COAI Welcomes the implementation of Goods and Services (GST)

COAI, the apex industry association representing all the major telecom service providers and allied internet and technology companies in the country, welcomes the implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime by the government. GST is easily the biggest reform since Independence, far outweighing even  the liberalisation of the 90s in its scope and scale. We laud the vision of the Hon. Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi and its successful rollout by the Hon. Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley. “At the stroke of the midnight hour India will truly awaken”, to a new and holistic tax ecosystem which will act like a shot in the arm for ease of doing business in the country and simplifying processes.

The introduction of a single tax across the country will make transactions across the country much easier and significantly reduce complexities in taxation. The Indian telecom Industry remains committed towards working with the government shoulder to shoulder and has been preparing for the transition in all earnest over the course of the last year. Telecom is all pervasive and as essential service which is today the backbone of the nodal government mission mode programs like Digital India, Make in India, Skill India etc. This sector has always been the crown jewel, with over a billion connections and one of the highest contributions to the GDP. Today it is saddled  with an unprecedented debt of more than  INR 4.5 lakh crore, with revenues of less than INR 2 lakh crore, a return on capital employed averaging around 1%  , we are therefore hopeful that the government will consider our plea and revise the current rate of 18% which is fairly high to the requested rate of 5% which is better aligned with telecom being an essential service and critical infrastructure.

The tremendous amount of work that the Government and the industry has put in for the July 1 roll-out of GST deserves appreciation. All the policy changes of this size are bound to face teething problems initially. As long as the government and Industry work together, for the greater good, we are certain that all issues will get resolved. We are also confident that, we will get all the required support from the government , DoT and the Finance Ministry for this. And both the industry and the government will continue to work in the best interests of the consumers and the nation keeping offerrings competitive and innovative.