Towards greener GST: Rationalisation must align with jobs, sustainability

GST rate rationalisation and expansion must be done not only to achieve simplification but also to subserve large-scale employment and environmental policy goals

After nearly eight years of the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), make no mistake we can be truly proud of what we have achieved — a unified tax across the country and the removal of internal barriers to the movement of goods.  Added to this is the creation of a technical platform for carrying out three business processes online — registration; payment of duty; and filing of returns. While these achievements are significant, we now need to simplify the GST rate structure and also inject further buoyancy in revenue growth by correcting the fall in the incidence