A Road Map for Implementing the Goods and Services Tax

This paper examines the current steps being taken to implement the Goods and Services Tax in India. It analyses the provisions of the 115th Constitutional Amendment Bill and the Finance Act 2012 relating to service tax and notes the need for changes if the policy goals of the GST are to be met. It proposes steps to be taken for speedy implementation of GST. These include five changes to the Bill and five steps the Government of India needs to take to bridge the present “GST trust deficit” between it and the states