Gst in India
International Conference on Law, Humanities and Management (ICLHM'2012) July 15-16, 2012 Singapore
Goods and Services Tax – A Roadmap for India
Sarkar Subhrangshu Sekhar
Over the years, tax policy in the country has evolved in response to the development strategy and its changes. In the initial years, the tax policy was directed to increase the level of savings, transfer available savings for investment as envisaged by plan strategy and the need to ensure a fair distribution of incomes, to correct inequalities arising from the oligopolistic market structure created by the co-existence of private and public sector and the existence of other instruments of planning such as licensing system, exchange control, administered price determination. Introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) at the Central and the State level has been considered to be a major step – an important breakthrough – in the sphere of indirect tax reforms in India. If the VAT is a major improvement over the preexisting Central excise duty at the national level and the sales tax system at the State level, then the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will indeed be a further significant improvement – the next logical step – towards a comprehensive indirect tax reforms in the country (The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, 2009). II. HISTORY OF TAX REFORMS IN INDIA The history of taxation dates back to time immemorial and it is not a recent development by any account. A thorough research on the history of taxation system shows that taxes were levied on either on the sale and purchase of merchandise or livestock. Further, the history of taxation suggests that the process of levying and the manner of tax collection were unorganized. But it suggests that all historical leaders and head countrymen collected taxes to run its authority. In other words taxes on income, sale, purchase and properties were collected to run the ruling Government machineries. Further, these taxes were collected to meet their
Goods and Services Tax – A Roadmap for India
Sarkar Subhrangshu Sekhar
Over the years, tax policy in the country has evolved in response to the development strategy and its changes. In the initial years, the tax policy was directed to increase the level of savings, transfer available savings for investment as envisaged by plan strategy and the need to ensure a fair distribution of incomes, to correct inequalities arising from the oligopolistic market structure created by the co-existence of private and public sector and the existence of other instruments of planning such as licensing system, exchange control, administered price determination. Introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) at the Central and the State level has been considered to be a major step – an important breakthrough – in the sphere of indirect tax reforms in India. If the VAT is a major improvement over the preexisting Central excise duty at the national level and the sales tax system at the State level, then the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will indeed be a further significant improvement – the next logical step – towards a comprehensive indirect tax reforms in the country (The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, 2009). II. HISTORY OF TAX REFORMS IN INDIA The history of taxation dates back to time immemorial and it is not a recent development by any account. A thorough research on the history of taxation system shows that taxes were levied on either on the sale and purchase of merchandise or livestock. Further, the history of taxation suggests that the process of levying and the manner of tax collection were unorganized. But it suggests that all historical leaders and head countrymen collected taxes to run its authority. In other words taxes on income, sale, purchase and properties were collected to run the ruling Government machineries. Further, these taxes were collected to meet their
References: [1] Report on Reform of Domestic Trade Taxes in India, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi, 1994 [2] Budget Speech by Union Finance Minister, Government of India, 2012 230