<P> The goods and services tax (GST) in Australia is a value added tax of 10% on most goods and services sales . GST is levied on most transactions in the production process, but is refunded to all parties in the chain of production other than the final consumer . </P> <P> The tax was introduced by the Howard Government and commenced on 1 July 2000, replacing the previous federal wholesale sales tax system and designed to phase out a number of various State and Territory Government taxes, duties and levies such as banking taxes and stamp duty . </P> <P> An increase of the GST to 15% has been put forward, but is generally lacking in bi-partisan support . </P>

When did gst come into effect in australia