The
long awaited Goods and Service Tax (GST) has passed the last mile hurdle with
country’s upper house of Parliament clearing the Bill on Wednesday, after much
deliberations and amendments to appease the strong opposition. How does this
tax reform going to benefit the retail sector which has been making a strident
growth and become one of the fastest growing sectors? We asked a few industry
veterans about the pros and cons of GST implementation. Excerpts…
Baskaramoorthy,
VP Sales, Posiflex India: “End users might end
up paying additional taxes if percentage of taxes under GST regime is increased
from the current VAT level. However, it will help traders and manufacturers
to leverage business across India with effective supply chain and distribution
of products. The biggest relief is that GST will do away with the current
C-form and interstate forms which are presently collected at the end of each
year.”
Bhaskar Venkatraman,
Director, Millennium India, a veteran in Point of Sale technology in India: “GST
in the present format is going to benefit the economy, businesses and consumers
alike. As it is going to replace 17 indirect taxes, tax procedures will be more
simple and transparent.
Apart from pushing up tax revenues, the corruption at
check posts and slow-movement of trucks will become the things of the past.
Since calculation of tax is going to be uniform across all states, finance
people will heave a sigh of relief as they no longer muddle with complex forms
while dealing with inter-state goods movements.”
C
Anton Jabadurai, Country Head, Bixolon India: “GST will facilitate the possibility
of automation in tax calculation and goods processing, which will increase the
requirement of POS hardware across India. Apart from smoothening the supply
chain management, GST implementation will create a transparent tax regime
across all states which will benefit both traders and end-customers. In the
long run, the frequent price rise due to high transportation and warehousing
cost will come down drastically.”
Anuj
Puri
– Chairman & Country Head, JLL India:
“The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is the most essential taxation reform which
is going to alter India’s economic prospects. Single taxation, covering all
goods and services, is a welcome change. GST will eliminate cascading effect of
taxes, and will boost tax collection while reducing overall taxation levels. However,
post GST, the results will be evident only after two-three years from now.”
Slated to increase the
country's GDP by one point, the GST era, which is going to unfurl from April
2017, will surely be the new chapter in India's tax history post Independence. How
far it will benefit the country and common man, one has to wait and see.
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