'Plenty of hiccups' expected as India rolls out new tax reform

New Delhi

AS India prepares to launch its biggest tax reform since independence in 1947, businesses and citizens across the country are bracing for economic chaos.

At midnight on July 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally usher in the country's new goods and services tax. First proposed in 2006, the GST will subsume more than a dozen state and central levies into one tax, unifying this country of 29 diverse states and 1.28 billion people into a single market for the first time.

"We are not ready," said KE Raghunathan, a Chennai-based business owner and president of the All India Manufacturers Association. "We do expect tremendous chaos." With the deadline looming, protests and industrial strikes broke out across the country over tax rates and compliance burdens. In the states of Tamil…