Legal experts seek one-time settlement scheme under the Customs Act

Legal experts are advocating for measures to ease financial burdens on businesses and unlock capital tied up in tax disputes. Specifically, they call for the revival of a one-time settlement scheme, similar to the 2019 Sabka Vishwas Scheme, but under the Customs Act, to resolve accumulating disputes and monetize blocked revenue. Experts like Smita Singh of S&A Law Offices suggest extending the validity period for advance rulings to five years from the current three, and introducing provisional refunds for inverted duty structure cases. Vipin Upadhyay of King Stubb & Kasiva emphasizes the need for GST simplification through rate rationalization, exemption pruning, and clearer clarifications to reduce ambiguity. Rajarshi Dasgupta of AQUILAW highlights the importance of reducing interpretational ambiguities, consolidating compliances, and minimizing retrospective changes. Furthermore, experts believe leveraging the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) framework to promote technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics could position India as a global manufacturing hub, and faster refund processing and relaxed credit rules would significantly improve business efficiency.

(Source：The Hindu - Business Line)