Written By

Share Market Live

NSE

S Ramesh

It was a moment of transformational change for India. It was a moment of pride for all Indians. The launch of GST on July 1, 2017, signaled not only a momentous tax reform but also a new era of cooperative fiscal federalism.

At the stroke of the midnight hour, those of us present in the resplendent Central Hall of Parliament felt overwhelmed by this historic and solemn occasion.

The vision and unanimity of the entire political spectrum in steering this landmark change was truly inspirational.

A radically new tax system subsuming a host of Central and State taxes was to be ushered in. The challenges were enormous and formidable. Several legislations backed by amendments in the Constitution had been passed by the Parliament and the State legislatures.

The GST Council’s hectic spree of 18 meetings in just nine months supported by continuous discussions with Central and State tax officers paved the way for the rate structure, legal, procedural, infrastructural, and IT frameworks. Under CBIC’s biggest ever IT project named ‘Saksham’, we ramped up the IT access to over 35,000 internal users in 1400 offices as well as to 1.3 crore taxpayers.

CBIC also undertook an organizational re-structuring involving over 50,000 officers and staff as well as a mammoth exercise in capacity building and outreach campaigns.

We set up a ‘war room’ to handle the constant buzz of queries on a 24x7 basis from about 70,000 followers of GST Twitter handle. A GST Feedback and Action room with hotlines was established to monitor, coordinate, and resolve issues faced by the common citizen during the launch and post-launch activities across India.

Publicity campaigns to create awareness were run in 18 major languages over several months covering print, audio-visual, web-based, and social media.

Given the scale and size of the change, teething troubles were but natural. Yet, the GST Council has always risen to the occasion by providing relief to MSME as well as other vulnerable sectors with regard to rate structure, procedural or IT-related issues.

The Council’s deliberations have always been enriched by the invaluable insights and wise counsel of the Hon’ble Chairman and Members. On its part, the tax administration has been responsive to the taxpayers’ grievances, while keeping a close check on evasion.

Going forward, it is important to lay down a clear, taxpayer-centric strategy to ensure predictability and consistency in the application of the GST laws and procedure. Efforts should be undertaken to widen the tax-base, rationalize rates, and simplify the law. Initiatives such as E-invoicing should be broadened to cover pre-filled return/refund claims as well as risk-based E-Audit.

The IT platform should be made more robust for a richer user experience. Input Tax Credit, the very soul of GST, should be freed of needless restrictions. The data-analytics driven compliance strategy should target the fraudsters, rather than impose fetters on the honest taxpayers.

A more judicious advance ruling mechanism and commencement of the GST Appellate Tribunal would greatly benefit taxpayers. Broader stakeholder consultation and involvement should be formalized by creating a National Consultative Committee with State-level branches under the GST Council Secretariat.

The sanctity and sustainability of GST is inextricably linked to the new regime of pooled sovereignty and consensus-building in the GST Council. I am confident that the sagacious Indian leadership, the tax administration, and the trade and industry will join hands to make GST synonymous with ‘One Nation, One Tax’.

(The author is former Chairman, Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs)

First Published:Jul 1, 2020 7:44 PM IST