NEW DELHI: After a round-table meeting with the Finance Ministers and representatives from as many as 22 states over the current state of the Goods and Services Tax bill, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that all the states of the Indian Union have accepted the GST bill in principle, except Tamil Nadu. He wished that the state will soon change its stance, after understanding the importance of GST in detail.
“There was a discussion on the GST. Every state except Tamil Nadu are happy with the bill in principle. However, few of them including Tamil Nadu have suggested certain modifications to the existing GST bill. They have been notified to the concerned GST committee and the committee will look into the possibilities”, Jaitley said.
The Minister reiterated that the Union government has not set any specific deadlines for the implementation of GST bill, he opined that a good policy takes time to become a law.
The Goods and Services Tax Bill, abbreviated as the GST bill is aimed at modifying the existing system of Indirect taxing methods and bring a uniform taxing policy between the State and the Union governments. For this, the Parliament needs to pass a constitutional amendment with a vote of majority. Though the bill has been passed by the Lok Sabha on April 1st, 2016, the GST bill is still pending in the Rajyasabha due to opposition from the Congress Party.
“Every state has given its views on the bill. I believe that the bill will become a reality some time soon”, the Finance Minister expressed.
For the GST bill to become a reality, first the parliament has to pass a constitutional amendment which has to be ratified by the states. Followed by which, the parliament has to pass the CGST bill and states the SGST bill to bring-in reforms to the existing taxing policies.