Place of supply for road goods transport determines whether recipient or supplier bears GST liability based on recipient status.
Place of supply for road transportation services is determined by the recipient's status: for services to a registered person the place of supply is the location of that registered person; for services to an unregistered person it is the location where the goods are handed over for transportation. Who pays freight determines the recipient for place of supply purposes, and this allocation controls whether tax is intra state or inter state and whether reverse charge or the supplier's option to pay applies. (AI Summary)

Transition of education and related cesses: denial of carryforward as ineligible duties under GST restricts input credit claims.
The Madras High Court held that unutilised Education Cess, Secondary and Higher Education Cess and Krishi Kalyan Cess could not be carried forward or set off against GST output liability under Section 140 of the CGST Act, 2017 because they were not eligible duties for transitional credit. The author contests this, citing prior TRU explanatory notes, Tribunal decisions on Cenvat utilization, notifications and circulars indicating subsumption or continuation, and argues restriction on cross utilisation alone should not render an otherwise eligible duty ineligible. (AI Summary)

Input Tax Credit entitlement for registered persons requires stock on registration rules, one year invoice limitation, and prescribed credit reversals.
Only a registered person may claim Input Tax Credit; persons registering because turnover exceeds thresholds or by voluntary registration may claim ITC for inputs, inputs in semi finished or finished goods and capital goods held in stock immediately before becoming liable to tax. ITC must be claimed within one year of the invoice date. Capital goods are adjusted by a prescribed quarterly percentage when reversing credit; transfers of business permit transfer of unutilised ITC only where liability transfer is provided for. Proper tax invoices and supplier return filing are prerequisites to claim ITC. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit restrictions clarified: blocked categories defined and special monthly option set for banking and financial entities.
Section 17 prescribes that ITC is restricted to the portion attributable to business use or to taxable supplies (including zero-rated), with Rule 42 governing apportionment; banks and financial institutions may elect a monthly fifty percent claim mechanism subject to conditions. A statutory negative list blocks ITC for specified categories-notably motor vehicles and conveyances except when used for further taxable supply, passenger or goods transport, or training-and for hospitality services, club memberships, certain insurance and rent-a-cab services (with limited exceptions), works contracts and construction for own account, composition and most non-resident supplies, personal consumption, and losses or gifts, with prescribed reversal and capitalization rules. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit entitlement conditioned on invoice, receipt, payment to supplier and timely return filing under GST.
ITC under GST is available to a registered person only where input tax relates to goods or services used or intended for business, the recipient holds prescribed tax invoices or debit notes and has received the supplies, the tax on such supplies has been actually paid to the government (or utilizable as admissible ITC), and the recipient has filed the required returns; special rules apply to installments, reversal where payment to supplier is not made within the prescribed period, capital goods and depreciation, and a statutory time limit for claiming credit in the relevant annual return period. (AI Summary)

Online acceptance of LUTs via ARN raises legal questions about circulars' force and portal-driven compliance burdens.
Operational and legal frictions persist: the GST common portal's limited capacity and technical failures hinder timely online compliance; online filing of LUTs generates an ARN and is treated as deemed to be accepted by Circulars, raising questions about the legal force of Circulars versus Notifications; GSTR 2 and GSTR 3 filings were placed in abeyance while GSTR 1 imposes heavy manual data burdens on taxpayers; and cancellation orders for migrated registrants are being delayed despite rules requiring issuance within 30 days. (AI Summary)

IGST refund for exports: procedural errors and drawback treatment are causing withheld refunds and blocked appeal rights
Refund of integrated tax on exports requires the shipping bill to serve as the refund application and for exporters to have furnished valid GSTR-3/GSTR-3B returns; nonetheless, portal and Customs processing often withhold refunds where shipping bill or return errors (e.g., GSTIN mismatch SB003 or misallocated IGST entries) occur, and available guidance lacks practical steps when shipping bills cannot be amended post-declaration. Drawback claims are deducted from refund calculation and can render bills ineligible, while authorities frequently withhold refunds without issuing formal rejection orders, depriving exporters of appeal rights and creating procedural uncertainty. (AI Summary)