Interlink Capital

With gold prices surging and import duty rising from 6% to 15%, enforcement agencies are witnessing a sharp rise in gold smuggling attempts across Indian airports, especially at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.

Authorities say organised syndicates are increasingly using air routes from Gulf nations and Africa, employing concealment methods ranging from hidden compartments and stitched clothing to chocolate packets and even iron presses.

Recent seizures by DRI and Customs highlight how smuggling networks quickly adapt to market conditions, shifting focus to commodities offering higher profit margins. Officials continue to rely on passenger profiling, behavioural analysis, and intelligence-based surveillance to curb these operations.

The Income Tax Department, under the CBDT’s SAKSHAM initiative, has identified 300+ cases of suspicious agricultural income claims worth over ₹2,038 crore.

Using data analytics, satellite imagery, and land records, authorities found instances where taxpayers claimed huge tax-exempt agricultural income despite declaring zero land holdings.

The investigation revealed alleged misuse through false classification of capital gains, undisclosed income, and non-farm activities as agricultural income.

CBDT has clarified that genuine farmers and small cultivators will continue to receive exemptions, while the focus remains on curbing misuse of agricultural income provisions by high-value taxpayers.

India–US partnership is emerging as a defining economic alliance of the 21st century.

At the Annual Leadership Summit of the American Chamber of Commerce, Union Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted how India and the United States are strengthening collaboration across technology, defence, digital infrastructure, semiconductors, innovation, manufacturing, and MSMEs.

With over $60 billion in recent US investment commitments, rapid digital transformation, growing GCCs, world-class infrastructure, and initiatives like PM Gati Shakti, Make in India, Startup India, and Semicon Mission 2, India continues to position itself as a trusted global manufacturing and innovation hub.

The vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 reflects India’s ambition to move from “assemble in India” to “design, innovate, and lead from India.”

The finance ministry is discussing with states ways to simplify GST registration updates for ecommerce and quick-commerce companies, which currently must declare every dark store and warehouse as an “additional place of business” under state-wise GSTINs.

With rapid expansion of qcom networks across smaller cities, frequent additions and deletions of warehouses have made the process cumbersome for sellers and platforms. Industry experts have urged the government to digitise and simplify amendments, allow ecommerce platforms to update warehouse details on behalf of sellers, and explore a centralised registration model for multiple fulfilment centres within a state.

States, however, have raised concerns over supply tracking, revenue leakage, and enforcement challenges if norms are relaxed. Experts suggest safeguards such as digital inventory tracking, geotagging of warehouses, audit trails, and real-time reporting to balance ease of doing business with tax compliance.

India may cut withholding tax on bonds from 20% to 5% to attract foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) as forex reserves shrink amid West Asia tensions. While experts see this as a positive long-term reform, they believe it alone won’t revive debt inflows immediately.

Key concerns remain a weakening rupee, rising global bond yields, high oil prices, inflation risks, and India’s massive borrowing programme. Experts say FPIs are more worried about currency losses than tax rates, especially with the rupee crossing 96/USD.

Industry leaders also suggest broader reforms like easing taxation on bond gains, improving market liquidity, and simplifying processes to make Indian debt markets more attractive in the long run.

Walmart-owned Flipkart is likely to move the High Court against the West Bengal AAAR ruling that imposed 18% GST on its delivery charges by classifying its operations as organised logistics services instead of traditional GTA services.

The AAAR observed that Flipkart’s delivery model including hub-based collection, sorting, tracking, transshipment and last-mile delivery resembles a full-scale logistics and fulfilment network, making it ineligible for GST exemption available to GTA services.

Industry experts believe the case could become a landmark for the e-commerce and logistics sector, especially due to conflicting advance rulings on similar GST classification issues. The High Court’s decision may clarify whether GST treatment should depend on contractual documentation like consignment notes or on the operational reality of modern tech-enabled delivery systems.

Logistics and industry leaders have also highlighted the broader policy angle, stating that efficient digital logistics networks help small businesses access markets, improve affordability, support formalisation, and strengthen India’s “Vocal for Local” vision. The ruling could therefore have wider implications for the future taxation of e-commerce fulfilment and last-mile delivery models in India.