No Legal Infirmity in GST Notifications - Revenue Secretary - Government by Twitter?
SOCIAL Media seems to have taken over GST. Rumours, expert opinions (often wrong) and falsehoods are spreading in social media at the speed of light and the Government also seems to have taken to the social media to react and clarify. The Revenue Secretary has taken to twitter to clarify on the weekend tremors that the GST notifications caused on the social media.
The Revenue Secretary tweeted;
DoR examined the validity and implications of notfns dated 10th and 16th Sept wrt existing taxes imposed by the Union and states.
There is no legal infirmity in these notifications.
Law dept has confirmed that there appears to be no legal requirement to issue any further clarification or notification in this regard.
The IRS(C&CE) Association tweeted;
Apparent errors committed by Dept. of Revenue in issuance of notification on GST could have been avoided if CBEC officials were on board.
A Netizen mailed me;
Tell those IRS officers who created and spread this confusion that it is once again established that IAS is far far better as per the latest tweets by Adhia (They responded quickly to a non-existing problem, did not bury their head like ostrich and finally they did no wrong).
Anyway, the problem appears to have been solved. If anybody plans to challenge these provisions in the Courts, I should warn that it is a futile exercise. Even if they are wrong, they have Section 20 under which the President can remove difficulties and if even that fails, they have the 'retrospective legislation.' In any case, as discussed in yesterday's DDT, there was no problem really. But after the social media, now the mainstream media like popular newspapers (not the pink ones alone) and TV channels have taken over and are spreading the view that there is no excise duty from 16th September. A leading highly respected newspaper even reported that if you buy a car in the weekend, you could even claim a refund of the excise duty paid. Should the Nation be misled by such misguided missiles called news reporters?