The Goods and Service tax was recommended to be introduced in the year 2004 by the Prime Minister of India to replace the existing Central Level VAT and state-level VAT tax system, and finally the action of switching the tax system of the country to GST was done in the year 2017 after generating a detail structural bill as a reformation. Since independence GST has been the largest indirect tax reform in India. The system of GST will include a tax that will be levied on the supply chain of goods and services and currently the GST is levied by the Central which is called the Central GST (CGST) and the State which is called the State GST (SGST). This means that from the manufacturing or import of the goods to the last retail sales the tax will be levied on each stage of the supply chain. With the implementation of GST, all other indirect taxes will be removed except custom duty and only GST will have to be paid.

GST came into effect on 1st July, 2017 by replacing all the previous indirect taxes as prevailing at that time such as VAT, Excise Duty, octroi duty etc. The implementation of GST has always been a big topic of discussion.

The introduction of GST by the government of India was a huge step taken in the field of indirect tax reforms. This new taxation system will be extremely fruitful to both the government and economy of the country as it will mitigate the bad effects of cascading and reduce the problem of double taxation. It will also make a huge impact on the consumer by reducing the overall tax burden on goods, which used to be as high as 25%-30%.

GST is taking new shapes by implementing new changes by introducing new notifications, circulars and orders. It is very necessary for the individuals and corporate to abide with all the rules and regulations.

Therefore, the entire system of GST is to be sustained by an IT system, so that it can provide both front end services and back end IT services as well, only for states who opted for this.

GST is an extremely new concept for the country and needs a lot of time and knowledge to understand and adapt it, for its optimum application in the Indian economy. For the better implication of GST and efficient use of the reform by every small and large business, there are GST Advisory services given to a business who require addition understanding on the working of GST, these services are provided by various consulting companies and highly educated professional of taxation law, to whoever requires advice on this tax reform.

Every GST advisory company has its own norms and regulations based on which they provide knowledge and advisory services to its clients, some base their regulations of the size of the client’s business, the type of business, the depth of business, etc. GST advisors closely work with indirect tax team of the client’s business organization and provide services including:

• New and current updates on changes in the tax rates, rules for goods and services tax, or both.
• Analysis of the impact of GST on the outward supplies of the company for their goods and services.
• Know-how on the implication of input tax credits, credit restrictions, and additional tax credit available on procurement of GST.
• Analyzing the impact of GST on the business of the company especially operations and working capital.
• Advisors help to find out the most optimal method to ensure tax efficiencies and improve the company’s credit by analyzing alternative business models. By finding out the alternative business models they can examine and identify the tax costs of the company involved, which will help realize the calculated risk involved, and then suitable strategies can be formed for the chosen business model.
• Analyzing the total cost of the goods and services of the company after adding the additional tax cost and credits.
• They also advise on the pricing strategies to be adopted by the company for better efficiency of the client’s business, after keeping check of the extra savings/debt and legal requirements. They also tell on what safeguards the company should involve.
• Guiding their clients on smooth GST transactions by making changes in processes of billing and changing the system of taking credit or payments in advance so that the tax payable is minimized.
• Leading their clients with information on various credit that they can avail under the GST regime. They also provide assistance to clients on how to upload and what all statutory forms to be uploaded for the transition of credit.
• Guidance on how to recover tax from the sales generated by the company’s supply chain, by telling them highly useful negotiation strategies that can be used with vendors/customers, while getting into an agreement.
• Help with registration for the GST number or migration of GST number registration, along with forming compliance manuals and SOPs for the company.
• Advisors provide warning signals beforehand to their clients for tax triggers after analyzing the IT system and analytical data that is provided to the GST Advisors by the company.
• They form drafts of reports based on GST and Taxes for the company, by generating these reports from the IT system itself.
• Advisors help the company with the construction of their financial statements and accounting sheets which includes, the company’s invoices, credit/debit notes, etc.
• The advising companies will also do follow up sessions for the employees of the company including all departments such as Finance, Taxation, Legal, Commercial, Sales, Marketing, etc and educate them on the latest norms and regulations under the GST bill.