The Rajya Sabha had last week unanimously passed the Constitution amendment bill to pave the way for the introduction of a pan-India Goods and Services Tax regime. He said the Bill would have been in trouble in the Rajya Sabha due to lack of numbers and the reluctance of some States, but in the end all parties backed it.
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On 3 August, the Rajya Sabha passed the landmark bill with the support of 203 members, while on 8 August, the Lok Sabha passed the bill with the amendments made to it in the Rajya Sabha, with 443 members voting for it.
The Bill passed today confers simultaneous power upon Parliament and the State Legislatures to make laws governing goods and services tax. The prime minister had addressed the Lower House of Parliament on Monday ahead of the vote, and argued for the Bill that will pass the uniform indirect tax. Initiating a debate on the bill, Veerappa Moily of Congress said his party supports the proposed legislation which provides for ushering in a single indirect tax regime across the country by subsuming various taxes.
Aiming for early implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), senior Union ministers have spoken to chief ministers of NDA-ruled states to ensure that the constitutional amendment is ratified by state assemblies at the earliest.
The Bill needs to be ratified by half of the assemblies to become a law.
The main rate of the GST must also still be thrashed out by a council of state and central officials.
Besides, doing away with levies like octroi and entry tax at the inter-state borders would bring in a huge amount of operational efficiencies that in turn should have a positive implication for the transaction cost, the chamber said.
“We are getting all the blame, a perception has gone that we (Congress) stalled the GST”.
“We were the creators of the GST”. Intervening during the almost six hour debate on the bill, he said Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill will go a long way in helping states, support small entrepreneurs and also curb the menace of corruption.
AIADMK, which had staged a walk out in the Rajya Sabha, did so in the Lok Sabha also.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to intervene during the debate on the Bill in Lok Sabha. He said, passing the GST was not about a parliamentary majority but about consensus which hs been developed because of trust between the Centre and the States. The Prime Minister mentioned the judicious use of man, money, machine, material and minutes (time) as an important principle of sound economic policy, and said GST would aid in achieving this. In the Rajya Sabha however, 60 of the 250 members are from the Congress.
