Four bills for GST roll out will be introduced next week

New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the four bills that are crucial for the rollout of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) will be introduced in the Lok Sabha by early next week and the rate structure would be worked out after March.

The four crucial bills — Central GST Bill, Integrated GST Bill, Union Territory GST Bill and GST (Compensation to the States) Bill — have already been cleared by the Union cabinet.

The current session of the Parliament will end on April 12 and there is a constitutional compulsion for the government to rollout the new tax structure before September 2017.

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Underlining the need to take up the four bills on an immediate basis, the finance minister said that the GST Constitutional Amendment Bill has no provision for an extension of GST deadline beyond September.

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the finance minister said the government was keen to stick to the July 1 deadline for the implementation of GST. The BJP leader said other concerns like bringing petroleum and land under the ambit of the tax net will be considered after the first year of GST’s implementation.

“Petroleum is part of GST, however, GST will apply on petroleum only after all the states, through the GST Council, agreed on it... and till then states will continue to tax petroleum products,” the minister said in the Upper House during a budget discussion.

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A ministerial group is working on removing bottlenecks on tolls to ensure smooth flow of goods and services, Jaitley added.

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