Rajya Sabha passes 4 GST bills; India's biggest tax reform inches closer to July rollout

New Delhi: India on Thursday inched closer to a unified tax regime with the Rajya Sabha passing four supplementary legislations which will enable the government to rollout the landmark Goods and Services Tax Bill on July 1.

The four Bills are the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017 and the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017.

Replying a debate on the bills, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there is no hesitation in conceding that it is not a bill for which one person or one government should take credit.

Touted as the biggest indirect tax reform since independence, GST would subsume central excise, service tax and other local levies.

The Lok Sabha last month had approved the Central GST (CGST), Integrated GST (IGST), Union Territory GST (UTGST) and the Compensation to states law.

Now, the state assemblies would consider and pass their respective State GST (SGST) law.

The GST Council has already decided on a 4-tier rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28% and a cess on the peak rate for demerit and luxury goods.

The all-powerful GST Council had on last Friday approved five amended rules for the Goods and Services Tax regime and gave “tentative” nod to the remaining four as the Central government sprints to meet the July 1 rollout target.

The final nod to the four rules as also fixation of GST rates for major commodities and services will be done in the next meeting in Srinagar on May 18-19.

With Agency Inputs