- It has now been more than a decade since the idea of national Goods and Services Tax (GST) was mooted by Kelkar Task Force in 2004. The Task Force strongly recommended fully integrated ‘GST’ on national basis.
- Subsequently, the then Union Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram, while presenting the Central Budget (2006-2007), announced that GST would be introduced from April 1, 2010. Since then, GST missed several deadlines and continued to be shrouded by the clouds of uncertainty.
- The talks of ushering in GST, however, gained momentum in the year 2014 when the NDA Government tabled the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 on GST in the Parliament on 19th December, 2014. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on 6th May, 2015 and Rajya Sabha on 3rd August, 2016. Subsequent to ratification of the Bill by more than 50% of the States, Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 received the assent of the President on 8th September, 2016 and became Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016, which paved the way for introduction of GST in India.
- In the following year, on 27th March, 2017, the Central GST legislations – Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 and Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017 were introduced in Lok Sabha. Lok Sabha passed these bills on 29th March, 2017 and with the receipt of the President’s assent on 12th April, 2017, the Bills were enacted. The enactment of the Central Acts was followed by the enactment of the State GST laws by various State Legislatures. Telangana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Goa and Bihar were among the first ones to pass their respective State GST laws.
- GST is a path breaking indirect tax reform which will create a common national market. GST has subsumed multiple indirect taxes like excise duty, service tax, VAT, CST, luxury tax, entertainment tax, entry tax, etc.
- France was the first country to implement GST in the year 1954. Within 62 years of its advent, about 160 countries across the world have adopted GST because this tax has the capacity to raise revenue in the most transparent and neutral manner.