An irresponsible government?
In DDT 608 - 08.05.2007, we had pointed out a Netizen's concern:
Unreasonable amendments to Notification 32/1999 and 33/1999
The amendment have in one stroke withdrawn excise exemption in respect of units in North East for activities which the Industrial Policy 2007 describes as peripheral and is unreasonable for the following reasons
1) The Central Excise Act defines manufacture to include repacking or packing, labeling or relabelling of goods in unit containers in respect of goods mentioned in the Third Schedule to the Act.
2) The NEIIP 2007 expressly provides that the existing benefits under NEIP 1997 will continue to be unaffected.
3) The Government held out a promise of exemption and the units have enjoyed the excise exemption for over 6 years and hence if withdrawn, they will be inviting attention of the Courts to Doctrine of Promissory Estoppel.
4) Any change of view on the existing notification (32/1999 and 33/ 1999) will have to be accompanied by a window period during which the manufacturers may be given the right to make changes to their manufacturing process which will enable them to qualify for the exemption.
5) Para 5 added to Notifications 32 /1999 and 33/1999 needs to be more specific as to what other processes would amount to manufacture as the ambiguous clause will only add to the huge waiting list of litigation.
And there had been no response from the Government. The same concerned Netizen writes to us,
the idea of making mid stream revisions in Notifications (21/2007) only results in the erosion of confidence that investors have in the policies promulgated and that any policy change should have a window period and should not shut out options for investors in a drop dead manner .The Government apathy in not correcting the unintended error is only eroding investor confidence.
An irresponsible government manned by an irresponsive bureaucracy can cause irreparable damage, not only to the cause of tax collection, but to the very basis of democracy, where the bureaucrat is the servant of the citizen and not his master.
When will we realise that the exporter, the manufacturer, the tax payer who is routinely harrassed, does as much for the nation, if not more, as the powerful tax collectors?