Hopeful of GST Bill passage in this session : Meghwal

Banking on support from regional parties for passage of the GST Bill, Government today expressed hope that the Rajya Sabha will clear the indirect tax reform by first week of August.
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 the Goods and Services Tax (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 (rpt) 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.
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".
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.

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.

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 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.
Uttarakhand Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh said states
demanded control over both goods and service tax assessees of Rs 1.5 crore and below.
At present, the estimated total indirect tax payer base, including value-added tax, service tax and excise, is around 10 million, of which around 0.4 million are common to the Centre and the states.
This leaves around 9.6 million taxpayers, of which around 6.6 million are value-added tax assessees, 2.6 million are active service tax assessees and around 0.4 million are registered under excise.

Under the new system, the states and Centre will collect identical rates of taxes on goods and services. For instance, if 18 percent is the GST rate on a good across the country, the states and the Centre will get 9 percent each, called the CGST and SGST rates.
The Centre will also levy and collect the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on all inter-state supply of goods and services.
The IGST mechanism has been designed to ensure seamless flow of input tax credit from one state to another.
The dual control issue, which was deadlocked in the third and fourth GST Council meetings, has risen because multiple taxes levied by the Centre and the states at present will now be integrated into one tax under the GST regime, which is aimed at removing inter-state barriers to trade and integrating India into one common market.

The next GST Council meeting is to finalise four supplementary bills dealing with CGST, SGST, IGST and the compensation law.
At the last meeting, the Council agreed on a four-slab structure - 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent - along with a cess on luxury and 'sin' goods such as tobacco.
Jaitley had earlier this month stated that the proposed GST needs to be rolled out by September 16, 2017, within one year of the Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016 being brought into force.