Under GST, the government is setting up a National Anti-Profiteering Authority to ensure businesses do not cheat consumers. The new authority will ensure the benefit of reduced prices under the new indirect tax regime is passed on to consumers, said Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The authority has the power to impose penalties and even cancel the registration of a business if it does not pass the benefits of GST to consumers. The authority will also devise a method to return the money to consumers.
Will the creation of the National Anti-Profiteering Authority address consumer concerns or will it impair business?
Avi Singh
Advocate and Additional Standing Counsel for the govt. of NCT, Delhi
“The vesting of such adjudicatory powers in a body that is not quasi-judicial rightly raises the spectre of bureaucratic abuse.”
Amol Kulkarni
Fellow at CUTS International
“The establishment of the National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAPA) can go a long way in ensuring that benefits of the GST are passed on to the consumers. However, the NAPA should not be used to harass traders.”
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Mandar Kagade
Consultant with Finance Research Group at IGIDR
“Public policy offers a few lessons for a state directly interfering in price-setting in such a manner.”
Dhruv Rathee
Activist and YouTuber
“Consumers can only hope that it is not an attempt by the government to push away the blame for faulty GST rollout from itself and put it on the small businesses.”
Section 171 of CGST Act, 2017 is a well meaning provision. If businesses that do not respect the intent of a Government need not thrive on the threat of impairment. They will perish. The body appointed to look into anti profiteering will come of age and businesses can spend part of their ill gotten profits on litigation to make the advocates rich otherwise their business will be impaired.