The finance ministry is planning to set up an Anti-Profiteering Body to deal with fraud price hikes and to clear confusion over the new GST prices of goods and services. In a recent interview, Hasmukh Adhia, the Financial Services Secretary, said that the proposed anti-profiteering authority will mainly consider mass impact cases for scrutiny.
It will be a five-member committee, headed by a secretary-level officer, responsible for dealing with businesses that do not pass the benefits of lower tax rates on to their consumers under the new tax regime. Under the three tier GST screening structure, the GST implementation committee (GIC) will receive all the complaints and distribute the state specific and smaller value cases to the state screening committee.
“The authority will take up cases of mass importance. It will not look into small cases, but no monetary threshold has been fixed on cases to be picked up for scrutiny by the authority,” Adhia said.
Other important cases will be examined by the directorate general of safeguards (DGS) who will have to produce a findings-report to the anti-profiteering authority within 3 months. The committee will then pass an order based on the findings. The state-specific cases and/or the ones with small amount values will be handled by the state screening committee.
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ADG safeguards will act as a coordinator between the DG safeguards and the anti-profiteering authority. The GST implementation committee will first receive the complaints. The committee will then instruct the DGS, which can also issue a summons, to conduct required investigations and forward the findings to the anti-profiteering authority.
If the concerned company is found guilty, the authority will instruct the company to pass on its tax benefits to consumers or deposit the amount in the ‘consumer welfare fund‘ within a specified period if there is no identifiable beneficiary. As the last resort, the authority can cancel the registration of any company if it fails to comply with the orders.
The anti-profiteering committee will be formed for merely two years unless the GST Council decides to extend its tenure.
