After marathon parleys to win the support of the Opposition parties, the government on Tuesday circulated the draft Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill among the members of the Rajya Sabha, which is sch
After marathon parleys to win the support of the Opposition parties, the government on Tuesday circulated the draft Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill among the members of the Rajya Sabha, which is scheduled to take up the discussion on the reform legislation today.
Except for the capping of tax rate, the government has accepted the two key demands of the Congress in the draft bill circulated among the members, which include doing away with one per cent additional tax, a definite provision in the statute for compensating states for revenue loss for five years, and GST Council proposed to establish a mechanism for adjudication of disputes.
The business advisory committee of the Rajya Sabha had fixed five and a half hours for discussions on GST. The deputy leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha told reporters that the draft GST Bill vindicated the party’s position on key issues. He claimed that the Congress was the original author of the GST Bill.
While the Congress had sought a Supreme Court judge-headed panel for resolving GST disputes, the official amendments say that the GST Council will establish a mechanism for solving disputes. With regard to the demand for putting a GST rate cap in the Constitution, the government has not mentioned anything in the official amendments. Incidentally, finance minister Arun Jaitley, at a meeting with his state counterparts last week, had promised to keep the incidence of tax low while safeguarding the revenue of states.
Meanwhile, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi met leader of the party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former finance minister P. Chidambaram and Anand Sharma among others and discussed various points regarding the GST Bill. Mr Sharma will meet the finance minister one more time to convey the Congress’ views on the Bill.
With the Congress coming out in the open to claim ownership of the GST and regional parties barring AIADMK in support of the reform legislation, the prospects of the passage of the Bill appear to have brightened. “We would list the Bill for consideration on Wednesday in Rajya Sabha. We have talked to all parties and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said at the beginning of this session that GST is in the interest of all. We hope the GST Bill will be passed with consensus,” parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar told reporters after the BJP parliamentary party meeting.
The GST Bill, which is officially called Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014), will lay the ground for roll out of Goods and Services Tax regime that will subsume all indirect taxes including central excise duty and state VAT/sales tax.
