📣 Simplifying GST: A Call for Change by Vijay Kelkar! 📣 Former Finance Secretary, Vijay Kelkar, has made a renewed call for the simplification of India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure, which he describes as “unnecessarily complex” 🏦.

He has advocated for a more democratic administration and a fair resource-sharing mechanism 🤝. While his preference for a single GST rate of 12% has made headlines 📰, there are other significant suggestions that deserve our attention.

Kelkar has questioned the practice of setting tax rates with the primary objective of maintaining revenue neutrality, labeling it as “counter-productive” 🚫.

He warns that high rates could incentivize fraudsters to evade taxes 💰. This comes at a time when policymakers are considering raising the average GST rate by a substantial 5-6 percentage points to the so-called “revenue neutral rate” 📈.

Furthermore, Kelkar has championed for an “equitable” sharing of GST proceeds among all three tiers of government, including local governments, and for states to play a larger role in the GST Secretariat 🏢.

Let’s join the conversation and work towards a simpler, more effective GST system for India 🇮🇳. #GST #TaxReform #India