Preliminary Text of Finance Minister’s address at the launch Goods & Service Tax from Central Hall of Parliament

<h1>Goods and Services Tax creates a unified indirect tax regime enabling one tax, single return and cooperative federal decision-making.</h1> The document announces the nationwide implementation of a destination-based Goods and Services Tax replacing multiple transaction taxes and cesses with a single tax, administered through a consensus-based GST Council where Centre and States pool decision-making. It establishes unified registration and a single electronic return, preserves revenue neutrality and avoids undue burden on poorer taxpayers, and enables input tax credit to remove tax-on-tax cascading, with anticipated benefits of simplified compliance, reduced tax avoidance, moderated inflationary effects, and increased fiscal resources for governments.