President Pranab Mukherjee gives assent to four GST related legislations

President Pranab Mukherjee on 13 April 2017 gave his assent to four supporting legislations related to Goods and Services Tax, GST. The nod paves the way for the roll out of one-nation-one-tax regime from 1 July 2017.
The four legislations are the Integrated GST Act 2017, GST (Compensation to States) Act 2017, Central GST Act 2017 and Union Territory GST Act, 2017.
These GST bills were passed in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on 6 April 2017 and 29 March 2017 respectively.

What will GST do?

The GST, which is being termed as the biggest taxation reform since independence, will create a uniform market across India by subsuming the central excise, service tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) along with other local levies.

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About the four legislations of the GST

• The Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017: It provides for the levy of the Central Goods and Services Tax by the Union Government on the supply of goods and services within the boundary of a state.

• Integrated GST Act, 2017: It deals with the levy of Integrated Goods and Services Tax by the Union Government on the inter-state supply of services and goods.

• Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017: It provides for compensation to the states for the loss of revenue (if any), which arises on account of implementation of Goods and Services Tax.

• Union Territory GST Act, 2017: This legislation makes a provision for levy and collection of tax on intra-state supply of services and goods or both by the Union Territories.

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Limitation of the GST bill

The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier in Rajya Sabha said that the law will not apply in Jammu and Kashmir due to Article 370 of the constitution that gives special status to the state. For the purpose of being the law, J&K will have to legislate its own law so that they can integrate themselves with the GST regime.

With this nod from the President, all eyes are on the meeting of the goods and services tax (GST) council that will meet on 18 and 19 May 2017 in Srinagar to discuss the tax rates under the new tax regime system. The meet on the GST rates will be chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The GST council constitutes of the Union Finance minister and finance ministers of states.

Earlier in Rajya Sabha in the second week of April 2017, Jaitley said that the GST Council had agreed to take a decision on bringing real estate within the ambit of the new tax regime within a year of its rollout. The council will also take decisions on inclusion of petroleum products and alcohol in the GST network, one by one. The inclusion will take place in the foreseeable future.