
Modi Takes a Leap With India’s Biggest-Ever Tax Overhaul - nileshtrivedi
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/world/asia/india-tax-narendra-modi.html
======
sonink
Considering the impact of this reform, and the historical messiness of doing
something of this scale in India, it is surprising that the govt. even pulled
it off.

On the ground in Bangalore, the clock stuck 12 and every retail shop started
giving receipts with the simplified tax system. Im sure there will be hiccups
ahead but the start looks pretty neat.

The Indian govt. should be given honorary entry to YC. The world's biggest
startup is going lean.

~~~
navinsylvester
> even pulled it off.

A retail shop of Bangalore(metropolitan) doesn't speak for entire India. The
shop you visited already had a computer/software but ground reality is much
different among traders in tier II & III cities.

> The Indian govt. should be given honorary entry to YC. The world's biggest
> startup is going lean.

The government face-planted themselves miserably with demonetization
experiment. They thought it would be easy to muscle everyone to use electronic
payment without understanding the ground realities. The economy is performing
below expectations solely due to it and they still haven't disclosed what they
have achieved(good) with demonetization.

They could have planned the implementation in stages so that the transition
could be done smoother. The same is going to happen with GST. They can be
anything but sultans of implementation.

We Indians are so resilient that without traffic signals we adjust, during
floods we help each other without expecting the government - so we will be ok
eventually. Wish the government cared for its majority of the people instead
of catering to elitist alone.

~~~
sfifs
> The government face-planted themselves miserably with demonetization
> experiment. They thought it would be easy to muscle everyone to use
> electronic payment without understanding the ground realities. The economy
> is performing below expectations solely due to it and they still haven't
> disclosed what they have achieved(good) with demonetization.

You're completely missing the point of demonitization. Modi got elected partly
on the promise of doing something about black money and corruption - which is
what pulled down the previous government.

Demonitization was basically a way to demonstrate that he was keeping that
promise. For months on the end, towns were filled with stories of the corrupt
rich desperate trying to get rid of their unaccounted for cash and government
officials getting raided.

In other words, it was primarily a political exercise designed to show he will
take action if he makes a promise. The vicarious pleasure the common man got
hearing about the discomfiture of the corrupt rich I reckon is more than
sufficient to get his government re-elected and also give him some slack from
people if the GST thing falls flat - given they trust him more due to
demonetization.

~~~
navinsylvester
> The vicarious pleasure the common man got hearing about the discomfiture of
> the corrupt rich I reckon is more than sufficient to get his government re-
> elected

I agree the common man can be easily be fooled by gimmicks and the BJP
government is an expert in sugar coating gimmicks. Please read:
[http://www.dailyo.in/politics/demonetisation-noteban-six-
mon...](http://www.dailyo.in/politics/demonetisation-noteban-six-months-
failure-terror-financing-modi/story/1/17139.html)

~~~
sfifs
Just to be clear, I think the reduction in currency note availability which
has forced a large number of traders, businesses and the unorganized sector to
accept bank payments a positive thing and reduced bribes anecdotal well worth
the point of growth sacrificed.

I was just outlining that the political rationale is primary.

~~~
kamaal
Not one person is doing this. People did temporary hacks like PayTm because
they didn't want to take hits on their business.

Today no one. Not one single person is taking cards or PayTm. If you wave a
card in front in front of their face they ask you to withdraw cash from the
nearby ATM and come. In fact its already a few months since I did a electronic
transaction to buy anything near my home.

This whole act achieved nothing at the end.

Your best measure is Police constables, especially the traffic ones. They are
back to asking bribes on the street. In Bangalore every 1 km has a police
party doing this.

------
denzil_correa
GST will increase revenues for consuming states and decrease revenue for
manufacturing states. The government will compensate the manufacturing rates
for the revenue loss. That's how all states agreed to a GST. This difference
will ultimately come out from tax payers pockets. Basically, the tax payer
pays for the government unable to handle compliance.

Anyways, there are many products kept out of the GST purview [0] and
therefore, this is like release 0.1a of GST. The idea that it will spur
economic growth with the projections given is an exaggeration.

[0] [http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/gst-adding-to-
econo...](http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/gst-adding-to-economic-
growth-is-rubbish-says-niti-aayog-s-debroy/story-n6cluC7L2wxhZK1kINN52I.html)

~~~
dingo_bat
Looking at the article seems more like a 0.7 version, not 0.1. Also, sometimes
it's important to make a release and patch it later

~~~
denzil_correa
> sometimes it's important to make a release and patch it later

Yeah, the trick is to know when these "sometimes" are. For example, the "move
fast break things" rule was applied for India's biometric unique ID card which
resulted in people climbing trees to authenticate their cards to get their
daily food [0], not allowing access to power/education/daily benefits [1] or
transferring benefits to someone else due to errors and fighting to get your
daily wages because of "system errors" [2].

Life is not software. There are some releases which you cannot patch.

[0] [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/need-internet-to-
bu...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/need-internet-to-buy-pds-
rations-go-climb-a-tree/articleshow/57437975.cms)

[1] [https://scroll.in/article/834418/by-making-aadhaar-
mandatory...](https://scroll.in/article/834418/by-making-aadhaar-mandatory-
delhis-government-schools-are-shutting-their-doors-to-migrant-children)

[2] [https://scroll.in/article/833487/aadhaar-trouble-how-a-
woman...](https://scroll.in/article/833487/aadhaar-trouble-how-a-womans-wages-
under-mgnrega-were-transferred-to-someone-elses-account)

~~~
sfifs
I think you might not have a context of living in India.

Before Aadhar, these benefits would disappear due to corruption even before
reaching the needy while with Aadhar, millions of people have suddenly got
bank accounts and get direct Benefits transfer from the government.

The other context you might miss is that in general, the top rung of the civil
service cadre is generally fairly competent (they're recruited from extremely
competitive examinations, and in general not promoted from below). It's on
them to generally take decisions on ground when intent and process don't match
in things like GST rollout. I'm fairly certain they'll try to do their best to
avoid adverse headlines.

~~~
denzil_correa
> I think you might not have a context of living in India.

Curious - What would make you think so?

> Before Aadhar, these benefits would disappear due to corruption even before
> reaching the needy while with Aadhar, millions of people have suddenly got
> bank accounts and get direct Benefits transfer from the government.

You are mixing up many things here. Bank accounts have got nothing to do with
Aadhar. Bank accounts don't mean much when you do not have meaningful access.
There is a digital and banking divide in India which the person who has
Internet access find it difficult to understand. Once you read RBI's Financial
Inclusion report you'd understand why.

Benefits via Aadhar have been grossly overstated - there has been a recent
filing in the court regarding this.

> I'm fairly certain they'll try to do their best to avoid adverse headlines.

I'm fairly certain given the responses by people who control Aadhar - this
wouldn't be addressed. Heck, Aadhar is passed as a "Finance Bill" when it
clearly is not.

~~~
noisy_boy
> Bank accounts don't mean much when you do not have meaningful access.

For decades people have been saying that the money from
grants/subsidies/schemes for poor vanishes between the government and the
recipient due to the multiple "middlemen" involved and cutting that out is the
way to solve it. Now that is also not the acceptable solution? Then what is
the solution that falls under the category of "meaningful access"?

> There is a digital and banking divide in India which the person who has
> Internet access find it difficult to understand.

Yes there is a digital divide but what does having bank accounts got to do
with it? Computer illiterate people have been going to banks for decades.

> Benefits via Aadhar have been grossly overstated - there has been a recent
> filing in the court regarding this

The idea of Aadhar is to have an identifier like a social security number. It
is not a unique idea and Aadhar is not the only way to do it. But the idea
itself has merits - especially for financial transactions. So many of
transactions in India have been hidden from the taxman because there was lack
of the necessary setup to link/consolidate flow of money to a person/business.
Aadhar + increased digitisation and reduction in (mainly high value) cash
transactions makes tax evasion more difficult. If this idea doesn't have merit
then what is your proposal?

These are things that are being done to address decades long problems and
obviously that won't be perfect. If you have suggestions for
improvements/alternative solutions, then feel free to list them. All I'm
seeing is criticism without any suggestions.

~~~
denzil_correa
> For decades people have been saying that the money from
> grants/subsidies/schemes for poor vanishes between the government and the
> recipient due to the multiple "middlemen" involved and cutting that out is
> the way to solve it. Now that is also not the acceptable solution?

Yes cutting the middleman is the solution but there are various ways of
cutting the middleman. The onus is on the people who support it to show that
Aadhar indeed cuts the middleman and improves the said goal.

> Then what is the solution that falls under the category of "meaningful
> access"?

The parent comment attributed Aadhar to opening of bank accounts. I responded
by saying that opening of bank accounts is not a good proxy for meaningful
access to bank accounts. There's a difference.

> Yes there is a digital divide but what does having bank accounts got to do
> with it? Computer illiterate people have been going to banks for decades.

That was exactly the point, I asked. What has Aadhar got to do with bank
accounts?

> The idea of Aadhar is to have an identifier like a social security number.

Yeah - except that Aadhar is not anything like SSN.

[https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-vs-so...](https://cis-
india.org/internet-governance/blog/aadhaar-vs-social-security-number)

[https://scroll.in/article/823570/despite-the-comparisons-
ind...](https://scroll.in/article/823570/despite-the-comparisons-indias-
aadhaar-project-is-nothing-like-americas-social-security-number)

> So many of transactions in India have been hidden from the taxman because
> there was lack of the necessary setup to link/consolidate flow of money to a
> person/business. Aadhar + increased digitisation and reduction in (mainly
> high value) cash transactions makes tax evasion more difficult. If this idea
> doesn't have merit then what is your proposal?

The same way it is been done in all other countries without a biometric ID
card.

> If you have suggestions for improvements/alternative solutions, then feel
> free to list them. All I'm seeing is criticism without any suggestions.

An inherent flawed idea can't be made perfect. More reading on why :
[http://www.lse.ac.uk/management/research/identityproject/](http://www.lse.ac.uk/management/research/identityproject/)

~~~
noisy_boy
> Yeah - except that Aadhar is not anything like SSN.

Ok so there are differences between Aadhar and SSN - it is a different system,
uses biometrics and has other differences. Just being different doesn't make
it bad.

> The same way it is been done in all other countries without a biometric ID
> card.

And which of all those "other countries" is a developing nation, the size of
India, with an endemic corruption issue and socio-economic challenges? What is
the solution that worked in those countries you allude to, that would work for
India?

> An inherent flawed idea can't be made perfect. More reading on why :
> [http://www.lse.ac.uk/management/research/identityproject/](http://www.lse.ac.uk/management/research/identityproject/)

I went through the links on this page - half of them result in "page not
found". Anyway, reading this gave me the impression of it being in context of
UK. So I read this article about UK abolishing its national identity
register[1]. The main takeaways seem to be that there were privacy concerns
and they saved a good lot of cash. Frankly, with a country with a massive
problem of corruption and huge amount of hidden transactions (none of which UK
suffers from to the same degree as far as I know), I am (and I think Indian
government is), more concerned about expanding the tax net and capturing lost
revenue. Regarding the concerns about biometrics, we have had tons of schemes
on which the corrupt middlemen have collected funds due to the poor. When the
poor guy went to the disbursement office to collect the grants, he was shown a
register where somebody had already signed and collected the funds. Biometrics
avoids cases of impersonation and bank account helps direct credit of funds. I
didn't see any alternative solution mentioned in the links you provided so if
you have anything concrete, feel free to share.

[1]: [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/27/theresa-
may...](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/27/theresa-may-
scrapping-id-cards)

------
anuraj
First of all legwork for GST was done by previous UPA government. Modi to his
credit has done the diplomatic work to get states ratify the same. And give
where credit is due - It is the states with 2/3rd votes in the GST council
that did the final negotiations and got GST a success and made uniform tax
across the country a reality. The IT infra is woefully inadequate - I expect
the pain to last at least 2 years till adequate infra is created by govt and
enterprises and till then manual accountants would have huge job opportunity.
In the short term we will see a marginal contraction of the economy due to
high compliance costs and readjustments in the value chains.

In a way GST will also pave way for higher tax sharing between centre and
states and shall strengthen federalism - income tax sharing is the next in
line. And slowly India shall become a union of states as it should have been.

~~~
nindalf
The Centre already shared its revenues from all Central taxes, including
income taxes with the States before this reform. They shared 32% earlier and
increased that to 42% just before GST. Centralising all taxation isn't
necessarily a good thing, at least not for all states. Before GST, taxes were
levied at the point of manufacture. This helped states with strong
manufacturing bases to raise revenue and set up infrastructure and encourage
even more manufacturing. A virtuous cycle. States could be mostly self
sufficient, using Central funds to augment their money.

If the Centre collected all the revenues, the states would be entirely
dependent on the Centre. Sure, 42% of the revenue needs to be shared with the
states, but the proportion is at the Centre's discretion. I would expect that
the party in power at the Centre would funnel funds towards states which are
electorally important (UP, Maharashtra) and away from ones that don't play
much of a role in national politics (TN, North Eastern states). That's great
if you live in UP, not so much if you're Tamil. In such a situation, I foresee
that it could actually fuel resentment in states from where wealth is taken
and cause the Union to weaken. We see this happening in Catalonia in Spain,
for example.

I agree with everything else that you said, that there will be short term
contraction but this simplified tax code will be helpful for businesses in the
long run. Simplifying it even further and making it a central tax only would
be a boon for businesses, but possibly not for the Union.

~~~
anuraj
Sharing at centre's discretion is not enough. I am talking about separate
State and Central Income Tax as in several federal democracies. It is an idea
whose time shall come sooner than later.

------
allendoerfer
EU, take note. To me the premise is absolutely true: Further unifying the
market will spur growth. European start-ups starting in Europe instead of
their tiny home country will be a much bigger competition to their US
counterparts, which at the moment can often easily crush them, because they
already have conquered their rich, big and English speaking home market.

~~~
henrikschroder
What? It's not exactly VAT rules that are making it hard to expand your
business across countries in the EU, it's language and culture barriers.

~~~
xorcist
If you sell goods or services online then the different VAT rules becomes a
hard problem once you reach the scale where your EU sales are more than a
trickle but not large enough to have a presence in each country. This is quite
a big part of online commerce.

~~~
shortleon
I do not think it is a problem. When ordering from a shop, you pay VAT of the
country of origin and you won't be taxed in your own when the product arrives.
Of course, if the seller tried a little bit harder, they can charge you the
tax of your own country and reap the profits.

~~~
xorcist
> you pay VAT of the country of origin and you won't be taxed in your own

No, this is the whole problem. If the total sales volume to the buyer's
country is under a certain limit the above holds true. When you reach the
sales limit for that country, the seller is responsible for applying that
country's VAT instead, and annually clear VAT with the respective tax office.

As you can imagine, keeping track of all these things can quickly become
tricky. Not business ending tricky but hard enough to become a problem. A
consumer should be presented with prices including tax to avoid surprises, but
now prices have to be adjusted at the order stage.

------
blackoil
It's funny how it is being hailed as Modi's achievement, while during last
govt he and his party were one of the major roadblocks to the rollout of GST.

------
imhoguy
High time for unified EU VAT, otherwise we will stay behind. VATMESS and lack
of unified digital market rules is what keeps cross-EU online business tough.

~~~
henrikschroder
Agree, the recent change to charge VAT depending on the location of the buyer
is pure hell to deal with. As a EU business, I really don't want to have to
figure out where in the EU my customers are, and adjust the price according to
whatever their country's VAT rates are this month.

~~~
ProblemFactory
It is somewhat necessary, to solve the problem of Amazon, Google, Apple and
others selling everything via low-VAT countries like Luxembourg.

But there would have been ways to make it much less painful to manage for
small online businesses. For example a revenue limit (like 1M EUR) on cross-
border sales before you have to start dealing with each country, or just an
unified EU-wide VAT rate.

~~~
nradov
Why is selling from low VAT countries a problem? VAT is only one of many
potential government revenue sources.

~~~
ProblemFactory
VAT is just one source, but at 15-20% of government revenue, it is an
important source. Most of it will be generated by business that physically
happens in the country, and is unambiguously taxed there, but more and more of
business is moving online.

Selling from low-VAT countries is a problem because it is a fictional
accounting move. If you buy a product from Amazon.co.uk, delivered from an UK
warehouse to an UK address - or from Amazon.de, delivered from a German
warehouse to a German address - then it is still billed through Luxembourg.
Even though by all non-accounting measures it is business happening inside the
UK and Germany. The only reason for choosing Luxembourg is tax rate
optimisation, not because there's an actual place of business there.

It's understandable that most countries in the EU would want to keep taxes on
business that happens in their country to themselves. If VAT exists at all,
then it makes sense not to gift it to Luxembourg. So the rules were changed to
remove this accounting trick.

------
jangid
In all the talk, I see this as a life time opportunity for freelancers. I
remember, in my initial career days, small business owners use to give work of
billing softwares to freelancers instead of purchasing of the shelf software.

------
palidanx
For a great podcast leading up to this, you should listen to

[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/05/10/527803742/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/05/10/527803742/episode-770-when-
indias-cash-disappeared-part-one)

[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/05/12/528181998/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/05/12/528181998/episode-771-when-
indias-cash-disappeared-part-two)

~~~
virtuabhi
Did not listen to podcast but the summary says that a person named "Anil
Bokil" gave idea of demonetisation to PM Modi. This is not confirmed by PM or
sources close to PM. It is only "Anil Bokil" who is claiming credit for this
policy.

Here is history of demonetisation in India from Wikipedia-

"The Indian government had demonetised bank notes on two prior occasions—once
in 1946 and then in 1978—and in both cases, the goal was to combat tax evasion
by "black money" held outside the formal economic system.[19] In 1946, the
pre-independence government hoped demonetisation would penalise Indian
businesses that were concealing the fortunes amassed supplying the Allies in
World War II.[19] In 1978, the Janata Party coalition government demonetised
banknotes of 1000, 5000 and 10,000 rupees, again in the hopes of curbing
counterfeit money and black money.[20]

In 2012, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had recommended against
demonetisation, saying in a report that "demonetisation may not be a solution
for tackling black money or economy, which is largely held in the form of
benami properties, bullion and jewellery."[21][22] According to data from
income tax probes, black money holders kept only 6% or less of their wealth as
cash, suggesting that targeting this cash would not be a successful
strategy.[23]"
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetis...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Indian_banknote_demonetisation)

------
smdz
This implementation is a very hasty one. Go and talk to small-biz-people and
you will see the fear and confusion GST instates. Frankly, its scary to me and
I have studied quite a bit of tax. Compared to the previous complicated
procedures, the new procedures are equally complicated. But these also deviate
from previous definitions. And some terms on taxation have changed and have
become ambiguous - like the definition of "Supply"

Its like "My manager(Govt) is making us(small-biz) fill status spreadsheets
for 2-3 hours out of 8 every day. Why? Just because they can"

And I also worry about the IT infrastructure being implemented for filing
these new invoices. The government has some very smart and efficient in house
engineers - but we don't know if they made the backbone or if they outsourced
it to the likes of TCS/Infy. For one, I have known a TCS tax filing
implementation that fails regularly on the last few days of filing - they do
some very bad implementations.

I get to talk to some small biz owners here, and very few of them had any
clarity on GST as on 30jun. Most of them registered for GST numbers, but know
nothing about compliances beyond that. Many don't even use software to create
invoices. I got panic calls on "best/good/budget software for GST" on the last
day. They didn't know what they needed. Nobody reads the rulebooks and even if
they did, it would result into a throbbing headache with no output. So they
rely on info from each other and the chartered-accountants who see their
business booming.

Could it have been done with less haste? NO! But it could have been done with
simpler procedures and a couple of months of education.

Infact, GST will not be a failure - Even if it is complicated, businesses are
just used to adhering unnecessary complicated govt policies - they will adjust
soon. But GST is hurting many small businesses right now. This will either
lead to a bigger and newer black/gray money market - defeating the purpose do
demonetization. Or it will make every Indian pro-tech. I'd assign equal
probabilities to both outcomes, there is no middle ground now.

What we need to see if it becomes "One nation one tax" or "One nation, 29
taxes"

PS: For the record, I do believe that India has the best PM on this planet. I
am a pro-BJP and anti-CONG (and anti-AAP). Please don't associate my criticism
with political sides.

~~~
breitling
I don't live in India, but I have an interest in their politics, so I have a
question for you:

How can you justify Modi as the best prime minister in the world when he
tacitly approves the killings of Muslims? A group he should also be the leader
of.

The Hindu extremists are emboldened under his watch. In many areas, India is
going backwards under his watch.

He's far from the best in the world. You just haven't bothered to look.

~~~
smdz
Doesn't matter what I say. I am a programmer, not a political pundit. But I do
know that perceiving any country's leadership just based on news is a very bad
idea.

To understand and perceive the reality, you have to live in India for few
months (say 6 months but even 2 years may feel less). And try to live as a
commoner here, get some job (not volunteer/NGO work), travel-to-work, travel
to different cities/villages, go to festivals, talk to people and allow
typical intrusive social behavior.

~~~
BhavdeepSethi
Aren't you doing the same though? Calling him the best PM India ever got is
one thing, calling him best PM in the planet is, as you put it, "a very bad
idea".

You do not have any information about PM from other countries, besides what
you read in news.

------
Inquistiv
One of the major problems is multiple tax slabs. For instance, there is a
different tax rate for different classes of movie theatre seats or even Air
conditioned vs Non-AC restaurants. It will make book-keeping incredibly
complicated for certain businesses. It was designed in the interest of
maintaining government revenue.

------
ForFreedom
GST is for the central govt which combines all taxes under one umbrella but
you still end up pay for income tax as well as respective state tax.

So your tax would be GST + State GST.

The idea one nation one tax is wrong because if you purchase a car in delhi it
is not the same price as the one purchased in nagercoil,TN. Had it been the
same price then "One Nation, One Tax" was relevant.

~~~
brajesh
GST replaces both central and state taxes. States' share is 50% of GST (CGST
and SGST). Only alcohol, petroleum and electricity is kept out of GST, which
are still taxed at state level.

~~~
ForFreedom
If you see the invoices CGST & SGST is mentioned separately.

~~~
demonshreder
True but it is as mentioned above 50% each, eg. Eating out is charged 18% GST,
half of which would go to state and the other half to the centre. 9% + 9% of
the bill value.

------
known
Modi fulfilled just 10 out of his 126 poll promises
[http://www.electionpromisestracker.in/governments/central-
go...](http://www.electionpromisestracker.in/governments/central-government)

~~~
ahamedirshad123
Lolwut:

Set up Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and virtual classrooms

Do u even know about NPTEL? It was even there before Feku became PM.

------
jimnotgym
>with the requirement to file 37 times a year online.

In the UK I do a VAT return 4 times a year!

~~~
pandel
The number is arrived from the myth that people need to file 3 returns per
month and one at the end of the year. Another article[1] quotes Revenue
secretary saying "There is only one return with three parts, out of which
first part filed by dealer and two other parts auto populated by computer."

So effectively 12 + 1 returns every year

EDIT: A tweet from the secretary himself:
[https://twitter.com/adhia03/status/881428128177901570](https://twitter.com/adhia03/status/881428128177901570)

[1] [http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/revenue-
se...](http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/revenue-secretary-
busts-8-gst-myths-says-implementation-and-execution-will-be-
transparent-4732070/)

------
alok-g
Newbie question:

>> India, long one of the fastest growing economies in the world, ...

The number given in support of the above statement is the annual GDP growth
rate. However, as I understand, this is before adjustment for inflation, which
also is high in India. I have been unable to find the numbers for inflation-
adjusted "real" GDP [1] for India and other countries. Is India still the
fastest growing economy when the real GDP is considered?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_gross_domestic_product](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_gross_domestic_product)

~~~
em500
Your understanding is incorrect: quoted growth numbers are real/constant-
currency/inflation-adjusted, as per default in almost all economic reporting.

Global numbers can be found here:
[http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG](http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG)

~~~
alok-g
This is great. Where can I read more about the terms (newbie here, looking for
guidance) like constant-currency, or more broadly, the methodology used in
measuring these numbers. Can I also see similar charts for inflation
somewhere?

~~~
em500
Wikipedia has most of the basics covered:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product).

Global inflation numbers are also in World bank data:
[http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG](http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG).

"official" data sources and aggregators (national statistics bureaus), IMF,
World Bank, FRED can be heavy on economics jargon. Trading economics is
probably a bit friendlier for the layperson.

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baybal2
Nation-wide GST is a Trojan horse for fully-electronic financial reporting.

And fully-electronic financial reporting is in itself a Trojan for electronic
sales accounting.

~~~
nindalf
Could you explain both of those in layman terms?

~~~
baybal2
This all is made to sneakily push people towards electronic sales accounting.
See, online only VAT submission makes people who make accounting on paper
spend quite a lot of effort on data entry from books to computer. Once enought
people switch to electronic only bookkeeping, there will be not much of
impedement to introduce electronic sales recording

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walshemj
I wold be a good idea if the USA did something similar having 52 state plus
local City Taxes is very inefficient

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khrm
Don't expect any negative news. Reason:
[http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/you-have-a-
friend...](http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/you-have-a-friendly-
press-trump-to-modi/article19155891.ece/amp/)

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known
GST is raional only when each state in India has a separate currency;

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patrickg_zill
Interesting comments... the people that have experience with India are less
impressed, while others are buying the hype. Same as the HN comments when Modi
demonetized certain bills, the naysayers were pooh-poohed; and we know how
that turned out.

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ultramode
India is the only federal nation with true GST. I am excited about the far
reaching effects of GST.

~~~
skrause
The way [https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-
VAT-a...](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-VAT-and-a-
GST) describes the difference between VAT and GST to me it seems that GST is
very similar to the German _Umsatzsteuer_ which also applies to goods and
services equally.

And Germany is also a federal nation which has had this unified tax for
decades.

~~~
masklinn
> describes the difference between VAT and GST to me it seems that GST is very
> similar to the German Umsatzsteuer which also applies to goods and services
> equally.

That link seems to be splitting semantic hairs, VATs usually apply to goods
and services equally.

That's the case of Switzerland (also a federal nation) with a standard 8% VAT
on all goods and services (some goods and services have reduced and null
rates). It's also the case of non-federal countries with a VAT e.g. France.

~~~
svennek
Yeah, or Denmark, where our VAT is paltry 25%... on everything...

