Goods and Service Tax Act is the new indirect tax law that has completely transformed the ways the indirect taxes were governed in the country. With this transformation, there has been a significant impact of GST on real estate industry, manufacturing industry, media and entertainment industry, and all the other businesses. For that matter, the Act has taken everyone by storm with the profound changes that it has brought. And these changes continue to happen to make the Act serve its purpose better. So, it is crucial that you keep track of the latest GST news so that you stay updated and are in regular compliance.
But how can you keep up with these latest developments in GST? Newspaper? Well, that is an option, but it will not have everything in detail. So, what is the best option? Well, we will tell you about it. But before that, let us get an idea of what is the GST Act and how did it evolve.
What is the GST Act?
GST Act is an indirect tax law that governs the provision and supply of goods and services in the marketplace. Whenever a supplier or a service provider makes a supply or provision of goods or services, they need to pay the Government a tax as a certain percentage on the value of goods or services. This tax is the goods and service tax. Since it is an indirect tax, the burden is transferred on the end customer, and the supplier or service provider only has to collect this tax and deposit it to the account of Government through regular GST payments.
Earlier, these kinds of taxes were governed by the Service Tax Act, Central Sales Tax Act, and Value Added Tax Act. However, these various Acts put up a burden on the taxpayers as regards compliances as well as tax payments. There was often a cascading effect of taxes due to double taxation. This meant that tax at times used to be levied multiple times on the same transaction, and the taxpayers ended up paying unusually high taxes. Such things also led to corruption since the taxpayers started tending to evade this unusual burden of taxes on their heads. So, to curb all these issues, the Government introduced the Goods and Service Tax Act as a single, unitary tax law to manage and govern the indirect tax regime in the country.
However, the concept is not relatively new. There has been a long history behind the evolution of this Act. A history of seventeen long years. Here is a brief detail about that history.
History of the Evolution of GST Act
The start of GST dates back to the year 2000 when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government came up with the idea. After that, a committee was formed to discuss the viability of the proposal and submit a report for the same. This committee was established in 2003. Later in the year 2005, the committee submitted its report, and in the finance budget of 2006, the then finance minister of the country announced that the GST Act would be applicable from April 01, 2010. The state governments were also urged to make preparations for the same and contribute to the development of the Act.
However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, the implementation of the Act got delayed by a year. Again, a year later, the Act faced protests from the opposition parties. Moreover, there was a major protest from the state of Gujarat due to their concerns about the loss of revenue. Again a committee was formed to look into the concerns and resolve the same. All of these matters took up a lot of time for resolution, and then finally, the Act found its place in the country in the year 2017.
And since its start, it had shown that it was there for a revolution, for it was even introduced in a changed way. Every indirect tax law becomes applicable from the midnight of a new financial year. However, GST was the first Act that got implemented in the mid of the financial year on July 01, 2017. With this change, it was clear that many changes will follow, and they are still developing. And like said before, you need to keep yourself updated with these changes. And this is how you could do it.
How to Keep Up With the Latest GST News?
It is really not a task to keep up with the developments in GST. Like said, GST has come for a change, and it has brought a lot of changes. And one of them is its step towards the promotion of the Digital India mission. GST has brought everything online through a GST online portal. Moreover, there is a robust GST website that the government has created. And it is this website you need to look up to for the latest GST news.
The GST website is a platform that continually updates everything about the GST Act through announcements and notifications. So, here you can get all the news related to the GST Act. Moreover, you can also have all your queries solved. Also, the online portal that you get here helps you keep up with the compliances in a smoother, more comfortable, and more convenient manner.
Conclusion
The GST Act is a major change in the country, and its influence can be seen in every sector of the economy. There has been a significant impact of GST on real estate, manufacturing, media and entertainment, automobile, IT, and every other industry you could think of. And this impact has been both ways, positive as well as negative. But the Act has aimed just to bring in good for the country and economy. So, the Act has been coming with
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.