The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill was today unanimously passed by the Uttarakhand Assembly. The Bill, which was tabled by state Finance Minister Prakash Pant yesterday, seeks to subsume 17 different types of taxes into a single uniform tax regime.
Introducing the Bill, Pant had said that its passage by the House was necessary in view of a uniform tax regime coming into force across the country from July 1.
As per the recommendation of the GST Council, all state assemblies are required to pass the Bill before July 1, when the GST comes into effect throughout the country.
The Hilly state had convened a special two-day session of the House for the purpose of passing the proposed legislation.
Asserting that implementation of the GST will not cause any problems, Pant said that ‘if some problems do arise those will be sorted out through the GST Council’.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Indira Hridayesh said that while implementing the proposed legislation the state government will have to ensure that hoteliers, people engaged in travel agency trade do not suffer any losses and traders are not exploited.
After several ruling party and opposition members had aired their views on the legislation, Pant stood to propose for its passage and the House passed it unanimously.
GST, which will replace a plethora of central and state taxes, is a consumption based tax levied on sale, manufacture and consumption on goods and services at a national level.
Under it, C-GST will be levied by the Centre, S-GST by states and I-GST on inter-state supply of goods and services Different indirect taxes of central excise duty, central sales tax CST and service tax are to be merged with C-GST while S-GST will subsume state sales tax, VAT, luxury tax and entertainment tax.
Earlier, Jharkhand, Telangana, Bihar and Rajasthan had ratified the Bill.
Meanwhile, the neighbouring state Uttar Pradesh today approved the implementation of the new tax regime in the state and the bill associated with it will be tabled in the assembly session commencing May 15.
"The cabinet has approved the State Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 and it will be passed by the state assembly in the session commencing May 15," UP minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said.
The Central government is keen on rolling out GST from July 1.
With PTI Inputs
