Government hopeful of passing GST bill in current Parliament's Winter session: MoS Jayant Sinha

Dated 24th November, 2014

The government is hopeful of getting the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill passed in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament so that the new tax regime could be rolled out by April 1, 2016.

"We need to get the constitution amendment passed which we hope to do in Winter session ... We are working very hard and hope despite these challenges we will be able to implement GST by April 1, 2016," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said here.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) will subsume indirect taxes like excise duty and service tax at the central level and VAT on the states front, besides local levies.

Sinha said there are three challenges associated with the implementation of GST, which includes the revenue neutral rate and also keeping petroleum, liquor out of the ambit.

"There has been a lot of discussion about petroleum product as part of GST. That is one issue we are working through what is in what is out and how to reconsider all of that, so that it is revenue neutral for the states," he said.

While a sub-committee on GST has suggested that the revenue neutral rate of GST be pegged at about 27 per cent, the states are yet to decide on it.

It had suggested states GST at 13.91 per cent and Central GST at 12.77 per cent.

Besides, states have been demanding that petroleum, alcohol and tobacco should be kept out of the purview of GST.

The GST Constitutional Amendment Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2011, had lapsed and the NDA government will be required to come up with a fresh bill.

The GST rollout has missed several deadlines because of lack of consensus among states over certain crucial issues on the new tax regime.

(This article is published in The Economic Times on 24th Nov, 2014)