Competing against time to meet the April 1, 2017 target to roll out the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill throughout the country, the government is considering advancing the date of the Winter Session of Parliament for the passage of the Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) bills, and pave way for implementation of the new sales tax regime. Winter Session of Parliament is usually in the third or fourth week of November but this year government is looking at advancing the date to the first fortnight of November and this could be after all the festivals come to an end at the end October and early November.
The government is working overtime in removing all hurdles and is keen that the roll out of CGST and IGST bills should happen from the next financial year so that it will give sufficient time to the Finance Ministry for implementation of the GST. This two laws are designed to prop up the new tax regime after the Constitutional (122nd Amendment) Bill, which was passed in the Monsoon Session. The states will draft their respective State GST (SGST) laws with minor variation incorporating state-based exemption. The IGST law would deal with inter-state movement of goods and services.
The GST bill required ratification by 50 per cent of state Assemblies, which has been achieved, after which President Pranab Mukherjee too had given his assent to the bill. Recently, the Cabinet had also approved setting up a powerful GST Council, which will decide on the tax rate, exempted goods and the thresholds.