“GST is going to bring one of the biggest reforms in the economic history of India by way of One Nation One Tax Regime.”
Introduction:
- The Union Cabinet on March 20, 2017 approved four Goods & Services Tax (GST) Supplementary Bills, which would now be introduced in the Parliament during the ongoing Budget session.
- The Cabinet meeting, Chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, focused exclusively and solely on the GST legislations i.e. GST was the only agenda of the Union Cabinet.
- These four supplementary GST legislations include Central GST (C-GST), Integrated GST (I-GST), Union Territory GST (UT-GST), and the GST Compensation to the States Law.
- The four bills were earlier approved by the GST Council headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, after a minute clause by clause discussion during its 12 meetings held during the last six months.
Procedure:
- State GST (S-0GST), already approved by the GST Council, has to be approved and passed by each of the state legislative assemblies, whereas the four GST Supplementary laws stated above have to be approved by the Parliament.
- These four bills would be introduced in the Lok Sabha as Money Bills before the end of this week. It may be noted that a Money Bill does not require approval from the Rajya Sabha.
- Thus, the Government has come closer to the implementation of the All-India Taxation Regime by way of GST.
Implementation:
- Passage of all these legislations as stated above is crucial as these would pave the path for the introduction of the historical tax reforms through Goods and Services Tax (GST) with effect from July 1, 2017 as desired by the Union Finance Ministry.
- Narendra Modi Government is quite hopeful that the C-GST, I-GST, UT-GST and the GST Compensation to the States Law will be approved in the ongoing session of Parliament and the S-GST by each of the state legislatures before the end of June 2017.
- In the words of Arun Jaitley, “Narendra Modi government is optimistic about rolling out the GST as per its revised deadline – July 1”.
Assent of the President:
- It may be noted here that the original GST Bill got President Pranab Mukherjee’s assent on September 8, 2016, after being ratified by 16 states. It was passed by the Parliament on August 03, 2016.
Prime Aim of GST:
- Prime aim of GST is ‘One Nation One Tax Regime’. GST seeks to replace India’s complicated tax regime comprising 17 different charges with a single levy.
- A composite GST will be charged on sale of goods or rendering of services after the implementation of the GST after the passing of GST Act in toto and the tax revenue would be shared between the Centre and the states in almost equal proportion.
- The GST will merge into it Central taxes like Excise Duty and Service Tax and State Levies like Value Added Tax (VAT).
Slabs of Taxation under GST:
GST Council has already approved four types of different slabs for different commodities and services and these slabs are of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% plus an additional cess on “Demerit” goods like aerated drinks, luxury cars and tobacco products. The types of goods and services that would come under which slab would be decided by the GST Council in the month of April 2017.
