Lok Sabha passes four GST Bills; India's biggest tax reform one step closer to July 1 rollout

March 30, 2017

New Delhi, Mar 30: Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed all four GST Bills to make India's new tax regime effective from July 1.

The Central GST Bill, 2017; The Integrated GST Bill, 2017; The GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017; and The Union Territory GST Bill, 2017 were passed after negation of a host of amendments moved by the opposition parties.

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Jammu and Kashmir will need to pass all four bills in its state assembly, on account of its special powers on taxation under the Constitution.

The Lok Sabha passed the much-awaited Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Bill, Integrated GST Bill, Compensation GST Bill and Union Territory GST Bill 2017, after negating all the amendments put forward by the Opposition.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted on the occassion:

The four GST Bills were passed after an eight-hour marathon debate in the Lower House.

The government is targeting the roll-out date of July 1 for the new indirect tax regime.

Jaitley said that goods may become "slightly cheaper" once all other taxes are removed after implementation of GST.

Replying to the debate on the four bills in the Lok Sabha, he said all other taxes like entry tax in states will be removed once the GST is in place.

"Once all other taxes are removed, the cascading effect is removed, goods will become slightly cheaper," he said.

Noting that both the central and state governments are pooling their sovereignty to have this tax regime, Jaitley noted that India, despite being one political entity, remained different economic entities with states having different taxes.

"Centre and states both pooled sovereignty into one Council. It is India`s first federal decision making authority," he said.

The GST will subsume various indirect levies of the Centre and states like service tax, excise duty, octroi and value added tax (VAT).

The CGST Bill will enable levy and collection of tax on intra-state supply of goods and services or both by the central government.

Actual tax rates would be as per a four-tier rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent as approved by the GST Council.

Clarifying on the tax rate on petroleum products in the regime, Jaitley said that the Council has decided that the petroleum products though they have been included under GST, will remain zero rated as of now.

"The Council decided that we will take up the issue of petroleum products in a year after implementation of GST. Today, constitutionally petroleum products are under GST, but will be zero rated. So once Council decides it can be taxed under GST, we won`t need to amend the Constitution," he said.

Jaitley said that once implemented GST will have a significant impact on the taxation system as the entire system will be restructured.

He said that the nature of economic activity today is changing and the objective of GST is to have "free flow of goods and services pan-India, with one tax and one interface with one assessing officer".

The system will be more efficient, is not easy to breach and has higher compliance, he added Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted on the pasisng of 4 GST Bills

Following the Bill`s passage, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Hasib Drabu told reporters that the state`s own constitution, allowed under special dispensation, requires CGST to be ratified by the state legislature.

"We will go to our assembly and get it passed before the target date of July 1," he said.

"We will start the process (ratification) sometime in May or June and meet the July implementation target," he added.

Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country with powers to tax services.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha debate earlier, Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily pointed out that it was the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government which brought in the GST bill.

"This important game-changer enactment was envisioned by the UPA government. It should have been implemented at the time, but some opposition parties then felt that it has to be halted," he added, alluding to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power now.

Indian industry, which has welcomed the GST Bills passage in Parliament, has however, called for a postponement of the targeted implementation date of July 1, to allow it to prepare adequately for the GST rollout.

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March 17,2024

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New Delhi: The Election Commission on Sunday made public fresh data on electoral bonds, which it had submitted in sealed covers to the Supreme Court and was later asked to put it in public domain.

These details are believed to be pertaining to the period before April 12, 2019. Electoral bond details after this date was made public by the poll panel last week.

The BJP encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,986.5 crore; maximum Rs 2,555 crore received in 2019-20, as per the EC data.

The Trinamool Congress received Rs 1,397 crore through electoral bonds, second largest recipient after BJP, as per the EC data.

On the other hand, the Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds.

DMK received Rs 656.5 crore through electoral bonds, including Rs 509 crore from lottery king Santiago Martin's Future Gaming.

BJD encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 944.5 crore, YSR Congress Rs 442.8 crore, TDP Rs 181.35 crore.

Political parties had filed data on electoral bonds in sealed cover as directed by the Supreme Court's interim order dated April 12, 2019, the poll panel said in a statement.

"Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court's order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website," EC said.

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March 26,2024

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Hyderabad: The K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi faces big questions as shocking allegations of state police officers tapping the phones of then Opposition leaders in Telangana, including current Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, celebrities and businessmen come to the fore.

The surveillance, it is alleged, was also used to blackmail businessmen into contributing huge amounts to the BRS party fund.

The BRS is yet to respond to the allegations.

Three senior police officers have been arrested in this connection and a lookout notice issued against T Prabhakar Rao, former chief of the state intelligence bureau, who is reportedly in the US now.

Police have said two senior officers - Additional Superintendent of Police Bhujanga Rao and Additional Superintendent of Police Thirupathanna - have admitted to illegal surveillance and destruction of evidence.

According to reports, Ravi Paul, a technical consultant with the state intelligence bureau under the then BRS government, had allegedly helped import and set up phone-tapping equipment near the residence of Mr Reddy to listen in on his conversations.

The equipment, it is alleged, was imported from Israel using a software company as the front. No permission from the Centre - a must for such imports - was taken, it is learnt. With this setup, anything spoken within a range of 300 metres could be heard, reports say.

Ravi Paul, it is alleged, set up an office near Mr Reddy's residence and installed the device. Police are set to question him in this connection.

Lookout notices have also been issued for Sharvan Rao, who runs a Telugu TV channel I News, and Radha Kishan Rao, a police officer with the city task force.

The surveillance was not restricted to Opposition leaders. Top businessmen, including real estate dealers and jewellers, and celebrities were also under surveillance. In fact, the tapping of phone conversations led to the divorce of a celebrity couple, reports say.

To add to the BRS's troubles, Chief Minister Reddy has received a complaint from Sharan Chaudhary, a businessman and a BJP leader, alleging that senior police officers kidnapped him last year and forced him to sign off a plot of land to a relative of former minister and BRS leader Errabelli Dayakar Rao.

Mr Chaudhury has alleged that Radha Kishan Rao and senior police officer ACP Umamaheswara Rao kidnapped him on August 21 while he was on his way to office. He has alleged that he was illegally detained and forced to register his property in the name of Vijay, a close relative of the minister. He was also forced to pay ₹ 50 lakh before they let him go.

The businessman has said he had approached the High Court after the incident, but Uma Maheshwar Rao threatened to file false cases against him and forced him to withdraw the petition.

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March 19,2024

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New Delhi, Mar 19: The Supreme Court today came down heavily on Patanjali Ayurved for failing to respond to a contempt notice for issuing misleading advertisements and ordered yoga guru Ramdev to appear before it.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah also summoned Patanjali managing director Acharya Balkrishna.

The Supreme Court last month pulled up Patanjali for prima facie violation of its assurances about its products and statements claiming their medicinal efficacy. The court had issued a notice to Patanjali and Balkrishna, asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them.

It noted today that Patanjali did not file a response even though it had held a press conference after its previous order. "Why haven't you filed your response yet? We will ask the managing director to appear in the court during the next hearing," the court said.

The order states both Ramdev and Balakrishna were prima facie in violation of Sections 3 and 4 of the Drugs and Remedies Act, which deal with misleading ads of medicines.

The court also issued a contempt notice to Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali, and asked him to explain why he should not face action for contempt of court.

Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Patanjali Ayurved, opposed the move and sought to know, "How Ramdev comes into the picture?"

"You are appearing. We will see on the next date. Enough," the court replied.

"We had our hands tied earlier but not now. As an officer of the court, you (Mr Rohatgi) should know your position," said Justice Amanullah.

The court was hearing a petition by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev against the vaccination drive and modern medicines.

On February 27, it had issued a contempt notice to Patanjali and cautioned them against from making any statements against any system of medicine in the media. It had also pulled up the centre for not taking action and said they were sitting with their eyes closed.

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