GST structure: CGST and SGST impose tax on intra state supplies while IGST governs inter state transactions.
GST replaces excise, service tax and VAT by taxing supply through CGST, SGST and IGST; intra state supplies attract CGST+SGST, inter state supplies attract IGST. ITC is available to registered taxpayers above the exemption threshold and is accounted separately for IGST, CGST and SGST with a prescribed order of utilisation (IGST applied to IGST then CGST then SGST; CGST applied to CGST then IGST; SGST only to SGST). ITC is denied for supplies from composition taxpayers. Registration is PAN based, returns are electronic and credit matching controls entitlement. (AI Summary)

Intermediary services deemed provided where agent is located, removing reverse charge liability for recipient in India.
An agent who arranges or facilitates the supply of goods on behalf of a principal without supplying on his own account is an intermediary and, under the Place of Provision Rules, the intermediary service is treated as provided at the agent's location; therefore a foreign agent's services are outside India's reverse charge liability, while an Indian intermediary providing consignment agency services to a foreign principal is treated as providing the service in India and is subject to service tax. (AI Summary)

Place of removal concept secures cenvat credit for MRP valued FMCG up to the place of removal.
The amendment to the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 inserts a definition of place of removal mirroring section 4 to include factory premises, warehouses and depots; consequently, MRP-based FMCG products are entitled to cenvat credit of input services up to the specified place of removal, resolving prior ambiguity between section 4A valuation and cenvat credit availability. (AI Summary)

Deposit requirement for appeals now conditions appeal eligibility, raising recovery and procedural clarity concerns.
The Finance (No.2) Act, 2014 removes stay-related provisos from section 35C and substitutes section 35F to make payment of a prescribed deposit a mandatory eligibility condition for filing appeals before the Commissioner (Appeals) or the Tribunal, subject to a monetary cap and a transitional exemption for pending cases; the amendment does not expressly stay recovery of any balance demand and raises practical questions about deposit interaction between successive appeals and the need for CBEC clarification. (AI Summary)

Reverse Charge Mechanism: recipient remains liable for service tax on road transport even if no consignment note issued.
The note explains that under the Reverse Charge Mechanism the recipient who pays freight (including specified classes such as factories, societies, cooperative societies, registered dealers, bodies corporate, and partnership firms) bears the service tax liability under Notification No. 35/2004. It reviews the Coromandel CESTAT decision that absence of a consignment note does not relieve the recipient of RCM liability, but observes that creation of a separate exempt category for transport of goods by road except GTA after 30 June 2012 may place non-consignment-note transporters within an exempt class, creating post-2012 divergence from Coromandel. (AI Summary)

Intermediary services: provider location rules can place taxation on the service provider or trigger reverse charge on the recipient.
The 2014 amendment broadened the definition of intermediary and, under Place of Provision Rules, treats intermediary services as provided at the location of the service provider. Consequently, a sub agent is deemed to provide services in its own jurisdiction and is generally outside India's reverse charge when located abroad, whereas a foreign agent who provides the main service on his own account remains subject to reverse charge by the Indian recipient. Whether reverse charge applies depends on the contractual arrangement (bipartite vs tripartite), identity of the service recipient, and the place/location rules for the provider. (AI Summary)