GST Amendment Bill passed unanimously in Rajya Sabha, PM Modi hails legislation

This is a great day for Indian democracy and Indian federalism, its at its best. Major taxation reform has been ushered in: Arun Jaitley

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 3, 2016

Arun Jaitley hails passage of GST amendment bill and says that it is a historic moment. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley cuts a cake after passage of #GST Constitutional Amendment Bill passed in Rajya Sabha. pic.twitter.com/082DyW7Jmo

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 3, 2016

On this truly historic occasion of the passage of the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha, I thank the leaders and members of all parties.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 3, 2016

Our MPs must be congratulated for their path breaking decision to give India an indirect tax system for the 21st century. #TransformingIndia

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 3, 2016

I would like to add that GST will also be the best example of cooperative federalism. Together we will take India to new heights of progress

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 3, 2016

GST Amendment Bill passed almost unanimously passed in Rajya Sabha.

Voting on GST is going on. Clause by clause, the members are weighing on several amendments proposed by the MPs. 

#FLASH Amendments on #GST Bill put to vote in Rajya Sabha pic.twitter.com/wpsr7tG6uN

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 3, 2016

Division of votes to take place, to check whether the constitutional amendments have support from two-third of the Parliament. 

 

Amendments on #GST Bill put to vote in Rajya Sabha. Arun Jaitley is not taking opposition's bait of committing to bringing GST as finance bill. 

Kapil Sibal says unless and until government assures that CGST and IGST bil are brought as financial bill, it will imply centre isn't keen on listening to the voices from Rajya Sabha. 

Arun Jaitley says constitutional norms will be followed and past precedents will be respected. Chidambaram intervenes and now a war of words have ensued between the two. 

 

AIADMK walks out of the Parliament as their views weren't taken into account, claims party MPs. 

Chidambaram again raises the issue that GST bill shouldn't be introduced as a money bill but should be tabled as a Finance Bill. 

Arun Jaitley says that the 1% additional tax proposal was withdrawn on the spirit of ensuring consensus is built on GST. 

He spells the problem states like Mahrashtra and Karnataka had with the bill and how the govt has tried to sort it out. Jaitley says AIADMK's opposition to the bill saying it hurts sovereignty of the states doesn't hold much water. 

 

Arun Jaitley is now answering Chidambaram's allegation that GST bill has been clumsily drafted. He firmly rejects the charges. Chidambaram promptly interjects. Fascinating war of words. 

CEAs report is based on 2013-14, report does not say 18%; we gave a band of 17 to 19%.It's good if we maintain 18%: AJaitley in RS #GSTBill

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 3, 2016

Jaitley is laying out the factors which will ascertain the final GST rate. According to him, rate must be reasonable but final calculation is an economic one, can't be political. 

Now Jaitley is answering accusation that BJP stalled the GST for so long. Earlier Anand Sharma said that Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM opposed the GST bill. 

Jaitley is claiming that the centre has managed to earn trust of the states. He is saying several problems which were there in the 2011 bill has been done away with including the compensation matter which the centre has now taken into account. 

Arun Jaitley is now addressing the Rajya Sabha. He is trying to answer all the concerns raised by MPs in the floor of the house. He is trying to emphasise that the govt has tried to get maximum political consensus on the bill. 

He is saying If GST council makes a suggestion, the council along with Centre's nominees will take a look at them. According to Jaitley, there will be no 'tax on tax'. Jaitley is saying that council will definitely look into inflationary concerns when taking their decision. According to Finance Minister, the efficiency of the system will also increase. 

Anand Sharma, Deputy opposition leader of Rajya Sabha

# We were not opposing GST on political grounds, we wanted GST but we wanted our concerns to be addressed.

# ​​We don't want the burden on people of the nation to increase, indirect tax must go down.

Anand Sharma, Deputy Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha

# Would have been nice if it were acknowledged that UPA Government's concerns on GST were meant for good of nation

We asked Finance Minister to bring GST as a financial bill, not money bill. Government loses nothing if this happens: P Chidambaram to ANI

Narendra Budania, Congress MP from Rajasthan

# Budania said that PM Modi should apologise for opposing the GST bill as Gujarat's CM.

Lok Sabha adjourned for the day.

Dilip Kumar Tirkey, BJP MP from Odisha

# He said that Odisha's interest was not considered in the bill. Odisha, being a calamity prone state, they have a demand for 2669 crores. In the special provision under 12 (4)(G), Odisha has not been mentioned, Tirkey demanded Odisha's inclusion in it.

Surendra Singh Nagar, Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh

# The bill has been languishing in Parliament since a decade. It was introduced by Pranab Mukerjee in the 15th Lok Sabha. He had proposed a cap of 10 lakhs then in order to ensure that small traders are also benefitted.

# With 18% rate cap, how will PM Modi fulfill the promise of providing house to everyone because their rate would go up.

# It is necessary that the finance minister specifies the time frame for execution of GST.

# I demand that this bill should be executed as a finance bill, not a money bill.

# In case of agri products, the centre has not specified their tax share. As of now, states can tax those products, but when centre will come up with it's taxation rate, then the rates of those products will rise and the common man will suffer.

 

Ajay Sancheti, BJP MP from Maharashtra

# Since there is no uniformity in indirect, GST will provide one market.

# GST will help control red tapism.

Vivek K Tankha, INC MP from Madhya Pradesh

# It's a constitutional amendment and not a parliamentary act. It would have been great had the provision been included in constitution, because what we are doing now is dispute resolution and you can't make too many changes in this scenario because it is subject to review by judiciary.  

# Tankha compared the rate cap of 18% to that in Malaysia, said the rates should be brought down for revenue generation. 

# It's not only the states, but the whole nation who wants to know about GST bill because it affects everyone's life.

# When farmers are already hassled, why would you want to tax subsidies? 

# First few years of GST can be extremely difficult, thus it is necessary to have a revenue sharing mechanism.
 

Rajeev Chandrashekar, Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka

# A less than perfect GST is better than no GST.

Chidambaram says

# The heart of the bill is what will the rate of tax be? We must remember that we are dealing with indirect tax. The standard rate should not exceed 18% to make GST non-inflationary & acceptable to public.

# Any indirect tax falls equally on rich & poor. Indirect taxes being regressive in nature, trend is to keep it as low as possible.

Chidambaram says

# Today, if we pass this GST bill, it will be on basis of serious discussions, serious debate and negotiations. Hope the Finance Minister will pass GST bill not on strength of numbers but in strength of his arguments.

# There is still time to make amendments to provision. Finance minister can move amendments during the discussion.

# One of issue was how can you, in destination based tax have provision like some states being allowed to impose additional 1 % tax?

# If you give some states power to impose 1% additional tax, it would have led to multiplicity of taxes.

# Not a matter between Union Finance Minister & state FMs, it concerns people of the country also.

P Chidambaram speaks in Rajya Sabha on GST

# I welcome friendly and conciliatory tone of Finance Minister's speech. Tone and approach has changed over the last 3-4 weeks and that augers well for this bill.

# Let me make it clear, Congress was never opposed to the idea of GST. The 2014 bill was opposed, because we felt it was possible to have a more perfect bill. There were too many flaws in the bill, which could be fixed and hence we didn't support the bill.

# We tried to pass #GST bill with support of principal opposition party but we failed.​

# There are still pieces of clumsy drafting in the bill.

Merits of the system itself are that it would convert India into one uniform economic market. GST Bill will empower the states, will increase revenue of states as well as Centre. It will ensure that there is 'no tax on tax.'

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduces GST bill in Rajya Sabha

# GST will convert India into one economic market with one uniform tax rate

# GST will enable seamless transfer of goods across the country.

# There has been major consensus building that has taken place. Extremely thankful to all Opposition parties especially LoP GN Azad.

# 2/3rd of the voting power in the #GST council belongs to states, 1/3rd belongs to the Centre

 

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