The beginning of the year 2023 started with the success story of GST, a big scheme of the Modi government. In December 2022, GST revenue reached the level of 1,49,507 thousand crores and it registered a huge increase of 15 percent as compared to the month of December last year. Despite opposition parties delaying for years and reluctance to implement the GST bill, PM Modi stuck to his resolution and today GST has emerged as India’s biggest tax reform.
History of GST
The idea of enacting GST law was first formulated during the tenure of former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After this, on February 20, 2006, the then Finance Minister proposed to implement GST from April 1, 2010 in the budget of the year 2006-07. But the then governments never showed any seriousness about this proposal.
Since taking over as the Prime Minister in the year 2014, PM Modi has made the implementation of GST his top priority. As a result of the continuous efforts of PM Modi, GST was implemented across the country from July 1, 2017.
PM Modi sticks to GSC
After passing the GST Bill from the Parliament, in his midnight speech in the Central Hall of the Parliament, PM Modi had said that the bill is not the achievement of any one party, but it is the result of the joint efforts of all the parties.
During a debate in the Rajya Sabha, PM Modi termed the composition of the GST Council as a perfect example of India’s strong cooperative federalism. Keeping his views, PM Modi had said that important decisions of GST are taken in the GST Council. Everyone is equal in this council, whether it is the Union Finance Minister or the Finance Minister of all the states. All the decisions of GST have been taken by consensus. There cannot be a better example of cooperative federalism.
GST strengthened in 5 years
After the implementation of GST, it was possible to implement the same tax rate in the whole country. Along with this, 17 major taxes and 13 cess have been included in it. Along with increasing transparency and accountability due to the implementation of GST, industries and traders have also got the benefit of easy registration and fast refund.
GST collection has had the largest share in gross tax revenue in the last three years and in the year 2021-22 it was 2.9 percent of GDP. After the implementation of GST, there was a huge increase in the tax payer base. Where there were 66 lakh tax payers on July 1, 2017, according to the data of June 1, 2022, they increased by 112 percent to 1.4 crore.
In the last five years, under the provisions of the GST Act, the Modi government has provided all possible help to the state governments. The Modi government has given GST compensation of Rs 5,55,121 lakh crore to the states in the last five years without any discrimination. In this, 26,501 thousand crores have been given to Kerala, 39,997 thousand crores to Punjab, 40,146 thousand crores to Tamil Nadu and 24,842 thousand crores to West Bengal in the states ruled by opposition parties.
New facility from e-way bill system
Based on the decisions of the GST Council, the Modi government had decided to implement the e-way bill system from April 1, 2018. After the implementation of the e-way system, a huge reduction was registered in the time taken for the movement of goods. This helped in eliminating the check posts posted on the borders of various states. Its benefit was also found in tax compliance and deposit. Generated 7.12 crore e-well bills in March, 2021 which was the highest since its inception.
The success of GST is a great example of PM Modi’s continuous efforts towards the goal of making India an economic powerhouse and empowering industries, traders and common people by establishing a simple tax system.
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Tags: gst, GST collection, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
FIRST PUBLISHED : January 12, 2023, 16:56 IST