Parliament passes GST Bill; ball rolls over to states

09 Aug '16

1 min read

The Lok Sabha has approved the changes made in the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, which now needs to be ratified by at least 16 of the 29 state assemblies, before it can be implemented.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking in the Lok Sabha, termed GST as a ‘Great Step by Team India’, ‘Great Step towards Transformation’ and ‘Great Step towards Transparency’.

The bill was passed in the Lower House after a six-hour debate with all the 443 members present voting in favour, with only the AIADMK members staging a walkout.

Earlier, while replying to the debate, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the tax rate under the GST will be kept at “minimum workable rate” as no state government can annoy its people by having a higher rate. He said the rate will be decided by the GST Council.

“GST is a game changing reform measure, particularly for manufacturing industries. It will reduce the expenditure in logistics and transportation. GST will help the textiles and other manufacturing industries as the embedded tax will be done away with,” said Binoy Job, secretary general, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI). (RKS)

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