https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-25/tax-reform-looks-like-an-indian-wedding
Tax Reform Looks Like an Indian Wedding
As the big day looms, confusion reigns and anxieties mount.
by Mihir Sharma
9
26 June 2017, 5:00 AM GMT+8
Who's ready for GST reform? Photographer: Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times
India stands on the brink of one of its most momentous policy reforms in decades unprepared and uncertain. We’re just a few days away from the launch of a new indirect-tax regime, the goods-and-services tax, or GST, and anxiety about its rollout is all-pervasive.
The reform, which intends to knit India together into a single tax area for the first time, goes live on July 1 -- in fact, at the stroke of midnight. The Narendra Modi-led central government, always on the lookout for a bit of spectacle with which to entertain its voters, intends this to be commemorated with a midnight session of parliament, deliberately echoing India’s freedom at midnight more than seven decades ago.
Perhaps, though, the government should be thinking more about preparation and less about pageantry. The scale of the changes needed is daunting. India’s banks, for example, have been caught by surprise. They expected that the new regime meant no change to the current system in which they register as taxpayers once, nationally; instead, they’re being forced to register in each of India’s dozens of states. Now they’re rushing against the clock to do so.
Smaller companies have been hit equally hard. The existing system allows them to maintain big, dusty ledgers and receipts, and all the paraphernalia of 19th-century accounting. The GST, on the other hand, is entirely online. Mom-and-pop outfits across the country are spending hard-earned money on computer hardware they’re not certain about, and struggling to learn how to use buggy tax software for the first time. Companies such as Dell Inc. have even set up websites where they tout their existing computers as being special “GST ready” models.
This sort of frantic preparation is visible in sector upon sector. It’s not surprising, therefore, that appeals are coming in from everywhere to postpone the GST by a quarter. Industry associations, state governments, chartered accountants, and even central government ministries have begged for a little more time.
Yet the government insists that no extra time is available, or even necessary. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, with a touch of impatience, that “we don’t have the luxury of time,” and advised people to ignore the generally querulous atmosphere surrounding the rollout. In particular, he insisted the massive computing backbone needed for the task is ready, although it hasn’t really been stress-tested yet. About 80 percent of existing taxpayers have managed to open an account on the new system, but complaints have been common. Internet forums usually dedicated to figuring out which sub-clauses of the Income Tax Act can safely be ignored are now overrun with posts complaining of the dread phrase: “Failed to establish connection to the server.”
In any case, even if the server does’t fail, and everyone buys a computer and learns to use it in time, there’s still likely to be a quarter or two of utter confusion as the new tax takes effect. That's adding to pessimism about growth over the rest of the year -- especially since an investment crisis and Modi’s mismanagement have already pushed the economy into a slowdown.
Given all this, the government is taking quite a risk in refusing to postpone the introduction. Remember the glitchy rollout of healthcare.gov in the U.S.? Opinions about an entire policy can solidify in the first few days of its implementation -- and a bad IT experience can disproportionately influence such opinions.
My head tells me, therefore, that it would be best to push back the rollout while the system is stress-tested, open consultations are held on reducing adaptation costs and so on. But I have to admit my heart doesn’t agree: It’s quite exhilarating to see the government, which has a track record of timidity on major reform, for once showing a bit of determination.
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And I can’t help being a bit hopeful as well. Perhaps a lot of the complaints are just people letting off steam. Jaitley pointed out that people have had a year to prepare, since the July 1 deadline has been known at least that long. (True, but the tax itself was only given its final shape a few weeks ago.) He could've argued with some justice that even if he gave in, then -- India being what it is -- people might well appear as unprepared in the last week before any later launch date as well.
As many people have argued, if you want to really get how this country works, observe people planning an Indian wedding -- or watch Mira Nair’s great movie about it. Nothing seems to be coming together until the last moment, but it all hangs together in the end. Let’s hope that the GST rollout is just suffering from the Indian wedding syndrome.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Mihir Sharma at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Timothy Lavin at [email protected]
http://www.sohu.com/a/153804796_260616?_f=index_news_9
莫迪称吊销10万家公司执照,启动印度独立70年来最大税改(图)
2017-07-02 15:32
印度总理莫迪。 视觉中国 资料图
路透社7月2日报道,印度总理莫迪称在“废钞令”之后,印度已经吊销超过10万家公司的注册执照,理由是这些公司“违反法律。这是印度政府打击逃税和“黑钱”运动中采取的最新措施。
据路透社报道,印度这一决定是基于政府在去年11月突然颁布“废钞令”之后进行的一项官方数据分析作出的。
去年11月,为打击地下经济与普遍的逃漏税,莫迪突然宣布废除面值为500与1000卢比(约合50元和100元人民币)的纸钞,涉及钞票占印度当时流通总量的86%。由于印度人日常生活普遍使用现金交易,“废钞令”出台后引发持续数周的社会秩序混乱和经济停滞。
莫迪表示,在去年的11月废钞之后,有超过30万家企业受到了违规交易检查,其中有10万家企业执照被吊销,但是莫迪没有列举任何具体公司的名称。
“这是个非同寻常的决定,”莫迪周六晚些时候在宣布启动大规模税改之后表示,“在未来几天还将采取进一步的严厉措施,打击那些违反法律的公司。”
尽管外界对于去年莫迪采取的废钞行动有诸多批评,但莫迪却声称自己是为了穷人而战。“抢劫穷人的人必须还给穷人,”莫迪说。政府还将对超过37000家涉及参与非法交易的公司采取行动。
周六,印度展开独立70年来规模最大的税制改革,开征新的商品与服务税(GST),以取代联邦与地方政府原各别征收的各种税收。新税制将间接税、关税、附加费等全纳入单一税收系统,首次将全国29个邦和13亿人口统一到一个共同市场内。
印度总理莫迪周六零时在国会的新税制启动仪式上表明,开征新的商品与服务税标志着印度经济的融合。“有了商品与服务税,"一个印度,伟大印度"的梦想将会实现。”
商品与服务税是莫迪2014年5月上台组织政府后提出的最雄心勃勃的改革方案,要以之取代此前联邦和地方政府的互相重复的税制。印度经济学家表示,新税制可有效降低商品交易门槛,预计将使印度经济增速提升一至二个百分点。
Tax Reform Looks Like an Indian Wedding
As the big day looms, confusion reigns and anxieties mount.
by Mihir Sharma
9
26 June 2017, 5:00 AM GMT+8
Who's ready for GST reform? Photographer: Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times
India stands on the brink of one of its most momentous policy reforms in decades unprepared and uncertain. We’re just a few days away from the launch of a new indirect-tax regime, the goods-and-services tax, or GST, and anxiety about its rollout is all-pervasive.
The reform, which intends to knit India together into a single tax area for the first time, goes live on July 1 -- in fact, at the stroke of midnight. The Narendra Modi-led central government, always on the lookout for a bit of spectacle with which to entertain its voters, intends this to be commemorated with a midnight session of parliament, deliberately echoing India’s freedom at midnight more than seven decades ago.
Perhaps, though, the government should be thinking more about preparation and less about pageantry. The scale of the changes needed is daunting. India’s banks, for example, have been caught by surprise. They expected that the new regime meant no change to the current system in which they register as taxpayers once, nationally; instead, they’re being forced to register in each of India’s dozens of states. Now they’re rushing against the clock to do so.
Smaller companies have been hit equally hard. The existing system allows them to maintain big, dusty ledgers and receipts, and all the paraphernalia of 19th-century accounting. The GST, on the other hand, is entirely online. Mom-and-pop outfits across the country are spending hard-earned money on computer hardware they’re not certain about, and struggling to learn how to use buggy tax software for the first time. Companies such as Dell Inc. have even set up websites where they tout their existing computers as being special “GST ready” models.
This sort of frantic preparation is visible in sector upon sector. It’s not surprising, therefore, that appeals are coming in from everywhere to postpone the GST by a quarter. Industry associations, state governments, chartered accountants, and even central government ministries have begged for a little more time.
Yet the government insists that no extra time is available, or even necessary. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, with a touch of impatience, that “we don’t have the luxury of time,” and advised people to ignore the generally querulous atmosphere surrounding the rollout. In particular, he insisted the massive computing backbone needed for the task is ready, although it hasn’t really been stress-tested yet. About 80 percent of existing taxpayers have managed to open an account on the new system, but complaints have been common. Internet forums usually dedicated to figuring out which sub-clauses of the Income Tax Act can safely be ignored are now overrun with posts complaining of the dread phrase: “Failed to establish connection to the server.”
In any case, even if the server does’t fail, and everyone buys a computer and learns to use it in time, there’s still likely to be a quarter or two of utter confusion as the new tax takes effect. That's adding to pessimism about growth over the rest of the year -- especially since an investment crisis and Modi’s mismanagement have already pushed the economy into a slowdown.
Given all this, the government is taking quite a risk in refusing to postpone the introduction. Remember the glitchy rollout of healthcare.gov in the U.S.? Opinions about an entire policy can solidify in the first few days of its implementation -- and a bad IT experience can disproportionately influence such opinions.
My head tells me, therefore, that it would be best to push back the rollout while the system is stress-tested, open consultations are held on reducing adaptation costs and so on. But I have to admit my heart doesn’t agree: It’s quite exhilarating to see the government, which has a track record of timidity on major reform, for once showing a bit of determination.
Clear thinking from leading voices in business, economics, politics, foreign affairs, culture, and more.
Share the View
And I can’t help being a bit hopeful as well. Perhaps a lot of the complaints are just people letting off steam. Jaitley pointed out that people have had a year to prepare, since the July 1 deadline has been known at least that long. (True, but the tax itself was only given its final shape a few weeks ago.) He could've argued with some justice that even if he gave in, then -- India being what it is -- people might well appear as unprepared in the last week before any later launch date as well.
As many people have argued, if you want to really get how this country works, observe people planning an Indian wedding -- or watch Mira Nair’s great movie about it. Nothing seems to be coming together until the last moment, but it all hangs together in the end. Let’s hope that the GST rollout is just suffering from the Indian wedding syndrome.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
Mihir Sharma at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Timothy Lavin at [email protected]
http://www.sohu.com/a/153804796_260616?_f=index_news_9
莫迪称吊销10万家公司执照,启动印度独立70年来最大税改(图)
2017-07-02 15:32
印度总理莫迪。 视觉中国 资料图
路透社7月2日报道,印度总理莫迪称在“废钞令”之后,印度已经吊销超过10万家公司的注册执照,理由是这些公司“违反法律。这是印度政府打击逃税和“黑钱”运动中采取的最新措施。
据路透社报道,印度这一决定是基于政府在去年11月突然颁布“废钞令”之后进行的一项官方数据分析作出的。
去年11月,为打击地下经济与普遍的逃漏税,莫迪突然宣布废除面值为500与1000卢比(约合50元和100元人民币)的纸钞,涉及钞票占印度当时流通总量的86%。由于印度人日常生活普遍使用现金交易,“废钞令”出台后引发持续数周的社会秩序混乱和经济停滞。
莫迪表示,在去年的11月废钞之后,有超过30万家企业受到了违规交易检查,其中有10万家企业执照被吊销,但是莫迪没有列举任何具体公司的名称。
“这是个非同寻常的决定,”莫迪周六晚些时候在宣布启动大规模税改之后表示,“在未来几天还将采取进一步的严厉措施,打击那些违反法律的公司。”
尽管外界对于去年莫迪采取的废钞行动有诸多批评,但莫迪却声称自己是为了穷人而战。“抢劫穷人的人必须还给穷人,”莫迪说。政府还将对超过37000家涉及参与非法交易的公司采取行动。
周六,印度展开独立70年来规模最大的税制改革,开征新的商品与服务税(GST),以取代联邦与地方政府原各别征收的各种税收。新税制将间接税、关税、附加费等全纳入单一税收系统,首次将全国29个邦和13亿人口统一到一个共同市场内。
印度总理莫迪周六零时在国会的新税制启动仪式上表明,开征新的商品与服务税标志着印度经济的融合。“有了商品与服务税,"一个印度,伟大印度"的梦想将会实现。”
商品与服务税是莫迪2014年5月上台组织政府后提出的最雄心勃勃的改革方案,要以之取代此前联邦和地方政府的互相重复的税制。印度经济学家表示,新税制可有效降低商品交易门槛,预计将使印度经济增速提升一至二个百分点。