Prerequisite 18 of 21

Abolish inter-state barriers

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18Built

The 2015 proposal

Abolish inter-state trade barriers to create a uniform national market with easy movement of goods.

Where it stands in 2026

GST (2017) dissolved the inter-state fiscal barriers that once made moving goods across a state line a taxable event, and the e-way bill digitised the movement itself — together, essentially the single national market the deck asked for on the tax side. A truck no longer halts at a state border to settle a cascade of local levies. What remains is that agricultural marketing law did not move in step: produce that travels freely under GST can still hit a wall of differing state mandi rules and fees.

The open gap

Agricultural marketing itself remains a state subject.

How to sustain & deepen it

Finish the job on the marketing side: a model market-fee framework that clears across states (see #17), so the single market GST created fiscally also exists for agricultural trade in practice. Adopt the EU single-market principle already cited here — goods lawfully cleared once should move freely thereafter — through the inter-state council and the centre’s model APLM Act. Keep the e-way bill and ULIP rails interoperable so compliance is one digital step, not fifteen state forms. The fiscal border is gone; the regulatory one for farm produce is what’s left to remove.

Where it sits in the chain

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Depends on

Nothing — this is a foundation the rest are built on.

Enables

Sources