With the Odisha Assembly approving the Constitutional Amendment Bill for GST, the requirement of 50 per cent of states and UTs ratifying it has been completed. The Bill will now be placed before President Pranab Mukherjee for approval. Odisha became the 16th state to pass the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill. Dubbed as the biggest tax reform in India, GST will subsume most indirect taxes, like excise duty, service tax and VAT. The ratification of the Bill has been completed ahead of the schedule. The Constitutional Amendment Bill for GST was passed by Parliament on 8th August. The government is planning to roll out the indirect tax regime from 1st April 2017. While the Centre has to draft the CGST and IGST laws, the states will have to come up with an SGST law. But before supporting legislations go to Parliament in November, the State Finance Ministers have to agree on a GST rate, tax slabs and exempted goods and services. GST rate will have to be approved by the GST Council, comprising the Union Finance Minister and representatives of all the 31 states and UTs. Assam was the first state to ratify the GST Bill. Other states that have approved the Bill are Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Nagaland. The proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is set to bring in biggest business reform. This is no tax reform but is going to bring biggest business reform. The implications will not be the same for all and depend on how each one does business.
There is a need for addressing industry-wise and sectoral concerns and if any lacunae is there rectify at an early stage itself otherwise the benefits highlighted in the GST Bill would be diluted.