‘One nation, one tax’ regime gets rolling

New Delhi : India’s biggest tax reform since Independence Goods and Service Tax (GST) was launched at a special session in Parliament’s Central Hall at the stroke of midnight. The GST, countrywide single taxation system which has been in the making for 15 years, was launched by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by pressing a button in an hour-long special function in Parliament attended by MPs, state finance ministers, GST Council members and other dignitaries. Among those present on the dais along with the President and Prime Minister were Vice President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh skipped the event as the Congress had decided not to attend the function. The GST seeks to create a national market for goods and services by subsuming multiple taxes at the national and state level, thereby creating a paradigm of “one nation, one tax, one market”. President Mukherjee said GST was a “disruptive change” and similar to the introduction of VAT when there was initial resistance. “When a change of this magnitude is undertaken, however positive it may be, there are bound to be some teething troubles and difficulties in the initial stages,” he said.