The reform of India's indirect tax regime was started in 1986 by V. P. Singh, Finance Minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government, with the introduction of the Modified Value Added Tax (MODVAT). Subsequently, Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and his Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, initiated early discussions on a Value Added Tax (VAT) at the state level. A single common "Goods and Services Tax (GST)" was proposed and given a go-ahead in 1999 during a meeting between the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his economic advisory panel, which included three former RBI governors I. G. Patel, Bimal Jalan and C. Rangarajan. Vajpayee set up a committee headed by the Ministry of finance of West Bengal, Asim Dasgupta to design a GST model.

The Asim Dasgupta committee which was also tasked with putting in place the back-end technology and logistics (later came to be known as the GST Network, or GSTN), in 2015. It later came out for rolling out a uniform taxation regime in the country. In 2002, the Vajpayee government formed a task force under Vijay Kelkar to recommend tax reforms. In 2005, the Kelkar committee recommended rolling out GST as suggested by the Twelfth Finance Commission.

After the defeat of the BJP-led NDA government in the 2004 Indian general election and the election of a Congress-led UPA government, the new Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in February 2006 continued work on the same and proposed a GST rollout by 1 April 2010. However, in 2011, with the Trinamool Congress routing CPI(M) out of power in West Bengal, Asim Dasgupta resigned as the head of the GST committee. Dasgupta admitted in an interview that 80% of the task had been done.

The UPA introduced the 115th Constitution Amendment Bill on 22 March 2011 in the Lok Sabha to bring about the GST. It ran into opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party and other parties and was referred to a Standing Committee headed by the BJP's former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. The committee submitted its report in August 2013, but in October 2013 Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi raised objections that led to the bill's indefinite postponement. The Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh attributed the GST Bill's failure to the "single handed opposition of Narendra Modi".

In the 2014 Indian general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government was elected into power. With the consequential dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha, the GST Bill – approved by the standing committee for reintroduction – lapsed. Seven months after the formation of the then Modi government, the new Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the GST Bill in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP had a majority. In February 2015, Jaitley set another deadline of 1 April 2017 to implement GST. In May 2016, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution Amendment Bill, paving way for GST. However, the Opposition, led by the Congress, demanded that the GST Bill be again sent back for review to the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha due to disagreements on several statements in the Bill relating to taxation. Finally, in August 2016, the Amendment Bill was passed to become The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016. Over the next 15 to 20 days, 18 states ratified the Constitution amendment Bill and the President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to it.

A 21-member selected committee was formed to look into the proposed GST laws. After GST Council approved the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The CGST Bill), the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The IGST Bill), the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The UTGST Bill), the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to the States) Bill 2017 (The Compensation Bill), these Bills were passed by the Lok Sabha on 29 March 2017. The Rajya Sabha passed these Bills on 6 April 2017 which were then enacted as Acts on 12 April 2017. Thereafter, State Legislatures of different States have passed respective State Goods and Services Tax Bills. After the enactment of various GST laws, Goods and Services Tax was launched all over India with effect from 1 July 2017.[19] The Jammu and Kashmir state legislature passed its GST act on 7 July 2017, thereby ensuring that the entire nation is brought under a unified indirect taxation system. There was to be no GST on the sale and purchase of securities. That continues to be governed by Securities Transaction Tax (STT).

Different types of GST
India currently recognizes four types of goods service tax returns. These are:

CGST (Central Goods and Services Tax): When buying or selling things within one state, CGST is collected as an indirect tax by the central government in order to raise money for activities like infrastructure development and public services.

SGST (State Goods and Services Tax): When purchasing or selling something within your state, an SGST tax is collected by the government and used for local projects, schools and other purposes that benefit the entire population of that particular state. The money collected stays within its borders to fund local needs or state initiatives.

IGST (Integrated Goods and Services Tax): When buying something that originates in another state, IGST comes into effect to facilitate transactions smoothly across state boundaries and ensure a fair distribution of revenues among participating jurisdictions.

UTGST (Union Territory Goods and Services Tax): UTGST is applied only on sales occurring within Union Territories governed directly by the central government; thus enabling more consistent financial management and development across these regions.

Implementation:

The GST was launched at midnight on 1 July 2017 by the President of India, and the Government of India. The launch was marked by a historic midnight (30 June – 1 July) session of both the houses of parliament convened at the Central Hall of the Parliament. Though the session was attended by high-profile guests from the business and the entertainment industry including Ratan Tata, it was boycotted by the opposition due to the predicted problems that it was bound to lead for the middle and lower class Indians. The tax was strongly opposed by the largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress. It is one of the few midnight sessions that have been held by the parliament - the others being the declaration of India's independence on 15 August 1947, and the silver and golden jubilees of that occasion.[23] After its launch, the GST rates have been modified multiple times, the latest being on 10 May 2023 where taxpayer with over ₹5 crore turnover in any financial year from 2017 to 2018 shall issue e-invoices w.e.f. 1 August 2023.

Members of the Congress boycotted the GST launch altogether. They were joined by members of the Trinamool Congress, Communist Parties of India and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The parties reported that they found virtually no difference between the GST and the existing taxation system, claiming that the government was trying to merely rebrand the current taxation system. They also argued that the GST would increase existing rates on common daily goods while reducing rates on luxury items, and affect many Indians adversely, especially the middle, lower middle and poorer income groups.

(Source: Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia)