The capitalistic structure has made the consumers a company’s number one asset. Consumers decide where and how a company should continue its journey and growth. Taxation system is another factor which has an overwhelming influence over businesses and because of the changing nature of the market, amendments and refurbishing of the laws and policies have become necessary in order to survive. Similar changes were made in the country when under the previous 5 year-term of the current government, the GST regime was introduced to the country. These changes were initially, seemingly slightly more complex to understand. The dramatic revamping of the taxation system was accompanied by the implementation of the anti-profiteering clause to ensure that the consumers benefit from these changes. The addition of the anti-profiteering clause was necessary to prevent the unbalancing in the power dynamics of parties involved.

As per the principles of law, the anti-profiteering clause coincides with distributive justice. Distributive justice stands for distribution of wealth in possession of the more affluent in favour of the less fortunate; in this case it helps the consumers by making sure that the tax policies stay within the bounds of the matrix fixed. The anti-profiteering can be said to go forward to achieve Rawls’ idea of justice that is liberal (free market forces) but also serves egalitarian purposes. In law however, its roots can be traced back to the doctrine of unjust enrichment which essentially states that a situation must be avoided in which an entity has the possibility of benefitting twice. 

The idea of Anti-Profiteering is definitely not novel to contemporary times as a price control mechanism can be historically seen present in West Bengal Anti-Profiteering Act, 1958. The legislation aimed to prevent profiteering on certain articles. The current GST system taking cues from the above-mentioned legislation among others, proposes the establishment of a price control authority which would play the role of watchdog, protecting consumers from suffering due to inflated prices. To ensure that there are no unjustifiable rise in prices there is an enabling clause present under Section 171 in the GST Act. This section along with the powers granted under Section 164 of the GST  act introduced rules and regulations for the body to function.

The established authority also set up a consumer welfare fund to gain consumer confidence. The National Anti-Profiteering Authority was established to attempt to prevent exploitation of customers by checking the balance of the cost of the product supplied. Furthermore, the NAA has the authority to take actions against any entity which is found to benefit from undue profits including ordering the said entity to pay up the amount with an added interest rate of 18 percent from the date of which the sum was received. For a complaint to be filed to the NAA, the complaint has to pass through the State Level Screening Committee which has the responsibility to verify its correctness following which it is scrutinized by the Standing Committee which is required to submit a report to the Director General within a span of 60 days.