Comment by sieve

Who even writes these articles?! India used to have an excise, sales tax (replaced by VAT in the early 2000s) and octroi system. And LBT (Local Body Tax) where the municipal corporation staff that do not understand the B of balance sheet could harass you endlessly on your purchase and sales record. And a hundred other random industry-specific taxes. GST replaced all of that.

Businessmen were able to navigate all this mess and were suddenly unable to handle GST? Please!

Again, we are a large country and implementation is more often than not a shit show. The bureaucracy is extremely corrupt and the politicians in charge of ministries cannot tame them. They literally say to businessmen: "The minister will leave after the election next year. I will still be here."

> But GST inspectors (many of them have seen the good old days of sales tax and VAT, and obviously don’t want to let go of their power to extract bribes) harass such firms on flimsy grounds like ‘why don’t you have a company’s nameplate clearly displayed’ that can create nuisance in residential areas. [from the Print article]

This is very common low-level harassment. very little you can do about it except rewrite the laws to make such things non-actionable.

Article 311 of the constitution makes it next to impossible to fire public servants. This is why all the corrupt/non-performing officers get transferred, not sacked![1]

[1] 311. Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a State (https://indiankanoon.org/doc/47623/)