Goods and Service Tax or GST is the biggest Indirect Tax passed on 29th March 2017 in the Parliament under the Goods and Service Tax Act. This one tax replaced almost all other indirect tax laws that previously existed in India. GST came into effect on 1st July 2017. Now it is one tax for the entire country.
The journey of GST started in the year 2000, when a specially formed committee drafted the law. And it took 17 years for the law to mould and evolve. The GST Bill was passed in 2017 in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and by 1st July 2017, the GST law was implemented.
Under the GST regime, the tax is levied at every point of sale. In the case of intra-state sales, Central GST and State GST are charged. Inter-state sales are chargeable to Integrated GST.
There are 3 different taxes applied under this system: CGST, SGST & IGST. CGST is for intra-state sale and are collected by the Central Government on an intra-state sale. SGST is collected by the State Government for intra-state sale and finally, IGST which is collected by the Central Government on inter-state sales.