New Year, New Law, New Bharat: PM Modi says on passage of GST bills

With the Lok Sabha approving four supplementary legislations, the historic GST regime came a step closer to meet its July 1 target of rollout.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the passage of GST supplementary bills by the Lok Sabha.

"Congratulations to all the countrymen over passage of the GST bills. New Year, New Law, New Bharat," he said in a tweet in Hindi soon after the legislations were passed.

GST बिल पास होने पर सभी देशवासियों को बधाई | नया साल, नया कानून, नया भारत!

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 29, 2017

India moved a step closer to becoming a unified market in line with the federalist vision of the architects of its Constitution with the passage in Parliament on Wednesday of the GST Bill, which extends pan-India except to Jammu and Kashmir for now.

Jammu and Kashmir will need to pass all four bills in its state assembly, on account of its special powers on taxation under the Constitution.

The Lok Sabha passed the much-awaited Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Bill, Integrated GST Bill, Compensation GST Bill and Union Territory GST Bill 2017, after negating all the amendments put forward by the Opposition.

The four GST Bills were passed after an eight-hour marathon debate in the Lower House.

The government is targeting the roll-out date of July 1 for the new indirect tax regime.

The GST will subsume various indirect levies of the Centre and states like service tax, excise duty, octroi and value added tax (VAT).

The CGST Bill will enable levy and collection of tax on intra-state supply of goods and services or both by the central government.

Actual tax rates would be as per a four-tier rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent as approved by the GST Council.

With Agency Inputs