Is GST a complete law now ?

[Ganeshan Kalyani]

As on 7th November, 2022 the total count of notifications, circular, order etc. issued by CBIC in their website was 1144. But, when I visited CBIC website today on 3rd January, 2023, I found the count has been increased by 28 ( 19 + 8 + 1). That is, 19 Notifications, 8 circulars and 1 instruction has been issued by CBIC in these time gap and more particularly in the month of December, 2022. So, now total count of notifications, circular, order etc. issued till date i.e. 03rd January, 2023 is 1172. Not to stop here, the count will increase and continue to increase in the days to come.

48 GST Council meeting has been conducted in these 5 years. In other words, 48 times the GST Council met to discuss on GST law, its amendment etc.

The reason for bringing these many amendments in GST Law is to make law so complex that nobody can take undue advantage from GST. Forget about fraud taxpayers who take GST registration to get refund, issuing fake invoice to pass on input tax credit etc. the genuine taxpayer must also face difficulty in claiming GST credit, file GST return etc. within given timelines. This may not be the intention of the Govt., but this has become the ground reality now.

Getting GST registration is not easy. Taking input tax credit is difficult. Getting refund become tough. Explaining GST Officers for the mismatch in GSTR-1 vs 3B, GSTR-1 vs 9/ 9C, E-way bill, E-invoicing etc. is next to impossible.

Practical issues like E-way bill expired due to landslide, vehicle break down in mid of highway is not prescribed in the law. There are genuine reasons as to why a driver was not able to extend the validity of the e-way bill staying in middle of the problem. But the vehicle is caught. Taxes are demanded, penalty levied. Even when the goods are moving from one branch of the company to another in the same state the vehicle is caught.

What is the reason of detaining vehicle when on delivery challan it is clearly mentioned the detail of sending and receiving unit of the company. There is no tax applicability on intra-state stock transfer. Still the vehicle are caught and are taken to the GST department for proceeding.

At least to provide solution in GST law for the above mentioned problem the GST law will be amended again by issuing few notifications. So, the count is still on and the tax executive, consultant etc. has to be ready to grab the notification from e-Gazette website and analyse it and send the interpretation, newsletter etc. to readers.