New Delhi: Maintaining the tempo for the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) against the backdrop of the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, sources in the Finance Ministry on Wednesday said the bill will be presented before the Cabinet on March 22.

The government, which is leaving no stone unturned to lose its sight on the biggest tax reform, has said that the Central GST Law, Integrated GST Law, State GST Law and Union Territory GST and Compensation Law will be put together for the Cabinet’s approval on March 22.

However, the Finance Ministry has said that it will table the CGST, IGST and Compensation Law before the Parliament on March 27.

The Finance Minister sources have also cleared the air on SGST and UTGST, which will be cleared in the GST Council meet scheduled on March 16.

Also, it is likely that few more cesses will be added in the kitty to boost resources to compensate states. It will include Infra cess, Oil industry Development cess, and Swachh Bharat cess amongst others.

Earlier, the GST Council chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley approved the draft CGST Bill and the draft I GST Bill as vetted by the Union Law Ministry. It cleared the deck for the Central Government to take these two Bills to the Parliament for their passage in the ongoing Budget Session.

ANI

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The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to include in the Constitutional Amendment Bill that any dispute between states and the Centre will be adjudicated by the GST Council, which will have representation from both the Centre and states.

The Cabinet on Wednesday cleared changes in the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill, dropping 1 per cent manufacturing tax and providing guarantee to compensate states for any revenue loss in the first five years of rollout of the proposed indirect tax regime.

The Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to include in the Constitutional Amendment Bill that any dispute between states and the Centre will be adjudicated by the GST Council, which will have representation from both the Centre and states.

With states on board and the Cabinet approving the amendments, the government is hopeful of passage of the long-pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, which ends on August 12.
The GST Bill, with the changes approved by the Cabinet, could come up in the Rajya Sabha as early as this week, but certainly by next week.

The changes approved by the Cabinet are to the Constitutional Amendment Bill that was approved by the Lok Sabha in August last year. Once the Rajya Sabha approves the legislation, the amended Bill will have to go back to the Lok Sabha again for approval.

“The amendments to the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill have been cleared,” a top official said after the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Modi.

The amendments were taken up by the Cabinet after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s assurance to state finance ministers to include in the Bill the mechanism of compensating states for all the loss of revenue for five years.
The Bill, in its present form, provides that the Centre will give 100 per cent compensation to states for first three years, 75 per cent and 50 per cent for the next two years.

However, the Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha had in its report recommended 100 per cent compensation for probable loss of revenue for five years.

As per the amendments, the Centre will now constitutionally guarantee states any loss of revenue from the GST subsuming all indirect taxes, including VAT, in the first five years of introduction.

By doing away with the 1 per cent inter-state tax over and above the GST rate, the government has met one of the three key demands over which Opposition Congress has been blocking the Bill in the Upper House.

The other demands of including GST rate in the statute and a Supreme Court judge-headed dispute resolution body has not been accepted. It remains to be seen if meeting of its demands halfway will persuade the Congress to support the legislation.
There is a talk of mentioning the GST rate in one of the two supporting legislations that need to be passed after the Constitution is amended, a move that may pacify the Congress.

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Hyderabad: The NDA government is mulling to lift the subsidy on LPG cylinder for consumers whose annual income is above Rs 10 lakh, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said here on Saturday.

“Dharmendra Pradhan (Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas) told me that the Government has found many of illegal gas connections and is saving thousands of crore of rupees by stopping supply to those consumers,” the Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs said.

“They (the government) are also planning that the consumers whose income is above Rs 10 lakh, gas subsidy will not be given. Why do they need subsidy? Why ministers need subsidy? So far, 30 lakh people have given up LPG subsidy.

That subsidy will be given to poor people,” he said.

Naidu was speaking at an awards function organised by Federation of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Chambers of Commerce.

He said the government has so far brought out about 35 changes in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy across 15 sectors.

Seeking support from the opposition parties for passing some crucial Bills such as GST Bill, the Union Minister said the government is willing to talk to them on pursuing its agenda.

“Our government agenda is development, good governance, elimination of poverty and empowerment of youth and women. The opposition should also cooperate with the government in pursuing these reforms. People want politics of development.

We seek support of all political parties in pursuing developmental agenda in the larger interest of the country,” he said.

Taking a dig at those criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naidu said they should respect the mandate of the people with tolerance.

“Knowingly or unknowingly, some incidents took place in the country and one should not magnify them and show the country in poor light,” he said.

He said India is moving on the path of development and attracting investments from outside.

PTI

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