Enactment of Finance Bill 2016 - CBEC Confirms
IN DDT 2846 16 05 2016, I wrote, "The Finance Act 2016 came into existence on 14th May 2016 and silently slipped into history unsung unheard. For some strange reason, the Government does not give too much publicity to such State Secrets."
16 days after the enactment, the CBEC informs,
The Finance Bill, 2016 received the assent of the President on 14.5.2016. Consequently, Finance Act (28 of 2016), 2016 has been published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part II, Section 1.
Certain amendments made in the Union Budget 2016-17 have come into force from the date when the Finance Bill, 2016 received the assent of the President of India. As a result, these amendments have come into effect from 14.5.2016. Some of these include notification Nos. 13/2016-ST, 14/2016-ST and certain entries in notification Nos. 9/2016-ST and 10/2016-ST, all dated 1.3.2016.
The above may be taken note of. This issues with the approval of the competent authority.
It took the Board more than 15 days to inform the world that the Finance Bill has been enacted. Maybe the approval from the mysterious competent authority took time.
How does an assessee know that the Finance Bill has become the Finance Act and that the provisions which were to come into effect from the day the President gives assent to the Bill, have indeed come into force? Are the assessees expected to appoint an agent in the Rashtrapati Bhavan to inform them when the President signs the Bill and if this is not allowed, they should wait outside Rashtrapati Bhavan from the day the Rajya Sabha passes the Bill, to find out when the President signs it.
Ignorance of law is not an excuse for the assessee; it may be for the government.
CBEC Instruction in F. NO. B-1/19/2016-TRU., Dated: May 31, 2016