The primary beneficiaries of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be businesses (manufacturers, retailers, traders etc.) for whom a uniform market across India would open up a window of opportunities. Uniform regulations across India would make compliance easier. These would lead to cost savings and the benefits will ultimately flow to end customers in terms of reduced price on products and services. Howsoever there are fears of inflationary trends taking over the markets. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had allayed these fears and said that the tax rates will be kept at the current levels so as not to have any inflationary impact. Jaitley said the legislations will have to be passed by Parliament and one by each of the state Assemblies to turn India into one market with a single tax rate. But the Jammu and Kashmir has said that in order to bring-in the new tax regime it will have to pass new laws. At present State has a PDP-BJP Coalition Government with the BJP in Centre so the challenge of getting it passed in Legislative Assembly of the State should not be there. Coming under the uniform tax ambit not only the State’s economy is going to be benefitted but there will also be a provision of compensation in new regime for any losses during the initial transitional phase. The fact that GST will harmonise 11 state and central levies into a single national sales tax is a big movement towards a unified market. The GST council also agreed to cap the cess on various so-called demerit (or sin and luxury) goods in the legislation. These cess rates are an enabling provision and the actual tax incidence could be lower, depending on the decision of the GST council. All in all, a gigantic exercise has been completed and one can only keep one’s fingers crossed that there would no last-minute glitches.GST will help common people of the State by yielding the benefits of lower cost, no cascading effect, transparent revenue structure and a nationally integrated market thus creating a win-win scenario for all.
