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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“GST will be the most pivotal reform since 1991 which will make India an attractive destination for foreign investments.
BJP sources said “AIADMK would stage a walkout rather than oppose the Bill”. Nearly half of the states will need to approve the bill before it can become law.
Recalling that TDP had supported the Value-Added Tax (VAT) system earlier, Yanamala chided Congress for causing obstacles in the passing of the Constitution Amendment bill and delaying the bill for 26 months.
Meanwhile, the BJP has cracked a whip on its members asking them to be present in the Lower House on August 8. We have 36 states and union territories.
The Constitutional Amendment Bill did not have the GST rate and the GST Council, which will have representation from both the Centre and states, will now work out a rate.
In a series of tweets, he congratulated MPs for their “path-breaking decision to give India an indirect tax system for the 21 century”, and said the reform will promote manufacturing in India, help exports and boost employment while providing enhanced revenue. In other words, under the GST regime, goods and services will be taxed at the point of consumption, instead of the goods being taxed multiple times at different rates.
As regards the Congress demand of keeping the GST rate low at 18 per cent, Jaitley said states need revenue to carry on their own program, while the Centre would need funds to compensate the states. Despite India being potentially one of the fastest-growing economies, with growth over 7 per cent, its state-by-state tax codes discourage doing business across state borders.
Without delving into specifics on the taxation rate under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Monday said it will be worked out by the GST Council.
However, all that is expected is not so easy!
While the GST Bill, 2011, did not have a provision for compensation, the NDA government initially provided for compensation to the states fully for 3 years and then for staggered compensation for 2 years. The introduction of GST is predicted to boost India’s GDP growth by between 0.9-1.7 per cent, according to a study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research.
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“I hope in true spirit of cooperative federalism you will take initiative to abide by the consensus that we all had arrived at, together”, Isaac said in the letter. Will the government scrape through all these “tests”?
