Say 'No' to Popcorn-like GST Rationale

Given the increasing digitization of the economy and rising vigilance against tax evasion, the GST Council should focus on reducing tax slabs, rationalizing taxation

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was meant to simplify the tax system, inject a good measure of uniformity nationwide, and make the entire exercise of tax collection transparent. In fact, it was billed as a "one-nation, one-tax" initiative—a single market with free movement of goods and services between states, eliminating delays and corruption at inter-state barriers.

The concept itself is not new. France introduced it way back in 1954, and by and large, it has worked well there without causing much hassle for either tax collectors or taxpayers. Though successive governments in India had mooted the idea, credit for successfully getting the states on board and convincing them to surrender their exclusive power to levy tax on a whole range of goods and services to a collective body headed by the Union Finance Minister goes to the Modi government. The late Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s consensual style played a key role, ensuring that finance ministers of state governments with sharp ideological differences—ranging from TMC-led Bengal and Marxist-led Kerala to Congress-ruled states—agreed on a uniform nationwide tax for multiple goods and services.

Despite misgivings in certain sections of business and industry, and despite initial hiccups in implementation due to an unrefined digital platform, the country has largely come to terms with the amalgamation of multiple taxes into a few slabs. These changes do simplify tax collection. Aside from liquor and petroleum products, taxation on virtually everything else was subsumed under GST.