Bihar Assembly passes GST Constitutional Amendment Bill

The Bihar Assembly today passed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment Bill.

After Assam became the first state to ratify the GST (Constitution Amendment) Bill, the Bihar Assembly today held a one-day special session to clear the GST Bill, which has been passed by Parliament.

The one-day session was called by Speaker Vijay Kumar Chaudhary for the ratification of the Bill.

It is reported that Bihar is the first non-BJP ruled state to convene an assembly session to give its consent to the GST Bill.

The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill for the rollout of the GST was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 8 with 443 members present in the House voting in favour of the legislation.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on last week announced that the deadline for the rollout of the bill was April 1, 2017.

As per constitutional provision before enacting the law of GST, the bill has to be passed by at least 50 percent of the state assemblies.

The GST Bill is aimed at bringing uniform tax regime in the country by subsuming state levies. Under it, a single rate of GST will replace various taxes to ensure seamless transfer of goods and services.