Indirect Tax

The Karnataka Appellate Authority for Advance Rulings (AAAR) has upheld the ruling of the Karnataka Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) in the application filed by Columbia Asia Hospitals Pvt. Ltd. (Applicant). The AAR had ruled that the activities carried out by employees of the Corporate office (CO) of the Applicant for the Applicant’s branch offices would be taxable as supplies between distinct persons.

The Delhi High Court, vide its judgment in the case of Vodafone Mobile Services Limited v Commissioner of Service Tax, Delhi (2018-VIL-506-DEL-CE), dated 31 October 2018 has allowed CENVAT credit on telecom towers and related shelters, accessories, etc., thereby taking a contradictory position to that of the Bombay High Court’s judgment in Bharti Airtel Limited v Commissioner of Central Excise (2014 (35) STR 865 (Bom)) (Bharti Airtel).

The Ministry of Finance, vide Notification No. 50/2018-Central Tax and Notification No. 51/2018-Central Tax, both dated 13 September 2018, has appointed 1 October 2018 as the day on which the provisions relating to the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) under Section 51 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act (CGST Act) and Tax Collected at Source (TCS) under Section 52 of the CGST Act will come in000to effect.

Recently, the provisions of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (IGST Act), the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act), the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act, 2018 (UTGST Act) and the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 have been amended by the Parliament. The amendment acts of 2018 have received Presidential assent on 29 August 2018. The amendments shall come in force on the date as notified by the Central Government.

The Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR) in the state of Karnataka, in its order in Columbia Asia Hospitals Private Limited (the Applicant) dated 27 July 2018, made critical observations concerning the taxability of employee cost at a corporate office under Goods and Services Tax (GST).

On 30 July 2018, the constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India (Court), in Commissioner of Customs (Import), Mumbai (Appellant) v Dilip Kumar and Company & Ors. (Respondent) [Civil Appeal No. 3327 OF 2007], has pronounced the principles for the interpretation of exemption notifications in taxation statues.

The GST Council recommended amendments in the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act 2017, Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act 2017, Union Territory Goods and Services Tax (UTGST) Act 2017 and the GST (Compensation to States) Act. The aforesaid recommendations will be placed before the Parliament and various States / Union Territory legislat