Two Certainities

Articles by Rav Singh

Service Charge, its Similarity with Tax, and a ‘Double Whammy’ for Consumers: Some Thoughts

April 17, 2025June 24, 2025

Introduction The Delhi High Court (‘High Court’) recently ruled that levy of mandatory service charge by restaurants violates customer rights. The High Court’s reasoning, anchored in consumer protection laws, termed a mandatory service charge as deceptive and misleading for consumers. The High Court also made a few casual references to tax laws.… Read More »

Fraudulent Sale is Supply Under GST: Three Errors of the Advance Ruling

April 8, 2025June 27, 2025

A recent advance ruling by Gujarat AAR is a frustrating read. AAR held that sale by a seller constitutes as supply under GST laws even if the seller was defrauded and did not receive any consideration for such goods. In this article, I argue that there are three obvious errors in the… Read More »

Legislative Intent or Error: Puzzle of Indian Tax Policy

April 2, 2025June 24, 2025

Introductory Questions Let me start with a question: how does one discover legislative intent in a provision of tax statute? Through a plain reading of the provision or through a subsequent statement by the State’s legal counsel stating its intent? Positivist thinking would point us to the former, and rightly… Read More »

When A Princess Worried About Tax on Alimony

March 21, 2025March 21, 2025

All things in life have a tax angle, including alimony payments. In this article I elaborate on tax treatment of alimony payments under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘IT Act, 1961’). Upfront, these are the three takeaways from this article: first, a lump sum payment of alimony amount is not… Read More »

Tax Privacy: To Begin a Conversation …

March 11, 2025March 14, 2025

Income tax law is based on disclosing information to the State. Personal financial information. Bank account statements, investments, salary receipts, rent paid or received, medical expenses, money transferred to spouse, expenses of children, insurance premiums, political donations, charitable contributions to name a few. Each piece of information is necessary to… Read More »

Powers of Arrest under CGST Act, 2017 and Customs Act, 1962: Constitutionality and their Scope

March 3, 2025March 3, 2025

The Supreme Court in a recent judgment upheld the constitutionality of arrest-related provisions contained in Customs Act, 1962 and CGST Act, 2017. The Court also elaborated on the scope of arrest powers under CGST Act, 2017 and safeguards applicable to an arrestee. The judgment reiterates some well-established principles and clarifies the law… Read More »

Long Wait for GSTATs: July 2017 … and Counting.

February 24, 2025February 24, 2025

GSTATs have been envisaged as the first appellate forum under GST laws. And yet, 7.5 years since implementation of GST, not a single GSTAT is functioning. Reason? Many. Some are easy to identify, others are tough to understand. Nonetheless, here is a small story of the ill-fated GSTATs since the… Read More »

Income Tax Bill, 2025: In Search of a Big Idea

February 17, 2025February 17, 2025

The Department of Revenue claims that Income Tax Bill, 2025 – tabled in the Parliament on 13 February 2025 – marks a significant step towards simplifying the language and structure of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Does it? Yes. Was it needed? Yes. Is it a major reform? No, and herein lies… Read More »

Skeletal Timeline of Income Tax Reform in India

February 13, 2025February 13, 2025

1860-1886: Income tax was introduced in India for the first time in 1860 to overcome the financial difficulties due to First War of Independence of 1857. The period of 1860-1886 saw the Govt alternating between income tax and license tax as a source of revenue. Income tax became the preferred… Read More »

Why Should Tax Lawyers Care About the Annual Budget?

January 31, 2025January 31, 2025

Tax law, especially Indian tax law discussions are far too often contained by self-sustaining logic of statutory provisions and case laws. Tax lawyers, including me, feel validated and satisfied having decoded a particular judgment or the meaning of a provision. The satisfaction is often short lived because another judgment or… Read More »