DNA Edit: Tipping point

So much for the naysayers! From its very inception, there have been cliques of spoilsports who have been maliciously pining for the GST tax framework to be discredited as a complete and unmitigated disaster. The latest monthly receipts for December would give them much cause for grief. Even though the collections have not achieved their target for the third month in a row, there is a reason for cheer as the receipts have shown a marked rebound by beating the collections of the last two succeeding months. This spike is significant given that it comes in the aftermath of the rate cut of 200 items implemented from mid-November.

Collections are expected to not just stabilise but also see a healthy uptick in the coming months. This is because the disruptions and wrinkles in the GST’s compliance and IT framework are being ironed out. The earlier fallacious arithmetic of high tax rates and laborious compliance processes are being eased out in favour of reasonable tax rates and streamlined tax returns. This could very well be the tipping point for GST, and from here on, the BJP could possibly look at scoring the brownie points it was expecting from the GST.

However, the government will have to keep an ear to the ground and be receptive to feedback, no matter how inchoate. Once the complications in the GST ecosystem are resolved, the BJP could kickstart wooing small and medium-sized traders that have been alienated thanks to the erstwhile burdensome compliance processes. There are many who want to look at the glass half-empty (that GST failed to meet its target for the third month). They must understand that beyond the opprobrium mongering headlines is the fact that targets are often kept inflated to encourage revenue officers to reach higher levels of collections.