GST in progress

Dated 4th November, 2014

The Narendra Modi government has till now kept its focus on several administrative decisions that had been postponed for too long. It has also cleverly sold these decisions as major reforms.

It now has to switch gears. The coming winter session of Parliament will provide it an opportunity to move ahead with some important structural reforms that are needed to prepare the Indian economy for the next round of high growth. And the most important of this reforms is the move to a national goods and service tax (GST) that will create a truly unified in India, more than six decade after independence.

The constitutional amendment Bill that needs parliamentary approval has been stuck because of lack of political consensus. It is against the backdrop that the indication from the Congress that it will cooperate with the Government on GST in Parliament is welcome.