The Lok Sabha held discussions on the four Goods and Services Tax Bills on Wednesday. The debate that started in the afternoon will go on for seven hours. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled the legislations in the Lower House, hoping to have them passed with consensus in Parliament in the current Budget Session.
The government has set the maximum GST rate at 40% and introduced provisions for an anti-profiteering authority and arrests for evading taxes. But the Congress is expected move amendments to the proposed GST Bills and raise concerns over a few clauses in what Jaitley has dubbed “revolutionary” legislations.
Senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily has objected to the anti-profiteering clause in the Bill, calling it “far too draconian”. The Opposition had also expressed concerns over how the Bills were introduced in Parliament on Monday.
The Bills that were tabled include the Central Goods and Service Tax Bill, Union Territory GST Bill, Integrated GST Bill and the Compensation Law Bill.
“States have pooled in their sovereignty into the GST Council, and the Centre has done the same. The council held 12 meetings to make it a process based on consensus and recommendations,” Jaitley said in Parliament.
President Pranab Mukherjee had approved the Bills on September 8, 2016, after it was ratified by 16 states. The GST, which seeks to overhaul India’s complicated taxing system by replacing 17 different taxes with a single levy, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on August 3. The new tax system have a four-tier tax structure of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%, with the peak rate at 40%.
On Sunday, the finance minister had stressed the need to pass these Bills, saying the Centre and states will lose their right to collect indirect taxes after September 15 if the GST laws were not passed during the ongoing Parliament session. The minister has always maintained that the Narendra Modi government is optimistic about rolling out the new tax regime by its revised July 1 deadline.
The Union Cabinet had approved the Bills on March 20.
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