Bimal Jain is a FCA, ACS & LLB with 21 Yrs of Experience.He is Chairman of Indirect Tax Committee of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Member of Indirect Tax Committee of ASSOCHAM/ FICCI / ICAI / ICSI and also of GST Group of ICAI/ ICSI. His core competency and area of expertise is Indirect Taxation, International Taxation, Corporate Taxation and specializes in all aspects of GST, Excise, Service Tax, Customs, Sales tax/ VAT laws, Free trade/ economic cooperation agreements, anti-dumping duty, foreign trade policy, etc., and carries a blend of industrial and professional experience. He has hands on experience in carrying out diagnostic review of business operations, opinion & advisory services, process review, structuring of business model, litigation services at all appropriate forum, representation before the TRU/ CBEC/ DGFT/ CBDT, etc. for various matters concerning to trade, industry and commerce. Contact: Bimal Jain Executive Consultants A2Z Taxcorp LLP I Tax and Law Practitioners Flat No. 34B, Ground Floor Mayur Vihar, Phase–I, Delhi – 110091 India Desktel:+91-11-22757595/42427056 Mobile:+91 9810604563 [email protected] www.a2ztaxcorp.com
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Showing 1 to 20 of 1857 Results
GST refund litigation fees are subject to professional conduct restrictions on success-based charges and cannot be unilaterally conditioned.
Rule 20 of the Bar Council of India Rules prohibits an advocate from stipulating a fee contingent on litigation results or agreeing to share its proceeds. A condition linking payment to receipt of a refund may therefore raise enforceability concerns. Chartered accountants face restrictions on percentage-of-profits and results-contingent fees, subject to limited exceptions under Regulation 192 of the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988. Privity may depend on evidence of direct engagement or engagement through an intermediary. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Input tax credit on resort construction remains blocked where the building is constructed for the operator's own business use.
Section 17(5)(d) blocks input tax credit on construction of resort or hotel buildings used as the taxpayer's own business setting, even where taxable accommodation, restaurant or event services are supplied. The retrospective substitution of plant and machinery for plant or machinery, together with the definition excluding buildings and civil structures, prevents treating the resort building as plant. Credit remains item-specific: construction inputs are blocked, whereas movable assets may qualify if invoice-wise evidence establishes that they were not used for construction. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Penalty-only GST appeals: prospective pre-deposit requirements raise vested-right and proper-officer jurisdiction questions during admission review.
Mandatory pre-deposit for GST penalty-only appeals is contested where the challenged order predates 1 October 2025. Before that date, pre-deposit was calculated by reference to tax in dispute, leaving penalty-only orders without a tax-based deposit amount except in detention cases. Amendments thereafter require 10% of the penalty at first appeal and an additional 10% for Tribunal appeal. The dispute raises whether this later condition applies retrospectively and whether valid proper-officer appointment is a jurisdictional issue. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Suppression in ITC claims requires evidence of deliberate tax evasion; audit non-response alone cannot justify extended proceedings.
Section 74 requires evidence that wrongful input tax credit availment resulted from fraud, wilful misstatement, or suppression of facts with intent to evade tax. Mere self-assessed availment of ineligible credit, an audit-related mismatch, or failure to reply to an audit enquiry or final audit report does not alone establish suppression. The Department must identify and prove the deliberate conduct relied upon. A show-cause notice confines the grounds of demand, and appellate or review proceedings cannot sustain a demand on a new ground absent from that notice. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Composition scheme lapse triggers regular-rate tax on post-threshold supplies, but invoice values require cum-tax treatment.
Exceeding the aggregate-turnover ceiling causes composition-scheme eligibility to lapse automatically from the breach date. Regular-rate tax applies only to post-lapse supplies, with adjustment of composition tax already paid. Because composition taxpayers cannot collect tax separately, invoice values are treated as tax-inclusive where no additional tax was recovered. Differential tax must therefore be recomputed using the Rule 35 cum-tax formula, even if the benefit was not claimed earlier. Transitional input tax credit remains conditional, time-bound and dependent on prescribed compliance. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Input tax credit reversals require transaction-specific inquiry and supplier-recovery assessment; supplier default alone cannot trigger mechanical denial.
Section 16(2)(c) of the CGST Act makes input tax credit conditional on actual payment of tax to the Government, but cannot be applied mechanically against a genuine purchasing dealer solely because a supplier defaults or faces retrospective registration cancellation. Before ITC reversal, the proper officer must examine the transaction's genuineness, the recipient's evidence, the supplier's default, available recovery action against the supplier, and any direct link between the recipient and fraud. Supplier cancellation, return discrepancies, or alerts may trigger inquiry but cannot independently justify denial. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Statutory personal hearing in adverse GST adjudication cannot be waived by selecting "No" in the reply form.
Personal hearing under Section 75(4) of the CGST Act is mandatory where an adverse decision is contemplated, regardless of a "No" selection in FORM GST DRC-06. Where FORM GST DRC-01 does not contain hearing particulars, the proper officer must separately communicate the date, time, and venue; reminders showing "N.A." do not provide an effective hearing. Section 75(6) additionally requires a reasoned order addressing relevant facts, the taxpayer's reply, and supporting material. For ITC eligibility, the recipient must establish actual movement of goods and transaction genuineness beyond invoices and banking payments. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Bill To-Ship To ITC eligibility requires statutory proof, not toll records or remote supplier defaults.
Input tax credit in Bill To-Ship To export transactions depends on statutory conditions and reliable evidence of receipt, transport and export, not on toll plaza records. Goods may be delivered directly to a ship-to location on the recipient's instructions and need not begin movement from the supplier's registered premises. Where the immediate supplier is registered and invoices, e-way bills, bilty copies, transporter confirmation, export records and banking evidence are undisputed, upstream supplier defaults alone do not transfer liability to the recipient. Appellate proceedings remain confined to the grounds contained in the show cause notice. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Reasonable period for GST tax-collection notices remains fact-dependent and is examinable through the statutory appellate remedy.
Section 76 requires amounts collected as tax to be remitted to the Government but sets no deadline for issuing a show cause notice, although an order must follow within one year of notice. The resulting reasonable-period inquiry is fact-dependent and can be examined in statutory appeal. Where detailed adjudication follows a taxpayer's reply and hearing, the alternative statutory remedy ordinarily remains the appropriate forum; writ intervention despite an available appeal is exceptional. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Construction ITC limitation may exclude bona fide litigation time when taxpayers pursue past-period GST credit claims.
Past-period construction ITC claims may be placed before the Adjudicating Authority with a request to exclude time spent in bona fide writ proceedings under Section 14 of the Limitation Act when applying the statutory ITC time limit. The claim is not automatic: eligibility requires factual application of the functionality test, compliance with other conditions, and consideration of the retrospective substitution of 'plant and machinery' in the own-account restriction. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
GST notice service requires consideration of alternative delivery modes when portal communications receive no taxpayer response.
GST notice service through the common portal is a recognised method under Section 169, but persistent non-response may require the proper officer to consider another prescribed mode, preferably registered post with acknowledgement due. Competing approaches treat portal-only service differently: one requires further steps where communication appears ineffective, while another regards any statutory mode as sufficient. The issue is linked to the taxpayer's opportunity for a personal hearing before an adverse determination. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
GST portal service validity remains unsettled where notices and orders appear in less visible portal tabs.
Validity of GST portal-based service is under examination where a show-cause notice and adjudication order were uploaded under less visible portal tabs. Section 169 of the CGST Act includes making communications available on the Common Portal among permitted service modes. Competing interpretations treat portal availability either as insufficient without effective communication or as an independent, complete mode of service. The issue bears on ex parte adjudication, recovery action, appeal limitation, and principles of natural justice. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
GST on in-patient medical supplies turns on whether they are independently taxable or integral to exempt health services.
GST treatment of medicines, consumables and medical devices supplied to in-patients depends on whether they are independently taxable supplies or integral components of exempt health services. Section 76 applies where an amount is collected as tax but is not paid to Government, irrespective of the taxability of the underlying supply. The inquiry requires invoices, procurement and tax-payment details, and the billing method, while distinguishing in-patient treatment supplies from standalone pharmacy sales on which GST is collected and remitted. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Penalty-only GST appeals: pre-deposit applicability turns on whether appellate rights vested before the amended regime.
GST appellate pre-deposit for penalty-only orders is disputed because the amended regime effective from October 1, 2025 contains no transitional provision. Earlier provisions tied pre-deposit to tax in dispute, so an order imposing penalty alone with no tax demand did not attract deposit. The central issue is whether the new penalty pre-deposit applies by reference to the show-cause notice commencing adjudication or to the date of filing the GSTAT appeal. An interim arrangement permits the GSTAT appeal to be entertained without pre-deposit pending determination. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Reasoned GST adjudication requires genuine consideration of taxpayer replies and evidence; unexplained rejection breaches natural justice despite appellate remedies.
GST adjudication must result in a reasoned or speaking order demonstrating genuine consideration of the taxpayer's reply, submissions, and supporting material. An order that merely records receipt of a reply but rejects it without addressing the contentions or documents relied upon lacks the reasons necessary to disclose application of mind. Availability of an alternative statutory appeal does not preclude writ jurisdiction where principles of natural justice are breached by a non-speaking order. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Sanctioned GST refunds require cash disbursement when business closure makes the electronic credit ledger unusable for the taxpayer.
Cash disbursement of a sanctioned GST refund is required where permanent business closure and surrender or cancellation of registration make re-credit of input tax credit in the Electronic Credit Ledger unusable. Although the normal refund mechanism releases only the cash-paid component in cash and re-credits the ITC-debited component, that mechanism presumes a going concern with future tax liabilities. Where the ledger has become non-functional, no statutory prohibition prevents payment of the sanctioned amount in cash or to the taxpayer's bank account, with applicable interest in accordance with law. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Currency seizure as evidence may continue beyond the notice period when classified as a thing rather than goods.
Currency seized as evidence of hawala transactions, illegal gratification, or fraudulent licence closures may be a thing under Section 110(3) rather than goods under Section 110(1). The six-month show-cause notice safeguard applies to goods seized for confiscation, not to documents or things useful or relevant to Customs proceedings. Retention of currency as evidentiary material has no prescribed outer time limit, but requires a bona fide seizure and demonstrable nexus to the investigation. (AI Summary)
Customs - Import - Export - SEZ
Proper officer authority in GST penalty proceedings preserves earlier pre-deposit rules for appeals from pre-cutoff show-cause notices.
Section 122 penalty notices issued before October 1, 2025 raise a function-specific proper officer question requiring examination of the statutory notifications, the later circular, and the relationship between Sections 73, 74 and 122. The objection is not treated as a patent absence of jurisdiction and may be examined in a Section 107 appeal along with natural justice, multiple-penalty and taxable-person grounds. Appeals arising from pre-October 1, 2025 show-cause notices remain governed by the earlier Section 107(6) pre-deposit framework, notwithstanding later adjudication orders. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
GST recovery from partners permits garnishee attachment of bank accounts after a firm's tax liability crystallises.
GST recovery against a partnership firm may extend personally to its partners once the firm's tax liability has crystallised. Joint and several liability permits recovery from an erstwhile partner for dues relating to the period during which that person was a partner. Garnishee proceedings may require a bank holding funds for a partner to remit amounts towards the firm's unpaid dues through Form GST DRC-13. This post-adjudication recovery mechanism differs from provisional attachment. Retirement does not remove liability for pre-retirement dues, and delayed retirement intimation may extend liability until received by the Commissioner. (AI Summary)
Goods and Services Tax - GST
Independent show cause notices permit separate adjudication unless an interim stay expressly extends to connected proceedings.
Separate show cause notices arising from a common customs investigation retain independent legal identity where they concern distinct subject matters and statutory consequences. Common assignment to one adjudicating authority and joint hearings are matters of administrative convenience and do not create a composite proceeding. An interim stay confined to one notice cannot be extended by implication to restrain adjudication under another notice. Challenges involving relied-upon material, hearing opportunity, limitation, extensions, or Call Book treatment may be examined through the statutory appellate process or before the competent forum. (AI Summary)
Customs - Import - Export - SEZ
TaxTMI 
05 Nov 2026 
