Next stage for GST

Rate rationalisation will be critical

The 47th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, which ended on Wednesday, was perhaps one of the most important since the implementation of the new indirect tax regime. It not only marked the completion of five years of implementation, but also had a wide-ranging agenda. At this point, it is fair to argue that the system has not performed as expected. Revenue collection has underperformed, which added to overall fiscal stress, while the system has been grappling with structural issues, such as multiplicity of rates and difficulty in enforcing compliance. Although collection has improved over the past