AMN /
Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers will meet on September 15 to finalise the model legislations that have to be approved by state legislatures for roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The panel is headed by Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani. The two legislations Central GST (CGST) and State GST (SGST) will have to be approved by respective state legislatures for a nation-wide roll out of the single rate GST. Besides, another legislation integrated GST (iGST) would also have to be adopted by the states.
Once the GST Constitution Amendment Bill is cleared by Parliament, the draft legislations will be put up in the public domain and views of the trade and industry will be sought.
The CGST will be a central law and the states would have to pass their own legislations that will be based on the model legislation being prepared by the centre. States would also have to approve iGST, which will deal in inter-state movement of goods and services.
The government plans to implement the single-rate GST, which would subsume central excise, service tax and other local levies, from April 1, 2016. GST is estimated to boost India’s GDP by 1-2 per cent. The Constitution Amendment Bill for rollout of GST has been passed in the Lok Sabha, but is yet to be approved by the Rajya Sabha .