President Pranab Mukherjee gave assent to four supporting legislations related to Goods and Services Tax (GST)

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday gave assent to four supporting legislations related to Goods and Services Tax (GST).

This is a major step towards rolling out a new indirect tax regime, which the Modi government wants to come into effect from July 1.

The bills were the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill (CGST), the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill (IGST) the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill and the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill (UTGST).

The bills were passed by Parliament on April 6.

While the C-GST will give powers to the Centre to levy GST on goods and services after Union levies like excise and service tax are subsumed, the I-GST is to be levied on inter-state supplies.

The S-GST, which will allow states to levy the tax after VAT and other state levies are subsumed in the GST, will have to be passed by each state Assembly.

The GST rates are to be discussed by the GST Council on May 18-19.

The powerful GST Council, comprising Centre and states, has recommended a four-tier tax structure — 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent. On top of the highest slab, a cess will be imposed on luxury and demerit goods to compensate the states for revenue loss in the first five years of GST implementation.

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.

Various indirect taxes of central excise duty, central sales tax and service tax are to be merged with C-GST, while S-GST will subsume state sales tax, VAT, luxury tax and entertainment tax.

Bureau Report