Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday  reserved its order on the public interest litigation seeking orders to the Union government to defer the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will be brought into force from July 1. Additional solicitor general Anil Singh told the court that since the tax reform had been vetted by Parliament there was no restriction on when the government decides to implement it.

A division bench comprising of Justices V.K. Tahilramani and Sandeep Shinde was hearing a plea filed by K.S. Pillai last week, questioning the validity of the Union government’s decision to implement a major tax reform in the middle of the financial year. The petition had pleaded that the central government should be directed to defer implementation of GST till the beginning of the next financial year.

Justifying the government’s decision, Mr Singh told the bench that the decision to implement the GST had been vetted by Parliament after due deliberations and its implementation was in the best interest of the public. “There is no prohibition in law to prevent the government from implementing any tax reform at any point in the year as long as it has the sanction of Parliament.”

He informed the court that the central and state government had set up help desks, helpline phone numbers and other measures to ensure quick and easy resolution of doubts and problems that the public could face while making the transition to GST. “The new system entails single registration... it is online, transparent and with reduced paperwork. Over 60 lakh tax payers have already shifted to the new system,” he said