Goods and Services Tax was once sold as ‘one nation, one tax’ by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government when it was first introduced on 1 July 2017 in Bharat.

After 13 years of painful and protracted negotiation with states led by different political formations, multiple taxes at different levels were subsumed into this federal tax aimed at easing the burden on businesses and taxpayers and reducing evasion.

This single biggest tax reform brought in by the Modi government was, however, seen with apprehension by a few stakeholders and several opposition parties that headed state governments. Today, most Indians are convinced that the reform path laid down by the Narendra Modi government was firm, forward-looking and easy to comply with.

As on date, about 160 countries implement the GST or Value Added Tax (VAT) in some form or the other, beginning with France in 1954. Though India has been a late entrant into this taxation regime, it matured fast, compliance improved, and it held the tax mobilisation campaign in the last eight years on an even keel without disturbing the delicate applecart of 29 states and eight union territories.

The Revenue Neutral Rates for GST report, put together by then Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian in December 2015 ahead of the rollout, studied Canada, the European Union, China, Australia and Indonesia to make his recommendations. Subramanian had pointed to........

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