GST Council’s Next Big Challenge: Will the 57th Meeting Deliver Long-Awaited ITC Relief for Manufacturers?

With GST 2.0’s rate rationalisation largely complete, the GST Council is now turning its attention to a far more complex, but equally significant issue that has quietly strained the finances of businesses across India — the accumulation of Input Tax Credit (ITC) under the Inverted Duty Structure (IDS). As the Council prepares for its 57th meeting, expected in late July or August, government sources indicate…

The Accountant’s Guide to Audit Readiness

The statutory audit is often perceived as an annual compliance requirement. However, for a well-managed finance function, it should represent the outcome of disciplined accounting, systematic documentation, timely reconciliations, and robust internal controls maintained consistently throughout the financial year. One of the primary statutory audits get delayed is not the complexity of accounting matters but inadequate preparation. Missing documents, unreconciled balances, unsupported journal entries, and…

Annual Audit Time is the Perfect Time for GST Readiness

With the financial year now concluded and the annual audit season underway, businesses are primarily focused on finalising their financial statements and completing the statutory audit. Alongside the financial audit, this is also the ideal time to undertake a comprehensive review of GST compliance to ensure that all GST-related matters pertaining to the previous financial year are appropriately addressed before the statutory deadlines expire. The…

Updated Returns and the Latest Amendments

Before the insertion of section 139(8A), the Income-tax Act did not provide taxpayers with any mechanism to voluntarily disclose additional income once the prescribed time limit for filing a revised return had expired. The absence of such a remedial provision discouraged voluntary corrections and limited taxpayers’ ability to rectify genuine mistakes. Recognizing this practical challenge, the Government introduced a significant compliance-oriented reform through the Finance…

Geopolitical Storms and India’s Economic Journey

Global conflicts have increasingly demonstrated that economic boundaries are far more porous than geographical ones. India, the world’s third-largest economy by purchasing power and one of the fastest-growing major economies, does not exist in isolation from global geopolitical developments. As 2026 has starkly demonstrated, conflicts thousands of kilometres away — particularly in West Asia — can ripple through Indian petrol pumps, stock exchanges, export terminals,…