The Cabinet today cleared four supporting GST legislations, paving the way for their introduction in Parliament as early as today.

The four supporting legislations the Compensation Law, the Central-GST (C-GST), Integrated-GST (I-GST) and Union Territory-GST (UT-GST) would be introduced as Money Bill, sources said.

The GST legislations have been cleared by the Cabinet.

These would be introduced in Parliament this week, could be even today, a source said.

The GST legislations were the only agenda in today’s meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sources said the four legislations would be taken up for discussion together in Parliament. Once approved by Parliament, the states would start taking their SGST bill for discussion and passage in the respective state assemblies.

The GST Council, in its previous two meetings, had given approval to the four legislations as also the State-GST (S-GST) bill. While the S-GST has to be passed by each of the state legislative assemblies, the four other laws have to be approved by Parliament.

Passage of all the legislations would pave the way for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1.

The government is hoping the C-GST, I-GST, UT-GST and the GST Compensation laws will be approved in the current session of Parliament and the S-GST by each of the state legislatures soon.

While a composite GST will be levied on sale of goods or rendering of services after the new indirect tax regime is rolled out, the revenue would be split between the Centre and the states in almost equal proportion.

This is because central taxes like excise and service tax and state levies like VAT will be subsumed in the GST.

While the C-GST will give powers to the Centre to levy GST on goods and services after Union levies like excise and service tax are subsumed, the I-GST is to be levied on inter-state supplies.

The S-GST will allow states to levy the tax after VAT and other state levies are subsumed in the GST. The UT-GST will also go to Parliament for approval.

The Council has already finalised a four-tier tax structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, but the model GST law has kept the peak rate at 40 per cent (20 per cent to be levied by the Centre and an equal amount by the states) to obviate the need for approaching Parliament for any change in rates in future.

Similarly, the cess to be levied on top of peak rate on selected demerit goods like luxury cars for creation of a corpus that will be used for compensating states for any loss of revenue from GST implementation in the first five years, has been capped at 15 per cent.

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New Delhi: Government is hopeful of getting the supporting legislations of Goods and Services Tax (GST) passed by Parliament in the second phase of the Budget session for rolling out the new indirect tax regime by July.

Replying to a question on GST bill, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar on Thursday said, “That is on the plate. GST council is meeting on 18th and it will be decided after that, but we are hopeful that supporting GST bills will be passed in the next phase of the session.”

The government is hopeful of getting Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) draft legislations approved at the next GST Council meeting on February 18 and bring them in the second half of the ongoing Budget Session along with GST Compensation Act.

While the CGST will subsume central taxes of excise, central sales tax and service tax, IGST is to be charged on movement of goods and services from one state to another.

States will also have to enact SGST or State Goods and Service Tax laws with minor variation incorporating state based exemptions.

Also, a GST Compensation Act needs to be approved by Parliament to provide for compensation to states that lose revenue because of implementation of GST in the first five years.

The GST bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session last year.

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New Delhi: The GST Council, which began 2-day deliberations here today, is likely to shortly finalise a 4-tier tax structure with some tinkering of the Centre’s proposal.

The Centre has proposed 4-tier tax structure of 6, 12, 18 and 26 per cent, the peak rate being for FMCG and consumer durables.

According to sources, the Council comprising state finance ministers and headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may opt for a lower rate of 5 per cent instead of the proposed 6 per cent.

The members may agree to raise the higher slab to 28 per cent rate from the proposed 26 per cent.

They may retain the 12 per cent and 18 per cent rate for certain categories under the Goods and Services Tax regime.

Sources also said that certain states are in favour of 40 per cent tax rate on tobacco.

The meeting will have to sort out the issues concerning tax rate to enable Parliament to approve the Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) legislations in the Winter Session beginning November 16 and pave the way for rollout of the new indirect tax regime from April 1 next year.

A state finance minister said “mood in the meeting is very good” and the Council is expected to seal the rate structure by evening.

On the issue of dual control or cross empowerment, another state minister said that there would be a generic line in the CGST Bill regarding jurisdiction of centre and states on taxes. The final touches would be given by GST Council.

As per the slab proposed the Centre, the items which are currently taxed between 3-9 per cent would fall in the 6 per cent bracket; those in 9-15 per cent range would come under 12 per cent rate.

Those products which are currently taxed between 15-21 per cent would attract 18 per cent levy while those above 21 per cent would be taxed at the peak rate of 26 per cent.

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