Highlights: Debate to push four GST bills in Lok Sabha Today
Four Bills associated with GST (Goods and Service tax ) will be debated to today in Lower house of Parliament (Lok Sabha).
The government is making efforts to push the bill to meet a July 1 launch date for the Unified tax regime that will comprehend the indirect tax at the centre and states.
The debate in Lok Sabha will go on for about 7 hours today, which will begin at noon with Union Minister Arun Jaitley speaking first and Former Union Minister M Veerappa Moily will be the first speaker for Congress.
The government wants to take the bills through parliament with the consensus of all the parties.
Yesterday, Mr Jaitley briefed about the four bills and how they would help set up a one nation one tax regime at a meeting including BJP members of parliament and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to congress, the bills are not acceptable in their current forms and their speaker will raise the concern and demand changes today in Lok Sabha.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi told his party’s lawmakers at a meeting on Tuesday that they should play the role of a constructive opposition. He also told them to raise the issue of the farmers’ distress and press for a farm loan waiver in Parliament.
The Government is expecting to get an approval from the Lok Sabha with an ease in a vote at the end of today’s debate. The bill will then go to the Rajya Sabha for Discussion. Since they are all “money bills”, the Rajya Sabha can suggest changes which will be taken back to the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha can then choose to accept or reject the proposals.
The government has to ensure that this entire process is wrapped up by April 12, when the Budget session of Parliament ends, to be able to meet the July 1 launch date. It has already missed an earlier deadline of April 1 for GST roll-out.
The bills to be debated today are the Central GST bill, Integrated GST bill, The Union Territories GST bill and the Compensation law.
GST is expected to boost the rate of economic growth by about 0.5 percentage points.