GST Full Form & GST Meaning

What is the Full form of GST?

GST full form is "Goods and Service Tax". It is impossible to lay down the meaning of GST and the definition of GST with the model GST law without understanding the GST long form.

GST Meaning

The Central Government passed the GST law in Parliament on March 29, 2017. GST is levied on the supply of goods and services which are taxable under GST. The GST is a consumption-based tax charged by the Centre that has to be paid by every consumer in the supply chain. Moreover, under the GST, a supplier can claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) to set off the output liability. The tax collected is forwarded to the Central Government, who then utilize this source of revenue for the development and administration of the nation.

Meaning of Global GST

G S T full form is Global Goods and Service Tax. Several countries worldwide have been actively adopting the GST regime. The first country to implement GST was France in 1954. Today, about 160 countries have embraced the idea of GST. These include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Nigeria and South Korea. Most countries refer to it as the VAT (Value Added Tax). Globally, the GST has been adopted as a unified taxation system. One can conclude that the tax rates are charged uniformly on various goods and services throughout the country. GST acts as a merger or unification of the central and state taxation systems to be collected as a single tax. This overcomes the issue of overcharging in certain conditions and eradicates taxes’ cascading effect and enhances public participation and reliance.

Why has GST been implemented in India?

The central idea behind introducing GST was “One Nation One Tax”. Before the introduction of GST in India, there were different types of indirect taxes. Some of them were:

• VAT (Value Added Tax)
• Luxury Tax
• Central Tax; and so forth

These taxes were levied and collected by different authorities on State and Central levels and so, there was a tax on tax before the GST. However, after the introduction of GST, the regime of indirect taxation has suffered a positive jolt. India implemented GST in July of 2017. The taxation system in India is bifurcated into segments: GST was introduced to bring uniformity of taxes across the nation. Before the GST era, taxes were charged at different rates in different states, which caused confusion among the consumers and gave way to corruption. The implementation of GST has reduced these issues to a nominal rate and brought uniformity throughout the nation. The prime motive of the GST was to eliminate the cascading effect of taxes which was levied as a tax on the tax paid. GST was brought in to simplify this system and make it more unified and transparent. It has replaced or subsumed many Central and State taxes in India. As opposed to this production-based taxation system in the pre GST era, the GST has been introduced as a consumer-based tax.

GST Slab Rates

Therefore, the implementation of GST has turned out to save a lot of money spent on taxes by the consumers. These reduced tax rates will further help reduce inflation in the long run. The system is expected to become more transparent with the increased registrations of taxpayers on the GST return filing portal. Under the GST regime, the former indirect tax structure has been simplified; now, the consumer and the supplier have to adhere to only one indirect tax. Additionally, the Central Government now has greater control over the indirect tax structure in India as most of the other indirect tax departments have been streamlined into a single authority.

Taxes and duties discontinued and subsumed under GST

GST replaced all the multiple flowing taxes that were levied by the central and State Governments. GST has subsumed several indirect taxes. A few of them have been mentioned hereunder:

Who is liable to pay GST?

Every consumer of the goods is liable to pay GST until or unless it is an exempted/ non taxable supply. However, it shall be noted that the registered supplier has to collect GST from the end consumer and remit the same to the Government through payment of tax collected and filing of GST Return as applicable.

What are the GST Components?

Under the GST system, there are 3 applicable taxes :

How to calculate GST?

To determine the GST rate for a particular good or service, you can use the HSN or SAC code" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">HSN or SAC code. Then multiply this rate by the cost of the good or service to calculate the GST. Here is an example: The cost of frozen corn is 100, and the applicable GST rate on the frozen items is 5%. Then the GST on the same will be 100 × 5 ÷ 100, i.e. 5 INR. However, you can use our online GST calculator for the same, which is easy to use.

The Model GST law

Despite the implementation and introduction of GST since July 2017, the nation is not yet close to a fluent understanding of GST. The tax authorities have been reportedly taking a gander at the arrangements for the GST, and the States have been considering the same as well, leading to expand GST. The tax department underwent plenty of screening processes for the model GST law and the SGST before reaching any conclusion. The must be’s and should be’s along with the pros and cons of the GST law and its implementation, still occupies heavy debates. The work and pondering on the Model GST law remains under process at the parliament to harness the GST into a better-equipped taxation tool for tomorrow.

GST Full Form in Various Indian Languages