5 Years of GST: Hit or miss

GST is touted to be India’s most comprehensive tax reform in decades, it is based on the principle of ‘one nation, one market, one tax’. GST was introduced with a promise and outlook of streamlining the tax system from inception, it subsumed 17 local levies like excise duty, service tax, VAT, and 13 cases. But under the current GST regime, broadly there are four rate structure sa low rate of 5% and a top rate of 28%.The other slabs of GST tax are 12% and 18%. Besides, there is a special 3% rate for gold, jewelry, and precious stones and 1.5% on cut and polished diamonds.

It is always been an incredible and formidable task to subsume erstwhile diverse tax regimes into a unified tax regime. GST was introduced on 1^stJuly2017 with the matching concept wherein the invoices of the supplier and the recipient would be matched, thereby avoiding tax leakages and providing a smooth flow of credit.

The highest REVENUE COLLECTION from GST in India is as below:

• The tax base of GST has been increased since its inception. As per the Government data; ₹1,44,616 crores as the gross GST revenue collection for June’22, which is an increase of 56% on a year-on-year basis,
• Gross GST collection in June’22 is the second highest collection after April’22 collection,
• GST collection crosses ₹1.40 lakh crore mark 5^th time since the inception of GST.

“Five Years of GST: A look Back”

Any reform is bound to have advantages and some areas for improvement, so let’s have a look over both the pointers-

Some of the HITS of GST

• Greater transparency between supplier and recipient transactions, through the introduction of reconciliation of Input Tax Credit.
• GST reduces tax-on-tax and double taxation, by doing away the multiple compliances like VAT, service tax, etc. With GST, the outflow of subsumed taxes has been effectively reduced and hence eliminated the cascading effect of taxation.
• When considering GST hit, the customs duty on exporting goods has been reduced. These savings have lured many production units to export their goods and thus increase the exports.
• The GST council comprising of finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and state counterparts, has met many times so far and has taken many measures which made Rs 1 lakh crore GST collection per month ‘a new normal’.
• GST points towards a positive impact on India’s GDP. It is expected to increase by at least 80% within the next couple of years.

Few Misses of GST: Need for recovery

• Furnishing multiple returns and setting up of principal place of business in each state from where business is to be commenced is a hassle for the industry,
• Many small and medium enterprises are still hesitant to do online transactions and pay taxes online,
• Increased costs of software that assist in the GST filing process have led to higher operational costs for many businesses,
• The GST transaction fees within the financial sector have become more expensive increasing from 15% to 18%,
• With GST, Insurance premiums have become more expensive, as a GST rate of @18% is being charge don them,
• Petrol is not under GST, which goes against the ideals of unification of commodities.

For greater transparency in the economy, various provisions were introduced from time to time-

• E-Way bill, Introduction of the E-way bill on 1^st April 2018coupled with a crackdown on fake invoicing has helped in bringing in a substantial portion of GST revenues.
• Reconciliation of Input Tax Credit with vendor electronically has helped in increasing transparency in supplier and recipient.
• E-Invoicing which was firstly introduced on 1^st October 2020, is now applicable to every company whose aggregate turnover exceeds ₹20 crores who are required to validate every tax invoice through the GST government portal issuance.

Although it’s been 5 years since GST still there is a large part of the economy which is not covered under this tax regime so it’s time for the government to touch upon those areas also.

This content is meant for information only and should not be considered as an advice or legal opinion, or otherwise. AKGVG & Associates does not intend to advertise its services through this.

Posted by

CA Tarun Kapoor

AKGVG & Associates

Tags: 5 Years of GST