Cenvat credit apportionment for mixed taxable and exempt activities creates valuation and compliance ambiguity, prompting calls for clarification.
Rule 6 provides alternative compliance for mixed taxable and exempt activities: maintain separate accounts for inputs and input services under Rule 6(2), or if not maintained, make payments under Rule 6(3) either as a percentage of the value of exempted goods/services or by a formula based on total CENVAT credit and value of exempted production. Ambiguities include the undefined concept of a "separate account", infeasibility of bifurcating input services, the use of "total Cenvat Credit taken" versus distributable common credit, and the undefined "value of exempted goods and services", all of which have led to litigation and compliance burdens. (AI Summary)

Swachh Bharat Cess treated as service tax; CENVAT credit disallowed and payment must be made in cash.
Swachh Bharat Cess is levied as part of the service tax framework from 15 November 2015, with Chapter V provisions and related rules applying to its levy, valuation, exemptions, reverse charge and compliance; administrative FAQs clarify applicability. Cenvat credit for SBC is not permitted under existing rules and the cess must be paid in cash, while Point of Taxation rules for a new levy govern timing of liability. (AI Summary)

Constitutional authority for taxation requires statutory authorization and purposive interpretation to uphold legislative objects.
Constitutional authority supplies the power to levy and collect taxes; Article 265 requires that levy and collection be authorised by law and that taxation measures conform to constitutional limits. Interpretation of tax statutes must be structural and purposive: read provisions as a whole, apply plain meaning while reading between and through clauses to ascertain legislative intent, use explanations and provisos cautiously, and resort to construction only where ambiguity or inconsistency exists, using precedent and other interpretive aids. (AI Summary)

Bundled service treatment: demurrage for transport of national importance goods should be exempt from service tax as incidental storage.
Demurrage charged for detention/storage of goods in carriage beyond free time is incidental to transportation and, under the bundled services rule, naturally bundles with the principal transport service; therefore demurrage relating to carriage of commodities of national importance should be treated as part of the exempt transportation service, yet railway offices continue to levy service tax on demurrage, prompting a call for revenue clarification. (AI Summary)