NDA govt tables last batch of GST bills in Lok Sabha
New Delhi, March 27 -- The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Monday introduced the last batch of legislations in the Lok Sabha for rolling out the goods and services tax (GST). Finance minister Arun Jaitley introduced four bills on GST as money bills. The four supporting draft laws-the central GST bill, the integrated GST bill, the union territory GST bill and a bill to compensate states for revenue losses arising from the transition to GST-are expected to be passed in the ongoing second half of the budget session. Upon introduction of the bills, K.C. Venugopal of the Congress raised an objection saying that they were not part of the List of Business in the Lok Sabha, but S.S. Ahluwalia, minister of state for parliamentary affairs, explained that the bills were approved on Friday night and as the Lok Sabha secretariat was on holiday over the weekend, business was revised and the bills were introduced. "I'm not speaking on the merits of the bills. They have been passed in the Inter-State Council and the cabinet has taken a decision. I am objecting to these midnight manoeuvres. The minister on Friday passed the motion on government business for the coming week. If it was uploaded on the midnight of Friday, then why did lit not come on the List of Business for today," Saugata Roy, senior leader of Trinamool Congress, argued. The four GST legislations are the last remaining pieces for the ambitious indirect tax reform, which the government wants to implement from 1 July 2017.
Next Article Why 'quality time' is a mythMonday, February 20, 2017