The Goods and Services Tax (GST), described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a `Good and simple tax’ may indeed be good but it seems it isn’t particularly simple. Like the Mills of God are said to do, the mills of GST might grind slow but they grind exceedingly small, as has been evidenced by a notice served on a firm to shell out Rs 5.9858630140000004 by way of the impost, which could more appropriately be called an imposition. As the Indian banking system acknowledges no more the two numerals after the Decimal point, the 16-digit numerical could well have numismatists scratching their heads in bemusement.

Whether it is for the purpose of tax dues or anything else, the decimal point – which along with its sibling, the zero, is widely attributed to be the brainchild of Aryabhata, and in the current resurge of ubernationalism might be renamed the desi-mal point – has a way of, well, not getting to the point. Perhaps this is best exemplified by efforts to calculate the exact value of pi, the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter. First worked out by Archimedes as being somewhere between 3.1408 and 3.1429, the decimal point has swelled the number of its followers till they now have reached 2.7 trillion digits, and counting, particularly on March 14 which has been nominated as Pi Day and enthusiasts compare notes and notations. In that it appears endless, the quest could well be termed an exercise which is truly pi-in-the-sky.