Since the Rajya Sabha okayed the constitutional amendment for a national goods and services tax (GST), businesses have been trying to understand the looming change to the indirect tax structure. That they have much to learn was shown at a GST training seminar hosted by Pune-based Pritam Mahure, a chartered accountant, at the Confederation of Indian Industry in Gurgaon on Friday.

Participants voiced common concerns about the open-ended nature of the model law and its increased compliance-based requirements. Features such as the importance of correctly categorising inter-state and intra-state ...