Jobs to get boost from GST

The Goods and Service Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment Bill that got passed in the Rajya Sabha is expected to give a big boost to job creation. Further, experts said that even staffing segment would get more organised.

GST would be a comprehensive nationwide indirect tax on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services throughout India. The aim is to have one indirect tax for the whole nation, which will make India a unified common market. GST will be levied and collected at each stage of sale or purchase of goods or services based on the input tax credit method and would make not just manufacturing but also the inter-state transportation of goods more efficient.

Kamal Karanth, MD, Kelly Services & KellyOCG India said that the improvement in ease of doing business, rise in GDP growth, domestic consumption and exports arising out of GST implementation would lead to creation of jobs in the formal sector particularly in key service sectors like IT / ITeS, e-commerce and also in manufacturing. 

"These sectors will be boosted by deeper penetration of digital services and free movement and supply of goods. We expect a further boom in retail already bolstered by Model Shops and Establishment Bill to heavily contribute to creating new jobs. Overall, we expect two million new jobs due to GST rollout," Karanth said. 

With respect to employment, many jobs in the unorganised sector are expected to see a more formalised structure as far as new jobs are concerned.  

Rituparna Chakraborty, Executive Vice President & Co-Founder, TeamLease Services said that passing of GST in a single stroke will benefit both corporates and the economy. She added that it will pave way to significant job creation across most domestic consumption driven sectors. It will also ensure fast track formalization of workforce and shall compel informal staffing companies either to comply with the law of the land or shut shop. 

From  a job creation perspective, Chakraborty said that it will create an obvious need for hiring a distributed workforce across the length and breadth of India. Further, she said that demand for skilled manpower will go up significantly and it will pave way for mandatory formal job creation

From an industry perspective, the sectors where jobs are expected to be created immediately include consumer goods/FMCG, media, auto industries, cement and logistics.