THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 9, 2017- Topic 1

Course correction

On GST Council's alterations

Nearly 100 days after India’s tryst with the new Goods and Services Tax regime began, the GST Council empowered to oversee its implementation has approved several alterations. These relate to coverage and compliance norms with a view to easing the burden of paperwork and stretched cash flows imposed on smaller businesses and exporters. 

The Council lowered the rates on 27 items, including dried sliced mango, khakhra, unbranded namkeen and, more importantly, yarn and sewing threads to soothe the textile industry that has been in distress over GST norms and is a bulwark for job-creation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the Council’s decisions at its 22nd meeting, taken at his behest to overcome the GST system’s apparent shortcomings, are akin to an early Deepavali. That the meeting was advanced by almost 20 days, and that it has tried to deliver on the Prime Minister’s promise to fix the problems faced by traders in the first quarter of GST is welcome. The decision to switch the requirement to file three monthly returns and an annual return to a quarterly frequency for firms with a turnover of ₹1.5 crore will ease the burden of compliances on small and medium enterprises, and reduce the workload on the tax regime’s fledgling IT backbone.

Equally critical is the expansion and proposed simplification of the composition scheme, under which firms with an annual turnover of up to ₹1 crore pay a flat and low tax, and the six-month suspension of the reverse charge mechanism that required large firms to deduct tax on supplies from firms outside the GST net. This should spur fresh confidence among small firms and help expand the tax base. The promise of faster tax refunds, starting Tuesday, for exporters facing a working capital crunch too is re-assuring. Time will tell how smoothly these decisions pan out on the ground, but suspension for six months of the payment of integrated GST (IGST) on inputs used for exports will bring immediate relief. While putting off the e-way bill provisions dealing with movement of goods that were making businesses and transporters nervous, the Council is instead considering a staggered introduction. So the system would begin with one or more States from January 2018 and cover the entire country by April 2018. It is not clear how this will impact inter-State movement of goods in the interim three months, and industry has good reason to worry about fresh complications. Amidst this flurry of adjustments, suspense persists on the operationalisation of the GST law’s anti-profiteering provisions, which cramp pricing decisions by businesses. The government needs to move swiftly to bring clarity on all such remaining grey areas. Lastly, though some of the latest rate revisions may be based on impeccable economic rationale, it is important to resist giving the impression that some tweaks, even if they are warranted, are based on the Assembly election schedules.

Vocabulary

Tryst: a private, romantic rendezvous between lovers.

Example: A moonlight tryst

Empower: give someone the authority or power to do something.

Example: Nobody was empowered to sign checks on her behalf

Synonyms: authorize, entitle, permit, allow, license, sanction, warrant

Alteration: the action or process of altering or being altered.

Example: Timetables are subject to alteration without notice

Synonyms: change, adjustment, adaptation, modification, variation

Compliance: the action or fact of complying with a wish or command.

Example: They must secure each other's cooperation or compliance

Yarn: a long or rambling story, especially one that is implausible.

Example: The open fire is a focal point around which many yarns are spun and stories told.

Synonyms: story, tale, anecdote, saga, narrative, tall tale, tall story, fish story

Soothe: gently calm a person or their feelings.

Example: A shot of brandy might soothe his nerves

Synonyms: calm down, pacify, comfort, hush, quiet, subdue, settle down

Behest: a person's orders or command.

Example: They had assembled at his behest

Synonyms: instruction, requirement, demand, insistence, bidding, request

Compliance: the action or fact of complying with a wish or command.

Example: They must secure each other's cooperation or compliance

Crunch: a crucial point or situation, typically one at which a decision with important consequences must be made.

Example: When it comes to the crunch, you chicken out

Synonyms: moment of truth, critical point, crux, crisis, decision time, zero hour

Nervous: easily agitated or alarmed; tending to be anxious; highly strung.

Example: A sensitive, nervous person

Synonyms: high-strung, anxious, edgy, tense, excitable, jumpy

Persist: continue firmly or obstinately in an opinion or a course of action in spite of difficulty, opposition, or failure.

Example: The minority of drivers who persist in drinking

Impeccable:  in accordance with the highest standards of propriety; faultless.

Example: A man of impeccable character

Synonyms: flawless, faultless, unblemished, spotless, immaculate, pristine, stainless

Tweak: a sharp twist or pull.

Example: Once there he would preen himself and settle down quite quietly, giving my hair an affectionate tweak from time to time.

Synonyms: pull, jerk, tug, twist, pinch, twitch, squeeze