GST launch: Short, medium & long-term impact of new tax regime explained

A recent analysis by HSBC shows that the rollout of GST is likely to add only 0.4% to GDP

At the stroke of midnight on Friday, June 30, India’s goods and services tax (GST) will become official. The sixteen-year-in-the-making taxation system overhaul – which started with the Vajpayee government in 2000, later forged into existence by the UPA governments from 2007 to 2013 and finally shepherded through by the Modi government – is here now for better or worse.

The GST has been met with, in equal parts, trepidation and excitement – trepidation over the rush to implement it by July 1 regardless of whether India’s six crore small traders and businesses