the essay of 2 May 2018 · the untouched capture
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<p align="left"><font color="#663399" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong><font size="2">MAY 02, 2018 </font></strong></font></p>
<p align="center"><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Know your GST Law</strong></font></p>
<p align="center"><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><u>By Vijay Kumar </u></font></strong></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>THE </strong>other day, a trader asked me what the GST rates on tamarind seeds were. A little research revealed that there were clarifications on tamarind kernel, not on tamarind seeds and obviously, there is a tamarind tree of difference between the two.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Government's FAQ had clarified as:</font></p>
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<td valign="top"><p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What is the HSN code and GST rate for tamarind? </font></p></td>
<td valign="top"> <p>- <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tamarind(fresh) falls under 0810 and attract Nil GST.</font></p>
<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Tamarind (dry) falls under 0813 and attract 12% GST. </font></p></td>
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<td valign="top"><p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What is the HSN code and GST rate for tamarind kernel? </font></p></td>
<td valign="top"><p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tamarind kernel falls under heading 1207 and attracts Nil GST. </font></p></td>
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<td valign="top"><p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What is the HSN code and GST rate for tamarind kernel powder? </font></p></td>
<td valign="top"><p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tamarind kernel powder falls under heading 1302, and attracts 18% GST. </font></p></td>
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<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But my trader was selling tamarind seed and he went through the whole laws of GST to find out if his seeds were exempted. He knew about advance ruling but was scared to go there, because he said the fees for application and appeal were too high and the obvious and binding decision against him, with no further appeal! Then he asked me how many laws he should know to understand GST. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This trader was turning difficult and I told him, I was planning to retire. With his tinge of tamarind brilliance, he told me that this is the time to start practice, not retire, because happy days are ahead – for the consultants. Tamarind seed may be small but the litigation is bound to be big. Since he asked me about the number of laws, I tried checking it up. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I found that you have to read the: </font></p>
<blockquote>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">1. Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">2. Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">3. Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act, 2017. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">4. Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">5. Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Act, 2017. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">6. Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">7. Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, which was amended eighteen times in the last ten months. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">8. Integrated Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">9. Seventy five Central Tax Notifications issued in 2017. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">10. Twenty one Central Tax Notifications issued in 2018. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">11. Forty seven Central Tax (Rate) Notifications issued in 2017. </font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">12. Ten Central Tax (Rate) Notifications issued in 2018.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">13. Twelve Integrated Tax Notifications issued in 2017.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">14. One Integrated Tax Notification issued in 2018.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">15. Fifty Integrated Tax (Rate) Notifications issued in 2017.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">16. Eleven Integrated Tax (Rate) Notifications issued in 2018.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">17. One Compensation Cess Notification issued in 2017.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">18. Seven Compensation Cess (Rate) Notifications issued in 2017.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">19. One Compensation Cess (Rate) Notifications issued in 2018.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">20. Twenty six Circulars issued by the Board in 2017.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">21. Forty three Circulars issued by the Board in 2018.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">22. Eleven orders issued by the Board in 2017.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">23. Two orders issued by the Board in 2018.</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The list is by no means exhaustive or accurate. Apart from the above, there are Acts, Rules, Notifications, circulars etc., for the States and Union Territories separately. The above-mentioned laws are being interpreted by the trade, consultants, Officers and Courts and in the fortunate future, we will see hundreds of interpretations which will produce thousands of cases, which will also become part of the law. Truly gigantic!</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">If you can read all these and understand them, perhaps you will have some knowledge about GST to which the great interpreters may not eventually agree. But the Prime Minister says GST is a Good and Simple Tax – of course he is right. After all, there are thousands of complicated laws, which we don't know about, let alone understand; but we are expected to know them and obey them. In an ideal situation, government should be of laws and not of men.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Justice Allen of the US Supreme Court once remarked, <em>"A little too much law and you turn the moderate drinker into a dipsomaniac, the agnostic into a blasphemer, the enlightened employer into a grad grind and a flirt into a prostitute"</em></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Chief Justice Chagla once remarked in a conference, "<em>in the modem and complex society every act of ours is controlled by some law, every minute of our living existence is spent in conforming to or - and I hope that is very rare-contravening some rule or regulation enacted by the mighty State </em>."He added, "<em>in this conference, however, the Government is not represented as a publisher. Otherwise, all the stalls would be taken up by the different laws that it has published for the betterment of humanity"</em>.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Chief Minister Morarji Desai was not impressed and he wrote to Chagla, <em>"I did not know that rare minutes of your existence are spent in contravening some rule or regulation enacted by the State. I should have thought that at least the Chief Justice should be in a position to say that he scrupulously observes all rules and regulations and that, whenever he has any doubt, he enquires and makes sure what the rule on the point is."</em></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Continuing with Chagla will perhaps make sense in our exploration of GST. Chagla wrote to Morarji, <em>"I should have thought that the Director of Publicity has more important things to do than to scrutinise every utterance of the Chief Justice in order to find out whether he has said anything against Government which should be brought to the notice of his employers. May I humbly suggest that he should spend a little more time in elucidating the law to the citizens, so that they should know what their duties and obligations are-a subject about which many are woefully ignorant?"</em></font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Chagla added, "<em>After reading your letter I have definitely come to the conclusion, to which I was being driven more and more every day, that the Government of Bombay do not relish any criticism-so much so that they cannot tolerate even a humorous remark. Government possess the monopoly of wisdom, statesmanship, and patriotism, and anyone who differs from them is either a fool or a knave. You do not realise how independent thinking is fast disappearing from Government officials. Several of them have told me that they dare not express their honest opinion because if they did so, they would immediately lose their jobs." </em> This happened in 1950. Obviously, things have not changed much. What are you talking about good old days – good days are ahead, not behind.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Is GST complicated? Yes, but so is every law and every lawyer. You will have to learn to live with it. There is nothing unfair, nothing unjust. Remember <em>tax </em> and <em>equity </em> are strangers, but certainly need not be sworn enemies.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The good news is there is money coming in; the monthly collection of GST has exceeded ONE LAKH CRORES and the governments – Central as well as States, are smiling. Don't worry about minor irritants like the rate of tax on tamarind seeds.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Could I add to the gross knowledge on GST possessed by the tamarind seed (which is not kernel) trader? The website of my Bar Council proclaims </font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"style="background-color:#F3DBCF"><strong><font color="#993300">Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished</font>.</strong></font></p>
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