Will enforcement and easier compliance help Modi 2.0 improve GST revenue?

Booming economic growth is the only way to improve GST collections in the medium term, say FinMin officials. The trouble is that GDP expansion itself is on shaky ground currently

“We all know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it,” Jean Claude Juncker, former prime minister of Luxembourg and then president of Eurogroup said a decade ago, suggesting in-principle, that structural economic reforms spell political doom for the ruling party in modern democracies.

This subtle warning, however, did not apply to India. The Indian electorate voted the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party back to power, even after going through shocks like demonetisation and structural changes like goods and services tax (GST). About the latter, the government said the new tax would