Kerala State Screening Committee on Anti-profiteering Vs M/s. Asian Granito India Ltd. (National Anti-Profiteering Authority)
We have carefully examined the DGAP’s report and the documents placed on record to examine whether there was any reduction in the GST rate and whether the benefit of reduction in the rate of tax was passed on or not to the recipient as provided under Section 171 of the CGST Act. From the invoices referred above, it is evident that the base prices of both the products had remained same. It is also observed from the Annexure-6 attached with the Kerala Screening Committee’s report that sale price of these products was reduced from Rs. 1037.52 (pre-GST revision) to Rs. 840.68 (post-GST revision) when the GST rate on the above items was revised from 28% to 18%. Thus it is clear that the base prices have not changed and accordingly the selling prices of the products have been reduced. This fact has also not been disputed by the representative of the Applicant No. 1.
It is apparent from the perusal of the facts of the case that the Respondent has duly passed on the benefit of reduction in the tax rate by keeping the base price constant thus reducing the selling price of the products in question. Therefore the anti-profiteering provisions contained in Section 171(1) of the CGST Tax Act, 2017 are not attracted.
