What is GST Bill?

The long pending GST Bill which has been in the making for over a decade was listed for consideration and passage in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Goods and Services Taxes (GST) Bill means entailment of a single indirect tax regime across the country. The bill aims to end the cumbersome regime of multiple taxes on goods and services and bring them under one rate.

Current imposition of VAT or sales tax, Central Sales tax, Entertainment tax, Entry tax, Purchase tax, Luxury tax and Octroi will then be subsumed in the GST once it comes into effect.

What does it mean for the consumer?

With GST coming into effect, most goods are expected to turn cheaper while services will become more expensive with the introduction of the new goods and services tax (GST) regime.

Once the bill is passed, there will only be a national-level central GST and a state-level GST spanning entire value chain for all goods and services, with some exemptions.

So far a fresh round of talks was held on Monday with Congress and other parties to build a consensus on the key tax reform legislation.

Now what is ahead?

The President shall constitute the GST Council and that very Council will make recommendations on exemptions, Model GST laws, Principles of Levy, etc. Following which the Parliament will have to pass legislation on central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST).

All 29 states and 9 UTs will have to pass their state GST (SGST) Acts.