GST — Post Five Years

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is now 5 years old and when one looks back on what has been achieved in these years and what needs to be done further to make the GST even more efficient and robust, there is a long list. In that list, there are positives—for which the Government needs to be applauded, and further measures taken to gain more from the same—as well as positives, which the Government needs to seriously work on and find a way out to make the landmark law post-Independence achieve further success.
If we talk of positives, there has been a mushrooming and advancement in the IT infrastructure which forms the foundations of the GST without which the implementation of the law, that side-lined all the indirect taxes and brought about one single tax, would not have been possible. The GST legislation in a way catapulted technological advancement in the country.
The feature of e-invoicing as well as the e-way billing also brought about great changes in the logistics and paved a way for speedy transfer of goods across the country. Also, one of the accomplishments in the federal system of the country has turned out to be the GST Council in which states and centers find a common ground and also form policies—something that has been unheard of at least in the tax system of the country.
What also needs to be noted here that the GST has been put out into a system that is hugely interrelated and is largely complex, however, despite the initial disruptions, the GST has been able to perform well unlike in the countries where the GST was repealed soon after its implementation, because it brought the entire system to a grinding halt. But, India, along with its intricate system, so far, seems to have acclimatized to the huge changes in the system of taxation.
No doubt there are achievements, but there is still a need to address several challenges that are staring the tax system right in the face and might turn out to be crucial for furthering the efficiency of the system with GST in the driving seat. There is a need for continuously strengthening the IT system at the back, acting as the backbone of it all. Speeding up the process of setting up GST tribunals to sort out the litigations while at the same time, the Government needs to bring in some clarification in grey areas which will ultimately bring the litigations down, improving the working of the system thereby.
Now that India has set on the journey of tax system reformation, there is also a need for bringing in legislation to ensure that the system, at any point in time, is not reversed back to the indirect tax system which was thrown out by virtue of GST. There will be no point in undoing what has been achieved in the last 5 years in the way of making the country’s taxation more efficient, focused, and result-oriented—GST did it and more benefits can be reaped out of it in years to come, it just needs a little tweaking here and there.