NEW DELHI: ON July 1, Goods and Services Tax (GST) completes one year. While many of the initial shocks seems to have settled, the technical snag, uneven tax slab at 28 per cent, long waiting periods at e-way bill clearance points and delays in refunds to the exporters suggest that the agenda remains unfinished yet.
“We have crossed the first hurdle. As we go forward, other issues will also be resolved step by step,” Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said. The view is endorsed by both industry leaders and experts, who feel that the launch remains more or less successful. However, what will keep the government engaged in the coming months would be ensuring fewer tax slabs, smooth operation of refunds and less complicated paperwork, along with bringing the petrol and diesel prices under the GST ambit.
“With uniformity of rates and elimination of multiple other indirect taxes, the GST has cut out tax cascading, widened the tax net and added to tax revenues. For the tax to be truly effective, there is a need to move towards just three rates,” Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President, Confederation of Indian Industry, said.
Bringing real estate, petrol and alcohol under the purview of GST will make the rates more effective in the true sense, Mittal said.
Reducing paperwork and switching to single returns form still remains a challenge. “The single returns model is expected to take front seat by the year end. It will be challenging for the GSTN to design the single summary return to ensure that all critical information has been declared by taxpayers, so that no tax evasion happens due to incomplete data,” said Archit Gupta, CEO, ClearTax.
Regarding e-way bill, which attracted mixed reactions, it is a work in progress. “A proposal to check e-way bill only once during transit is already in talks. This will surely reduce the time involved in checking and formalities, thus minimising the overall travel time. Bringing in the Radio Frequency Identification system as early as possible is advised, as this intelligent device automatically identifies and tracks e-way bills attached to conveyance without the intervention of officers,” Gupta said.