With Rajya Sabha approving the long-delayed GST bill, the government will tomorrow announce the implementation roadmap for the national sales tax regime, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said today.
"It is only end of a beginning. The real work starts now," he said. "We will announce implementation roadmap tomorrow."
Stating that work has to be on war footing from now on, he said, "We want to implement it as soon as possible."
In the biggest tax reform since Independence, the national sales tax or GST Bill was today approved by the Rajya Sabha to replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value added tax system to turn the country into the world's biggest single market.
The 66-year-old Constitution, which gives power to Centre to levy taxes like excise, and empowers states to collect retail sales taxes, was amended though the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill.
The legislation was approved by the Upper House with 203 votes in favour and none against, after a seven-hour debate.
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"We are ready with state of art IT design for GST implementation," Adhia said.
Hardware and software will all be ready for testing by January 17, he said.
Commenting on passage of GST Bill, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said it is historic achievement for India, Parliamentary democracy, economy and citizens as GST legislation passed.
Good service to taxpayers by consensus, Lavasa added.
An important new experiment in cooperative federalism whereby states and center pool their sovereignty on tax issues, Chief Economic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian said.
Noting that GST creates fiscal balance between Centre and States, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said both are equal partners in indirect taxation including service tax.
GST will make Indian economy far more efficient, lower cost of production, lower logistics and transaction costs, he said, adding it will lower cost of production due to seamless input tax credit across the country.
Manufacturing will be far more competitive, Das added.
