NEW DELHI: The political stunts against the goods and services tax is all set to be more aggressive after July 1,as the impact and results will continue to cause concern to the stakeholders. “Politics cannot stop the GST rollout,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
His view is also supported by consumer experts, who feel political parties will not be able to make much noise, once consumers start getting the benefits of the new tax regime. However, they warn there would be ‘teething troubles’.
“Every political party including the BJP when in opposition has opposed GST, but none of them can oppose it for long. In the next six to 12 months, the benefits will start rolling in and during this period, opposition may pull up some stunts,” says Bejon Misra, a consumer activist.
All political parties opposing the GST in its current form are aware that constitutionally, GST has to be implemented by September 2017. Any delay will mean the consumer will pay a higher tax and the state will lose all the benefits that the GST Council has extended to states implementing GST.
“As the nation celebrate the birth of a historic GST, which is expected to change the course of economic development of the nation, I hope all of us appreciate that like every new born, GST also has to go through the teething troubles,” said Sachin Menon – partner and head (indirect taxes) at KPMG in India.
This is the line the government has begun to take in the past three months keeping in mind the possibility that political parties will use the teething troubles to exploit the stakeholders’ sentiments where they face hardship under the GST.
The success of GST not only depends on its rollout, but also how effectively the government machinery works to reach out to stakeholders to reiterate the benefits of GST.