JULY 1st is the anniversary day for the Indian GST, the Digital India, the Chartered Accountants and also the much-vilified Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which has turned 100 today – Lots of operas, films and dramas to mark the occasion! Before I dwell on the GST journey thus far, let me begin with an old Sichuan (Chinese) proverb – It does not matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches rats! It indeed fits the bill for the GST on its 4th anniversary! Though its marathon run began in the year 2000 and the second lap in the Budget Speech of 2006, followed by first discussion paper in 2009, 115th Constitution Amendment Bill in 2011 and finally 101st Constitution Amendment Act in 2016 but what makes its voyage eventful in the past four years is the official attitude of the law-crafters and policy-benders – ITC-blockage or design impairment does not matter as long as revenue walks into the kitties! Aha! And it is raining for the past eight months!

Let’s now wake up and smell the coffee! Though four years is hardly a period to attain any shade of maturity for a brawl-prone fiscal legislation like GST which has dozens of stately stakeholders but it is also not a short enough time to gauge the intent of the law-makers and the direction of the headwind! Launched with the dazzle of oratorial promises to create taxpayer-friendly castles in the sky, the historic fiscal law was ‘hugged’ with open arms not only in India but even by India-tempted investors across the world! Shepherded by an able and affable ‘Chair’, the politically heterogeneous group of State Finance Ministers held the first GST Council meeting and took many fiendishly complicated decisions – an auspicious flag-off, indeed! Recalling it with pain, the West Bengal Finance Minister underlines in his June 23rd letter addressed to the Union Finance Minister – “The then ‘Chair’ yielded to suggestions even from a lone voice from a State and in turn, States yielded to GOI proposals despite reservations”. Healthy rapprochement used to erase itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny issues of differences! And the then ‘Chair’ ran the Council on the plank of consensus and sometimes, even bipartisan support – a rare run to a runaway success!

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