Modi Takes a Leap With India’s Biggest-Ever Tax Overhaul
This implementation is a very hasty one. Go and talk to small-biz-people and you will see the fear and confusion GST instates. Frankly, its scary to me and I have studied quite a bit of tax. Compared to the previous complicated procedures, the new procedures are equally complicated. But these also deviate from previous definitions. And some terms on taxation have changed and have become ambiguous - like the definition of "Supply"<p>Its like "My manager(Govt) is making us(small-biz) fill status spreadsheets for 2-3 hours out of 8 every day. Why? Just because they can"<p>And I also worry about the IT infrastructure being implemented for filing these new invoices. The government has some very smart and efficient in house engineers - but we don't know if they made the backbone or if they outsourced it to  the likes of TCS/Infy. For one, I have known a TCS tax filing implementation that fails regularly on the last few days of filing - they do some very bad implementations.<p>I get to talk to some small biz owners here, and very few of them had any clarity on GST as on 30jun. Most of them registered for GST numbers, but know nothing about compliances beyond that. Many don't even use software to create invoices. I got panic calls on "best/good/budget software for GST"  on the last day. They didn't know what they needed. Nobody reads the rulebooks and even if they did, it would result into a throbbing headache with no output. So they rely on info from each other and the chartered-accountants who see their business booming.<p>Could it have been done with less haste? NO! But it could have been done with simpler procedures and a couple of months of education.<p>Infact, GST will not be a failure - Even if it is complicated, businesses are just used to adhering unnecessary complicated govt policies - they will adjust soon. But GST is hurting many small businesses right now. This will either lead to a bigger and newer black/gray money market - defeating the purpose do demonetization. Or it will make every Indian pro-tech. I'd assign equal probabilities to both outcomes, there is no middle ground now.<p>What we need to see if it becomes "One nation one tax" or "One nation, 29 taxes"<p>PS: For the record, I do believe that India has the best PM on this planet. I am a pro-BJP and anti-CONG (and anti-AAP). Please don't associate my criticism with political sides.