value, the credit remained available. This approach prevents cascading of duties and taxes on dutiable final products.

Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) T1 applications may be filed online through a web-based facility. Applicants must register using prescribed details, verify registration through OTP, log in using emailed credentials, complete Annexure 1 and Annexure 2, upload supporting documents and the required declaration, review the application, and submit it online. Submitted applications undergo Customs scrutiny and approval or rejection, with approved applications proceeding for digitised certificate generation and delivery. Manual filing and processing continue concurrently until 31.03.2019 during the transition to online processing.

Central Government designation of the Press Information Bureau Fact Check Unit establishes that unit as the Central Government's fact check unit for purposes of the specified intermediary due-diligence provision under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The designation applies in relation to any business of the Central Government.

Intermediaries must publish user-facing terms, prohibit specified unlawful content, operate grievance channels, remove or disable unlawful information upon qualifying court or government action, preserve specified records, and provide lawful investigative assistance. Significant social media intermediaries additionally require India-based compliance, nodal and grievance officers, monthly compliance reporting, complaint tracking, notice and dispute processes for voluntary removals, and voluntary account verification. Messaging services must identify the first originator only under qualifying judicial or competent-authority orders, subject to necessity and less-intrusive-means safeguards.

Reassessment proceedings under the amended framework require prior compliance with Section 148A, including an opportunity for the assessee, and must use the faceless mechanism. A jurisdictional assessing officer cannot initiate reopening under the former procedure after that framework applies. Reopening commenced under the unamended process, without the mandatory preliminary procedure and faceless route, is without jurisdiction and unsustainable in law.

Disallowance of expenditure relating to exempt income does not arise where no exempt income is earned in the relevant assessment year; revenue circulars do not alter that settled position. Compensation paid to secure an occupant's vacation of premises and obtain limited leave-and-licence use is revenue expenditure where it enables only temporary use and creates no enduring capital advantage. Both principles support the assessee's treatment of the expenditure.

Revised All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback neutralise Customs duties on export inputs and residual Central Excise duty on specified petroleum products. Claims under the standard AIRs must use tariff item suffix "B", while alternative AIRs for garment exports under Special Advance Authorization require suffix "D". Rates have been increased or rationalised across identified product sectors based on changes in duty structure, prices, and import intensity. New tariff items and appropriate duty drawback caps have also been introduced.

Digitisation of the AEO programme permits electronic filing and processing of AEO-T1 applications, including online delivery of digitised AEO certificates. Manual filing and processing remain available until 31 March 2019 to facilitate transition without delay. AEO-T1 and AEO-T2 certificates have a uniform three-year validity, with AEO-T1 onsite PCA and periodic status review operating on a three-year cycle. AEO-T3 and AEO-LO status reviews occur every five years.

Conditional stays of tax demand may continue on reduced payment terms where recorded financial hardship justifies modifying an earlier deposit condition. Despite non-compliance with the original payment direction, the required deposit was reduced from Rs. 40,00,000 to Rs. 25,00,000, payable in three instalments. Upon payment, the stay petitions before the Tribunal stand allowed, and recovery of the demand remains stayed until disposal of the related appeals.

Online gaming intermediaries enabling permissible online real money games must display a visible verification mark, disclose deposit, withdrawal, winnings, charge, identity-verification and deposit-protection information, and must not provide or facilitate credit for gaming. A permissible online real money game requires verification by a designated online gaming self-regulatory body. Verification depends on absence of wagering on an outcome and compliance with due-diligence obligations, contractual-age requirements, and safeguards addressing user harm, children, addiction, financial loss, and fraud.

Online goods registration through ICEGATE may be sought by importers and Customs Brokers through their website login for eligible Bills of Entry. Applications may be made after applicable duties have been paid and the goods have arrived at the customs station. ICEGATE verifies whether a Bill of Entry is eligible and ready for registration, and displays a specific error where registration cannot proceed because of ineligibility or non-readiness.

Reasonable cause arising from ill-health supports condonation of a short delay in filing a first appeal, enabling adjudication on merits. An appeal should not be dismissed ex parte for failure to cure notified defects unless the appellant has received adequate opportunity to comply and be heard, consistent with natural justice. Where these procedural safeguards are absent, both appeals require fresh merits adjudication: the first after condoning the delay and the second after providing a reasonable hearing opportunity.

Advance debiting or defacement of country-of-origin certificates before registration is confined to fully facilitated Bills of Entry not prescribed for assessment or examination. Bills of Entry sent for assessment must follow the established Assessment Group procedure. Stakeholders must generate IRN and DRN for uploaded documents and link additional documents to the relevant Bill of Entry. Country-of-origin certificates, IGCRD intimations, and similar documents debited or defaced by groups should be uploaded in e-Sanchit before registration.

Arm's-length pricing requires independent international transactions to be benchmarked separately unless they are demonstrably closely linked; one most appropriate method must be selected, and comparable-price and net-margin evidence requires verification before recomputation. Commission paid to foreign agents for services rendered outside India does not require withholding where the income is not chargeable to tax in India, preventing corresponding disallowance. Export-sale-linked additional consideration and business-nexus interest form eligible undertaking profits for the export deduction. Unit-specific expenses may be directly allocated and common expenses apportioned by quantities sold; an allocation error alone does not justify rejecting books. A corrected computation of an existing export-deduction claim may be considered without a revised return.

Country-of-origin benefit claims in Bills of Entry require advance debiting of the original country-of-origin certificate before Bill of Entry registration. The importer or customs broker must submit the hard copy of the Bill of Entry and original certificate for debiting, then upload the debited certificate through e-Sanchit. Officers must verify the electronically uploaded certificate before granting out-of-charge clearance, avoiding removal of such Bills of Entry from the clearance queue.

Counterclaims operate as cross-suits, and their conclusive adjudication is a decree even without a separately drawn formal decree. Order 20 Rule 19(2) CPC facilitates appeals from decrees involving counterclaims but does not authorise one composite appeal against distinct adjudications of the suit and counterclaim. Separate appeals are therefore required for each adverse adjudication. This differs from genuinely consolidated suits tried as one proceeding on common issues and evidence, where one appeal may be competent. An unchallenged adjudication becomes final and may trigger res judicata, waiver, estoppel or acquiescence; the contrary approach is not good law.

GST registration cancellation based on undisclosed site-visit material, photographs, electricity consumption, or allegations beyond the show-cause notice breaches principles of natural justice because the taxpayer lacks a real and effective opportunity to respond. Availability of revocation under Section 30 does not bar recourse to writ jurisdiction where such breach is total. Retrospective cancellation also requires prior notice that retrospective action is proposed. Registration was to be restored, without preventing issuance of a fresh show-cause notice where warranted.

Alternative statutory remedy under Section 30 permits the statutory authority to consider challenges to GST registration cancellation, including alleged lack of hearing and breach of natural justice. Writ jurisdiction need not be exercised where revocation proceedings provide that avenue. The writ petition challenging cancellation was dismissed without adjudicating either the cancellation's validity or the natural-justice allegations.

Taxpayers claiming that property-related payments were funded by loans must establish receipt and source through confirmations or other reliable evidence. Failure to substantiate loan funding can leave the payment unexplained and support an addition. Expenditure on ground levelling and compound-wall construction requires evidence of its source, invoices, purchased materials, payees and payment trail. Where these elements are not satisfactorily established, section 69C treats the outlay as unexplained expenditure chargeable to tax. Property-improvement claims therefore require documentary proof both of funding and of actual expenditure.

Where assessment of imported furnace oil, fuel oil or waste oil requires hazardous or non-hazardous testing, three samples must be drawn. One sample is tested by the JNCH laboratory for all test-memo requirements except hazardous character, while a second sample is sent to a nominated laboratory solely for hazardous-character testing at the importer's or owner's cost. Assessment may proceed without the second report if the first report excludes off-specification fuel oil, furnace oil or waste oil; otherwise, both reports are required.