CCI Replaces Naa For Anti-Profiteering Complaints Under Gst

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) recently published that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) shall be taking the place of the adjudicating authority over the National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) for GST anti-profiteering complaints from December 1, 2022.

NAA was established in the year of 2017, to scrutinize unfair profiteering to safeguard consumers. The Functionality of NAA came to an end on November 30, 2022.

As per the GST law, NAA consists of a three-tier redressal mechanism, in which the state-level committee used to look after the complaints, when if satisfied with the point of dispute, it shall forward it to the Director General Anti-Profiteering (DGAP) for investigation, following which the investigation report prepared by the DGAP is submitted to the NAA, for passing the order after hearing each of the parties.

The said notification provides the Competition Commission of India all the rights and powers to adjudicate matters in relation to anti-profiteering (NAA). One of the major lookouts for the CCI shall be to review whether the decrease in the input tax credits or reduction in the tax rate will affect the price of goods or services or both provided by the registered person. CCI shall create a different department for the redressal of complaints of such a nature.