(i) Goods and Services Tax is defined as the tax levied when a consumer buys a good or service.
(ii) It is proposed to be a comprehensive indirect tax levied on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services.
(iii) It replaces all indirect taxes on goods and services by the government.
(iv) It is a one-point tax.
(v) The GST Act was passed on 29th March 2017 and came into effect on 1st July 2017.
(vi) The motto is one nation, one market, one tax.
Advantages:
(i) Removing Cascading tax effect.
(ii) Single point tax.
(iii) Higher threshold for registration.
(iv) Composition scheme for small business.
(v) Online simpler procedure under GST.
(vi) Defined treatment for e-commerce
(vii) Increased efficiency in logistics.
(viii) Regulating the unorganized sector

Free imports and exports:
(i) Before 1991, imports were regulated.
(ii) From 1992, imports were regulated by a limited negative list.
(iii) Trade Policy of 1st April 1992 freed imports of almost all intermediate and capital goods.
(iv) Only 71 items remained restricted.
(v) This would affect domestic industries.
Rationalization of tariff structure and removal of quantitative restriction:
(i) The Chelliah Committee's Report had suggested 50 % reduction in import duties.
(ii) The 1991-92 budget had reduced the peak rate of import duty from more than 300% to 150%. The process of lowering the customs tariffs was carried further in successive budgets.
(iii) This also affected the domestic industries.

(i) Foreign investment and foreign technology enhanced the industrial competition and improved business environment in India.
(ii) Foreign investment including FDI and FPI were allowed. In 1991 automatic permission was granted for foreign direct investment in a specified list of high technology and high investment priority industries up to 51 % foreign equity.
(iii) The limit was raised to 74 % and later 100 %.
(iv) Foreign Investment Promotion Board negotiates with international firms and approves FDI.

(i) Import controls through licensing was abolished.
(ii) Customs and tariff and non-tariff policies were modified.
(iii) Liberalisation of foreign investment.
(iv) Imports were discouraged and exports encouraged.

(i) When compared to public enterprises, private sector shows better results in revenue, efficiency and productivity.
(ii) Best human talent of entrepreneurs are brought out.
(iii) Financial deficits and debts are reduced.
(iv) Provides better and prompt services to customers.

Globalisation of under developed countries will
(i) Improve the efficiency of resources.
(ii) Reduce the capital output ratio.
(iii) Increase labour productivity.
(iv) Help to develop the export spheres and export culture.
(v) Increase the inflow of capital and updated technology into the country.

(i) The 1991 policy allowed Export houses and trading houses to import a wide range of items.
(ii) The government also permitted the setting up of trading houses with 51% foreign equity for the purpose of promoting exports.

The new EXIM Policy has been formulated focusing on increasing in Export scenario boosting production and supporting the concepts like Make in India and Digital India.

(i) Crop Insurance: Agriculture in India is highly prone to risks like droughts and floods. It is necessary to protect the farmers from natural calamities and ensure their credit eligibility for the next season. For this purpose, the Government of India introduced many agricultural schemes throughout the country. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister's Crop Insurance Scheme) was launched on 18 February 2016. It envisages a uniform premium of only 2 percent to be paid by farmers for Kharif cmps and 1.5 percent for Rabi crops. The premium for (annual) commercial and horticultural crops will be 5 percent.
(ii) Cold Storage: India is the largest producer of fruits and second largest producer of vegetables in the world. In spite of that per capita availability of fruits and vegetables is quite low because of post harvest losses which account for about 25% to 30% of production. Besides, quality of a sizable quantity of produce also deteriorates by the time it reaches the consumer. Most of the problems relating to the marketing of fruits and vegetables can be traced to their perishability. Perishability is responsible for high marketing costs, market gluts, price fluctuations and other similar problems. In order to overcome this constraint, the Government of India and the Ministry of Agriculture promulgated an order known as, i Cold Storage Order, 1964" under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. However, the cold storage facility is still very poor and highly inadequate. Post Harvest measures: The annual value of harvest and post-harvest losses of major agricultural produce at national level was of the order of Rs.92,651 crores, calculated using production data of 2012-13 at 2014 and wholesale prices, estimated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Monetary and Financial Sector Reforms:
Monetary reforms aimed at doing away with interest rate distortions and rationalizing the structure of lending rates.
The new policy tried in many ways to make the banking system more efficient. Some of the measures undertaken were:
(a) Reserve Requirements: Reduction in statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and the cash reserve ratio (CRR) were recommended by the Narasimham Committee Report, 1991. It was proposed to cut down the SLR from 38.5 percent to 25 percent within a time span of three years. Similarly, it was proposed that the CRR be brought down to 3 to 5% over a period of four years.
(b) Interest Rate Liberalisation: Earlier, RBI controlled
(i) the interest rates payable on deposits,
(ii) the interest rates which could be charged for bank loans.
(c) Greater competition among public sector, private sector and foreign banks and elimination of administrative constraints.
(d) Liberalisation of bank branch licensing policy in order to rationalize the existing branch network.
(e) Banks were given freedom to relocate branches and open specialized branches
(f) Guidelines for opening new private sector banks.
(g) New accounting norms regarding classification of assets and provisions of bad debt were introduced in tune with the Narasimham Committee Report.

(i) Foreign exchange reserves started rising.
(ii) There was a rapid industrialization.
(iii) The pattern of consumption started improving (or deteriorating).
(iv) Infrastructure facilities such as express highways, metro rails, flyovers and airports started expanding (but the local people were thrown away).

(a) High Input Costs:
(i) The biggest input for farmers is seeds. Before liberalisation, farmers across the country had access to seeds from the state government institutions.
(ii) The institutions produced own seeds and were responsible for their quality and price.
(iii) With liberalization, India's seed market was opened up to global agribusiness. Also, following the deregulation many state government institutions were closed down in 2003.
(iv) These hit farmers doubly hard.
(v) Seed prices shot up, and fake seeds made an appearance in a big way.
(b) Cutback in agricultural subsidies:
Liberalisation policies reduced pesticide and fertilizer subsidy and so fertilizer prices have increased by 300% and electricity tariffs have been also increased.
(c) Reduction of import Duties:
(i) With a view to open India's market, the liberalisation reforms also withdrew tariffs and duties on imports, which protect and encourage domestic industry.
(ii) By 2001 India completely removed restrictions on imports of almost 1,500 items including food
(iii) As a result, cheap imports flooded the market, pushing prices of crops like cotton and pepper down.
(d) Paucity of credit facilities:
(i) After 1991 the lending pattern of commercial banks, including nationalised banks drastically changed.
(ii) This has forced the farmers to rely on moneylenders who charge exorbitant rate of interest.