Re-think GST: No economy can afford to persist with a failed tax experiment

Let's pretend no more that the system isn't broken. The Centre needs to break heads in the GST Council and work out new slabs and rates (the fewer the better) and make a fresh start, writes T N Ninan

The Modi government has rolled out an ambitious spending programme for building the transport infrastructure and the provision of various goods of value to ordinary citizens. The problem has been arranging the money to pay for it all. One of the key assumptions was that the introduction of goods and services tax (GST) would raise the share of indirect taxes in gross domestic product (GDP) and provide the wherewithal. It hasn’t worked out that way. Central revenue from GST may be anything up to 40 per cent short of target this year, and the states are now complaining about non-receipt