GST - ONE COUNTRY ONE TAX !!!

One country one tax is the prime motto of GST. The central government says that they are removing all other taxes and replacing those with the GST. This statement itself is wrong as excise duty, sales tax, vat, service tax, cess etc are still being continued. One country one tax statement too does not stand good as state and central governments are free to impose cess as and when they like.  Another irregularity is in pickimg items brought under the GST. Petrol, diesel, liquor etc are exempted from the purview of GST as huge taxes are already imposed on those.

The government before the introduction of this novel tax form, proclaimed through the media that almost all commodities shall be available at lesser prices in the market. Finally when introduced, scarsely could find any item with a lower price. In fact GST as a whole has raised the prices as far as common man is concerned.

The most significant question about GST is, whether this tax reformation is for the Indians as a whole or for the rich community alone or for the ruling lot. If it is for the people, the first item to bring under GST is petrol as this is the major item that determines the prices of all other goods and services. For some reasons, may be, to protect the interests of some community, this item is still kept under all other so called abolished taxes.

Another murderous tax is on liquor. In the state of Kerala, a 750 ml liquor bought by the government for around ₹ 30/- is sold at about ₹ 300/- on one pretext or the other. It is for whose sake?  They may say that they are trying to reform the people or trying to save the people from an economic collapse. It is nothing but cheating the people.

Above all, the government have expressed their inability to manage the most celebrated GST operations. In a hotel where AC rooms are available, a non-AC restaurant user has to pay AC taxes even though he is not availing the service. Can this be justified under any norms?

If the government belongs to the people and true to its purpose they may rectify the system properly. Most important is to bring down the rate of taxes. The next is to bring all items under this one tax norm including petrol and liquor. Another is that do not charge service tax to a person to whom service is not rendered. Ensure that this tax system provides benefits to the people; not to the trading community. Central and state governments should not be allowed to levy cess at their whims and fancies as that will bring different tax rates in different states as earlier. The government should have done enough home work before jumping into the reformation process.

With all best wishes to the people of India.

KV George
kvgeorgein@gmail.com