Telangana: No way to return GST fines

Hyderabad: Hundreds of cases have been booked and lakhs of rupees collected in penalties from shops and commercial establishments for GST and MRP violations in the past one month. But there is no mechanism to refund the excess amount that has been collected by the shops to the affected customers.

The GST Act stipulates setting up an Anti-Profiteering Authority at national and state level to receive such complaints, which are primarily of traders not passing on any GST benefits to customers or collecting excess tax.

The national-level authority was cleared by the Union Cabinet last week, but is yet to come into operation.

The state government issued orders for setting up the state-level anti-profiteering steering committee early this month, but so far there is no mechanism to enable consumers to lodge complaints.

There is also no awareness among the public that such an authority exists in the state as the government has not launched awareness campaigns informing consumers about how to lodge GST related complaints, or provided helpline numbers.

At present, the civil supplies and legal metrology departments are dealing with such complaints. There were around 15,000 inspections, 1,335 cases were registered, and Rs 44.35 lakh was collected in fines.