GST brief: The much awaited Goods and Service Tax (GST) subsumes multiple indirect taxes such as excise duty, service tax (central level), Value Added Tax (VAT) along with local taxes (eg. octroi). Under the old regime, companies were subject to a maze of taxes at the central, state & city level that varied substantially from state to state and at different stages of the product cycle (production, distribution, sales). The sheer complexity involved in ascertaining different taxable values/classification standards etc has resulted in large compliance costs, high consumption...