Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry organised a special E-Session on Recent Judicial Review and Selected Special Topics in GST with Shri V. Sridharan, Former Founder, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys on January 14, 2021 at 4 p.m. on Zoom Platform.
Shri Rishabh C. Kothari, President, MCCI in his Welcome Address said that since 2017 GST has been a learning experience for businesses, and to a certain extent has been a rigorous compliance burden for many.
Over the last two years, due to the repetitive COVID outbreaks, the Government of India has emphasised on greater degree of digitalization in GST. At the same time, due to the ongoing pandemic, businesses have been hard pressed to meet compliance obligations of GST, which in turn necessitated some of the other recent amendments.
Shri Arun Kumar Agarwal, Chairman, GST & Indirect Taxes, MCCI in his address mentioned that in recent time there have arisenseveral ambiguities regarding the GST clauses and their interpretations. Another major concern area he raised is that of fake invoices.
Shri V. Sridharan, Former Founder, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys in his address covered 3 special GST amendment laws and their implications.
Shri Sridharan statedthat section 96(10) of GST Rules, 2017 has created challenge on the validity of sub-rule(10) for petitioners.Rule 96(10) prevents certain class of exporters from availing the option of exporting finished goods or services or both, on payment of IGST under Rule 96. That is, such exporters have to necessarily export finished goods, without payment of IGST under LUT/Bond. Hementioned that 96(10) is defective as it has not considered capital goods. He suggested to file protected claims.
Shri Sridharan also suggested that the under provision (ii) to section 54(3) of GST Act, 2017, the legislature has used the word “inputs” which has defined in the act which means only inputs goods.
Shri Sridharan discussed at length the scope and interpretations of Section 83, 107 & Rule 159. Shri Sridharan clarified these sections and discussed with the audience about the pros and cons of these laws. In this regard he opined that the power to levy a provisional attachment is draconian in nature.
The Session ended by offering a Vote of Thanks to Shri Sushil Kumar Goyal, Co-Chairman,GST & Indirect Taxes, MCCI.
