Supreme Court (SC) dismisses Uttar Pradesh government pleas on Value Added Tax (VAT) levy

Exam-focused facts from the 17 May 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

The Supreme Court (SC) dismissed pleas filed by the Uttar Pradesh government regarding the levy of local Value Added Tax (VAT) on natural gas transported from Andhra Pradesh.
The SC upheld a 2012 Allahabad High Court judgment that quashed assessment orders against Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Tata Chemicals, and IFFCO.
The court ruled that the transactions of natural gas supplied from the KG-D6 basin constitute interstate sales governed exclusively by the Central Sales Tax (CST) Act.
The delivery point where title and risk transferred to buyers was identified as Gadimoga, Andhra Pradesh.
The Uttar Pradesh government had claimed the transactions were intra-state sales liable for state VAT at a rate of 21 per cent.