Powers to Summon under Section 70 of Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 - Whether They are Synonymous with Powers in Other Indirect Tax Statutes: An Analysis

Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was enacted in 2017.This new Act subsumed into it a number of previous indirect statutes that were in force, like Central Excise Act, 1944, Finance Act, 1994 etc which were repealed through this Act. Provisions to summon witness in an inquiry is a provision which underwent major changes evolving into enactment of Section 70 of this of Act of 2017. However, as of now, authorities under this new Act are exercising the power to summon in the same manner as they were doing during the Service Tax regime. Therefore, the following questions are being examined, namely, whether the above actions by ‘proper officers’ violates the provisions of the enactment of 2017, whether such violations lead to denial of natural justice and procedural safeguards to the assessee, whether the law regarding issue of summons remains the same even under the enactment of 2017 or if the law has moved forward or not.