GST Council Meet: Anti-profiteering body NAA's tenure extended by 2 years

The GST Council has extended the tenure of the National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA) by two years. Finance Minister Nirmala Sithraman took the decision at 35th GST Council Meet which she chaired for the first time after taking charge of the Finance Ministry under Modi 2.0 government.

The GST Council also decided to impose more stringent penalties for companies engaged in profiteering. If the profiteered amount is not surrendered within 30 days, then the company will face penalty to the extent of 10 per cent of the same, said Revenue Secretary during a briefing after the GST Council meet. Earlier provisions called for a penalty of Rs 25,000 in addition to the profiteered amount.

NAA deals with customer complaints regarding non-receipt of tax cut benefits.

The GST Council was of the view that NAA should be given an extension of two years as the authority continues to receive complaints of profiteering by companies.

Vivek Jalan, Co-founder at Tax Connect Advisory Services said, "The 35th Meeting of The GST Council was short but has laid the roadmap of a more stringent tax compliance regime and mechanism to plug leakage of revenues of the Government. The Council decided to implement the new GST returns from October 2019 and implement E-Invoicing from January 2020. Both these measures would help the Government track the GST transactions more closely and in further details. Trade and Industry need to gear up for these changes by redesigning their ERP/Accounting Systems to match up to these new returns. A welcome and much-awaited move was also to defer the Annual GST returns and GST Audit till 31st August. Further ,there are indications that the GST rate on Electronic Vehicles and Solar Power Generating Systems may be reduced in the near future. Post The Union Budget, more action is expected from the GST Council."

Soon after the GST was rolled out on 1 July 2017, the government had approved setting up of the NAA for two years to deal with consumer complaints against companies not passing on GST rate cut benefits.

The NAA came into existence on 30 November 2017 with BN Sharma taking charge as Chairman. So far, the NAA has passed 67 orders in various cases.

The GST law provides for setting up of benches of appellate tribunal in all states. Although 18 states have got the approval to set up appellate benches, none of these states have operationalised them.

(Edited by Manali)

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