GST Bill is Through - Yet miles to go…
THE Finance Minister in his 2006 Budget Speech said,
There is a large consensus that the country should move towards a national level Goods and Services Tax (GST) that should be shared between the Centre and the States. I propose that we set April 1, 2010 as the date for introducing GST. World over, goods and services attract the same rate of tax. That is the foundation of a GST. People must get used to the idea of a GST.
More than ten years later, the Rajya Sabha yesterday passed the much hyped GST Bill. Actual implementation of GST is still far away.
9 Things to do before GST can actually take off.
1. Pass the bill in at least 15 States.
2. Form the GST Council
3. Decide the tax rate and threshold limit and draft/approve the GST legislation.
4. Get the CGST Bill passed in Parliament and the SGST Bill passed in all the States
5. Put in place a proper adjudication and appellate mechanism.
6. Launch a powerful fully tested IT system (GST NET) with all the States linked properly.
7. Launch a user-friendly web site.
8. Train the huge army of Central Excise and Commercial taxes employees to understand the tax and adapt to its concepts.
9. Constitute a high power monitoring and implementation wing to clarify doubts, assist the taxpayers and deal with litigation on the validity of the legislations and other taxing issues.
And certainly, this cannot happen before April 1 2017. 2018 may be too dangerous electorally for any political party to introduce GST. 2019 could be the nearest possible year.