24.8.16

Gujarat assembly ratifies GST bill

Gujarat has become the sixth state to ratify the bill after Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and Jharkhand.
The bill for the roll out of GST was passed by the Rajya Sabha earlier in August. The bill has to be ratified by at least 50% state legislatures before it goes for the President's assent.
The assembly , which is made up of 182 legislators ratified the bill after the suspension of 50 Congress MLAs for a day , who disrupted the House proceedings over Una atrocities.
While introducing the bill, Nitin Patel, deputy chief minister who also holds the finance portfolio, assured the trade and industry that all efforts would be made to protect their interests while forming the rules.
“The bill, once approved, will pave the way for constitution of the council of ministers, which will make GST legislation. Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will approve the legislation. Then, all respective states will also be able to make their own state legislation for GST,“ he added.
Gujarat gets Rs.38,000 crore revenue from VAT CST, which will be subsumed in GST. However, revenues of Rs.19,000 crore that the state gets from petroleum products will not be impacted as these products have been kept out of the purview of GST.
According to Saurabh Patel, former finance minister, the formation of the council of ministers for determining the rates within 60 days, threshold limits, identifying items to be exempted and creation GST network are some of the challenges.

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