Centre mulling to 'advance' Winter session for early GST roll out

New Delhi: In a bid to roll out the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 1 next year, the Modi government is considering to prepone the Winter session of Parliament to pass the CGST and IGST bills, and pave way for implementation of the new sales tax regime.

The Winter session of Parliament is generally convened in the third or fourth week of November. The government, however, is looking to start the session from first fortnight of November, just after the festival season.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar is working overtime to repeat the success of the Monsoon session, according to sources.

However, they added that the final call is yet to be taken on the matter, but the work has been started for advancing the session.

The government is keen for early passage of the Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) bills, as it will give enough time to the Finance Ministry for implementation of the GST.

The two bills are supporting legislations to the Constitutional Amendment Bill approved in the Monsoon session of Parliament.

GST, being a constitutional amendment, required a ratification by 50 per cent of state Assemblies, which has been achieved.

Earlier this month, President Pranab Mukherjee had given his assent to the bill.

Last week, the Cabinet had also approved setting up a powerful GST Council, which will decide on the tax rate, exempted goods and the thresholds.

The CGST and IGST bills have been drafted on the basis of the model GST law. The states will draft their respective State GST (SGST) laws with minor variation incorporating state-based exemption. The IGST law would deal with inter-state movement of goods and services.