GST Bill May be Passed in Current session of Parliament
FINANCE Minister Arun Jaitley hopes that the Constitution Amendment Bill for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) would be passed in the current session of Parliament as there is a broad consensus among states on the issue. He was with the empowered committee of State Finance Ministers today. The Committee Chairman also expressed the same view as reservations regarding producing and consuming states have been sorted out. He saw no difficulty in more than 50 per cent of the States passing the Bill and he hoped that GST can come into force on 1st April 2016 or even before.
Well you have 11 months and these are the 11 minimum things you have to do before implementation.
1. Pass the Bill in both the Houses of Parliament.
2. Pass the bill in at least 15 States.
3. Draft a model uniform legislation for all States, which have to be passed by State legislatures.
4. Decide a rate and threshold limit.
5. Frame common rules, especially rules for place of supply.
6. Put in place a proper adjudication and appellate mechanism.
7. Launch a powerful fully tested IT system (GST NET) with all the States linked properly.
8. Launch a user-friendly web site.
9. Train the huge army of Central Excise and Commercial taxes employees to understand the tax and adapt to its concepts.
10. Constitute the GST Council
11. Constitute a high power monitoring and implementation wing to clarify doubts, assist the taxpayers and deal with litigation on the validity of the legislations and other taxing issues.
Let us hope they will be able to and the taxpayers should be ready for the chaos ahead.