Prospects and Challenges of GST in Stimulating Economic Growth in India

GST (Goods and Service Tax) was implemented in India on July1, 2017. It is an indirect tax which subsumes 17 central and state taxes including service tax, VAT, octroi, duties and other charges across the country to create a common market in the $ 2.6 trillion economy with 1.3 billion people. The study was conducted to study the problems and challenges of GST after its implementation. It was an exploratory study of the perceptions of the tax payers towards GST and an analysis of the genesis of the tax structure, implementation of GST in India and its impact on the economy. The primary data was collected from a sample of 20 tax-payers each in the sectors of Retail (Telecom), Hospitality and Automobile sector across National Capital region comprising New Delhi, Noida and Gurugram. The relation among the sectors in their response to GST was also analysed using the descriptive statistics, Chi- square and Probablity (P) value. The findings of the study reveal that the sectors of the economy that were studied have the perception that GST is challenging. Majority of the traders found difficulties on compliance and had to hire accountants, advisors or other professionals for becoming GST compliant. Majority of the traders across the three sectors have the perception that there is decrease in the demand of their goods/products due to GST. But, the positive signal from across the three sectors is that they have faith that GST is going to be beneficial for our economy in the long run. They hope that government should facilitate the traders by simplifying the various rates of GST and reduce the complexities.