GST: 5-member panel to pick anti-profiteering body

The five-member panel to pick the all-powerful anti-profiteering authority under the goods and services tax (GST) regime will comprise Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman Vanaja Sarna, besides two members from the states. 

The search-cum-selection committee will choose the five members of the anti-profiteering authority, which will have the powers to take action against companies not passing on the benefits of lower tax incidence to end users. The authority will cease to exist two years after its constitution.

The GST, which was rolled out on July 1, subsumed almost all state- and central-level indirect taxes, including service tax, excise duty, value added tax and octroi. 

“We will probably give out an advertisement asking for applications for the members of the authority,” said a senior government official. 

The authority will have a chairman, of the rank of a secretary, and four nominated members, who have been commissioners of central or state tax departments. The additional director general of safeguards will be the secretary to the authority.

The authority will have the powers to debar an errant assessee from conducting business, if found to be involved in profiteering. Companies not passing on benefits of reduced cost to customers may also lose their registration.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday, a day prior to the GST roll-out, met the representatives of the industry and asked them not to hike prices under the GST. During the hour-long meeting, he urged the industry to pass on the benefits of lower tax incidence to consumers. 

Jaitley has clarified on several occasions that anti-profiteering provisions will not to be used unless the government is forced to do so.