Beyond the Cover
- A detailed, focused and penetrative section-wise, internet-age commentary on the CGST Act, IGST Act and GST (Compensation to /States) Act based on judgments of the courts and advance ruling authorities.
- Designed to give quick answers to busy GST adjudicators and GST practitioners without wading through detailed judgements and circulars.
- Authored by Sr Advocate of the Supreme Court with 40+ years of Litigation expertise.
- Vexed issues of classification are dealt in a separate chapter with goods and services arranged alphabetically under their common names.
- The commentary guides the reader on issues not yet decided by the Supreme Court or the High Courts.
- The book incorporates the amendments made by the Finance Act, 2023, the CGST (Amendment) Act, 2023 and the IGST (Amendment) Act 2023.
- Taxation of supplies in casinos, racecourses and online gaming has been addressed in a separate chapter.
- Relevant decisions reported in GSTR up to 31 July 2023 have been added in the book.
Excerpted from the Foreword
"The assessment of the statutory provisions, its strength and weaknesses, identifying the salient features and objectively analyzing it, the entire book unravels an insider's account that reflects encyclopaedic labour and rectitude of the highest caliber. The Constitutional Dialogue covering cooperative Federalism and the decision making process of the GST council without outweighing the role assigned to the Centre and States, the book encaptures the scripted role reaching an analysis that is yet to be fully explored by courts of law. It is an indispensable Bench-book that can help as a path-finder, as it examines the challenges that have emerged before the courts which they are called upon to resolve."
Justice A.P. Sahi, Director,
National Judicial Academy, Bhopal
Former Chief Justice of Patna and Madras High Courts
"The commentary by Ramakrishnan on the Goods and Services Act stands alone from the rest of the books written on GST. Ramakrishnan has taken pains to analyse the Sections, giving deep insights, and has given comments on some of the important judgments of the courts. This is a refreshingly different approach than other books on GST. The distinctive feature of this book; lucidity and free-flowing narration, makes this book more readable. This will be very useful for legal practitioners and Courts."
“I commend the efforts of Ramakrishnan in writing this wonderful book on GST.”
V. Lakshmikumaran, Managing Partner, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys
"The book is special as it explores what is 'beyond the obvious' and hence is different from the plethora of books written on Indian GST. The key concepts of GST have been lucidly explained with reference to past jurisprudence without going much into mirage of notifications, circulars and amendments. As the author says, he has attempted to make this book an 'internet age commentary' with all necessary references not only from the law itself but also from parliamentary debate and GST council's deliberations to bring out the essence and objectives clearly. The commentary would be extremely useful not only for the tax practitioners/lawyers but also for the students of law and businesses in general."Pratik Jain, Partner and National Leader for Indirect Tax, PwC
A Word from the Author
Four decades ago, when the late Nani Palkhivala wrote another edition of his famous commentary on the Income Tax Act, legal resources were only in print and available to a limited few.
The senior lawyer in Chambers read the books and the law journals first. These would later trickle down to the juniors. Commentaries were the primary vehicles to disseminate information about judgments. Commentators gave the factual background of each precedent followed by verbatim reproduction of the relevant paragraphs from the judgment.
In this internet age, tax practitioners are drowning in information overload. Daily, they are faced with a barrage of online analysis of judgements, articles, circulars and clarifications. It is difficult to locate the relevant judgment among hundreds, let alone locate the ratio decidendi from a judgment typically running to a large number of paragraphs, replete with extracts from other judgments.
These difficulties are heightened under the Goods and Services Tax laws which deal with new concepts. Precedents under sales tax law and services tax law cannot be followed automatically.
A different type of original writing is now required to guide the reader through the jungle of information. Commentaries must quickly give answers to problems faced by the practitioners. They must concisely identify the ratio decidendi, and the logic in the judicial approach, read together seemingly diverging judgements, point out errors and reconcile conflicting statutory provisions. Copious extracts from judgements are not needed.
I have tried to make this book an Internet-age commentary by avoiding extracts from judgements, circulars and notifications to the greatest extent possible. I have addressed the essence of the statutes, judgements, Parliamentary debates and minutes of GST Council meetings in my own words, as part of my commentary.
I have referred to the relevant judgments, orders, circulars and notifications only in the footnotes. I have also given in the footnote, the exact page and paragraph of the judgment or circular relevant to the commentary. I have pointed out errors in judgements, orders and circulars which, in my opinion, do not correctly reflect the law. I have highlighted sections which, according to me, are unconstitutional. I have given my interpretation on issues which have not yet been decided by the courts.
John Ruskin, a Victorian writer, said “The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.” This has been true for me in writing this book. Although this is my third book, writing this book changed me on many fronts. Writing this book was about learning discipline, learning to wake up at 3:50 AM every day to write the manuscript before attending to my court work and learning to revise and re-write repeatedly until the desired level of precision and clarity of analysis was achieved.
The commentary incorporates the amendments made by the Finance Act, 2023, the CGST (Amendment) Act, 2023 and the IGST (Amendment) Act 2023. Taxation of supplies in casinos, racecourses and online gaming has been addressed in a separate chapter. Relevant decisions reported in GSTR up to 31 July 2023 have been added in the commentary.
