Spectre of multi-authority, repetitive and multi-directional proceedings haunting GST-payers
The GST regime, implemented in 2017, turns seven years soon, stepping into its proverbial childhood. However, as Albert Einstein once said “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted”; it aptly describes that growth statistics in tax collection numbers should not be the sole parameter to judge the success of GST.
One of the reasons why GST is hailed as a landmark tax reform is the fact that the Centre and the States were given joint powers to levy tax and administer its collection. Although revolutionary at the time, this complex legal framework now suffers from certain growing pains, especially that of taxpayers facing overlapping inquiries, investigations, and audits by multiple GST authorities for the same tax period. This multiplicity of proceedings across Central and State agencies threatens to defeat one of the fundamental purposes that GST was envisaged to achieve i.e., reducing tax litigations.
