GST bill goes to Rajya Sabha select committee

The bill on the goods and services tax (GST) was on Tuesday sent to a select committee of the Rajya Sabha.

The committee will table its report in the upper house on the last day of the first week of next parliament session.

The 21-member committee is headed by Bhupender Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Other members of the committee are: Chandan Mitra and Ajay Sancheti (BJP), Madhusudan Mistry, Bhalchandra Mungekar and Mani Shankar Aiyar (Congress), K.C. Tyagi (JD-U), Derek O'Brien (Trinamool Congress), A. Navaneethakrishnan (AIADMK), Satish Chandra Misra (BSP), K.N. Balagopal (CPI-M), Dilip Kumar Tirkey (BJD), C.M. Ramesh (TDP), Praful Patel (NCP), Kanimozhi (DMK), Anil Desai (Shiv Sena), Naresh Gujral (Shiromani Akali Dal), Mir Mohammad Fayaz (PDP), D. Raja (CPI) and Independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

The GST bill is seen as the key to facilitating industrial growth and improving the country's business climate.

By subsuming most indirect taxes levied by the central and state governments such as excise duty, service tax, VAT and sales tax, the goods and services tax regime proposes to facilitate a common market across the country, leading to economies of scale and reducing inflation through an efficient supply chain.

The government wants to implement the new regime before April 2016.

The passage of the bill to become a law is, however, a lengthy process.

Being a constitution amendment bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha, it needs to be passed by the Rajya Sabha with a two-thirds majority and then ratified by at least 15 state legislatures before being sent for the President's assent.