Justice Goda Raghuram's brilliant lecture at Vizag

By Vijay Kumar

FORMER CESTAT President Justice Goda Raghuram gave a scintillating lecture on tax laws at Vizag on Saturday. The speech interspersed with devastating humour and scholarly analysis was listened to in rapt attention. He mentioned the four ingredients of tax legislation as

1. The taxable event

2. Rate of tax

3. Who should pay the tax, and

4. The mechanism for tax collection.

In a lighter vein he mentioned that people made money by selling fair and lovely promising to make people white – making a buffalo a cow. But a white skin means an unhealthy skin. A healthy skin should be dark. Even if they are doing a great disservice to human kind, the taxman may claim it as a service and demand tax.

He said that a government officer trying to collect tax without the authority of law is worse than a highway robber. He said that GST will provide gainful employment to a large number of lawyers.

He cautioned the departmental adjudicating authorities that if the people lost faith in the system of adjudication, nothing can save the department.

Mr. C. Rajendiran, Principal Commissioner, Vizag said that his department was doing everything possible for promoting ease of doing business. He said, "We are only a phone call away."

Mr. G. Prabhakara Sastry, advocate and convener of Tax Law Research Group which hosted the programme highlighted several problems relating to the 2016 Budget proposals.