GST looks set to meet July 1 target

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Monday cleared four legislations for implementing GST as the Government sprints to meet the July 1 schedule to rollout the indirect tax reform. The approval of Parliament, coupled with a separate one by all State Assemblies, will complete the legislative process for the roll out of one-nation-one-tax regime by merging central taxes like excise duty and service tax as well as state levies like VAT.

The GST Council has already approved four-tier tax slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent plus an additional cess on demerit goods like luxury cars, aerated drinks and tobacco products. The work on for putting various goods and services in different slabs is slated to begin next month.

“The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the four GST related bills — The Central Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The CGST Bill), The Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The IGST Bill), The Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 (The UT GST Bill) and The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to the States) Bill 2017 (The Compensation Bill),” an official statement said.

These will be introduced as Money Bills in the Lok Sabha this week. The GST legislations were the only agenda in Monday’s Cabinet meeting. “The passage of these four GST related bills will pave the way for the biggest reform in the area of indirect taxes in the history of independent India,” said the statement. With the Cabinet approval of these four bills, the GST regime in India is in the final stages of culmination and the GST law will most likely be implemented from July 1, it said.

The statement further said: “Introduction of GST would also make Indian products competitive in the domestic and international markets. Studies show that this would have a boosting impact on economic growth. It is expected that the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax law will lead to an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country by 1-2 per cent.