Inputs – PTI Goods and Services Tax nears reality with the cabinet approving it on wednesday a Constitution Amendment Bill on goods and services tax (GST), clearing the way for its introduction in ongoing session of Parliament to bring about long-pending indirect tax reforms. The government intends to roll out the goods and services tax (GST) from April 1, 2016, financial year 2016-17 .

The revised Constitutional amendment bill was brought in after the Centre and states reached a consensus on contentious issues, including those related to petroleum product taxation, which were holding up the proposed nationwide indirect tax regime for about seven years. The GST will subsume most of the indirect taxes like excise duty and service tax at the central level and VAT and local levies on the states front. The GST Bill was last introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2011 by the then UPA government but lapsed, requiring the new NDA government to come with a new bill. Earlier this week in a compromise deal, the Centre decided to keep petroleum out of GST in return for states agreeing to entry tax being subsumed in the new tax regime. On the issue of compensation to states for revenue loss because of subsuming of all indirect taxes in the GST, the finance ministry was to seek legal opinion on how it could be accommodated in the Constitution Amendment Bill that it wants to table in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. States, which earn over 50 per cent of their revenues from taxes on petrol and other petro products, wanted it to be out of GST so they could continue with levying different tax rates on these products. In the three rounds of talks that held last week, states insisted that the compensation part should be included in the Constitution Amendment Bill. The idea of moving towards the GST was first mooted by the then finance minister P Chidambaram in his Budget for 2006-07. Initially, it was proposed that GST would be introduced by April 1, 2010. You can also read these earlier posts by us on GST :

Implementation of goods and service tax can be next game changer

Why Goods and Service Tax ( GST) is an important indirect tax reform measure for India ?