Himachal govt in a bind over GST;waiting for discussion in RS

With no serious reservations about Constitutional Amendment Bill for rolling out the Goods and Services Tax, the Himachal government is finding itself in a bind after the Congress party staged a walk out before the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha yesterday.
The state government was in favour of the Bill as it benefitted the consumer states but the stand taken by the Congress party has given indications that it would oppose the bill in Rajya sabha and as such the state government would be bound to follow the party line.
When asked about the stand of the state government, chief minister Virbhadra Singh said, "We did not oppose the bill but are studying various aspects and their implications but will finally go by the stand taken by the party".

"The Bill is yet to be passed by the Rajya Sabha and ratified by more than 50 per cent states before it is actually implemented and we would wait for it," he added.
"The big manufacturing states are opposing the Bill as they fear that it would cut into their revenue but consumer state like Himachal would be greatly benefited from uniform tax regime but we have to wait to see the fate of the bill in Rajya sabha," said a senior officer of finance department.
Further, there is no unanimity among the states on including the petroleum products under GST as the states which have put petrol and diesel in high tax slab would have to bring down the tax level, resulting in loss of revenue, he added.

Being a consumer state, most of the goods come from other states in Himachal and sale of these goods in the state would add to sales tax revenue.