TELANGANA STATE ASSEMBLY UNANIMOUSLY RATIFIES GST BILL IN A SPECIAL SESSION TODAY 30-AUGUST-2016

A special session of the two Houses was convened on Tuesday to exclusively to take up the issue. After the two Houses of Parliament passed the Constitutional amendment Bill, the Centre has sent it to the States. Consent of more than half of the States is required to turn the Bill into an Act.

Moving the resolution in the Assembly on Tuesday, Chief Minister Chandrasekhara Rao said that there won’t be any financial loss to the State as the Bill deals only with the Commercial Taxes component of VAT and the State will continue to enjoy the taxes on petrol and excise.

Chief Minister assured the members that the Centre has assured that it will compensate the states for any revenue loss caused to them on account of implementation of GST for a period of five years.

“This will benefit the Telangana state which is ahead in sectors like e-commerce and software exports. The service tax in the state is growing at 35 percent,” added Chief Minister.

Welcoming the move, BJP leader Kishan Reddy thanked KCR and said that the GST Bill is well appreciated all over the country and would certainly find a prominent place in India’s economic system. He also added that with the implementation of the Bill, there is no scope of corruption in the implementation of taxes.

The GST Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha earlier in this month.

The Bill needs to be ratified by at least 16 states before it is sent to the GST Council which will decide on the new tax rate. The council will also decide the central and state taxes that will be subsumed in the new tax regime.

The Council will be constituted after the Constitution amendment bill is notified.