GST related Bills tabled in Lok Sabha, Arun Jaitley set to meet July target

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday tabled supplementary goods and services tax legislations in Parliament amid protests from the members of the Congress Party.

 

C-GST and GST Compensation Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha today, paving the way for the government to launch the landmark tax reform. However, Congress said that it was not a part of the List of Business, hence it cannot be tabled.

 The bills introduced are the Central GST Bill, the Integrated GST Bill, the Union Territory GST Bill, and the GST (Compensation to States) Bill.

 

The tax is expected to boost the rate of economic growth by about 0.5 percentage points, broaden the revenue base and cut compliance cost for firms.

 

These will then move to the Rajya Sabha and this gives the government enough time to bring back any amendment adopted by the Upper House to the Lok Sabha.

 

The amendments can either be rejected or incorporated by the Lok Sabha. The current session of Parliament ends on April 12. Although the legislations will be introduced as Money Bills, the government wants discussion in both the Houses, the sources said.

 

The government has set a target of July 1 for rollout of GST, which will subsume excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies. Once these Bills are cleared by Parliament, the states will then take the state GST (S-GST) Bill to their respective assemblies.

 

Earlier BJP MP Ananth Kumar said, "GST Bill needs to be passed in this session, we hope to introduce the bill soon. Looking forward to a consensus".