GST law provides a powerful tool to the administrative authorities to protect revenue of the government by allowing attachment of property under Section 83 of an alleged taxable person.

Understanding the potential risk of abuse of such power, legislature has placed certain requirements that need to be met before authorities can attach property of the accused. Scrutinizing the powers allotted to the authorities as well as requirements to be complied with under the Section 83, various Hon’ble High Courts as well as the Supreme Court have analyzed the section to ensure that its application does not go beyond its actual purpose. However, a recent amendment to the section brought vide Finance Act 2021 further expands scope of the section. Due to the inherit nature of the section, power allotted under Section will always be prone to abuse hence we are of the opinion that further widening its scope vide Finance Act 2021 risks making the legislation hostile to businesses.

Our article on the topic: “Judicial Scrutiny of the power of provisional attachment- Section 83 of the CGST Act” was published on 08.06.2021 by Tax Management India.

The article can be accessed on following link: https://www.taxmanagementindia.com/visitor/detail_article.asp?ArticleID=9832.

Copy of article is also being shared herein below for the benefit of readers:

Shuchi Agrawal

Shuchi is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a law graduate. Shuchi is having more than 6 years of experience in legal and tax advisory services across multiple sectors like real estate, infra, consumer business, etc. Currently, she is working as a Senior Manager in ALA Legal.