[Yash Karunakaran is a 3rd year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.] While the aim behind the introduction of the Anti-Profiteering Rules, 2017 was to rein in possible price hikes during the introduction of the General Sales Tax (“GST”) regime, the hastily drafted parent act and the vague nature of the rules themselves have called into question the constitutional...
Vouchers under GST: Navigating a Grey Area
[Siddhant Bhasin is a third year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat] The use of vouchers has been on the rise, and a large number of transactions today are done through them. They are used in different contexts as – employee incentives, sales schemes and as discount offers. In most cases, there is an issuing party, the party that accepts the coupon for the said...
Taxing E-Commerce through State entry tax laws – a short-term revenue maximisation strategy
[The following is an article published in Business Standard today on the recent trend of taxing E-Commerce through entry tax – authored by Sudipta Bhattacharjee, Principal – Tax Controversy Management, Advaita Legal (views are personal). The final concluding paragraph was not part of the published article, and has been added for the sake of completeness.] ; Taxing E-Commerce through State...
Retailers Assoc. v. Union: Bombay High Court on Service Tax
In a previous post, I had briefly mentioned the judgment of a Division Bench (D.Y. Chandrachud and A.V.Mohta, JJ.) the Bombay High Court, where the constitutional validity of service tax on renting of immovable property was upheld. The judgment (Retailers Association v. Union of India) is available on the Bombay High Court website (linked here). A perusal of the judgment shows that three...
The Taxation of Sales Preceding Export Transactions – Part II
In the first part, I outlined the conflict between the ‘same goods’ and ‘inextricable connection’ test, witness in applying section 5(3) of the Central Sales Tax Act. The resolution of this conflict, mandated a reference to a Constitution Bench in Azad Coach Builders. On facts, the seller (Azad Coach Builders) has sold bus bodies to the exporter (TELCO), which were mounted on chassis made by the...
The Taxation of Sales Preceding Export Transactions – Part I
Last week, the Supreme Court decided an interesting issue relating to statutory interpretation, very similar to the issue which had arisen in Daga Capital, discussed earlier. The question which the Court in State of Karnataka v. Azad Coach Builders was the extent to which States may tax sales transactions which immediately precede an export/import transaction. The controversy arises because the...
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