It is an indirect tax which has replaced many indirect taxes in India such as the excise duty, VAT, services tax, etc.
The Goods and Service Tax Act was passed in the Parliament on 29th March 2017 and came into effect on 1st July 2017.
Under the GST regime, the tax is levied at every point of sale. In the case of intra-state sales, Central GST and State GST are charged. All the inter-state sales are chargeable to the Integrated GST.
The GST journey began in the year 2000 when a committee was set up to draft law. It took 17 years from then for the Law to evolve.