 "Vote on GST bill in Lok Sabha on Monday")
The Goods and Service Tax (GST) bill, tabled in the Lok Sabha on April 24, has been listed for consideration and passing on Monday, the government said on Sunday.
"The GST bill (The Constitution 122nd Amendment Bill, 2014) has been listed for further consideration and passing in the Lok Sabha on Monday," an official statement said here.
In the Lok Sabha on Friday, members of the Congress led by party president Sonia Gandhi, along with those of the Trinamool Congress, the Left group and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) staged a walkout after their plea for referring the Constitution Amendment Bill to the Standing Committee was not accepted.
Meanwhile, underplaying the walk-out from parliament by the opposition on the GST bill, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Saturday that the government was not anticipating any resistance to its passage.
"Our expectation is predicated on what we've acquired from our discussions with the empowered committee of state finance ministers, and there's a broad consensus. We don't anticipate any opposition to the GST Bill," Sinha told reporters in Kolkata.
Seen as a key to facilitate industrial growth and improve the business climate in the country, the GST bill needs to be passed by a two-third majority in both houses of parliament and by the legislatures of half of the states in the country to become a law.
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 proposes to facilitate a common market across the country, leading to economies of scale and reducing inflation through an efficient supply chain.
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The government is trying to implement the new GST bill before April 2016.
The Lok Sabha is also slated to pass the Finance Bill during the second week of its current sitting, the statement added.