GST bills to be taken up for discussion next week in RS

The four GST bills will be taken up for discussion next week in the Rajya Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar today said.

The four supplementary Goods and Services Tax (GST) legislations - Central GST Bill, 2017; the Integrated GST Bill, 2017; the GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017; and the Union Territory GST Bill, 2017, were passed earlier this week by the Lok Sabha.

"All the four supplementary GST legislations will be taken up for discussion in Rajya Sabha in the next week and most likely on Wednesday," Kumar told reporters here.

Kumar added that he expects support from all parties for passage of this landmark bill.
 

To block its passage, both Congress and TMC are likely to move amendments in the upper house.

But the government is keen on early passage of this bill as they want to roll out the new indirect tax regime from July 1.

Touted as the biggest taxation reform since Independence, GST will subsume central excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies to create a uniform market. GST is expected to boost GDP growth by about 2 per cent and check tax evasion.

The GST Council has recommended a four-tier tax structure - 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. On top of the highest slab, a cess will be imposed on luxury and demerit goods to compensate the states for revenue loss in the first five years of GST implementation.

However, the Central GST (CGST) law has pegged the peak rate at 20 per cent and a similar rate has been prescribed in the State GST (SGST) law, which takes the peak rate to 40 per cent which will come into force only in financial exigencies.

Besides this, Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016, Admiralty (Jurisdiction and Settlement of Maritime Claims) Bill, 2016, among others will also be take up for discussion in the upper house.

While in Lok Sabha, the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, Constitution (One hundred and Twenty Third Amendment) Bill, and National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, will be taken up for discussion.

In addition to these, Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, and Indian Institutes of Management Bill will also be taken up.