Uttarakhand Assembly passes GST Bill

Dehradun, May 2

The Uttarakhand Assembly unanimously passed the Goods and Services Tax Bill on the final day of a special two-day session convened for the purpose.

The Bill was tabled in the Assembly on Monday.

State Finance Minister Prakash Pant said the Bill made for inclusion of 17 different types of taxes into a single uniform tax regime.

He said that although implementing the GST was unlikely to cause problems, those that arose would be sorted out through the GST Council.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Indira Hridayesh said while implementing the proposed legislation the state government would have to ensure that hoteliers, people engaged in travel agency trade do not suffer any losses and traders are not exploited.

After several ruling party and opposition members had aired their views on the legislation, Pant stood to propose for its passage and the House passed it unanimously.

According to recommendation of the GST council, all states are required to pass the bill before July 1 when the uniform tax regime comes into effect throughout the country.

GST, which will replace several central and state taxes, is a consumption-based tax levied on sale, manufacture and consumption on goods and services at a national level.

Under it, C-GST will be levied by the Centre, S-GST by states and I-GST on inter-state supply of goods and services.

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