History
The reform of India's indirect tax regime was started in 1986 by Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Finance Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government, with the introduction of the Modified Value Added Tax (MODVAT). Subsequently, Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, initiated early discussions on a Value Added Tax (VAT) at the state level. 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 2017). 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.
After the defeat of the BJP-led NDA government in the 2004 Lok Sabha election and the election of a Congress-led UPA government, the new Finance Minister P Chidambaram in February 2006 continued work on the same and proposed a GST rollout by 1 April 2010. However, in 2010, with the Trinamool Congress routing CPI(M) out of power in West Bengal, Asim Dasgupta resigned as the head of the GST committee. Dasgupta admitted in an interview that 80% of the task had been done.
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. Seven months after the formation of the 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.
A 21-member selected committee was formed to look into the proposed GST laws. After GST Council approved the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The CGST Bill), the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The IGST Bill), the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The UTGST Bill), the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to the States) Bill 2017 (The Compensation Bill), these Bills were passed by the Lok Sabha on 29 March, 2017. The Rajya Sabha passed these Bills on 6 April, 2017 and were then enacted as Acts on 12 April, 2017. Thereafter, State Legislatures of different States have passed respective State Goods and Services Tax Bills. After the enactment of various GST laws, Goods and Services Tax was launched all over India with effect from 1 July 2017.The Jammu and Kashmir state legislature passed its GST act on 7 July 2017, thereby ensuring that the entire nation is brought under an unified indirect taxation system. There was to be no GST on the sale and purchase of securities. That continues to be governed by Securities Transaction Tax (STT).
Launch
The GST was launched at midnight on 1 July 2017 by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, 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.It is one of the few midnight sessions that have been held by the parliament - the others being the declaration of India's independence on 15 August 1947, and the silver and golden jubilees of that occasion.After its launch, the GST rates have been modified multiple times, the latest being on 18 January 2018, where a panel of federal and state finance ministers decided to revise GST rates on 29 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.
Taxation scheme
The single GST subsumed several taxes and levies which included: central excise duty, services tax, additional customs duty, surcharges, state-level value added tax and Octroi.Other levies which were applicable on inter-state transportation of goods have also been done away with in GST regime.GST is levied on all transactions such as sale, transfer, purchase, barter, lease, or import of goods and/or services.
India adopted a dual GST model, meaning that taxation is administered by both the Union and State Governments. Transactions made within a single state are levied with Central GST (CGST) by the Central Government and State GST (SGST) by the State governments. For inter-state transactions and imported goods or services, an Integrated GST (IGST) is levied by the Central Government. GST is a consumption-based tax/destination-based tax, therefore, taxes are paid to the state where the goods or services are consumed not the state in which they were produced. IGST complicates tax collection for State Governments by disabling them from collecting the tax owed to them directly from the Central Government. Under the previous system, a state would only have to deal with a single government in order to collect tax revenue.
HSN code in GST
HSN (Harmonized System of Nomenclature) is an 8-digit code for identifying the applicable rate of GST on different products as per CGST rules. If a company has turnover up to ₹1.5 Crore in the preceding financial year then they need not mention the HSN code while supplying goods on invoices. If a company has turnover more than ₹1.5 Crore but up to ₹5 Cr then they need to mention the 2 digit HSN code while supplying goods on invoices. If turnover crosses ₹5 Cr then they shall mention the 4 digit HSN code on invoices.
Rates
The GST is imposed at variable rates on variable items. The rate of GST is 18% for soaps and 28% on washing detergents. GST on movie tickets is based on slabs, with 18% GST for tickets that cost less than Rs. 100 and 28% GST on tickets costing more than Rs.100 and 5% on readymade clothes.The rate on under-construction property booking is 12%.Some industries and products were exempted by the government and remain untaxed under GST, such as dairy products, products of milling industries, fresh vegetables & fruits, meat products, and other groceries and necessities.
Checkposts across the country were abolished ensuring free and fast movement of goods.[
The Central Government had proposed to insulate the revenues of the States from the impact of GST, with the expectation that in due course, GST will be levied on petroleum and petroleum products. The central government had assured states of compensation for any revenue loss incurred by them from the date of GST for a period of five years. However, no concrete laws have yet been made to support such action. GST council adopted concept paper discouraging tinkering with rates.
Reverse Charge Mechanism
Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM) is a system in GST where the receiver pays the tax on behalf of unregistered, smaller material and service suppliers. The receiver of the goods is eligible for Input Tax Credit, while the unregistered dealer is not.
The RCM and matching of invoices by buyers and sellers were earlier suspended due to pressure from the industry. It is put on hold until June.
Goods and Services Tax Network (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 sophisticated network, accessible to stakeholders, government and taxpayers to access information from on 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$1.5 million) in which Central Government holds 24.5 percent of shares while the state government holds 24.5 percent. The remaining 51 percent are 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%.
