Rajya Sabha panel finalises GST report

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SME Times News Bureau | 21 Jul, 2015
The Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha on Monday finalised its report on the Goods and Services Tax Bill, with the government agreeing to provide compensation to manufacturing states after removal of time limit of five years.

The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014, has a provision wherein parliament may, by law, provide for compensation to states for revenue losses arising out of the implementation of the GST, on the GST Council's recommendations, with a limit of five-year period.

According to sources, the panel in its report recommends removing this time limit.

However, a consensus has not yet been reached on the bill, which requires to be passed with two-thirds majority, with the Congress and the Left confirming they would submit a dissent note.

According to sources, the Congress was opposed to the proposal for levying one percent additional tax on the supply of goods in the course of inter-state trade.

As per the bill, when goods move from one state to another, an additional one percent tax would be levied, but the opposition said it would lead to a cascading effect.

The Left said it demanded change in the constitution of the GST Council, which as per the bill would have one-third members from the Centre and two-third from the states.

"The Centre should have one-fourth members while the states should have three-fourths, or it will be unfair for the states," a source said.

The dissenting notes are likely to be submitted on Tuesday morning.

The bill seeks to amend the constitution to introduce the GST.

Consequently, the GST subsumes various central indirect taxes including the central excise duty, countervailing duty, service tax etc. It also subsumes state value added tax, octroi and entry tax and luxury tax etc.