Minimum Support Price guarantee impractical; area and crop based direct payments with crop insurance proposed instead.
The article argues that a statutory Minimum Support Price guarantee is impracticable because government procurement covers only a small share of production, large-scale procurement would impose storage, fiscal and disposal problems, and criminalising sub-MSP transactions would create grey markets, depress net prices for distressed sellers, and enable harassment. Instead, it advocates targeted support based on area, crop and location of cultivation verified by geo-tagging, combined with expanded crop insurance, removal of input subsidies in favour of direct area-based payments, and promotion of agro-processing to stabilise farmer incomes. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit fraud in scrap supply can be halted by exempting trader supplied scrap or imposing a token tax rate.
The document explains that taxing melting scrap supplied by unorganised traders creates an economic incentive for fraudulent invoice chains and misuse of electronic input tax credit. It argues that exempting trader-supplied melting scrap from GST, or alternatively reducing the tax to a token rate, will eliminate the evadable tax pool, stop fraudulent credit injection, increase real cash tax receipts, and protect bona fide secondary steel manufacturers from undue enforcement actions. (AI Summary)

RSP-based valuation for tobacco risks being ultra vires; revise abatement to align excise with factory-gate transaction value.
The article examines the post GST dispute over whether excise/NCCD on chewing tobacco should be valued by transaction value at factory gate or by RSP based valuation preserved via an earlier notification; it argues the unchanged 55% abatement cannot absorb combined excise, NCCD and GST compensation cess burdens, rendering the RSP abatement arbitrary and incompatible with excise valuation principles, and recommends revising the abatement to about eighty percent or adopting uniform transaction value assessment. (AI Summary)

Sabka Vishwas scheme limits amount payable to tax dues less tax relief; including redemption fine contradicts the statutory scheme.
SVLDRS requires payment of the statutorily defined amount payable-expressed as Tax Dues less Tax Relief-and the discharge certificate upon payment is conclusive and bars reopening; inclusion of redemption fine in the amount payable or blanket ineligibility for SCNs not demanding duty contradicts the scheme's definitions and eligibility provisions. (AI Summary)

Lapsing of Input Tax Credit challenged as beyond refund powers, risking extinguishment of vested credit rights.
Notification No. 20/2018-C.T. (Rate) treats denial of refund for accumulated ITC as lapsing of the underlying credit, but the statutory proviso empowering denial of refunds is limited to specifying supplies ineligible for conversion of accumulated credit into cash. That power does not authorise extinguishing the substantive, vested right to claim and utilise ITC; denial of refund leaves credit available for discharge of tax liabilities via the electronic credit ledger and rejected refund amounts must be re credited, so equating refund denial with lapsing is beyond the statute and constitutionally problematic. (AI Summary)

Criminal liability in indirect tax laws risks routine prosecution; propose a monetary threshold and noncognizable, bailable treatment.
The article identifies that indirect tax statutes impose criminal liability for tax shortfalls irrespective of amount and that amendments have rendered a large class of offences cognizable and non bailable, permitting departmental-initiated criminal investigation and arrest without prior trial court sanction. It proposes two reforms: a monetary threshold below which criminal liability will not arise, and restoration of non cognizable, bailable status for offences that currently attract criminal prosecution, to reinstate judicial oversight and curb abusive use of prosecutorial powers. (AI Summary)