Why Blame Defenseless Adjudicators?

Dear Sir,

You have spoken sublime truth. Any amount of instruction to the field formation or expanding the review committee is of no avail. Many a time the adjudication is farcical and it is a routine matter in Commissionerate to furnish the confirmed demand figures rather than the number of cases which was set aside by the Tribunals and the Courts. Adjudicators are over cautious and the saying is always err on the revenue side and not on the right side. So then, it would not be prudent to set up an independent adjudication setup ?? free from the present bureaucratic set up. The adjudicators may be drawn from academia, practicing advocates, eminent personalities in the field of engineering, law, tax etc., so that rationality and legality prevails. Also there should be value cap for preferring appeals against the Orders passed by the independent adjudication set up. Will this not be put in place in the new GST regime?? I hope something is done on this front. It would be a win-win situation both for revenue as well as tax payers and the ease of doing business mantra could be experienced by one and all.

Ramesh Vijayaraghavan
Customs Consultant

R Swamy 15/02/2016