More Stories

Informist, Friday, Mar. 20, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Friday rejected Vedanta Ltd.'s plea seeking the benefit of lower tax for procuring high speed diesel by issuance of Form C for the period Jul-Dec 2017. Under the Central Sales Tax Act, to qualify for lower rates, the purchasing dealer must typically furnish a prescribed declaration known as form C to the selling dealer, confirming that the goods are for authorised purposes.

 

The top court upheld the Bombay High Court's 2025 order that high speed diesel was found to be consumed by Vedanta for purposes other than mining, which was for the purpose of re-sale to mining trucks transporters and private parties. The certificate of tax registration of the company specifically restricted use of high speed diesel to only running and maintenance of machinery for mining and processing iron ore for sale, the high court had said. However, this was not the case with Vedanta, hence it was not entitled to Form C with respect to high speed diesel, it had said.

 

Vedanta had earlier secured a tax registration certificate under Goa Value Added Tax Act and Central Sales Tax Act which was renewed from time to time. Thereafter the Goods and Services Tax Act came which replaced the value added tax and sales tax act. 

 

Pursuant to the introduction of the GST regime from 2017, Vedanta migrated into the GST regime using its Goa value added tax registration number. However, since Vedanta's business continued to involve purchase of high speed diesel, which was specifically excluded from the ambit of GST but continued to attract applicable value added tax and central sales tax, it continued to pay central sales tax and also retained the VAT registration.

 

The tax authorities denied issuance of Form C to Vedanta as the company had ceased to be a dealer under the Central Sales Tax Act and that its registration under the same Act had become infructuous. It was an attempt on part of Vedanta dealer to procure Form C to avoid local value added tax at the rate of 19% of the diesel they have purchased from Karnataka by claiming concessional rate at 2%, said the authorities.

 

Friday, shares of Vedanta Ltd. ended 1.0% higher at INR 672.20 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.