GST, the future of Indirect Taxation

India proposes to introduce a dual system of Goods and Services Tax (GST), with taxes imposed at both Federal and State levels and a further distinction between GST on goods and GST on services. It is expected that the move to GST will create a simplified and integrated system of indirect taxation. The introduction of a dual GST will be, in effect, an integration and rationalisation of the existing regimes at both Federal and State levels. It is however fundamentally different from the present regime in a variety of ways.

India finally seems to be on the cusp of implementing the much-awaited tax reform of the GST. With the release of the draft Model GST Law on 14 June 2016, we crossed a major milestone and moved a step closer to GST.

Based on information available in the public domain, there is a high probability of the government garnering the required support for the passage of the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Parliament.

Even as Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that the last possible day to pass GST is September 16, many are discussing of what would happen in a worst case scenario, if government were to miss even this deadline? The government is required to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by September 16, or there would be no tax law altogether after that since the validity of the recently passed GST bill lapses by then, point out experts.