PM Narendra Modi hopes for breakthrough on GST legislation

New Delhi: As the Budget session of Parliament resumed Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoped there will be a breakthrough on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill and that issues will be discussed in a democratic manner.

"We hope that there will be a breakthrough on the GST because all states have positively cooperated. All political parties have also extended cooperation in a positive way," he told reporters outside Parliament.

The second leg of the Budget session resumed today after about a month-long recess.

"We are meeting after a break and the budget proposals will be discussed in details," he said.

Hoping for a healthy debate in the House, the Prime Minister said, "I believe that the level of discussion will go to a higher level. Attention will be drawn towards the issues related to the poor people."

"We are moving ahead with the consent of all through a democratic process," he said, hoping that GST process will be completed before the session concludes next month.

GST, billed as the biggest-ever tax reform in the country, is expected to add at least one percentage points to its GDP growth.

The Centre plans to introduce in Parliament the Central GST (CGST) Bill. After it is ratified, the states will introduce the State GST (SGST) Bill in their respective legislative Assemblies.

The central and state officials will soon start the exercise to determine which goods and services should fall in which tax bracket and the same will be taken to the Council for approval soon.

Together with this, they will also decide the goods and services that would attract a cess on top of the peak rate to create a corpus that can be used to compensate states for any loss of revenue from implementation of GST in the first five years.

The government is looking at GST rollout from July 1.

The Constitutional amendment that paved the introduction of GST is due to lapse in mid-September this year.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the government will give priority to passage of GST and other bills during the session.

He appealed to the opposition parties to engage in "constructive debate" as it will benefit the country.

"If they want to take up any other issue, the Speaker is there, business advisory committees are there...We have done a good job (on Budget), if anyone wants to ask anything, the government is ready to answer," he told reporters.