A Ray Of Hope For GST

By Rajeev Dimri, Leader - Indirect Tax, BMR Advisors

Goods and Service Tax (GST) is the most talked about topic in the Indian economy currently.  The introduction of GST at both Central and the State level is one of the most awaited dreams of the Central Government despite the stiff opposition being faced from the States who do not want to loose their autonomy to levy tax.

GST is a tax on goods and services with comprehensive and continuous chain of set-off benefit available to a manufacturer, service provider and the retailer.  Precisely it can be said that it is a tax on value addition at each stage.  GST seeks to subsume indirect taxes like excise duty and service tax at the central level and VAT on the state front, besides other local levies.

In spite of the opposition from the States, central government has been keen to bring in much awaited reform in indirect taxes by implementing GST though it has already missed two deadlines.  In the recent past various steps have been take towards the rollout of GST such as introduction of discussion paper on GST, alignment of excise duty rates with service tax rates, formulation of rules for point of supply of services, establishment of IT infrastructure, etc. 

As one crucial step forward towards the introduction of GST, cabinet approved the constitutional amendment bill on GST on Tuesday and got the President