International experience suggests that to implement an efficient Goods and Services Tax regime, the rate structure should be simple, with few exemptions and a comprehensive coverage over the production-distribution chain, said Saji Thomas, senior fiscal economist of the International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC. He was delivering a special lecture on GST mechanism and policy challenges.
The lecture was organized by the K. M. Mani Centre for Budget Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the University of Alberta, Canada.
He cited global experiences in the implementation of GST. Many countries around the world had transitioned from various types of consumption taxes to GST as it broadened the tax base and promoted production efficiency. While making global comparisons, he said that developed countries, particularly Canada and New Zealand, had better C-efficiency (an indicator of the departure of the VAT from a perfectly enforced tax levied at a uniform rate on all consumption) factor compared with many of the African, Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. The speaker was introduced by D. Rajasenan, executive director, K. M. Mani Centre for Budget Studies.
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