GST: An unappreciated reform

The cascading effect of taxes owing to crisscross and delinked taxes, which were officially acknowledged but never addressed, is a thing of the past

Goods and services tax (GST) is three years old and the headline narrative largely seems to portray it negatively. A dispassionate analysis of its evolution, landmark Constitutional amendment of 2016, impact on Centre-state finance, and the data analytics reveal superior merits of this reform outweighing glitches in its implementation. It is, therefore, appropriate to turn back and revisit what GST has in fact attained. 

Scores of hours wasted at the state borders waiting for check post clearance, disproportionate and inflationary entry taxes, inconsistent state policies, unintelligible and arbitrary imposts, multiplicity of taxes both at the Central and the state level,