Abstract—The replacement of the Central excise duty of the
government of India by Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT)
and sales tax system of the State governments by the VAT
marked a major mile stone in the reform process of indirect
taxes in India. It addressed the cascading effect under the
erstwhile system by giving set-off for tax paid on inputs as well
as tax paid on previous purchases and resulted in a major
simplification of the rate structure and broadening of the tax
base. But both the CENVAT and the State VAT have certain
incompleteness. Though a number of initiatives by the various
machineries at the Centre, the present taxation regime is
marked as cumbersome, complicated and unfriendly. It is in
this perspective, the Central government has entrusted
Dr.Vijay Kelkar, Chairman of 13th Finance Commission to
suggest a rational, scientific and modern but unified system of
taxation in tune with developed nations form the base behind
the introduction of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in India.
Although there are many hurdles to be crossed before the
implementation of GST the Central government reiterated its
commitment towards the adoption of a ‘flawless’ GST for the
survival of the India’s economy in the face of increasing
international competition consequent to globalization and
liberalisation. Despite the various impediments to the proposed
transition, until the time GST is implemented, it would be
worthwhile to assess its positive impacts on the various
development areas viz. agriculture, manufacturing industry,
MSME, housing, poverty reduction, employment, price level,
EXIM trade, GDP, government revenue, etc. and this aspect is
the subject matter of this paper.
Index Terms—Value Added Tax, Central Value Added Tax,
Flaw less Goods and Services Tax, Gross domestic Product,
Economic Change.
Vasanthagopal is an Associate Professor with the P.G and Research
Department of Commerce, The Cochin College, Kochi-682002, Kerala,
India (phone: +919895018010; e-mail: vasanthagopalr@gmail.com).
[PDF]
Cite:Dr. R. Vasanthagopal, "GST in India: A Big Leap in the Indirect Taxation System," International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance vol.2, no.2, pp. 144-146, 2011.