According to sources Narendra Modi’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) bandwagon is going through rough Indian roads. Big industries are worried about the complexity of the rate structure and classification of products under the tax regime originally conceptualized as ‘One nation, one tax’. Small traders are so dumbstruck looking at the convoluted structure and compliance process that many of them don’t know where they stand in the whole affair. By now, it is clear that both the GST council and the government failed to foresee the likely hurdles before setting the ball rolling on the grand tax reform.
Meanwhile after a few days, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised some corrective measures to ease the pain of small entrepreneurs. A group of Ministers (GoM) set up to think of more ways to simplify the GST structure has now come up with some interesting suggestions. These proposals will be taken up in the next GST council meeting.
Moreover the government is currently changing the rules on the go that
will only bring more uncertainty and hassles to the industry and confusion to
investors. Applying the Subramanian formula of three rates to the GST structure
could make it lot simpler and consistent with the original objective.
