The Landmark GST Bill Has Been Passed After 16 Long Years!

After 16 years of being conceptualised by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the GST bill has been finally passed in Lok Sabha!

Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017, the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017 and the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 are the four bills which have been passed. With this, India has inched closer to a unified tax regime and will enable the government to roll out the landmark Goods and Services Tax Bill on July 1.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first one to announce the passing of bills to the public by tweeting,

Congratulations to all the countrymen over passage of the GST bills. New Year, New Law, New Bharat.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is regarded as one of the oldest reforms in India which is expected to improve the economic condition of the country and curb inflation. It is expected to boost economic growth by half a percentage point in the coming fiscal year as it replaces dozens of levies.

After a marathon seven hour debate on the GST, Arun Jaitley has opined that it is expected to make the goods “slightly cheaper” and the GST rates would depend upon whether the commodity is used by a rich person or a common man.

Nevertheless, few sections of the industrial regions want it to roll out from September 1 rather than July 1 because they might require more time to prepare for their systems for the single tax structure.

According to the reports, the Finance Minister said that the GST Council, comprising Finance Ministers of various states and Union Territories had agreed to take a decision on bringing real estate within the ambit of the new tax regime within a year of its rollout.