Economic Survey · Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs · 2018-01-29

Economic Survey 2017-18 (Volume 2) - Chapter 2: Review of Fiscal Developments (GST rollout)

The fiscal chapter of Volume 2 of the 2017-18 Survey describes the rollout of GST on 1 July 2017 and its first effects on revenue. It warns that only about eleven months of GST would be collected in the first year, and that the final settlement of accounts between the Centre and states would decide the year's indirect tax outcome. It lists early problems with migration, registration, returns, refunds, rates and MSME compliance, and the steps the Council took to fix them.

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Key findings and recommendations

  • GST subsumed central excise, service tax, VAT, CST, entry tax, octroi, luxury tax and many cesses.
  • The Council held repeated meetings to fix business process problems and made a major rationalisation of rates.
  • Facilitation for small traders included higher thresholds and no GST on advances for smaller suppliers of goods.
  • The Survey judged that the general government was handling the transition reasonably well.

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