Maharashtra to call special assembly session on Aug 29 to ratify GST Bill

Mumbai: A day-long session of the Maharashtra Legislature has been convened on August 29 to ratify the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill passed by both Houses of Parliament recently.

The decision was taken today at a state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief M Devendra Fadnavis, a CMO official said.

The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 on GST has already been passed by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

The GST Bill, seen as single biggest tax reform in a long time, needs to be ratified by at least 15 state legislatures before the President can notify the GST Council which will decide the new tax rate and other issues.

Assam became the first state to ratify the Bill. Last week, Bihar became the first non-NDA state to ratify it after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar counted virtues of the tax reform.

The government has set a deadline of April, 2017 for its rollout.

GST aims to do away with multiple-tax regime on goods and services and bring them under one rate. It will alter the present system of production-based taxation to a consumption-based one.

While manufactured consumer goods will become cheaper as the incidence of excise duty and VAT will come down from 25-26 percent at present, the cost of services would by and large, go up from the present 15 percent levels.