Govt to bring GST bill before Rajya Sabha today

NEW DELHI: The government is set to bring on Monday the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, aimed at reforming of India’s indirect tax regime, before the Rajya Sabha, where some opposition parties led by the Congress want its vetting by the Select Committee.

Three days remain for the budget session of parliament comes to an end. The bill was last week passed by the Lok Sabha with a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting as required for a constitutional amendment.

If approved by the Rajya Sabha, the legislation has to be ratified by at least half the number of 29 Indian states, before the President can put his seal of approval for it to take effect.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday in Mumbai that after implementation of the GST, the states’ revenues will increase as economic activity will pick up.

“The entire country will become one market. It will be an economic integration of India,” Jaitley said, citing economic benefits like single point of payment of taxes for movement throughout the country.

The main purpose of the GST bill is a unified regime that will subsume most indirect taxes levied by the central and state governments such as excise duty, service tax, value added tax, sales tax and octroi to facilitate a common market across the country.

Opposition Congress is geared to send the bill to a standing committee of the house.

The Congress, which walked out of the Lok Sabha when the bill was passed, has said it wants the bill to be further scrutinised.