(Download) Yojana Magazine Free PDF Archive : August-2017

GST Regime -A Fillip to Make in
India
Arun Goyal - 7
creating a unified taxation
regime
TN Ashok - 12
Gst - Dawn of a New Era
Upender Gupta - 17

Special Article

Creating a Strong IT Backbone
Prakash Kumar - 22
Removing Cascading Effect of
Taxes
Suraj Jaiswal - 26

Do you know ?

NATIONAL ANTI PROFITEERING
AUTHORITY - 44

Focus

Balancing Federal Fiscal
Relations
Jayanta Roy Chowdhury -31
GST means Ease of Doing
Business
Danish A Hashim
Varsha Kumari - 35
Profiteering, a GST
implementation challenge
Gireesh Chandra Prasad - 41
Transitional Challenges Ahead
Devaraja Reddy M - 46
North East Diary - 52

2017 will go down as one of the most significant years in the history of India with Goods and Services Tax becoming a reality from July 1, 2017. The new system is being regarded as the most revolutionising tax reform in the Indian taxation history. Sound tax policies of a nation are an indication of strong governance and
sustainable development. This fact is reflected from the historical perspective also. All the successful rulers known for being good administrators had also put in place an excellent revenue collection system - be it the Mauryas, Guptas, Iltutmish or Akbar. Their name to fame was not just because of their political supremacy but also because of the taxation policies they pursued.

Tax apart from being a source of revenue and growth, also plays a key role in making the state accountable to its taxpayers. Effective taxation ensures that public
finances are sustainable in the longer term to support social objectives and promote economic development. Complexity of the Indian tax system has however, always
perplexed the best of minds in the taxation world. With the Centre, State and local bodies having the powers to levy a plethora of taxes, every single person ranging from the common man to the manufacturers and traders have felt the burden of multiple taxes. All these years, taxes were collected at various levels right from the place of origin of the goods to the final destination. So, very often, goods or services were taxed multiple times. Goods which had to move across States were often stopped at borders for hours together just to pay various taxes resulting in huge losses in terms of damaged goods and high transportation costs.

The new regime aims to transform the tax scenario of the country by streamlining the system through a single tax for supply of all goods and services across the country. Heralded as a 'destination tax', the GST is a tax on goods and services which will be paid at the point of receiving. For example, tax on cloth will be paid where the cloth is sold. This is against the earlier regime where the tax was paid at various points beginning with manufacturing, transportation and finally where it was sold. This meant that a lot of goods were taxed multiple times without the consumer actually being aware of all the taxes he was paying. The single tax system will thus benefit the consumer by easing out the multiple taxation and reducing the prices. GST, because of its transparent character, will also be easier to administer. This will give a fillip to Make in India as well as ease of doing business. With India expected to play significant role in the world economy, GST will also prove to be a game changer as it will make Indian products competitive in the domestic as well as the international markets leading to an overall increase in exports.

A system of this gigantic nature requires an adequately strong IT infrastructure base. The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), created for the purpose, is expected to make this landmark reform a success through its strong network. Once implemented, this unparalleled tax reform holds great promise in terms of sustainable growth for the Indian economy. It will help in creating a uniform national market making the dream of “One Nation, One Tax, One Market” a reality.