A Study On The Impact Of Goods And Services Tax On Imports With Special Reference To Cochin City

Abstract

This study emphasis on the impact of GST on imports who are frequently importing goods for more than 5 years in Kochi city. GST is a popular issue that people are discussing on a daily basis. For importers, there are several challenges and issues involved in a transition to a new tax regime. Imports of goods and services under the pre-GST regime are subject to multiple taxes such as  special additional duty, customs duty and countervailing duty. All of these taxes have been replaced by the single integrated goods and services tax under the GST. However, the import of certain goods, in addition to the IGST, continues to attract basic customs duties, educational cess and other protective taxes such as anti-dumping duty and safe guard duty. This study is conducted to understand the impact of GST on importers who are frequently import goods from outside India. Data were collected from 50 respondents of Kochi City using questionnaire. The data were analysed via SPSS 20.0 for Windows. Descriptive statistics were used to describe and summarize the properties of the mass of data collected from the respondents. Parametric statistics like one-way ANOVA and Z-test were used. A level of 0.05 was established a priori for determining statistical significance. From the analysis of data collected and after testing the data using various statistical tools, it was concluded that majority of the importers are of the opinion that with the introduction of GST the government was able to increase the level of transparency in the transactions. . GST ensure that there is no tax cascading except in the case of confusion regarding the 5% GST applicable to the mode of transport. It was concluded that as it was newly introduced, there is some clarification and ambiguity regarding the GST rates applicable to different category of goods and increase in price of the product. But hope it will beneficial to all the stakeholders in the long run..