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.

How Strong can be too strong

In their endeavour to show support to Team Anna's cause people are forgetting the example of Pakistan where a strong army always takes control of power. By making an all powerful authority there can be danger of coup by the strong Lokpal. Democracy is about compromising with diverse groups and it is not about hegemony of a single powerful authority. Many people are reeling with anti-congressism because it is the Congress which has ruled over India for most of the years. It happens with any brand leader when all other brands tend to eat into its market share. But people should remember why does a brand become a brand. Other parties got opportunities to form government at the centre but they wasted such opportunities and hence could not bounce back to power. Time and again people had to elect a Congress government at the centre. When almost all political parties are promoting a family business culture, I fail to understand why people are hell bent against congress. Sonia Gandhi did not grab the PM's post which was for her to take. Rahul Gandhi was not forced on the people, rather he was elected by electorates of his constituency. Yet since he is a popular face, we tend to hurl all abuses at him. Let Anna take responsibility and then try to change the system. It is very easy to pass judgment when you do not have responsibility. Let us take example of Jay Prakash Narayan, who did not take responsibility and handed over power to all sorts of power hungry people during the Janta Pary government. What we got in lieu of that was for everybody to see.

Lokpal and Anna Hazare

By introducing the Lokpal, Congress party is planning to execute a masterstroke which will take air out of sail of Anna Hazare and Opposition parties. Once the Lokpal bill is passed through both the houses of parliament, there will be no agenda left for team Anna. Probably, this is the main reason of Anna's anger. Moreover, for reasons which are beyond comprehension, Anna's decision to shift the venue of fast from Delhi to Mumbai has further eroded his saleability. Indians are anyway loath to harp on an idea for a long time. They want new masala, every time, in a reality show. Anna's reality show has lost its TRP and even electronic media is growing weary of team Anna and its mobocracy. Forthcoming assembly elections in five states will give more food for thought to the media and to the public and Anna's cause will be lost in the din. Thanks god, at least many of us will get rid of the opprobrium caused by Team Anna and its so called 120 crore supporters.

'Young' PM for Young India