Four Years of Goods and Services Tax in India: Road Ahead
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00195561231166526 |
| Author | Parul Jain |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Four Years of Goods
and Services Tax in
India: Road Ahead
Parul Jain1
Abstract
The ideology behind GST was to reduce the multiplicity of existing indirect taxes
and implement a uniform taxation structure across the nation. A perfect GST
would have been wherein the GSTs are taxed at a single tax rate, subject to mini-
mal or no exceptions. However, for a country like India, a tiered tax rate structure
becomes inevitable to take into account the larger social agenda. GST is in the
interest of trade and industry as it would do away with multiplicity of taxes and
their cascading impacts. It will lead to the creation of a unified market for facilitat-
ing seamless movement of goods across the states. By subsuming a large number
of Central and State taxes into a single tax, it would mitigate cascading effects or
double taxation in a major way and pave the way for a national common market.
However, we need to keep in mind that taxation policy has to be transparent,
predictable and inclusive. This alone can maximise the favourable impact of GST on
investment and growth. There is a strong case for phasing out a lot of exemptions.
The GST council should seriously work on strengthening the GST system.
Keywords
Cascading effect, fiscal asymmetry, GST, CGST, SGT, IGST, revenue productivity
Introduction
Fiscal Federalism has been one of the most important pillars for the success of
India’s enduring democracy. India has tried to tackle the twin problems of vertical
imbalances and horizontal imbalances by creating the institution of Finance
Commission. Multiplicity of existing indirect taxes created cascading effects in
the taxation structure of India. The idea behind introduction of GST in India was
to reduce the multiplicity of indirect taxes and implement uniform taxation across
the nation.
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
69(4) 788–800, 2023
© 2023 IIPA
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/00195561231166526
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1 DAV PG College,Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Corresponding author:
Parul Jain, DAV PG College, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221005, India.
E-mail: jainparul486@gmail.com
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