The April 1, 2017 deadline for the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST), India’s biggest tax reform since Independence, is a “stiff target”, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday.
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“One of the most significant aspects is that the GST bill was passed with unanimity”. And this could jeopardize the fiscal consolidation roadmap of the Central government.
“In the last phases of the dialogue, we were accommodative of various views but without compromising on the fundamentals of the bill”, he said, adding the government will bring the subsequent legislations in the next session of Parliament.
“GST is an important milestone in the reforms of indirect taxes in India and the state government is in favour of GST”, finance minister Pradeep Amat said here.
“On this truly historic occasion of the passage of the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha, I thank the leaders and members of all parties”, he said.
Minister said, “Yesterday a very major step forward has been taken in direction of having a uniform tax in the country”.
Equally eager to get moving on GST is West Bengal, whose finance minister Amit Mitra, as the head the empowered committee of state finance ministers, has led talks with the Centre on the tax reform. The central government will be having the exclusive power to impose and to collect Goods and Service Tax (GST) in the course of interstate trade or commerce, or imports.
The Bill, which was passed by a consensus vote in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, would be again taken up by the Lok Sabha for passage on Monday to incorporate the amendments made to it in the Upper House. The GST bill will also have to be approved by 50 per cent of all the state assemblies. “This should improve compliance and raise government revenues”. “The lower rates may be at around 12 per cent while standard rates are recommended to be in the range of 17-18 per cent”, it said. In the medium term, this is expected to be growth positive.
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The GST regime would streamline the taxation system and make it much more transparent, but would also create multiple taxation points, which will be a “challenge” for the IT industry, Nasscom said today.
