The Impact of India’s New Goods and Services Tax
- The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India was commemorated by a midnight session in Parliament on 1st July, 2017
- Not only for Indian residents, the GST is beneficial for NRIs too, because NRIs looking to buy apartments might find that builders can pass on the GST benefit and reduce prices by a few per cent
- NRIs will have to pay more for currency exchange and other banking services with the implementation of GST, since the taxes on these have hiked 3%
- NRI business people would have to pay more for financial advice, as well as file 37 annual tax-fillings – at three a month and one annually
- The Goods and Services Tax is a standardised tax that is applied throughout India, introduced from 1st July, 2017
- Goods and services are taxed in India at 0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%, according to the GST
- The GST is expected to make the Indian economy more transparent by reducing black economy substantially
- GST replaces the following previous taxes in India – VAT, central excised duty, commercial tax, food tax, CST, Introit, Octroi, entertainment tax, entry tax, luxury tax, purchase tax, service tax, advertisement tax, customs duty and surcharges
- A Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has been created to provide a platform for all the concerned parties i.e. stakeholders, government and taxpayers to collaborate on a single portal
