A Public Interest Litigation has been filed before the Bombay High Court seeking postponement of the much anticipated indirect tax law, i.e Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act.
As the Central Government and State Governments are all set to implement the GST from next month onwards, Dr. K. S. Pillai, a retired professor from the King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, filed the PIL highlighting the flaws in the procedure.
The petitioner raised some serious averments against the Government and asked that how can the Union government implement such a major ‘constitutional changes’ on Tax Reforms in middle of a financial year that too “without proper preparations”.
“The list of rates declared recently when compared with various other rates, some felt unreasonably high ones were represented to the government. The government has not followed the three-months’ period for disposing these representations as per the established procedure for new major changes as tax reforms,” the petition reads.
The petition says that if the GST is implemented as proposed, it will cause confusion and chaos in daily needs of the common people, especially in the supply of essential medicines, food & drink items and they might be disrupted by unpreparedness on part of the authorities.
“Implementation in the middle of the financial year will result in maladjustments among the government departments. With the past fiscal year budget provisions, traders with old stocks trying for clearance will face difficulties at all levels. The implementation must at least be as per the global conventional financial year so that the world can follow our system successfully,” the petition reads.
Accordingly, the petition has also sought directions to the government to create more public awareness about the GST.
Read the Petition here.
