Even as India competes one full year of GST, top industry voices say that the simplification of the tax structure has led to improvement in the ease of doing business. “GST was a historic step to provide a simplified, single tax regime in line with the tax framework applicable across the globe. With completion of one year of GST implementation, the pains are behind, and gains have already started showing,” Prasanth Prabhakaran, Senior President and CEO, YES Securities told FE Online, adding that the government has been more than proactive in meeting, resolving and addressing issues raised by India Inc. Post the launch, multiple levels of simplification in terms of slabs and processes, have ensured higher tax collections and ease of doing business. This will reflect in greater economic activity at every level, thereby impacting the market positively.”
Sharing his views, Sanjay Agarwal, Partner, TASS Advisors said that the initial and transition phases were filled with anxiety. “Though the initial transition phase was full of anxieties amongst the stakeholders, the Government extended full support in ensuring that the transition is less painful. With the extension of several timelines during initial months, relaxation of compliance keeping it limited to only GSTR3B and GSTR1 filings, reduction in prices on account of anti-profiteering rules benefiting the end users, it seems that the people of India have accepted GST on a positive note,” he noted. Are more relaxations on the anvil? “With monsoon session around the corner, we are expecting some more relaxations in the GST rules making it more user friendly and promoting the business appetite of India,” he told FE Online.
Bharat Goenka, Managing Director, Tally Solutions says that the government has taken constant feedback from all the stakeholders. “What has been particularly encouraging is the continued commitment of the government to seek feedback from stakeholders on rules and processes and apply required corrections from time to time. However, the simplification of GST as a step towards making compliance simpler is still some distance away and one expects decisions to this effect to move faster,” he told FE Online. What is the future outlook? “The decisions for GST 2.0 have been taken and one is looking forward for its actualization so that the economic acceleration that GST is capable of can come alive,” he added.