this story originally appeared in on jun 30 2017by m venkaiah naidu union information and broadcasting minister at the midnight of june 30 india will make a tryst with history by heralding the muchawaited gst regime and turning a new leaf in the annals of the countryrsquos taxation system the gamechanging lsquoone nation one market one taxrsquo arrangement is the biggest taxation reform since independence it is expected to benefit both the traders and consumers while providing buoyancy to government revenues due to increased tax compliance it is estimated that with its implementation gdp will increase by 152 per cent from july 1 the cascading effect of taxes will be a thing of the past traders and consumers will no longer be required to pay a string of central and state levies as several of them will be subsumed into the onetax system although there are gst sgst and igst in all the gst council has categorised 1211 items into five slabs mdash 0 per cent 3 per cent 5 per cent 18 per cent and 28 per cent however most of the items are under the 18 per cent slab to pave the way for its implementation the gst council mdash which has union finance minister arun jaitley as chairman and the finance ministers of all states as members mdash had to meet several times over the past few years to thrash out contentious issues and achieve a consensus i would like to compliment mr jaitley and other members for their invaluable contribution in turning the gst proposal into a reality the entire political spectrum also has to be appreciated for rallying behind the proposal but a few parties are adopting double standards for shortterm gains mdash they supported gst then and are opposing it now hope people will see through their hypocrisy and get rid of them there might be some teething problems initially but in the long run gst will help both the traders and consumers as it will cut down red tape mdash there will be no inspector raj harassment by taxmen or check posts at borders the officers will have no discretionary powers it will ensure transparency reduce inflation bring down prices improve ease of doing business create a levelplaying field increase tax compliance and help achieve higher economic growth with prime minister narendra modi stressing on the mantra of lsquoreform perform and transformrsquo gst can be described as the biggest transformation of the taxation system with about 142 nations implementing gst it is now established that this system will improve efficiency although indiarsquos case is unique because of its vastness and population zero tax on several daily food items like fresh vegetables and fruits eggs milk bread flour cereals pulses chicken fresh meat and natural honey will benefit the common man the other items in the zero tax category are handloom bindi sindoor stamps judicial papers newspapers printed books and childrenrsquos drawing or coloured books mr jaitley had already pointed out that household items