Advantages of GST

Goods and Services Tax in India is intended to replace all the indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Centre and States currently. The tax base would be comprehensive with virtually all goods and services being taxed with minimum exemptions. This would reduce the cascading effect of tax on the cost of goods and services. A complete overhaul of the current indirect tax system with impacts on the structure, incidence, computation, payment and compliance is anticipated. This would, in turn, have a far-reaching effect on almost all the business operations aspects in India. Supply chain optimisation, IT, accounting, tax compliance and pricing would be affected by the GST.

Salient Features

• A broad-based unified consumption tax on most goods and services except alcohol, petroleum products etc.
• Multiple taxations on goods and services such as entry tax, octroi, sales tax etc. is avoided as it is a single destination-based tax.
• Tax collections would eventually be enhanced due to the wider coverage of goods and services.
• There is no option of levying the special tax, additional tax, resale tax etc.
• There will be just one or two-floor rates to ensure effective implementation of the tax system.

General Benefits of GST

• Since all taxes are subsumed within the GST, there will be no chance of a cascading effect or duplication.
• The burden of taxation would be divided equally between the service and manufacturing sectors by lowering of the tax rate and increasing the tax base. This would be done by minimising exemptions so that almost all goods and services are taxed. This would divide the tax burden equitably between the different players.
• Taxation at various points would be elimination and GST would be levied only at the destination. Currently, the producer of a product needs to pay tax when the product moves out from the factory, which is again taxed at the retail outlet when it is sold. GST would eliminate this duplication.
• This new system of taxation would aid in building a corruption-free and transparent administration with minimum hassles. It can help reduce the transaction cost of business and enable smoother movement of goods across the various states.

Benefit to the Country

• India would gain about 15 billion dollars just by implementing the new tax system. This would be possible due to the promotion of exports, boosted growth and increased employment.
• Similar to the VAT principle, as GST would be levied only at the final destination, economic distortions would be negated thus bringing about the development of a common market.
• It is envisaged that India's medium-term outlook will be set to improve on the passage of the GST.

Benefits to Consumers and Companies

• As the taxes ( both central and state) would be collected at the point of sale and duplication will be avoided, the manufacturing cost of the goods would come down and this would be eventually reflected in the sale price. The prices of goods would come down in the long run as dealers would be allowed to avail credit of tax paid on services too. This would enable passing on the benefits of reduced tax incidence to consumers by lowering of prices. These lowered prices would benefit consumers and would lead to more consumption. This would immensely benefit companies, especially small businesses.
• While imports would be subject to GST, exports would be zero-rated, as in, the ones exporting the goods and services need not pay GST on the exports and the tax paid by them on the procurement of goods and services would be refunded to them as it is currently.

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