Lok Sabha clears GST, Modi calls it a ‘victory’ for all

The Congress Monday staged a walkout in Lok Sabha on the issue of attacks on Dalits and hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “not being serious” over the issue.

The GST bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in May a year ago, but had to be cleared again following key amendments approved in Rajya Sabha last week.

“There was a need to create a consensus between states and the Centre”, he said.

The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014, that would lay the ground for roll out of GST regime, was passed by the opposition-dominated Upper House after the government moved four amendments. While service sectors such as Telecom, Banking and E-commerce might see marginal increase in price to end customers in the initial years of GST implementation due to increase in the tax rate but will eventually results in overall reduction in price to customers on account of tax and business efficiencies. The AAP government has already made it clear that it is in favour of Goods and Services Tax, which would subsume a number of indirect central and state levies.

India’s GST still needs to pass some check points but it promises economic reform.

Analysts expect the federal goods and services tax rate in India to be set around 18%.

He said any decision of the GST Council will be passed by three-fourths of its members, wherein the states will control two-thirds of the votes and the Centre the remaining one third.

Speaking on matters of transparency the Prime Minister said that even in the best of democracies, sometimes it’s hard to pass finance Bills. As per the existing Delhi Tax on Luxuries Act (1996), any person, who stays in a hotel room whose tariff is Rs 750 per day or above, has to pay luxury tax.

The impact of GST reform is largely expected to support domestic consumption, a major component of India’s GDP.

The Rajya Sabha passed five more Bills during the last week which included Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Bill, Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, Dentists (Amendment) Bill and National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill. “Question of treating Lok Sabha as a junior house does not arise”, he said.

Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge took a dig at Prime Minister Modi, saying he had opposed the bill as Gujarat Chief Minister by calling it “retrograde in nature”.

Chidambaram forcefully contended on August 3 in the Rajya Sabha while speaking on the Constitution amendment Bill that the CGST and the IGST would be Bills which would apply on taxpayers, on the common man.