Raise GST rates, but not without reforms

Avoid past mistakes and reduce the number of GST rate slabs along with rate increases

The launch of the goods and services tax or GST in the whole country in July 2017 and its implementation in the last five-odd years have suffered from many policy mishaps. Obviously, their consequences have been adverse for the new indirect taxes regime. As the GST completes five years of its operation in July 2022, a review of these mishaps would be instructive.

The first mishap took place even before the GST was launched. To secure the support of all the states for the new indirect taxes system, the then finance minister Arun Jaitley had assured them an annual revenue growth