the essay of 21 December 2022 · the untouched capture
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Untitled Document</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> <body> <p align="justify"><strong><font color="#663399" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">DECEMBER 21, 2022</font></strong></p> <p align="center"><font color="#FF6633" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>GST Council Meetings - Minutes take months </strong></font></p> <p align="center"><u><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Vijay Kumar </font></strong></u></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>AS</STRONG> per the <em>'Procedure and Conduct of Business Regulations of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council'</em>, the Council is to meet at least once in every quarter. Regulation 6 reads as:</font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">6. Frequency of meeting: The Council shall meet at least once in every quarter of the financial year.</font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Then, what happens if the Council does not meet in every quarter? Nothing! Absolutely nothing. The Regulation stipulates that the Council SHALL meet at least once in every quarter of the financial year. Who is this regulation binding on and what can be done if the regulation is blatantly violated? Rules and regulations are for the common people, not for those in high places and authorities.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There was no meeting of the Council during the 4th quarter of 2021-22 and 2 nd quarter of 2022-23. The 46th meeting was held on 31 st December 2021; the 47th was on 29th June 2022 (gap of nearly six months) and the 48th one was on 17th December 2022 (again gap of six months). What can be done if the meetings do not take place as mandated by the Regulations? What can anyone do if the lawmakers themselves do not obey the laws they themselves have framed? The Regulations were promulgated with an idea that they would be followed/obeyed. Who is responsible for ensuring that the GST Council meets at least once in a quarter?</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Recently it was reported that a Supreme Court Bench told the Attorney General and Solicitor General:</font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">advice the government to follow the law of the land. If the government itself says 'I will not adhere to the law of the land', tomorrow somebody else may say this about another law… You must look at the larger picture.</font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Regulation 3(1) stipulates:</font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">3. Meeting notice: (1) With the approval of the Chairperson, the Secretary shall issue a notice to each Member specifying the date and place for a meeting of the Council.</font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So, it is either the Secretary or the Chairperson or both who would decide the date of the meeting. The Secretary is the Revenue Secretary and the Chairperson is the Finance Minister. Who will tell them that a meeting is mandatory every quarter?</font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Minutes - in months?</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How much time does it take to get the minutes of the Council meeting published? The last meeting of the Council was on 17th December 2022 and the latest minutes available pertains to the 46th meeting held on 31 st December 2021. The minutes of the two subsequent meetings held on 29th June 2022 and 17th December 2022 are not yet available. The 47th meeting took place on 29th June 2022 and it is almost six months and we don't have the minutes. Well, there may be reasons.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As per Regulation 16,</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">16. Preparation and publication of proceedings</font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(1) The Secretariat shall cause to be prepared a full report of the proceedings of the Council at each of its sittings and shall, as soon as practicable, publish it in such form and manner as the Council may, from time to time, direct. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(2) The Secretariat shall maintain continuous running minutes of all the proceedings of the Council, and all the minutes of the Council shall be signed by the Chairperson. </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(3) Minutes of previous meeting shall be put up for confirmation in the next meeting.</font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So, the Secretariat is supposed to publish the full report of the proceedings - but there are conditions:</font></p> <div align="justify"> <blockquote>1. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>As soon as practicable </em> - this gives a lot of clarity - you can delay it as long as you want. There is a running minutes book with the signature of the Chairperson and all that you have to do is - publish it, means give it to your IT guy to upload it in the website. Lo and behold! It is published! And for this, you want to do it, <em>as soon as practicable. </em>Okay, you have to make corrections, get the FM's signature, make a pdf, take printouts, upload to the website - all these do take time. But do you need months for those minutes? Can't you do it in a few days. What is <em>as soon as practicable? </em>Is there anything <em>impracticable </em> in publishing a report? </font></blockquote> </div> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>2. Publish it in such form and manner as the Council may, from time to time, direct </em> - What is this form and manner of publishing the minutes and which should be prescribed by the Council from time to time? Will the Council discuss the form and manner of publishing the minutes periodically and come to a conclusion and then direct the Secretariat on how to publish the minutes in what form? Have they done it any time? In the absence of any direction from the Council, can the secretariat stop publishing the minutes? Will there be a discussion on whether the report should be on A4 paper, both sides etc? </font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>3. Minutes of previous meeting shall be put up for confirmation in the next meeting </em> - Can the minutes not be published before it is approved by the Council in the next meeting? Even Parliamentary debates are published in their websites the same day. Maybe the GST Council does not have such secretarial assistance. </font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In my last <a href="https://taxindiaonline.com/RC2/inside2.php3?filename=bnews_detail.php3&newsid=44557">week's </a> column, I had mentioned about the <em>news </em> that was being circulated that the GST Appellate Tribunal would be established in three months. The GST Council meeting held on 17th December did not have enough time to discuss the Tribunal issue and it is proposed to be included in the agenda for the next meeting which is likely to be in February. So, no likelihood of the tribunal in the near future.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Happy days are here again</font><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">: What must be music to the consultants and lawyers, the 'Economic Times' reported, <em>"GST authorities issue 50,000 show-cause notices to companies across sectors following audit findings." </em>If you are a consultant/lawyer dealing with GST matters and if you find a GST officer, shake hands with him (you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you), thank him profusely, for he has brought sunshine back into your life. For the last five and half years, consultants and lawyers were struggling for work after GST was launched. Every consultant I met was hopeful that once the Audit is on the field, the consultants would have a field day. GST litigation, lying low for all these years, has risen and your good days have just begun. Give your office a new look, hire back the assistants you have fired, clean up your computers and printers, stock reams of A4 paper, spruce up everything around you, for good fortune is just round the corner. 50,000 show-cause notices, is just a beginning, be prepared for the flood - of good fortune.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#006600" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Jest a parting story:</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A tax lawyer was in a depressed mood. He picked up his pen and started writing:</font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>The last five years: During the last five years, I lost five cases, because they would not hear me properly. I was sad for a long time. Due to Sabka Vishwas and monetary limits, all my pending cases were settled and now I have no cases to appear in. I don't know what to do with myself and spend all my time seeing webinars and WhatsApp. Covid-19 brought in further calamity in my life with no cases, no courts and no cheques coming in. My son failed in the Civil Services exam. I was sure he would get at least IRS. </em></font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#0099CC" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh God! It was such bad period!!</font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Later, the lawyer's wife entered the room and found the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and replaced it with that of her husband's. When the lawyer saw this paper, he found his name written on it with following lines:</font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>Last five years I lost five cases, but all those cases have come back to me in appeal and I get more fees. GST cases are trickling in and I am sure by the end of 2022, I will have more cases than I ever had. It was nice that all pending cases were cleared and my office now has a cleaner look; I don't need to search for 15-year-old files. Because of my addiction to webinars, and WhatsApp groups, now I know a lot of things about GST, which I hardly knew earlier. From being a GST illiterate, I have become an erudite GST expert. It was God's gift that my son did not become a stupid bureaucrat writing bullet points for the government. Now he has joined my office and I am sure he will become a much better lawyer than I am. Audi has become active and show-cause notices are streaming in - 50,000 of them. </em></font></p> <p align="justify"><font color="#0099CC" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><em>Life couldn't have been better!</em></font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font color="#FF0000" size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Until Next week </font></p> </body> </html>