Govt moves GST Bill, says it is a win-win for all

The government moved the Constitutional Amendment Bill for introduction of a Goods & Services Tax (GST) in the Lok Sabha on Friday despite a walkout by the Congress, the TMC and the Left.

The Opposition wanted the Bill introduced on December 19, 2014 to be referred to a Standing Committee of Parliament.

However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused to accede to the demand.

The government plans to introduce the new indirect tax regime from April 1, 2016.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that no legislation has been as intensely debated within the political framework before final consideration in the House as the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill.

“We have gone through an evolution of expert committees in the last 12 years. We have gone through three different governments. We have gone through the Empowered Committee with four different Chairpersons. We have gone through two to two-and-a-half years of deliberation in the Standing Committee,” he said, responding to the allegation that the Bill had been moved in a ‘hush-hush’ manner.

But, this did not satisfy the Opposition.

In his introductory remarks, Jaitley said that the Goods and Services Tax is going to lead to a win-win situation as far as “the Centre and the States are concerned. It is going to push up India’s GDP and revenues”.

When M Thambidurai of the AIADMK alleged that Tamil Nadu is going to lose ₹10,000 crore on account of GST and another ₹6,000 crore because of cooperative federalism, Jaitley said: “You are not losing a rupee.”

The Centre and the States will have concurrent power to levy tax on goods and services, the Finance Minister said adding that “when Value Added Tax (VAT) was introduced, States demanded compensation for more than five years, but after introduction not a single State has asked for compensation in the sixth year”.

“Therefore, please do not have this fear,” he said, while emphasising that the new tax regime will help in ease of doing business, which in turn will boost trade and States’ tax revenue.

The Lok Sabha will discuss the Bill for four hours on Monday and it will then be taken up for voting. After the Lok Sabha’s approval, the Bill will be taken up by the Rajya Sabha.

Since this is a Bill to amend the Constitution, it will require a two-thirds majority to be passed. Once approved by Parliament, it will need the approval of at least half of all State assemblies.