Tax
Union Budget 2026-27 And Access To Medicines
The Union Budget 2026-27 made two major announcements regarding medicines. First, it removed basic customs duty (BCD) on 17 cancer medicines. Second, it extended import duty exemptions to seven additional rare diseases for personal imports of drugs, medicines, and Food for Special Medical Purposes (FSMP). This is the third consecutive budget announcing BCD exemptions. In 2024, the BCD...
Asset Reconstruction Companies In India: High-Handedness, Judicial Reckoning, And Regulatory Reform
Anyone of us who have appeared before a Debt Recovery Tribunal, a High Court, or the NCLT in a Non-Performing Asset matter has, at some point, encountered an Asset Reconstruction Company on the other side of the record. They arrived with an ambitious mandate: to clean the Indian banking system's distressed debt backlog through professional, non-adjudicatory enforcement, free from the delays that frustrated bank-led recovery for decades. The Narasimham Committee I (1991) and Narasimham Committee...
'Marketing Labels Not Decisive For Tax Classification', Supreme Court Holds Rooh Afza Taxable As Fruit Drink
Observing that marketing labels cannot dictate a product's tax category, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (February 25) held 'Rooh Afza' to be a fruit-based beverage preparation intended for dilution, qualifying for a concessional tax rate of 4%, despite it being marketed as a 'Sharbat', which attracts a higher tax rate of 12.5%. “…once it is demonstrated that the product is a...
Rooh Afza To Be Classified As Fruit Drink/Processed Fruit Product And Taxed At 4% Under UP VAT Act : Supreme Court
The Supreme Court today held that “Sharbat Rooh Afza” is classifiable as a “fruit drink / processed fruit product” under Entry 103 of Schedule II, Part A of the Uttar Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2008 and is taxable at 4 percent.A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice R Mahadevan set aside Allahabad High Court's judgment that had held that Rooh Afza has to be classified under...
Insurer Cannot Demand Proof Of Source Of Income Beyond ITR In Accident Claim: J&K&L High Court
The Jammu & Kashmir High Court held that once the income of a deceased victim is duly proved through Income Tax Returns (ITR), the Insurance Company cannot insist on separate proof of the source of such income in motor accident compensation proceedings.A bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar Shukla, Justice Sanjay Parihar observed that neither the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) nor...
No Provision For Deducting GST, Incentive Or Festival Advance From Employee's Retiral Dues: Allahabad High Court
The Allahabad High Court has observed that there is no provision for deducting "Prostsahan Agrim" (incentive advance), "Tyohar Agrim" (festival advance) and GST from the retiral dues of an employee of the U.P. State Employees Welfare Corporation.Expressing shock that such deductions were being made from the retiral dues of an employee, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal observed,“This Court...
Beyond Kartavya: Union Budget 2026 And The Legal Quietude
The Union Budget is no longer a neutral fiscal statement confined to revenue and expenditure. It has become a central instrument through which governance priorities are asserted, social choices are structured, and constitutional values are indirectly shaped. Union Budget 2026-27 must therefore be read not merely as an economic exercise, but as a document of constitutional consequence....
Supreme Court Rejects Plea For Safeguards Against Inadvertent TDS Default By Buyers In Property Purchases Above Rs. 50 Lakh
The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking directions to introduce safeguards so that property buyers do not unknowingly default on their obligation to deduct and deposit tax at source while purchasing property valued at more than Rs. 50 lakhs.A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta heard the matter.Section 194IA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 requires a buyer of...
Understanding Secondment Under The GST Regime In India
In recent years, several Indian subsidiaries of multinational corporations have received show cause notices (SCNs) from GST authorities seeking to levy tax on salaries paid to employees seconded from foreign group entities. These notices, typically issued under the reverse charge mechanism (RCM), proceed on the premise that secondment arrangements amount to a supply of manpower services by...
Appeal Without Remedy: GST Appellate System's Fatal Flaw
When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) launched in July 2017, policymakers hailed it as a "good and simple tax" to streamline compliance and unify India's fractured indirect tax landscape. Eight years later, however, a glaring procedural defect in its appellate framework forces taxpayers into a grim dilemma: accept flawed orders or endure endless restarts. Under Section 107(11) of the...
