Budget 2018: No road map for GST, says Sumit Dutt Majumder

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) that was implemented in July has undergone many changes in the past seven months based on the recommendations of the GST Council. The changes were in respect of GST rates, business processes, policy issues and so on. 

It was therefore expected that the Budget proposals will not have much on GST. Nevertheless, being a tax that touched every Indian’s life, it was thought that there will at least be a road map about the shape of things to come. That was absent in the Budget Speech. 

A few committees were set up to recommend changes in GST law and business processes like filing of returns. The reports are said to have been submitted. The GST Council is expected to meet later this month, and finalise the amendments. Besides, certain decisions taken by the council over the past few months would necessitate amendments in the GST Acts.

Sumit Dutt Majumder

It is therefore likely that the Bill for amending the Central GST Act will be finalised after the next GST Council meeting and placed 

before Parliament by the first fortnight of March, so as to get the amendments cleared by Parliament in the Budget Session. It is only then that GST is expected to stabilise.