Goods And Service Tax- An

Overview
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. HISTORY OF GST
2.LAUNCH
3.SALIENT FEATURES
4.IGST- DEFINITION
5.BENEFITS OF INTER STATE GST
6.GST COUNCIL AND GSTN
7. CRITICISM AGAINST GST
HISTORY
•A single common "Goods and Services Tax (GST)" was proposed and given a go-ahead in
1999 during a meeting between the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his economic
advisory panel, which included three former RBI governors IG Patel, Bimal Jalan and C
Rangarajan. Vajpayee set up a committee headed by the Finance Minister of West Bengal, 
Asim Dasgupta to design a GST model.

•The Ravi Dasgupta committee which was also tasked with putting in place the back-end
technology and logistics (later came to be known as the GST Network, or GSTN, in 2015). It
later came out for rolling out a uniform taxation regime in the country. In 2002, the
Vajpayee government formed a task force under Vijay Kelkar to recommend tax reforms.
In 2005, the Kelkar committee recommended rolling out GST as suggested by the 
12th Finance Commission

•In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government was

elected into power. With the consequential dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha, the GST Bill
– approved by the standing committee for reintroduction – lapsed
HISTORY
•.Seven months after the formation of the then Modi government, the new Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the GST Bill in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP had a
majority. In February 2015, Jaitley set another deadline of 1 April 2017 to implement
GST. In May 2016, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution Amendment Bill, paving way
for GST.

•However, the Opposition, led by the Congress, demanded that the GST Bill be again
sent back for review to the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha due to disagreements
on several statements in the Bill relating to taxation.

•Finally in August 2016, the Amendment Bill was passed. Over the next 15 to 20 days,
18 states ratified the Constitution amendment Bill and the President Pranab
Mukherjee gave his assent to it
LAUNCH
•The GST was launched at midnight on 1 July 2017 by the President of India, and the 
Government of India. The launch was marked by a historic midnight (30 June – 1 July) session of
both the houses of parliament convened at the Central Hall of the Parliament.

•Though the session was attended by high-profile guests from the business and the
entertainment industry including Ratan Tata, it was boycotted by the opposition due to the
predicted problems that it was bound to lead for the middle and lower class Indians.

•After its launch, the GST rates have been modified multiple times, the latest being on 22
December 2018, where a panel of federal and state finance ministers decided to revise GST rates
on 28 goods and 53 services.

•Members of the Congress boycotted the GST launch altogether.They were joined by members

of the Trinamool Congress, Communist Parties of India and the DMK. The parties reported that
they found virtually no difference between the GST and the existing taxation system, claiming
that the government was trying to merely rebrand the current taxation system

•They also argued that the GST would increase existing rates on common daily goods while
reducing rates on luxury items, and affect many Indians adversely, especially the middle, lower
middle and poorer income groups
SALIENT FEATURES
•The GST would be applicable on the supply of goods or services.

•It would be a single GST on any item out of which 50% will go to Central Govt and 50% will
go to State Govt / Union Territory. The two types of GST are namely Central tax (CGST) and
State tax (SGST) / Union territory tax (UTGST).

•The GST would apply on all goods or services or both other than alcoholic liquor for
human consumption

•Destination based consumption tax

 The tax would accrue to the State which has jurisdiction over the place of
consumption which is also termed as place of supply.
 Levied at all stages right from manufacture up to final consumption with credit of
taxes paid at previous stages available as setoff.  
 In a nutshell, only value addition will be taxed and burden of tax is to be borne by the
final consumer.
SALIENT FEATURES
•An Integrated GST (IGST) would be levied and collected by the Centre on inter-State
supply of goods and services.

•HSN code shall be used for classifying the goods under the GST regime.

•Taxpayers whose turnover is above Rs. 1.5 crores but below Rs. 5 crores shall use 2-digit
code and the taxpayers whose turnover is Rs. 5 crores and above shall use 4-digit code.

•For Services, Service Accounting Codes (SAC) shall be used

•Exports and Supplies to SEZs shall be treated as zero-rated supply. No tax is payable on
exports but ITC related to the supply shall be refunded to exporters.

• Import of goods/services would be subject to IGST in addition to Basic Customs duty.

•Laws and procedures for levy and collection of CGST/SGST would be harmonized to the
extent possible.
IGST- DEFINITION
• Inter State GST arises from a need for a mechanism to levy
and apportion GST on interstate supplies to destination states

•A supply of goods or services or both in the course of inter-

State trade or commerce means any supply where the location
of the supplier and the place of supply are in different States.
(Section 3(1) and 3(2) of the IGST Act)
BENEFITS OF IGST
1)Maintenance of uninterrupted ITC chain on inter-State transactions. The buyer in
another State is in a position to avail credit of the IGST charged by the seller in one
State.
2)The incidence of tax would be same be it inter state or intra state. Hence , there
would be no rate shopping or unfair advantage to any state.
3)The tax regime is simple and there would not be any requirement of documentation
as required in existing CST regime.
4)The tax collected in the originating state would be transferred to the destination
state.
5)No refund claim in exporting State( within India), as ITC is used up while paying the
tax.
GST COUNCIL
•Council is the governing body of GST having 33 members. 

•It is chaired by the Union Finance Minister. GST Council is an apex member committee
to modify, reconcile or to procure any law or act or regulation based on the context of
goods and services tax in India.

•The council is headed by the union finance minister Arun Jaitley assisted with the 
finance minister of all the states of India. The GST council is responsible for any
revision or enactment of rule or any rate changes of the goods and services in India.
GSTN
The GSTN software is developed by Infosys Technologies and the Information Technology
network that provides the computing resources is maintained by the NIC.

"Goods and Services Tax" Network (GSTN) is a nonprofit organisation formed for creating a
sophisticated network, accessible to stakeholders , government and taxpayers to access
information from a single source (portal). The portal is accessible to the Tax authorities for
tracking down every transaction, while taxpayers have the ability of connect for their tax
returns.

The GSTN's authorised capital is ₹10 crore (US$1.4 million) in which initially the Central
Government held 24.5 percent of shares while the state government held 24.5 percent. The
remaining 51 percent were held by non-Government financial institutions, HDFC and HDFC Bank
 hold 20%, ICICI Bank holds 10%, NSE Strategic Investment holds 10% and LIC Housing Finance
holds 11% .

However, later it was made a wholly owned government company having equal shares of state
and central government
CRITICISM
•Technicalities of GST implementation in India have been criticized by global financial
institutions, sections of Indian media and opposition political parties in India. World Bank's 2018
version of India Development Update described India's version of GST as too complex, noticing
various flaws compared to GST systems prevalent in other countries; most significantly, the
second highest tax rate among a sample of 115 countries at 28%.

•GST's implementation in India has been further criticized by Indian businessmen for problems
including tax refund delays and too much documentation and administrative effort
needed According to a partner at PwC India, when the first GST returns were filed in August
2017, the system crashed under the weight of filings.

•The opposition Congress party has consistently been among the most vocal opponents of GST
implementation in India with party President, and leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi,
slamming BJP for allegedly "destroying small businessmen and industries" in the country. He
went on to pejoratively dub GST as "Gabbar Singh Tax" after an ill-famed, fictional dacoit in
Bollywood films.