The Central Government has formed a four-member standing committee, comprising tax officials of the Centre and states to receive complaints of undue profiteering by any entity under the newly implemented GST regime.
The Standing Committee comprising CBEC officials Himanshu Gupta, Principal Commissioner, GST Delhi and O P Dadhich Principal, Commissioner Customs (Preventive) Delhi, as also H Rajesh Prasad Commissioner (Sales Tax), Delhi, and Ashima Brar Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana, are members of the committee, according to an official order.
The Committee will act as a complaint processing machinery and will refer any cases it finds fit for investigation to the Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS).
The setting up of the panel, with two officials of the Central Board of Excise and Customs and one each from Delhi and Haryana tax department, sets in motion the anti- profiteering clause under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The anti-profiteering mechanism was proposed to enable the benefit of lower taxation in the GST with the subsuming of over a dozen central and state taxes like excise duty, Service Tax and VAT and end to tax-on-tax, is passed on to consumers.
Businesses or entities not passing on the benefit can be referred to the committee.
The detailed procedure for approaching the committees will be announced soon, officials said.
Anti-profiteering authority is a mechanism to examine whether the benefits of implementation of GST such as tax reduction or input tax credits availed by any registered person have actually resulted in a commensurate reduction in the price of the goods or services or both supplied by him, this is to ensure that the consumer is protected from arbitrary price increase in the name of GST.
