CBEC Missing?
THREE weeks before the GST Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, the CBEC embarked on a massive road show to sell GST, with the first show in Hyderabad on 11.07.2016 and after that they were not seen at all. Something seems to have happened that they seem to have been told to be off the road. Now it seems to be the Revenue Secretary's show all the way.
In the Press Meet held by the Finance Minister after the GST Bill was passed, seated on the dais were the two Ministers of State, the Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian, all the Secretaries in the Finance Ministry including the former Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and the present Revenue Secretary Dr. Hasmukh Adhia. But the CBEC Chairman was nowhere near.
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Two years ago, the then CBEC Chairperson, Shanti Sundharam had remarked that she was not consulted on GST stating, "We did not even get the recent re-revised draft of the Constitutional Amendment Bill from the Department of Revenue."
Obviously, nothing has changed. Maybe at the stage of the Bill in Parliament, CBEC has no role to play, but finally isn't the CBEC required to implement the GST or do they have another agency in mind?