Effective midnight tonight, the economic and commercial landscapes of India will undergo a paradigm shift. The biggest indirect tax reform since independence, the Goods, and Services Tax (GST) is going to come into force. 17 indirect taxes, 33 different kinds of levies and cess, the never-ending harassment of business owners by the tax authorities not to mention the constant rent seeking by the police at state border check posts, all this will hopefully become history as the whole country will become a common market with a flat rate of tax across the board. This is a huge leap of faith in the dark because nothing like this has ever been done before in this country. This GST is by no means ideal or perfect and it will remain a work in progress, tweaked here and there as we go along. For the moment though the Modi government deserves to be congratulated.