A Comparative Analysis of Pre-GST and Post-GST Regime Compliance Cost for Retailers in India
Abstract
From 1st July 2017 Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented in India. According to the report published by GST Network in Mar 2020 (GSTN, 2020), GST registered retailers having turnover below 5 crores contributes 16% of GST Tax revenue out of the total GST Tax collection in India. But these retailers were 86 % of the total GST registered Taxpayers in India. The compliance burden under the GST regime for the retailers is high as compared to compliances in the earlier Indirect Tax regime. The present study assesses the impact of GST on the elements of compliance costs for retailers in Pre-GST and Post-GST regimes. Two methods are adopted concerning this study. The first method covers the interview of 110 Tax Experts in India concerning Pre-GST and Post-GST elements of compliance costs for retailers. The second method covers the analysis of primary data concerning the opinion of the retailers in India about their GST compliance costs based on some pre-defined variables. One-way ANOVA was applied for the second method. From the analysis of both the methods, it was found that there is a significant increase in compliance costs for retailers in the post-GST regime as compared to the pre-GST regime in India. This study would help the policymakers to simplify the GST tax laws for providing ease of doing business to the retailers and MSMEs.
