GST - Lok Sabha approves 4 GST Bills Wednesday March 29,2017

The proposed goods and services tax (GST) moved a step closer to reality on Wednesday March 29,2017 with the Lok Sabha approving four bills that will subsume a profusion of central, state indirect taxes and help create a single, unified market.

The Lower House passed the bills by voice vote, after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan initiated clause-by-clause voting at the end of a long Parliament debate on GST, billed as the country’s biggest tax reforms since Independence.

“These are revolutionary bills which will benefit all. States have pooled in their sovereignty into the GST council, and Centre has done the same,” said finance minister Arun Jaitley, who aims to introduce the GST from July 1.

These supporting legislation for the GST were introduced as money bills and will now go to the Rajya Sabha, where the NDA government doesn’t have the numbers to push through key reforms.

But the Upper House can’t reject money bills, as it only has powers to make recommendations on such legislation, which the Lok Sabha can choose to accept or reject.

Once the bills are passed in Parliament, the government will issue a notification after the President’s consent. The states will pass a separate law — the State GST (SGST) bill — to roll out the reform.

The four proposed legislation are the central goods and services tax (CGST) bill, the integrated goods and services tax (IGST) bill, the goods and services tax (compensation to states) bill, and the Union territory goods and services tax (UTGST) bill.

The passage of the bills removed years of political differences over the GST that will eliminate tax barriers, and subsume a host of indirect taxes levied by the Centre and the states, including excise, service tax, entertainment, entry, luxury and value-added taxes

Hailing the historic move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present in Lok Sabha, tweeted in Hindi later: “Congratulations to all countrymen over passage of the GST Bill. New Year, New Law, New Bharat.”