What lies ahead for the GST?

The frequent changes in the compliance framework, as well as the fact that the entire compliance machinery was dependent on the technology portal, made it difficult for many smaller businesses

The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which was introduced in the country exactly one year ago today, was intended to reduce the multiplicity of indirect taxes and rates and expand the tax base, leading to improvement in tax collections. Across the world, many governments prefer expanding indirect taxes, as these are embedded in the price of goods and services and are therefore not visible to consumers, while being creditable to businesses. While the rollout on schedule on July1, 2017 itself was an achievement, the implementation challenges faced by businesses were significant.

Implementation challenges

At the outset, the multiple changes in the rates