It is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. An agency to prevent profiteering should have been established at least a year before the introduction of the GST. But the great Finance Ministry is doing it in the reverse order. Therefore, even as it is in the process of being established, officials have come to suspect the efficacy of the Anti-Profiteering Authority which is designed to prevent undue retention of GST benefits by corporates. On June 18, the GST Council approved anti-profiteering rules. Two days later, on June 20, the Finance Ministry notified the formation of the Anti-Profiteering Authority with five members at the top. The authority, which may start working a few months after the July 1 rollout, will determine the "methodology and procedure for determining " if the input tax benefit is passed on to the final consumer. It is, however, allowed to act only against specific complaints. This may open up a Pandora's box of litigations and may immensely benefit the parasitic lawyer class at the cost of consumers. Rollout Experts say without the suo moto power and set methodology based on prior preparations the Anti-Profiteering Authority may turn into a farce of a show-piece and hugely increase the cost of governance without any visible benefit to taxpayers and consumers. It is pointed out that the government has come to know that many corporates, armed with batteries of chartered accountants, have already inflated the price of their final products to harvest windfall profits from the introduction of GST from July. But it is helpless.