Congress today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of committing contempt of Parliament by not being present in either Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha during the passage of the GST Bill.
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“The thought which was started during Vajpayee government regime has become reality”, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar told the State Legislative Assembly while opposing the cut motion moved to the Demands for Grants for Commercial Tax Department. However, the implementation could be challenging and time-consuming as consensus on some of the finer details may not be easy. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha in May 2015 and referred to a Select Committee of Rajya Sabha for examination. However, the Opposition plans to oppose its introduction as a money bill instead of finance bill. The Congress members voted in favour of the Bill.
A whopping 4700 Crore is the loss estimated per year for the state government of Andhra Pradesh if GST (Goods & Service Tax) comes into force, said state finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnnudu.
Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a non-government company set up by the Centre and states to provide shared IT framework and services to central and state governments, tax payers and other stakeholders. At least 15 of India’s 29 states have to ratify the bill followed by the assent of the President. The GST Council will be consisting of the Union Finance Minister, Union Minister of State for Revenue, and state Finance Ministers.
The GST, which was first proposed a decade back, is seen as potentially transformative for India’s economy, adding as much as 2 percentage points to the GDP while also improving the ease of doing business and encourage investment in manufacturing. The suggestion from the government to these states is to call a special Assembly session, if need be, to pass the bill, sources said.
The government’s floor managers say the monsoon session has been largely very productive as a number of legislative matters were disposed off besides holding debates on important matters like price rise.
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“Tax rates under GST are likely to increase for services and decrease for goods”, the Morgan Stanley analysts Chetan Ahya and Upasana Chachra wrote.
