Envisioner | August 2019 Envisioner August 2019 | Page 16

Two Years
of GST in
India
By Nishant Agarwal
1st of July, 2019 marks the completion of two successful years of Goods
and Services Tax (GST) in India. It is a comprehensive multi-stage, a des-
tination-based tax levied on every value addition. It replaced several in-
direct taxes like VAT, Excise Duty, and other state-level taxes. The Bill was
passed by the Rajya Sabha on 3rd August 2016 and by the Lok Sabha on
8th August 2016. After ratification by the required number of State legis-
latures and assent of the President, the Constitutional amendment was
notified as Constitution (101st Amendment) Act 2016 on 8th September
2016. The Constitutional amendment paved the way for the introduction
of Goods and Services Tax in India and completely overhauled the exist-
ing indirect tax system.
GST was first proposed in 1999 during the Prime Ministership of Late Atal
Bihari Vajpayee along with three former RBI governors IG Patel, Bimal
Jalan, and C Rangarajan. After the defeat of the NDA Government in the
General Elections of 2004, the process was further carried by P Chidam-
baram who in February 2006 proposed a GST rollout by 1st April 2010. Due
to the lack of common consensus on the basic structure of the proposed
GST, Pranab Mukherjee deferred the fallout date by another year. During
the budget presentation in 2013 by P Chidambaram, an incurred loss
of Rs 9000 crores was predicted. Lok Sabha passed the bill which was
rejected by Rajya Sabha in 2015. The bill was finally accepted by Rajya
Sabha in 2016 where 1st July 2017 was declared as the final fallout date
for implementing the GST.
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