Ten things to know about the GST Bill

April 24, 2015 01:55 pm | Updated December 04, 2021 11:30 pm IST

The Goods and Services Tax is one of the main items on the finance agenda of the BJP government. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that it can raise India’s GDP by one to two per cent. As the Lok Sabha takes up the GST Bill, here is your cheat sheet to the debate:

1 Officially, the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill 2014.
2 It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 19, 2014 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
3 The Bill seeks to amend the Constitution to introduce a goods and services tax (GST) which will subsumes various Central indirect taxes, including the Central Excise Duty, Countervailing Duty, Service Tax, etc. It also subsumes State value added tax (VAT), octroi and entry tax, luxury tax, etc.
4 The Bill inserts a new Article in the Constitution make legislation on the taxation of goods and services a concurrent power of the Centre and the States.
5 The Bill seeks to shift the restriction on States for taxing the sale or purchase of goods to the supply of goods or services.
6 The Bill seeks to establish a GST Council tasked with optimising tax collection for goods and services by the State and Centre. The Council will consist of the Union Finance Minister (as Chairman), the Union Minister of State in charge of revenue or Finance, and the Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation or any other, nominated by each State government.
7 The GST Council will be the body that decides which taxes levied by the Centre, States and local bodies will go into the GST; which goods and services will be subjected to GST; and the basis and the rates at which GST will be applied.
8 Under the Bill, alcoholic liquor for human consumption is exempted from GST. Also, it will be up to the GST Council to decide when GST would be levied on various categories of fuel, including crude oil and petrol.
9 The Centre will levy an additional one per cent tax on the supply of goods in the course of inter-State trade, which will go to the States for two years or till when the GST Council decides.
10 Parliament can decide on compensating States for up to a five-year period if States incur losses by implementation of GST.

Source: prsindia.org

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.