Income Tax – Reassessment under Section 147/148 of Income Tax Act – Report of District Valuation Officer (DVO) not sufficient basis for reopening assessment – Held: Sole reliance on DVO report without proper application of mind by the Assessing Officer (AO) invalidates reassessment proceedings – No proper analysis of petitioner’s declared property values under "F...
Taxation Law - Customs Law – Duty Drawback – Recovery Proceedings Against Deceased Sole Proprietor – Recovery proceedings initiated against a deceased person under the Customs Act, 1962, for non-realization of export proceeds – Petitioner, the wife of the deceased, challenged the recovery notice on the grounds that no recovery can be made from legal heirs without legal step...
Income Tax Law – Reopening of Assessment – Sections 147 and 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 – Whether reopening based on "change of opinion" without new tangible material is valid – Held, reopening was invalid due to lack of new material. The Court referred to CIT v. Kelvinator of India Ltd., noting that mere change of opinion cannot justify reopening an assessmen...
Customs Law – Service of Show Cause Notice (SCN) – Petitioner argued that SCN was improperly served via a non-government email service (Gmail), violating the E-mail Policy of India. High Court held that the SCN was validly served under Section 153 of the Customs Act, 1962, as there is no statutory requirement to use only government email services. The court noted that the petitioner...
Tax Law – Penalty for Undervaluation of Goods – Punjab VAT Act, 2005 – Appeals challenging the imposition of penalties under Section 51(7)(b) of the Punjab VAT Act for undervaluation of medicines imported into Chandigarh from Himachal Pradesh. The Checking Officer detained the goods, observing that the prices mentioned on the invoice were disproportionately lower than the Maximum...
Property Tax – Liability of Subsequent Owner – High Court directed Rajkot Municipal Corporation (Appellant) to refund a portion of property tax paid by Avenue Supermarts Limited (Respondent No. 2) related to arrears prior to the acquisition of ownership – Appellant's argument based on Sections 139 and 140 of the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporation Act, 1949 (GPMC Act) th...
Taxation Law – VAT and Taxable Turnover – Appeal concerning the computation of taxable turnover under the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (GVAT Act) – Dispute over whether VAT paid and purchases on which no tax credit was claimed should be included in the taxable turnover – High Court and Tribunal ruled in favor of excluding these amounts – Supreme Court affirmed th...
Octroi Duty – Valuation Methodology – Petitioner challenges the levy of octroi based on MRP less ad hoc deductions as per Rule 2(7)(b) of Octroi Rules, 1965 – Argument that determination should be based on invoice value under Rule 2(7)(a) – Court finds Petitioner's protest against levy from 2001 and subsequent Small Causes Court appeals favoring Petitioner’s conte...
Customs Duty – Redemption of Confiscated Goods – Whether customs duty is payable when confiscated goods are redeemed after payment of fine under Section 125 of the Customs Act – Held, duty liability arises upon exercise of option to pay fine for redemption – Duty must be assessed under Section 28 – Interest on delayed payment under Section 28AB applicable – [Par...
Income Tax – Transfer Pricing Adjustments – Royalty Payments – The ITAT deleted the TP adjustments of INR 1,99,57,161/- related to royalty payments made by Samsung India to its parent company – ITAT found that Samsung India operates as a full-fledged licensed manufacturer and not as a contract manufacturer – Royalty payments were made for technical know-how and expert...