Some Budget proposals prone to litigation, may give rise to tax disputes

While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speech emphasised the government’s intent on curbing tax-related litigation, there are some proposals which could potentially give rise to newer disputes.
 
Tax experts say one of the most dispute-prone proposals is making "fraudulent availing" of input tax credit (ITC), without an invoice or bill, a cognizable and non-bailable offence. Tightening the noose on fraudulent availing of the input tax credit, the proposal is to widen the coverage of Section 132 of the CGST Act, 2017, from “whoever commits” the offence to “whoever commits or causes to commit and retains the benefit” of the