The Fallouts of Retrospective Amendments in Taxing Statutes: A Critical Analysis

In the era of Information technology and globalisation almost everything is dynamic and nothing is stable. However, when it comes to the amendment of taxation laws it has always had wide implications as it has an effect upon the taxpayers and the revenue of the government. Generally, laws are amended to meet the changing needs of the society or to cope up with the new technological development or to create a new right etc. Amendment of laws can be divided into two types based upon the specified date of its application. They are prospective amendments and retrospective amendments. Retrospective amendments are made to cure any defect or mistake or loophole in a taxing statute. Generally, retrospective amendments tend to modify a vested right or imposes a new obligation upon the taxpayers with the intention to curb tax evasion and tax avoidance. However, this trend has completely changed in the recent past. Nowadays retrospective amendments are being made according to the wish of the government with the main intention of nullifying the judicial decisions thereby leading to unnecessary financial burden upon the taxpayers by digging up the past transactions and leading to a spate of litigations in the Indian courts. This paper thus, tries to critically analyse various effects or impacts of the retrospective amendment in taxing statutes.