GST Made Easy – Answer to all Your Queries on GST By Arpit Haldia

GST Made Easy – Answer to all Your Queries on GST is a question-and-answer-based practitioner’s manual that has, across fifteen Editions, established itself as the entry-point reference for GST in daily practice. Rather than mirror the statute chapter-by-chapter, the book reverse-engineers the law from the queries that practitioners, businesses and students actually face—close to 800 of them—and answers each with the operative provision, the procedural rule, the relevant CBIC circular, and where useful, a worked numerical illustration or an AAR/judicial precedent. This Edition covers the recast Section 15(3)(b) and Section 34 framework on post-supply discounts, the extension of provisional refund to inverted duty structure cases under Section 54(6), the removal of the ₹1,000 threshold for export refunds under Section 54(14), and the omission of Section 13(8)(b) of the IGST Act on intermediary services—together with the corresponding CBIC circulars and instructions issued through 2025-26.

This book is intended for the following audience:

• Tax Professionals—Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants who need a single-volume answer book for client queries on registration, classification, ITC, returns, refunds and litigation
• Industry & In-house Tax Teams, including finance and compliance staff handling day-to-day GST operations across manufacturing, services, e-commerce, job work and works-contract sectors
• Students of Professional Examinations, including CA, CS and CMA candidates, preparing for the indirect tax paper, who require an integrated treatment of provisions, illustrations and case law in one volume
• Business Owners and Entrepreneurs running their own GST registration, invoicing, return filing, e-way bill and refund processes without dedicated tax teams
• Departmental Officers of CBIC and State GST authorities who use the consolidated circular tables and forms directory for daily reference
• Academia & Researchers of indirect taxation, who require an applied, problem-driven companion to the bare Act and Rules

The Present Publication is the 15^th Edition | 2026, amended by the Finance Act 2026. It is authored by CA. (Dr) Arpit Haldia, and incorporates the following noteworthy features:

• [Finance Act 2026 Updated] A dedicated front-matter section walks through every Finance Act 2026 amendment with the pre-amendment position, the amended position, and the practical consequence—covering post-supply discounts, provisional refund for inverted duty structure, the low-value export refund threshold, and the place-of-supply rule for intermediary services
• [Question-Answer Format] Close to 800 numbered questions arranged in the natural sequence in which a GST transaction unfolds—registration, supply, time, value, place, ITC, payment, return, assessment, refund, recovery—so that the book reads as a guided walkthrough rather than a reference encyclopaedia
• [Statutory Anchor with Every Answer] Each answer cites the operative section, sub-section, rule or notification, allowing the reader to trace the legal basis without leaving the page
• [Worked Numerical Illustrations] Computational issues (ITC set-off across the supply chain, TDS deduction triggers, time of supply, refund formula under Rule 89(5), Rule 86B applicability) are answered with step-by-step calculations rather than narrative description
• [Case Studies & Precedents Embedded] Over a hundred practical case studies, including AAR rulings (Cochin Plantations, Goa Tourism Development Corporation, Rites Ltd., Skipper Ltd., Superwealth Financial, Bindu Ventures, Prodair Air Products, Kailash Chandra) and High Court/Supreme Court decisions, are integrated into the body of each chapter against the question they answer
• [CBIC Circulars Consolidated] At the close of each substantive chapter, a tabular gist of every relevant CBIC circular—over 250 circulars across the book—with date and one-line summary, so the practitioner can locate the departmental position without a separate compilation
• [Forms Directory] Each chapter ends with a forms table mapping every relevant GST form (REG, GSTR, RFD, ITC, DRC, PMT, ARA, EWB, ENR) to the rule under which it operates and its purpose, useful at the time of filing
• [FAQ Integration] Where the GST Council, Law Committee or CBIC has released FAQs (TDS, refunds, e-way bill), the FAQs are reproduced and harmonised with the current legal position, distinguishing answers that have since been overtaken by amendment or circular
• [Pedagogical Progression] Within each chapter, the questions move from foundational (what, who, when) to operational (how, by what date, in which form) to litigation-oriented (what if disputed, what is the remedy), allowing the same book to serve both a first-time reader and a returning practitioner

The book follows the GST transaction lifecycle, end to end:

• The Levy & Registration
  • Dual GST architecture, the working of CGST/SGST/UTGST/IGST through a worked supply-chain illustration, person liable to pay tax, threshold-based and mandatory registration, the registration procedure, voluntary registration, amendment and cancellation
• Identifying the Supply
  • Scope of ‘supply’ under Section 7, Schedules I, II and III, composite and mixed supplies, supplies between related and distinct persons, treatment of activities without consideration, and the inter-state versus intra-state determination under the IGST Act
• Crystallising the Tax
  • Time of supply for goods and for services (treated in separate chapters), value of supply and the valuation rules, place of supply for goods and for services with the revised position on intermediary services post Finance Act 2026
• Credit and Payment
  • Input tax credit (eligibility, blocked credits, Rule 36(4), reversal and re-availment), the Rule 86B 1% cash payment requirement, the Input Service Distributor regime effective 1^st April 2025, payment of taxes, and the electronic cash and credit ledgers
• Compliance Cycle
  • Invoice, credit and debit notes (with the recast Section 34 link to Section 15(3)(b)), e-way bill generation and validity, GSTR-1/3B/9 returns, the composition return GSTR-4, accounts and records, and ITC-04 for job work
• Special Regimes
  • Composition Scheme for suppliers of goods, the parallel scheme under Section 10(2A) for service and mixed suppliers, Job Work procedures, and Advance Ruling
• Refunds
  • Zero-rated supplies, inverted duty structure (with the new provisional refund), excess balance in cash ledger, deemed exports, refund to unregistered persons on cancelled real-estate contracts, low-value export refund post Finance Act 2026, and the interest computation framework under Section 56
• Assessment, Demand and Recovery
  • Self-assessment, scrutiny, best-judgement assessment, the Sections 73/74/74A demand framework, Section 76 (tax collected but not paid), Section 77 (wrongly collected), Section 78 (recovery), and instalments under Section 80
• Penalties, Waivers and Discounts
  • The Sections 122–127 penalty framework, the Section 128A waiver of interest and penalty for Section 73 demands, and the treatment of discounts and incentives—primary, secondary and post-sale—incorporating Circular 251/08/2025-GST and Circular 92/11/2019-GST

The book is organised into 29 comprehensive chapters, each focusing on specific GST areas:

• Foundation Chapters (1-11) — Cover basic concepts, registration, supply determination, time and place of supply, valuation, and job work provisions
• Procedural Chapters (12-21) — Detail invoice requirements, input tax credit, payment procedures, composition schemes, returns, assessment, refunds, accounts maintenance, and e-way bills
• Advanced Chapters (22-29) — Address specialised topics including advance ruling, demand recovery, penalties, recent rule changes, waiver provisions, ISD treatment, and discount mechanisms
• Each chapter follows a systematic approach:
  • Fundamental concept explanation
  • Detailed question-answer coverage
  • Practical case studies and examples
  • Reference to relevant sections and rules
  • Integration of circulars and clarifications