Goods and
Services Tax (GST) is a multi-stage indirect tax levied on local consumption. It
involves collection by registered vendors throughout the production and
distribution chain before the goods or services reach end-consumers. Under the
GST framework, each registered vendor charges GST on his sales in the form of
output tax, and reclaims credits for the tax paid on his purchases as input tax.
The input tax credit method allows GST-registered businesses to claim tax
credit to the value of GST they paid on purchase of goods or services as
part of their normal commercial activity. It is similar to value added tax
because at every stage, tax is being paid on the value addition. Taxable goods
and services are not distinguished from one another and are taxed at a single
rate in a supply chain till the goods or services reach the consumer. The total
amount of GST paid to the tax authority by all the vendors in the production
and distribution chain is equal to the amount of tax finally borne by the
consumer.
The
GST is a system of indirect taxation introduced from July 1, 2017, in
India merging most of the existing taxes into single system of taxation. It was
proposed first by the finance minister in the budget speech in 2007 and
introduced by The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act 2016.
The Constitution Amendment Bill, 2014, (GST Bill), by considering the present
federal structure, proposed dual GST model in which both the central and the
state governments have power to collect tax in the following manner: The Central
GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) are the domain of the central government,
while the State GST (SGST) is to be collected by state governments. The CGST
and SGST are applicable in the case of intrastate trade of commerce, but in
interstate trade the IGST is applicable. The transaction may be liable to be
taxed under GST if the total turnover (of all transactions all over India)
exceeds the threshold limit.
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The current
indirect tax system, particularly the retail sales tax, covers normally goods but
not services. Services sector, however, is faster growing part of the economy.
The GST covers services as equally as goods extending the tax base of the
country. The GST, a comprehensive consumption tax levied on the supply of all
goods and services, can eliminate the multiplicity of taxes, the complexity in
compliance obligations, and tax cascading. It is one point single taxation
based on the principle of one tax one market across the regions in India. The
GST eliminates the cascading effects of CENVAT and it is not simply a VAT plus service tax but an improvement over the previous
system of VAT and disjointed service tax.
The GST, a
multi-stage indirect tax levied on local consumption, as proposed by the union
government in India has been a subject of intense debate and is reignited
because of the heterogeneity of state laws on the present VAT (value added tax)
system. There has been a lot of heterogeneity not only in VAT rates but also in
the mode of compliance with different set of laws in different states. One of
the major objectives of the proposed GST is to eliminate this heterogeneity
across the states. Moreover, a number of positive impacts of GST have been
claimed officially from the experience of the GST system already prevailing in
more than 150 countries in the globe. While the most of the GST systems across
the world have been using a single GST, a dual-GST model is proposed in India
for its federal republic structure. Lot of debates have come up on GST in India
particularly in the context of the state economies under the present federal
structure.
As the GST is
destination-based, there would be an outflow of tax revenue under this tax
system along with goods and services produced in states with manufacturing
industries to states that consume the goods and services. In this sense, GST may
not be attractive particularly for manufacturing states. The central
government has assured states of compensation for any revenue losses incurred
by them from the date of introduction of GST for a period of five years.
Taxation on
the consumption of goods and services is nothing more than an expenditure tax,
very much similar to income tax.
For GST, the tax base is expenditure,
not income, and everyone who consumes goods and services cannot avoid this tax,
as it is built into the price. As
the lower income people have higher propensity to consume than the higher
income people, the tax burden for the lower income people will be higher than
for the higher income group. At least on equity ground GST should be linked to
direct taxes. Tax reforms should
be aimed at augmenting revenue to assure alleviation of poverty and creating a
more equitable society.
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Mr. Panchanan Das
Professor of Economics,
University of Kolkata
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
