Over 150 students of Delhi Public School (DPS) in Kolkata attended an unusual two-hour class last month. The subject was not routine and the teachers were not the regular ones. They were made aware of the concept of the goods and services tax (GST) by a group of senior officials of the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise).

The exercise was to educate the students about the GST and encourage them to familiarise their friends and families about the benefits of the new system. DPS Kolkata was not the only school to have such a session. 

In the past one month, many schools in places such as Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Indore, Kanpur, and a few colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir welcomed tax officials who enlightened students about the new taxation system. Officials have planned to reach out to more schools and colleges once they reopen after the summer break.

A deputy commissioner (central excise) (Kolkata zone) who interacted with Class XI and XII students of DPS (Ruby Park), along with his colleagues, said the interaction covered the basic taxation system and the GST, and how it would benefit consumers and the nation. "It was an interactive session and students had many questions," he said.

The zone has identified and approached 10 more schools in Kolkata, where similar sessions are being planned after the summer holidays. The GST, which is scheduled to be introduced from July, will subsume all central and state taxes such as excise duty, service tax, value-added tax and other cesses into one tax. It is a new system and there were some misconceptions among the students, said a faculty member at DPS Kolkata. "Some teachers attended it and we have a proposal to initiate a similar session for our 300 teachers and a batch-wise session for parents," she said.