Government to introduce GST Bill in current Parliament session

The government seems to be gearing up for the final push on the GST front. Government will bring the much- awaited GST Bill, which provides for a uniform indirect tax structure, in the current session of Parliament, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

“As far as GST is concerned we have arrived at broad consensus, there are some issues. The next meeting of the Empowered Committee has been called very shortly,” he said. He, however, did not elaborate on the pending issues. “I am confident that we will try and arrive at a consensus and possibly introduce Bill in this session itself. That’s my endeavor and I hope I succeed,” Jaitley said.

The government plans to share the Bill draft with state finance ministers by December 12. Immediately after that, post December 12, it will be sent to the Cabinet and once the Cabinet clears it, it will be sent and tabled before the the Parliament.

The government proposes to implement GST from April 1, 2016, and the new Finance Commission may be set up ahead of its schedule to look into the issues related with the new indirect tax regime.

The GST aims at subsuming most of the indirect taxes ( VAT, CST, Excise ) at the central as well as state level.