Customs notifications: enforceability requires official publication, not mere issuance, to preserve taxpayer certainty and predictability.
The article explains that although the 2016 amendment to Section 25(4) deems a notification's date of issuance to be its enforcement date, courts have consistently held that a notification cannot impose obligations before it is published and accessible in the Official Gazette or its official electronic equivalent; publication, not mere issuance, is the operative trigger for enforceability to preserve taxpayer certainty and notice. (AI Summary)

GST interest and penalty waiver: pay outstanding tax by the notified deadline to obtain conditional waiver and conclude proceedings.
A statutory amnesty grants conditional waiver of interest and/or penalty where taxpayers facing specified GST demands pay the full tax due by the notified deadline and comply with prescribed procedural conditions. Eligible persons include those subject to show cause notices, adjudication orders or appellate orders for the covered periods, with exclusions for erroneous refund demands and unwithdrawn appeals or writs. A detailed rule prescribes application forms, timelines, officer actions, deemed conclusions, restoration mechanics for withdrawn appeals, and conditions that can void the waiver if additional payments required on re determination or appeal are not timely made. (AI Summary)

Cross empowerment under GST determines whether centre or state officers can exercise enforcement across administrative assignments.
The article explains that Sections 3-6 of Chapter II of the CGST Act and corresponding SGST/IGST provisions provide for cross empowerment whereby officers appointed under one enactment are authorised to act as proper officers under the other "subject to such conditions as the Government shall, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, specify." Section 6(2) prescribes that a single officer can issue orders under both Acts, parallel proceedings are barred, and appellate/rectification streams follow the officer who passed the order. The core controversy is whether cross empowerment operates by statute absent a notification or requires a notification as a condition precedent. (AI Summary)

Amnesty scheme for export obligation defaults allows payment of exempted duties with interest capped and streamlined closure.
The Amnesty Scheme allows one time settlement of export obligation defaults by paying exempted customs duties proportional to unfulfilled obligations with reduced interest: no interest on Additional Customs Duty and Special Additional Customs Duty and interest on remaining duties capped at 100%. Eligible authorizations (including adjudicated or appealed cases) may be regularized except where investigations, fraud, misdeclaration or unauthorized diversion are involved or where duty plus interest is already paid. Applicants must register on the DGFT website, declare amounts via the Redemption Matrix, pay Customs, submit proof, and obtain an EODC within the prescribed deadlines. (AI Summary)

Composition levy eligibility expanded to include goods supplied via e-commerce, alongside ITC and registration reforms.
Proposed amendments expand composition levy eligibility to suppliers of goods via electronic commerce operators, introduce ECO-specific penalties, clarify ITC recovery by requiring payment of ITC with interest to the supplier when the recipient fails to pay, treat certain Schedule III activities (including warehoused goods before home-consumption clearance) as exempt supplies for ITC restriction when notified, disallow ITC for expenditures on corporate social responsibility, impose three-year limits on filing various returns (subject to extension), decriminalise certain offences, enable prescribed interest computation on delayed refunds, permit portal data-sharing with consent, and amend IGST OIDAR and place-of-supply rules. (AI Summary)