GST, or Goods and Services Tax, is an indirect tax imposed on the supply of goods and services. It is a multi-stage, destination-oriented tax imposed on every value addition, replacing multiple indirect taxes, including VAT, excise duty, service taxes, etc.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a successor to VAT used in India on the supply of goods and services. Both VAT and GST have the same taxation slabs. It is a comprehensive, multistage, destination-based tax: comprehensive because it has subsumed almost all the indirect taxes except a few state taxes. Multi-staged as it is, the GST is imposed at every step in the production process, but is meant to be refunded to all parties in the various stages of production other than the final consumer and as a destination-based tax, it is collected from point of consumption and not point of origin like previous taxes.

Goods and services are divided into five different tax slabs for collection of tax: 0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%. However, petroleum products, alcoholic beverages, and electricity are not taxed under GST and instead are taxed separately by the individual state governments, as per the previous tax system.

The tax came into effect from 1 July 2017 through the implementation of the One Hundred and First Amendment to the Constitution of India by the Government of India. 1 July is celebrated as GST Day. The GST replaced existing multiple taxes levied by the central and state governments. Also, to boost GST billing in India, the Government of India, in association with state governments, has launched an “Invoice Incentive Scheme” (Mera Bill Mera Adhikaar). This will encourage the culture of customers asking for invoices and bills for all purchases. The objective of the scheme is to bring a cultural and behavioural change in the general public to ‘Ask for a Bill’ as their right and entitlement.

The tax rates, rules and regulations are governed by the GST Council which consists of the finance ministers of the central government and all the states. The GST is meant to replace a slew of indirect taxes with a federated tax and is therefore expected to reshape the country’s $3.5 trillion economy, but its implementation has received criticism.  Positive outcomes of the GST includes the travel time in interstate movement, which dropped by 20%, because of disbanding of interstate check posts.