Important bills to be tabled in Parliament today: GST in Lok Sabha, Budget 2017-18 in Rajya Sabha

Monday marks the beginning of a crucial week for Modi Government as it seeks to finish pass major financial and other bills in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. 

The government is likely to table supplementary goods and services tax legislations in Parliament on Monday. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be looking at consideration and return of Union Budget 2018 in Rajya Sabha.

Three GST bills in Lok Sabha

Sources said C-GST, I-GST, UT-GST and the compensation law are likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday and could be taken up for discussion as early as March 28.

Also, amendments to the excise and Customs Act to abolish various cess as well as furnishing Bills for exports and imports under the new GST regime will be placed before the House.

The Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha is likely to meet on Monday to decide on the duration of discussion on the Bills, the sources added.

According to the sources, the government is looking at passage of the GST Bills in the Lower House by March 29 or latest by March 30.

Then, these will move to the Rajya Sabha and this gives the government enough time to bring back any amendment adopted by the Upper House to the Lok Sabha. The amendments can either be rejected or incorporated by the Lok Sabha.

The current session of Parliament ends on April 12.

Although the legislations will be introduced as Money Bills, the government wants discussion in both the Houses, the sources said.

The government has set a target of July 1 for rollout of GST, which will subsume excise, service tax, VAT and and other local levies.

Once these Bills are cleared by Parliament, the states will then take the state GST (S-GST) Bill to their respective assemblies. S-GST has been prepared as a model of the central GST (C-GST), with each state incorporating state-specific exemptions.

The integrated GST (I-GST) deals in taxation of inter-state movement of goods and services while the Union Territory GST (UT-GST) Bill covers taxation in UTs. The compensation law has been prepared to give a legislative backing to the Centre’s promise to compensate the states for 5 years for any revenue loss arising out of GST implementation.

Read | GST: New indirect tax regime to remove inter-state barriers, stimulate exports, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Important bills to be tabled in Rajya Sabha on Monday

The Finance Bill, The Appropriation (Railways) Bill 2017 and The Appropriation (Railways) Number 2 Bill 2017 will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Monday for consideration and return.

The Lok Sabha passed the Finance Bill on March 22 to give effect to the financial proposals of the Central Government for the financial year 2017-18.

In the bill, the government has capped cash transactions at two lakh rupees instead of three lakh rupees.

It is one of the important amendments introduced in the Bill.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had moved 40 amendments to the bill. The Factories (Amendment) Bill, 2016 will also come up for consideration and passage in Rajya Sabha.

Other important bills to be tabled in Lok Sabha

In the Lok Sabha, the Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016 and The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Amendment) Bill, 2016 will be taken up for consideration and passage. The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, is also scheduled to be introduced in the Lok Sabha.