GST roll out could not have been better

How could ‘56 inch chest’ scholars of Bharat Mata  forgive India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanium for admitting, on NDTV in December 11, 2015 interview, that his team haven’t undertaken any research to study the impact of GST –VAT act implementation on India’s GDP? Well Arvind is widely accepted as genuine economist, like Manmohan Singh, who knows his subject better than most of Bharat Mata Sevaks and would not like a genuine scholar desist from speaking the truth. Chanting GST mantras is the new fad in the media and political circles rather than among business management circles and academia. The truth is that GST Bill may not add to the GDP growth rate in the short run at all and Modi Sarkar may not benefit from its roll out even in 2019 elections. 

Yes.Current GST bill hanging fire in the parliament is not something significantly new than the current VAT system of tax administration prevalent in India. It is merely an improvement on the present structure of tax administration in India that would be followed by several other reforms in future. The GST-VAT proposed Bill have some concrete proposals, like the Constitution of India which have been amended a hundred times already and still called a Great piece of original scholarship crafted by a team of highly revered scholars under the stewardship of Ambedkar, and many not so well defined proposals that would need to be resolved expediently to facilitate the ease of doing business in India for spurring the economic growth. Let’s examine few mythologies thrown up by political pundits extolling the virtues of the GST Bill.

First things first, there is no Ram-baan cure for India’s labyrinthine tax administration system and therefore the GST bill is no panacea. Stop and think a while you would notice that India already has VAT in place and it clocked rather mystifying GDP growth under the stewardship of a scholar PM Manmohan Singh.  Therefore India need to elect, & select, more leaders like Manmohan Singh, competent & skilled, rather than making new laws that get subverted by incompetent and corrupt Indians. Few Great leaders and entrepreneurs at the helm hold more promise of progress and fast economic growth as compared to new great laws and statues. Tighten your seat belts and wait to experience new unexpected shocks coming in the way of economic growth in India in the period post the promulgation of the GST bill. Ease of doing business in not solely predicated on the complexity of the tax administration regime.

(an old piece, left unposted)