Jaitley hopes GST bill will be passed through consensus

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) Describing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill as "revolutionary", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday hoped all the political parties would pass the related bills through consensus in the current session of Parliament.

Jaitley's remarks came at the BJP parliamentary party meeting which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior ministers of the government.

"GST bill is revolutionary and I hope that its passage will be ensured in Parliament in the current Budget session," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar quoted Jaitley as saying.

Kumar said that discussions on the GST bill will take place in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The senior BJP leader said that Jaitley briefed the BJP MPs about the CGST, IGST, UT GST and GST Compensation Bills introduced in the House on Tuesday and hoped that the bills would be passed in the present session through consensus.

Kumar said passage of the GST bill will benefit the people as well as economy.

India moved a step closer to becoming a unified market with the tabling in Parliament on Monday of the GST Bill, which extends pan-India except to Jammu and Kashmir.

Jaitley introduced the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Bill, 2017, along with three other related bills in the Lok Sabha, providing for a maximum GST rate of 40 per cent, an anti-profiteering authority and imprisonment for evading taxes.

The GST will subsume various indirect levies of the Centre and states like service tax, excise duty, octroi and value added tax (VAT) and create an input tax credit chain for refunds.

The CGST Bill will enable levy and collection of tax on intra-state supply of goods and services or both by the central government.

Apart from GST, the parliamentary party also discussed Congress leader and former union minister M.V. Rajasekharan's letter showering praise on the Prime Minister and union cabinet's decision to set up a National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes with constitutional status.