English

Unlike the existing system, which has greater scope for manual intervention, the GST aims to achieve a tectonic……Shift ...to a singular digitised compliance set-up. While this would be a great leap forward if implemented well, what has perhaps been underestimated is the huge geographical disparity across the length and breadth of India in terms of IT connectivity and functionality ….Tacit... recognition of this handicap is found in the ‘Digital India’ campaign, which has only recently been launched and admittedly has a long way to go to achieve

reasonable Internet penetration. As a result, in some sections of the country today, manual tax….Compliance .. remains the only option .Further,  the  proposed GST will also be far more dependent on IT. For instance, the IGST mechanism, which enables the crucial fungibility of taxes across States, will be unworkable outside an automated set-up, especially given the sheer volume of transactions that the GST will subsume. The proposed IT infrastructure will have to be suitably equipped, as any snags would effectively…….Render….the levy dysfunctional.
Under the GST, States will have the constitutional power to tax on a par with the Centre, bringing a host of service sectors within their scope for the first time. Past precedent has shown that such dual taxing power has resulted in complete……Chaos….. at the cost of assesses (the clearest instances are the taxation of software,.. Intangibles.., and so on).
Additionally, it is expected that issues of place of supply will also arise, with the Centre and States each asserting that the respective supply has occurred……within…... their jurisdiction, so as to be able to …… Garner…..the tax revenue. Poorly drafted rules will only aid and …Abet….... the confusion — for instance, a draft provision which proportionately divides the tax revenue where a supply of goods/services is made across multiple States.
Along the road to GST, it is also critical that these…Issues……. are subjected to the same level of governmental and public scrutiny so that the implementation of GST is a success in letter as well as in spirit.