The Constitution (One-Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014 currently pending consideration of the Parliament seeks to usher a new indirect tax regime in India purported as the ‘Goods and Service Tax' The avowed intent of this Amendment Bill, in terms of its “Statement of Objects...

Comparatively a recent entrant in the fiscal space, 'Service Tax' in India has garnered legislative and judicial attention more than its fair share. Given its contribution to the public exchequer and fueled by the consistent increase in collection, the legal and constitutional challenges to the...

Traditionally indirect taxes are linked with transactions in goods or services and understood as those taxes the incidence of which can be passed on to the buyer by the person required to defray the tax to the exchequer. Excise duties, customs duties, sales taxes, etc. are illustration of such...

The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016 [‘Constitution Amendment Act'], paving the way for the transformation of the indirect-tax regime in the India, came into force in September, 2016. The enabling legislations were passed by the Union Parliament and State Legislatures...

The reform process for the indirect taxation regime in India has been ongoing for some time, with the prevailing view being that simplification of tax regime and a principle-laden approach was an essential concomitant in the outlook of a developed nation. Much debate has ensued and during the...

In an earlier article titled as ‘Service Tax on Lawyers: A levy short lived?' [Excise and Customs Reporter Vol. 191(4), pp. 55SF-60SF] I had an occasion to point out that the levy of service tax on individual lawyers was an experiment out of the various experiments conducted by the Government...

The history of ever expanding horizon of service tax law in India has extensive sub-chapters of its own. The levy being unique and unprecedented in the country, the Finance Act, 1994 has made a number of experiments for the levy and collection of service tax from various sectors. Sometimes owing...

Taxation, as the right of every sovereign, has always witnessed constant repulsion and challenge by the subjects in as much as taxation per se is a compulsory exaction by the State . Any rationale for the compulsory acquisition notwithstanding, the sovereign State is often at odds with other...

In a recent decision Shields & Sons Partnership - C-262/16 the European Court of Justice (‘ECJ') has adverted to the nuances of composition scheme in the context of Value Added Tax models. This decision examines the rationale for introduction of such scheme, which is the administrative...