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J148 GST LAW TIMES [ Vol. 34
Adjourned dates for cases shall be notified to the ITAT Bar Association,
which will ensure its wide circulation, the order added.
“There will be no sitting of Benches of the Tribunal including Regional
Benches from 16 March, 2020 to 20 March, 2020. All tours of the Members during
this period stand cancelled. Urgent matters, if found to be appropriate, will be
heard on mention by the Advocate/Representative before the Officer in charge
of the Registry,’’ said a CESTAT notification.
CESTAT President had further ordered that all visitors and staff shall be
screened using the digital infrared thermometer before entering the office, and
hand sanitizers shall be made available at the screening place, in all sections and
in the chambers of all officers.
“Any staff or visitor found to be having any of the symptoms of COVID-
19 shall be returned,” a separate notice added.
[Source : The Economic Times, New Delhi, dated 17-3-2020]

Inverted duties need to be corrected, but not now — Mitra
tells Finance Minister
Arguing against the planned move to correct the inverted duty structure
in 14-3-2020 GST Council meet by hiking tax rates for a few mass-consumption
items produced by employment-intensive sectors, West Bengal Finance Minister
Amit Mitra told Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that such changes could
wait till the economy stabilises.
In an attempt to correct one type of error concerning the GST rates,
namely inverted duty structure, the Council might end up causing further down-
turn in job-intensive sectors and the agrarian economy, Mitra cautioned.
Rate hikes for several items, including textiles, footwear, fertilisers, mo-
bile phones, tractors and renewable energy devices, have been recommended by
a Fitment Committee under the GST Council. The inverted duty structure de-
notes prevalence of higher taxes on inputs than on finished items. As businesses
cannot use the excess ITC on inputs if their output tax liability is lower, the Gov-
ernment ends up refunding the accumulated credits to them with estimated rev-
enue loss of ` 20,000 crore annually.
Mitra wrote to Sitharaman : “Markets in India are facing a double
whammy with stagflation on one hand and the looming effects of the Corona-
virus outbreak on the other. The latter is crippling many economies across the
world and is beginning to affect supply chains and consumer spending in India
as well.... May I urge you not to make changes in the rate structure during these
perilous economic times, particularly keeping in mind the interest of the com-
mon people.”
Despite admitting that the inverted duty structure is creating a set of
problems, Mitra questioned whether the proposal for tax hikes should be acted
upon right now, given that most businesses, especially MSMEs, are in dire
straits.
In fact, Sitharaman herself recently said she would prefer the GST system
to stabilise before another major rates rejig. However, while a comprehensive
overhaul of rates or GST slabs convergence might be deferred to a future rate -
there is a view that aggregate GST rate being lower than the ‘revenue-neutral’
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