A Study on Perception of Pharmacists Towards Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, India

GST is an Indirect Tax which has reinstated many Indirect Taxes in India. The GST was passed on 29th March 2017 in the parliament and on 1st July 2017, the Act came into effect. Till date, people have not understood about the GST system which gives a wrong perception about it. Accordingly, this study attempts to gather the information on the pharmacist's perception on GST in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. A study was steered at Medical agencies, wholesale and retail outlets run by qualified pharmacists at different Mandals in the district of Guntur. A well-structured questionnaire was used to get the responses from 172 individuals. 52.9%(91) of the respondents highly agree that GST causes an upsurge in the prices of medicines,19.2%(33) agree, 20.9%(36) neither agree nor disagree,5.8%(10) highly disagree & 1.2%(91) disagree. It was found that 55.8%(96) of the respondents highly agree that GST will not burden people, 14.0%(24) agree followed by, 18.0%(31) neither agree nor disagree, 11.0%(19) highly disagree & 1.2%(2) disagree. The awareness among pharmacists about GST was found to be very low and have some apprehensions on GST. A grand insurgency is expected in coming years in the indirect tax system. As this is for the first time the government need to take initiatives to make aware of the GST system to all citizens. If pharmacists will have awareness they can create awareness among customers and change their perceptions to make India a vibrant and dynamic country