“Along with other restrictions, the country’s complicated and cumbersome taxation system as well as bureaucracy related to tax-collection remains a hurdle for the firms doing business in India”. “Government is trying to accommodate opinions of all parties”, Jaitley added.
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Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra said: “The GST bill was first introduced by the UPA government”. The GST Bill seeks to empower the Centre and States to concurrently levy tax on supply of goods and services. Members of AIADMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu state, abstained from voting and staged a walkout in protest at the bill.
The Bill permits the centre to levy and collect GST in the course of inter-state trade and commerce, called the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST).
The Congress will support GST Constitutional Amendment Bill and has issued whip to all its MPs to be present in the House on Monday where it is scheduled to be taken up for passage.
Once ratified by the Lok Sabha, it will then be forwarded to the President for his assent.
On the IT and infrastructure front, the government has targeted that the systems for the indirect tax administration – both at the central and state levels – be set up by November this year, while also involving all stakeholders, including the banks and accounting authorities.
Experts said the tax could eventually help boost India’s already strong economic growth by up to two percentage points.
The Rajya Sabha had on Wednesday unanimously passed the bill with amendments to enable consensus on the measure.
Finance Ministry today said that all efforts are being made to roll out GST from April 1, 2017, and allayed fears that it will have an impact on inflation even if the rate is kept at 20 per cent.
Indian bond and share prices rose as investors yesterday welcomed the long-awaited passage of the GST, though gains were tempered by concerns about the amount of work needed to bring the reforms into reality.
The Bill, which has previously been passed by the Lok Sabha, was passed in the upper house after the government proposed amendments to the Bill.
Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill will take India closer to achieving financial equality, adding that the Bill is an important legislation for “ek bharat shreshth bharat (One India Excellent India)” initiative.
“Prior to GST, companies in India faced multiple level tax structures, which made it hard for them to conduct business competitively”, Arun Singh, lead economist at Dun & Bradstreet India told AFP.
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“If we benchmark against the gold standard (of GST) around the world, India is not there”.
