Entire country should discuss, understand GST: PM Modi

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SME Times News Bureau | 20 Mar, 2017
As the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system heads for a July 1 rollout, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said people should make efforts to discuss and understand the new indirect tax regime.

"I want the entire country to discuss and try to understand GST," Modi said in Mumbai at the India Today Conclave through video conferencing.

"In GST, the entire process has been reached by consensus; the states have taken ownership. It is an example of cooperative federalism," he added.

The GST Council has approved all five enabling draft bills -- UTGST (Union Territory GST), CGST (Central GST), IGST (Integrated GST), Compensation and SGST (State GST) -- to enable the rollout of the new system.

The draft bills now need to be approved by the Union Cabinet and tabled in Parliament's ongoing Budget session.

Meanwhile, the SGST draft law will have to be approved by the assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry.

The UTGST draft law is meant for the union territories like Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which do not have assemblies.

The GST system also has nine sets of rules and regulations, out of which the Council has already approved five -- registration, payment, refund, invoice and return.

Four other rules dealing with composition, valuation, input tax credit transitions are slated to be discussed in the Council's next meeting on March 31.

After March 31, the Council will take up the exercise of fitment of various commodities in the GST tax slabs of 5 percent, 12 percent, 15 percent and 28 percent.