Editorial Board

A Refereed Monthly International Journal of Management

MEASURING AWARENESS ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF GST: A SURVEY OF SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS OF RAJASTHAN

AUTHOR’S

Abstract

The study seeks to evaluate the awareness of the Business owners about GST and the difficulties they would face in case of the current awareness about it. 148 Small business owners were analysed in order to identify the awareness about GST from Rajasthan State and the kind and extent of relief provided and the implementation of the provisions under the GST law. The study has revealed that there is a lack of awareness amongst the Small business owners regarding the GST and its rules. For the purpose of the paper the responses were gathered form those who will be affected fromthe applicability of GST were selected. The responses gathered were analysed with the help of ANOVA and multiple regression method to identify the awareness of respondents. The results revealed that GST Law may be used as the most frequently. The main areas to be focused include Training and Computer software availability. Most of them have encountered issues like Client/customer refuse to pay GST and having problem to submit report to Authority. The Small business owners are also more interested in making and joining Training rather redressing for the grievances by using consumer protection law. Further most affected preparation to be GST ready has included the technicality and complicacy in the proposed GST model. Further multiple regression results revealed that 5 variables including GST improves the revenue growth to the state and country, The Government should rationalize and simplify the tax structure, GST will evade the cascading effect in Indirect tax regime, GST will assist in better conformity and revenue resilience, GST will bring uniformity with only two tax rates, it results in a good administration of tax structure shown the awareness of the GST amongst the small business owners

Keywords: GST, Consumer awareness, Consumer’s grievance, Complaint, Consumer grievance redress

MEASURING AWARENESS ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF GST: A SURVEY OF SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS OF RAJASTHAN

INTRODUCTION

Tax is a way of collecting revenue from individuals, companies or other entities by the government in order to finance state expenditure. It is considered as the most important sources of government’s income to drive the economic growth and achieve the status of a developed country and high income. Thus, there are various taxes levied on the users such as direct taxes and indirect taxes. As tax contributes to the development of the country, low turnover tax revenues will affect the country's development and financial position of the country is likely to resulting deficit (Ahmad Azrin, 2015).

On August 08, 2016, theLok Sabha passed the changes to Constitutional Amendment (122nd) Bill,2014 cleared by Rajya Sabha on August 03, 2016, marking the day as historic in India’s journey towards global reforms. The passage of the Bill is a progressive measure as along with the conferring of concurrent powers to the Parliament and State Legislature to make law pertaining to Goods and Services, the Bill also provides for basic framework of Indian GST law. GST regime will definitely create a harmonised tax structure, re-defining Indian economy on the global front under the tagline of “one tax and one market”. GST will make India a progressive and inclusive economy worldwide. It seeks to address and overcome challenges present inthe current indirect tax regime by broadening the tax base, eliminating cascading of indirect taxes, increasing compliance and reducing economic distortions caused by inter-state variations in indirect taxes.Various initiatives have to be taken by various state governmentsfor making GST applicable from April 2017.

GST is a proposed system of indirect taxation in India merging most of the existing taxes into single system of taxation (Bhiwandikar, 2016).GST Constitutional (101st Amendment) Act’ 2016contains the provisions which are necessary for the implementation of GST regime.To implement this Constitution Amendment Bill for GST, it has put before the parliament (Rajya Sabha on 3 August 2016 and Lok Sabha on 8 August 2016) and has been approved by the President of India (Akhila, 2016). The Government of India (GoI) is committed to replace 21 major indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Centre and States and implement GST by 1 July 2017.It is also defined as any tax on supply of goods and services other than on alcohol for human consumption (Raghuram&Deepa, 2015).

It is anticipated that the tax base of Government of India will be comprehensive, as virtually all goods and services will be taxable, with minimum exemptions. It would be a comprehensive indirect tax on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services throughout India, to replace taxes levied by the central and state governments. It would be levied and collected at each stage of sale or purchase of goods or services based on the input tax credit method.

GST, become a very popular subject of common discussions since it has been seen as a game changing reform for the Indian economy. It is popular as it creates a common Indian market and reduces the cascading effect of tax on the cost of goods and services. GST will have an impact over tax structure, incidence of tax, computation and payment of tax, compliance, credit utilization and reporting (EY, 2016). It also will lead to a complete overhaul of the current indirect tax system and will have a far-reaching impact on almost all the aspects of the business operations in the country, including, pricing of products and services, supply chain optimization, IT, accounting, and tax compliance systems (Kotnal, 2016).Thus it is important that the respondents who are the real users of the proposed GST Must understand the concept for their use. Thus this paper analyses the views of the small business owners who will be the real users of the proposed GST.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The following are the general and specific objectives of the study:

1. To find out the significant variables to be focused on while preparation of GST.
2. To identify the issues encountered by Small Business owners while GST implementation.
3. To evaluate the awareness of the Small Business owners about GST implementation in Rajasthan state.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A study conducted by Djawadi and Fahr (2013) pointed out that knowledge about tax is important to increase the thrust of authorities and also the citizens. It was also found that Malaysian understanding regarding GST was still low (Tan and Chin-Fat, 2000).

According to Palil et al. (2010) public awareness towards GST is low can happen due to introduction of GST especially in the early years such as lack of familiarity with the new system. There are several factors that discouraged customers from accepting GST implementation in Malaysia and the most important factor among all is a fear of price increase and will cause the inflation.

Based on the history of the implementation by the other countries around the world, most of the countries received a positive impact in terms of their revenue, despite the success of GST implementation the Malaysian citizens still feel uncertain with the GST, (Saira et al, 2010). The findings from the study showed that the majority of Malaysians not convinced with the GST system, (Saira et al, 2010).

Based on study conducted by Boonyarat et al. (2014), the researcher used Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) to examine the relationships between tax awareness and tax knowledge and the researcher found out that tax knowledge has positive relationship with tax awareness. Hence, taxpayers will be more aware about tax system when they have knowledge and understanding towards the tax system.

Research by Mustapha and Palil (2011) stated that the influence of compliance behavior towards individuals’ awareness has been proven in various researches. From the findings of Razak and Adafula (2013); Santi (2012) they found that taxpayers’ awareness is significantly associated with tax compliance and this is also supported by study Jatmiko (2006).

Palil et al. (2013) study by using multiple regression analysis, the researchers found out that there are significant relationship between awareness and tax knowledge. When individuals have knowledge related to the tax systems, people will be more willing to respect the tax systems and improved individuals’ awareness. Further, Jatmiko (2006) also conclude that awareness can be developed from the knowledge and the understanding. Palil et al. (2013) and Jatmiko conclusions is also supported study by Tayib (1998) identified that individuals’ awareness towards the tax system can increase when the individuals has knowledge about the tax. This makes tax knowledge and tax awareness has significant relationship and when the individuals or the taxpayers have knowledge about it and it will make it easier for them to study and follow the tax rules.

According to Torgler (2011) tax morale is important to taxpayer awareness. On the other hand, research by Tekeli (2011) using multiple regression analysis show that tax morale has insignificant relationship on tax awareness. Tekeli (2011) conclusion is supported study by Torgler and Schaffner (2007) regarding cause and consequences of tax morale.

Tulu (2007) indicate that other factors such as taxpayers’ attitude or morale found to be the result of lack of awareness has found to have little impact on taxpayers’ attitude towards taxation. A lot of individuals or taxpayers might want to comply in full with the tax systems, but are unable to do so because they are not aware of and lack of understanding their full obligations. Even they understand their obligations they may not know how to comply with it because of there is no two way communications between the authorities and taxpayers. Dup (2014) claimed that the ability of taxpayers to comply with the tax laws have a strong relationship with tax awareness.

The concept of Goods and Services Tax (GST) was first introduced by a French tax official in 1950’s. To date,there are 160 countries in the world that have practiced this form of taxation including European Union and Asiancountries likes Sri Lanka, Singapore and China with the rate between 5%-27 % (Official Website Malaysia Goodsand Services Tax, Royal Malaysian Customs Department).

Mohani (2003) indicated that one of the fundamental ways to increase public awareness is through knowledge. Tan & Chin-Fatt (2000) asserted that tax knowledge can be imparted through general understanding on the tax regulation. They indicated that the government had always been promoting for the implementation of GST; however the understanding of GST for Malaysian, even in introductory level, is still failed to be delivered (Tan & Chin-Fat, 2000). According to Saira et al. (2010), the proposal of GST implementation by the government actually is not to unduly burden the Malaysians, especially for the lower income group. The government then expected that the consumers will get the benefit from the price reduction for most of goods and services. Accordingly, increase awareness and knowledge on a new tax initiative is essential to gain public acceptance and confidence, particularly in tax situation (Cullis& Jones, 1992). They further exerted that since taxation involves public expenditure, new tax reform creates uncertainty of future expenditure (Cullis& Jones, 1992).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this study, data were collected by using questionnaires-based survey. The samples selected were derived from 148 Small business owners of various 5 cities of Rajasthan state. For this study, convenience sampling method was used. According to Sekaran&Bougie (2013), this method most often used during the exploratory phase of a research project and is perhaps the best way of getting some basic information quickly and efficiently.

The research methodology of this study is divided in following points:

• Source of data- The source of data collection is primary data which is collected from the Small business owners of 5 cities including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Bhilwara and Udaipur City.
• Sample size- the sample size for conducting study was148 Small business owners.
• Sampling technique- The sampling technique used is convenient sampling.
• Hypothesis- as per the nature of the research three hypotheses were developed and shown under the head of data analysis.

The study utilized statistical techniques such as descriptive analysis and ANOVA and Multiple regression analysis in order to analyse the data. The research applied descriptive statistics which consists of methods for organizing, displaying and describing data by using tables and summary measures.

DATA ANALYSIS

Sample Demographics:

The demographic profile of the Small business owners included in the study were shown in table-1 as under:

Table-1: Sample Demographics

The descriptions of selected variables are shown in table-2 as under:

Table-2: Description of selected variables

As per the research objective of the paper the data were collected to identify that in preparing for GST, the main areas to be focused-on.Following hypothesis was developed:

H_1(a)= the variables to be focused-on are significant in preparing for GST.

For this purpose the data of the respondents were analysed with help of one sample t tests. The results of the test were provided in table-3 as under:

Table-3: One sample t tests

As per the result of the t test the null hypothesis is rejected and we can say that for that for two variables training and Computer system-Software, significant differences (p<0.05) were the two area in preparing for GST, and were the main areas to be focused-on.

As per the research objective of the paper the data were collected find that respondents were still encountered by any of the following issues now. Following hypothesis was developed:

H_1(b)= the variables of issues encountered are having significant impact.

For this purpose the data of the respondents were analysed with help of one sample t tests. The results of the test were provided in table-4 as under:

Table-4: One sample t tests

As per the result of the t test the null hypothesis is rejected and we can say that for that for having problem to submit report to Authority and Client/customer refuse to pay GST significant differences (p<0.05) were found.

As per the objective (To measure awareness about implementation of the provisions under the GST law) the agreement of the respondents related with the various areas are checked with the broader hypothesis. The following hypothesis was developed:

H_1(c): The attributes have significant influence on the awareness about implementation of GST.

To identify key variables in multivariate regression analysis has been used with SPSS-19 software and results were shown in table-5 as under:

Table-5: Multiple regression analysis for awareness about GST

Table-5 part b. (Variables Entered/Removed^a) has shown the variables entered (five i.e., VAR00010, VAR00013, VAR00006, VAR00015, VAR00004) into the regression equation for further analysis.

As per the result of the test the null hypothesis is rejected and in the final Regression model with 5 independent variables (VAR00010, VAR00013, VAR00006, VAR00015 and VAR00004) explains almost 63.4% of the variance of awareness aboutGST implementation. Also, the standard errors of the estimate has been reduced to .73439, which means that at 95% level, the margin of errors for any predicted value of accounting disclosure of Sustainable items can be calculated as ± 1.4394044 (1.96 X .73439). The five regression coefficients, plus the constraints are significant at 0.05 levels. The impact of multi colinerarity in the 5 variables is substantial. They all have the tolerance value less than 0.93, indicating that only over 7% of the variance is accounted for by the other variables in the equation.

ANOVA Analysis

The ANOVA analysis provides the statistical test for overall model fit in terms of F Ratio. The total sum of squares (216.730) is the squared error that would accrue if the mean awareness about GST implementation has been used to predict the dependent variable. Using the values of VAR00010, VAR00013, VAR00006, VAR00015 and VAR00004 this errors can be reduced by 64.67% (140.145/216.730). This reduction is deemed statistically significant with the F ratio of 51.970 and significance at level of 0.00e. With the above analysis it can be conclude that five variables i.e., VAR00010, VAR00013, VAR00006, VAR00015 and VAR00004 explains the awareness aboutGST implementation.

CONCLUSION

As per the objectives of paper the level of awareness towards GST among the small business owners in Rajasthan state, it was found that the main areas to be focused include Training and Computer software availability. Most of the respondents have predicted that issues like Client/customer refuse to pay GST and having problem to submit report to Authority will be increased. The Small business owners are also more interested in making and joining Training rather redressing for the grievances by using consumer protection law. Further most affected preparation to be GST ready has included the technicality and complicacy in the proposed GST model. Further multiple regression results revealed that 5 variables including GST improves the revenue growth to the state and country, The Government should rationalize and simplify the tax structure, GST will evade the cascading effect in Indirect tax regime, GST will assist in better conformity and revenue resilience, GST will bring uniformity with only two tax rates, it results in a good administration of tax structure shown the awareness of the GST amongst the small business owners. The finding of this study is consistent with the findings from previous studies found that awareness towards the implementation of GST was relatively low and moderate (Zakaria et al, 2015). On top of average awareness regarding GST implementation, most of the respondents were also not willing to support and accept the implementation of GST.

References

1. Abubakari Abdul Razak, C. J. (2013). Journal of Accounting and Taxation Evaluating taxpayers' attitude and its influence on tax compliance decisions in Tamale, Ghana. Journal of Accounting and Taxation, 48-57.
2. Ahmad Fariq Mustapha, M. R. (2011). Factors affecting tax compliance behaviour in self. Journal of Business Management, 12864-12872.
3. Aiko, R. (2013, July 9). Do I have To Pay Tax? Citizens' Awareness of their Taz Obligations in Tanzania. Briefing Paper, pp. 1-8.
4. Akhila, P. S. (2016). A Conceptual Study on GST–A Substitute to Indirect Taxes in India, international Journal of Current Research in Multidisciplinary (IJCRM), 1(6):24-29.
5. AmmanuddinShamsuddin, M. I. (2014). Educators' Awareness and Acceptance towards Goods and Services Tax (GST) Implementation in Malaysia : A Study in Bandar Muadzam Shah, Pahang. Economics and Law, 1-9.
6. AsmaMoomal, Z. Z. (2014). Awareness, Acceptance and Expectations of Malaysian Consumers Towards Goods and Services Tax (GST). Journal of Contemporary Management Science, 15-27.
7. Badai, B. (1992). Evaluation of Malaysian Corporate Investment Incentives. Journal of Management, 95-124.
8. Benno Torgler, M. S. (2008). Tax Compliance, Tax Morale and Governance Quality. Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (pp. 1-51). Switzerland: CESifo.
9. Bhiwandikar, Mahesh. (2016).Goods & Service Tax,Tactful Management Research Journal, 110-113
10. Chartrand, T. L. (2005). The Role of Conscious Awareness in Consumer Behaviour. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 203-210.
11. Cristina Sa, A. M. (2011). The Social and Political Factors Behind Portuguese Tax Morale. Journal of Management and Economics, 212-234.
12. Customs, G. (2013, March 15). Understanding GST. Retrieved March 29, 2015, from Royal Malaysian Customs Department: http://gst.customs.gov.my/en/gst/Pages/gst_un.aspx
13. Customs, G. (n.d.). Understanding GST.
14. Darren George, P. M. (2003). SPSS for Windows Step by Step A Simple Guide and Reference Fifith Edition. Canada: Allyn & Bacon.
15. DusaSumartaya, A. H. (2014). The Influence of Taxpayer's Awareness and Tax Morale Toward Tax Evasion. Business Economics and Law, 60-68.
16. (2016), All about GST in India-Goods and service tax, http://www.ey.com/In/en/services/ey-goods-and-services-tax-gst.
17. GST Awareness is Still Low. (2015, March 25). Retrieved 25 25, 2015, from The Sun Daily: m.thesundaily.my/node/301677
18. Hair, J. F. (1998). Multivariate Data Analysis. Australia: Prentice Hall.
19. Israel, G. D. (1992). Determining Sample Size. Florida Cooperative Extension Service, 2-5.
20. James Andreoni, B. E. (1998). Tax Compliance. Journal of Economic Literature, 818-860.
21. Jatmiko, A. N. (2006). PengaruhSikapWajibPajakpadaPelaksanaanSanksindanDenda, PelayananFiskus, danKesadaranPerpajakanterhadapkepatuhanWajibPajak (StudiempiristerhadapWajibPajak Orang Pribadi di Kota Semarang). http://eprints.undip.ac.id/15261/1/Agus_Nugroho_Jatmiko.pdf, 2-86.
22. John G. Cullis, P. R. (1992). Public Finance and Public Choice. Singapore: McGraw-Hill International (UK) Limited.
23. JunainahJaidi, R. N. (2013). Individual Taxpayers' Perception Towards Self-Assessment System : A Case of Sabah. Asian Academy of Applied Business, 56-65.
24. Saira, M. Z.-M. (2011). An Exploratory Study of Goods and Services Tax Awareness in Malaysia. Political Management and Policies, 265-276.
25. Kelly, H. H. (1973). The Proposal of Causal Attribution. Journal of American Psychologist , 107-128.
26. Kotnal, Jayashree R.(2016). GST In India: An enrichment of indirect taxation system, International Journal of Applied Research 2016; 2(4): 735-738.
27. Krejcie, R. V. (1970). Determining sample size for research activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 607-610.
28. Lai, I. (2014, September 16). GST Will Lead To Reduction in Malaysia's Shadow Economy. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from The Star Online: http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2014/09/16/GST-to-stabilise-govt-revenue/?style=biz
29. Leng Zheng Zhou, J. T.-C. (2013, October 22). The Introduction of Goods and Services Tax in Malaysia. Policy Paper Series, pp. 2-29.
30. Lin Mei Tan, C. C. (2000). The Impact of Tax Knowledge on the Perceptions of Tax Fairness and Attitudes Towards Compliance. Asean Review of Accounting, 44-58.
31. Ling, C. K. (2006). Towards Goods and Services Tax in Malaysia : A Preliminary Study. Business & Economics Society International (pp. 75-85). USA: B&ESI.
32. McEachern, G. W. (2008). Exploring the relationship between consumer knowledge and purchase behaviour of value-based labels. Journal of Consumer Studies, 414-426.
33. Malaysia, M. o. (2013). Chapter 4 Public Sector Finance. Economic Report 2012/2013, 123-148.
34. Mohamad, N. B. (2010). The relationship between perception and level of compliance under self assesment system - A study in the East Cost Region. Journal of Global Business and Economics, 241-257.
35. Mir BehnudDjawadi, R. F. (2013). The Impact of Tax Knowledge and Budget Spending. 54-76.
36. MJ Ferguson, J. B. (2004). Liking is for doing: The Effects of Goal Pursuit on Automatic Evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 557.
37. Mohd Rizal Palil, M. A. (2011). The Impacts of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on Middle Income Earners in Malaysia. World Review of Business Research, 192-206.
38. Mohd Rizal Palil, M. R. (2013). The Perception of Tax Payers on Tax Knowledge and Tax Education with Level of Tax Compliance:. ASEAN Journal of Economics, Management and Accounting, 118-129.
39. NichapatBoonyarat, S. S. (2014). The Antecedents of Taxpayers Compliance Behavior and the Effectiveness. Journal of Management and Social Science, 23-39.
40. Paul Dourish, V. B. (1992). Awareness and Coordination in Shared Workspaces. ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work (pp. 10-114). New York: ACM New York.
41. Pauline Niemirowski, S. B. (2003). Tax Related Behaviour, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values and Taxpayer Compliance in Australia. Australian Taxation, 132-165.
42. Raghuram, G. &Deepa, K.S. (2015). Goods and Services Tax: The Introduction Process, Research and publication, IIM-A, W.P.No. 2015-03-01, pp-1-43
43. Ramani, P. (2013, September 20). GST Benefits Outwiegh Drawbacks. Retrieved April 1, 2015, from Free Malaysia Today: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/09/20/gst-benefits-outweigh-drawbacks/
44. Santi, A. N. (2012). AnalisisPengaruhKesadaranPerpajakan, SikapRasional, Lingkungan, SanksiDendadanSikapFiskusterhadapKepatuhanWajibPajak. Semarang: Thesis Strata - FakultasEkonomikadanBisnis.
45. Simon James, C. A. (2002). Tax compliance, self-assessment and tax. Journal of Finance and Management in Public Services, 27-42.
46. Singh, V. (2003). Malaysian Tax Administration. Kuala Lumpur: Longman.
47. Sivo, S. A. (2006). How Low Should You Go? Low Response Rates and the Validity of Inference in IS Questionnaire Research. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 351-414.
48. Sivo, S. A. (2006). How Low Should You Go? Low Response Rates and the Validity of Inference in IS Questionnaire Research. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 351-414.
49. Steven, D. (1989). Culture and self-perception in Japan and the United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 124-131.
50. Studenmund, A. (2014). Using Econometrics. United States: Pearson.
51. (1998). The determinants of assessment tax collection : the Malaysian local authority experience. Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the University of Glamorgan: The Malaysian Local Authority Experience.
52. The 2015 Budget Speech by YAB Dato' Sri MohdNajibTun Abdul Razak. (2014, October 11). Retrieved April 1, 2015, from Bernama: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/newsspeech.php?id=753
53. Tulu, L. (2007). Determinants of Taxpayers Voluntary Compliance with Taxation The Case Study of Dire Dawa City. Ethiopia: Faculty of Business and Economics.
54. Uma Sekara, R. B. (2013). Research Method for Business. United Kingdom: Wiley.
55. V, S. (2003). Malaysia Tax Administration. Kuala Lumpur: Longman.
56. ZainolBidin, F. M. (2013). Using Theory of Reasoned Action to Explain Taxpayer Intention to Comply with Goods and Services Tax (GST). Journal of Scientific Research, 387-394.
57. Tekeli, R (2011) The Determinants of Tax Morale: the Effects of Cultural Differences and Politics PRI Discussion Paper Series (No.11A-10).
58. Dup , A. H. (2014). The Influence of Taxpayer's Awareness and Tax Morale Toward Tax Evasion. Business Economics and Law, 60-68.
59. Torgler, B. and F. Schneider (2007). Shadow Economy , Tax Morale, Governance and Institutional Quality: A Panel Analysis, CREMA Working Paper Series, 2007-02, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA), 1-64.