Hopeful of GST Bill passage as early as next week: Meghwal

The landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill is likely to be cleared in Rajya Sabha as early as next week as the government expects regional parties like TMC and JDU to support the legislation.
Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Congress' demand for capping the GST rate in Constitution is "not very practical", but the government is making a lot of effort to build consensus on GST.
"Government is making a lot of effort to build consensus on GST Bill. There are many Chief Ministers - UP, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar - they all want GST to come fast... We hope that Rajya Sabha will be able to pass the GST Bill in the next or third week of (monsoon session of) Parliament," Meghwal said on the sidelines of an Assocham event.

The Monsoon Session of Parliament began on July 18 and ends on August 12.
Information & Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the government is continuously engaging with different parties to build consensus on GST.
"At the end of the day we want to get the GST passage through consensus. Although we feel as of now the adequate numbers are there very much, we would like to see the House approves it unanimously," he said.

Naidu said the biggest beneficiaries of GST will be the states, and the chief ministers want it to be passed at the earliest.
"The signals I am getting from all sides is positive. I hope the GST Bill will be passed during this session itself," he added.

The Congress, which originally mooted the GST in 2009 to replace all indirect taxes, has been demanding that the overall rate be capped at 18 per cent and scrapping of an additional 1 per cent tax designed to compensate manufacturing states that fear losing revenue.
Meghwal said when Congress drafted the GST Bill, it did not cap the GST rate in Constitutional amendment bill and their demand now is only an after thought. "We think we will reach a solution soon".
GST Bill, which intends to convert 29 states into a single market through a new indirect tax regime, was earlier planned to be introduced from April 1 this year, but the deadline was missed as the Bill to roll it out remains in a limbo in the Opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha.

The government has agreed to a five-hour debate on the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha in the current session. Regional party JDU has already expressed support for the legislation.
Today's informal meeting was held sans civil servants to
arrive at a political solution.
According to sources, many states including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Odisha and Uttarakhand, said that small taxpayers cannot be harassed by dual control.
Rajasthan Urban Development Minister R Shekhawat said Centre and states are working on different permutations and combinations.
Isaac said Centre prefers to have a vertical split of all dealers for assessment under GST. "They are taking a rigid stand but I hope good sense will prevail at the Centre," he said.

The GST Council was earlier discussing five proposals for deciding on jurisdiction, but in the last meeting on November 4, arrived at two options -- horizontal division and vertical division.
'Horizontal Division' would mean taxpayers would be divided both for administrative and audit purposes based on a cut off turnover. Those with a turnover over Rs 1.5 crore would be administered both by the Centre and states, while those with below Rs 1.5 crore would be administered solely by the state.
'Vertical Division', based on ratios, assigns taxpayers to a tax administration, Centre or state, for a period of 3 years for all purposes including audit. Taxpayers could be divided in a ratio which would balance the interest of the Centre and the states, both with respect to revenue and spread of numbers.

States feel they have infrastructure deployment at grassroot level and small taxpayers are familiar with state authorities.
Centre, on the other hand is unagreeable to the states' demand of exclusive control over small entities which earn less than Rs 1.5 crore in annual revenue, as it wants single registration mechanism for ease to service taxpayers.
Instead of horizontally splitting the taxpayers, it has proposed to divide entire taxpayer base vertically.
As a compromise, it is willing to give states administrative power over 2/3rd of taxpayer base, with service tax continuing to be administered by Centre.