What is GST?

Midnight is quite important for all of us. This is the time when you become one day older. This is the time when a famous author may have decided to write about ‘Midnight’s Children’. This is the time when India had its first ‘Tryst With Destiny’. As they say that postman always rings twice; our modern-day great PM has come up with another episode of ‘Tryst with Destiny’ for a billion plus people on the largest contiguous mass of land.

GST has been hogging the limelight and newspaper headlines for a long time. Given the long term exposure to this important tax reform it is natural to expect the people of India to know all about GST. We decided to do a reality check and hence promptly sent our investigative reporters to confirm from the real people what and how much they know about GST. Our reporters shoved the mike to unsuspecting public and threw a simple and unloaded question, “What is GST?’ We got numerous kinds of reply. It is not possible to mention each reply in the limited attention span of internet visitors, so here are some examples.

Public 1: Hmm, GST is the short form of Gross Sales Tax.

Public 2: GST is one nation one tax. It will unite our country like never before. They way the original Iron Man of India unified the country after independence, the modern day Iron Man will further cement that unification. Long live the iron man of India.

Public 3: I am a housewife. I seldom get time from household chores. You can ask my husband. He appears to be an expert on solving various political and economic problems of the world. I have heard him discussing important topics with his friends. When he speaks, everyone else listens because I supply the tea and snacks for the motley group of his friends.

Public 4: GST is a tool to bring all these crooked businessmen to fall in line. The local kirana store always cheats while weighing the goods. He never gives discount the way I get from Big Bazar. Have you seen the palatial house the store owner has built near the Mohall clinic?

Public 5: OMG, what are you asking? Actually, I am a student of science stream; preparing for entrance tests for engineering and medical. I don’t have time for topics on commerce stream. You should ask this question to a commerce guy. Why don’t you go to Lakshmi Nagar. You will definitely get an answer because so many CA institutes are there.

Public 6: GST stands for the Great Super Tax. India is great. Modi is Great. Bharat Mata Ki Jai. I love my India. (His voice suddenly started sounding similar to the TV anchor who presents a show on crime investigation.)

Public 7: I have been preparing for the IAS since 10 years. As I am on the verge of expiry date, GST will prove to be a boon for me. I will start preparations for GST Administrative Services. I am hopeful that the PM will come with Pradhanmantri Rojgar Yojna on the line of Pradhanmantri Awas Yojna. Every youth will get employment under this scheme. This is what you call the action PM.

Public 8: GST is nothing but a sellout to the neo-colonial forces. The way East India Company made us slave, the US MNCs will start ruling us. They have already started that process. Can you survive today without Google or Facebook? You cannot. I can tell you with authority because I am a research scholar doing my PHD from JNU. I want azadi from GST.

Public 9: Why are you asking this question to a poor golgappa seller? My turnover is nowhere near the limit set for GST. This metro station has good number of footfalls. I do brisk business on most of the days. But I hardly cross 2 lakh’s turnover in a year. Why should I bother about these high sounding words?

Public 10: This appears to be good for the business. I have already started charging more premium on pan masala, guthka and cigarette. This is the beauty of selling these essential items. Nobody bats an eyelid while paying some premium. I must have earned at least 5000 extra in the last week; thanks to all the rumours on GST. I love our super PM. He surely knows how to uplift the business spirit.

Chintu aka Chintaswamy has almost become bald because he has pulled off most of his hairs. He has been trying to understand the real meaning of GST. He owns a small business with a turnover of about ten lakh per annum. After deducting operational expenses he somehow manages to earn about 50,000 per month; barely enough to maintain the middle class status. He had applied for GST number about a month back but is still waiting for the number. He is making back of the envelope calculation to understand the costs involved in hiring the services of an accountant for filing GST details thrice in a month. He cannot even file his IT return without the help of an accountant. He even went to a local Kali Baba to ward off evils of GST but it was of no avail.