The passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, paving the way for an integrated goods and services tax, is undoubtedly a watershed moment in the economic history of India. However, if the protests of the Finance Ministers of West Bengal and Kerala are any indication, there is still a long way to go for the implementation of the GST in its entirety, with some issues still lacking clarity (“Bengal, Kerala protest against GST amendment”, Aug.6). What is the fate of special excise duties levied by the Union Government on some items under the Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act? The jurisdiction, powers and responsibilities of the officials of the Central Excise department and the Sales Tax departments of various States have to be clearly defined. Though the NDA government is eager to meet the April 2017 deadline, obviously keeping in mind the general election in 2019, it must be well-prepared to tackle hurdles that are likely to be created by States where various Opposition parties are in power.
B. Harish,Mangaluru
While sectors like automobiles or cement will stand to benefit from the path-breaking legislation, it is unclear whether prices of items like vegetables, fruits, pulses or milk products will also come down. The prices of these items have doubled or more than doubled in the last five years. It may be recalled that the BJP adroitly introduced the Aadhaar bill as a money bill to bypass the Rajya Sabha. A well-informed debate is necessary to understand the real impact of the GST on essential commodities.
Kangayam R. Narasimhan,Chennai
The GST indirectly affects the middle class rather than the rich. Most of the super-rich escape the tax net in the form of the tax breaks and incentives. The government must take care to ensure that the interests of the common man are protected as his income cannot be drained in the form of indirect taxation such as the GST.
Rajan Jayabalan,Chennai
Why is there so much confusion over After around twelve years of discussions on the bill, the last two years of which having gone to trying to table the bill in the RS, and two weeks of which having gone towards intense negotiations among political parties, our law makers still have a confusion – whether the CGST and SGST bills should be considered as Money Bills or Finance Bills. With so many lawyers sitting in RS and some of them being legal luminaries, and so many of them Ministers in the current and old regimes, they were unable to come to the conclusion. Is this Politics? Does it due to BJP not wanting the bills to come to RS for discussions and the previous FM wanting to come? If it is politics, enough has been played already. The surprising thing is all present and spoke in RS acknowledged that the bill(s) are important legislations since Independence, “transformational”, and bring huge benefit to the economy. One business newspaper reported that “GST may have just handed Modi Govt. a US $ 200 billion cheque”. Considering 12 years of delay in passing the GST laws, the country lost US $ 2.40 trillion (the country’s current GDP)! This is what politicians have done to us for having voted them to parliament. Sometimes we feel “not-doing” is also a “scam” causing the country to lose resources and money. And what punishment can we give to these so called “parliamentarians”?
The passage of the GST Bill has been made possible after constructive political consensus. There should be a cap of 18 per cent on the GST. The government should also think in terms of lessening the burden of indirect taxes borne by the common man. Unless tax reforms are integrated with the welfare of the common man, there won’t be much for him to rejoice.
Dr. D.V.G. Sankararao,Nellimarla, Andhra Pradesh
The passing of the GST bill in the Rajya Sabha is a rare but good example of cooperative approach of the political parties, particularly the Congress and the BJP, rising above party politics to legislate on a subject matter of great importance and benefit to the people of the entire nation. The country will stand to greatly gain if only such cooperative and collaborative effort is also exhibited in dealing with other crucial issues in Parliament. The Government seems to have realized, though belatedly, that a conciliatory approach to the opposition is required to carry out any meaningful business while the major opposition party also appears to have understood that being continuously obstructive was isolating it inside and outside Parliament. Ultimately, better sense has prevailed on both sides resulting in a victory for the people and democracy.
