GST Bill passed in Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha passed the 122nd Constitutional Amendment - Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill with 352 Ayes and 37 Noes.  GST Bill will bring a single indirect tax that will come in place of a number of central- and state-level taxes and levies. Speaking in Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed upon the need for the bill to become law, saying the ambitious tax reform, which has been 12 years in the making, will remove the cascading effect of the current tax system, boost compliance, ease doing business and spur growth by creating a national market. The bill, however, still needs to pass muster in the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling BJP is heavily outnumbered, and in a sign of the stance it will take there, the principal opposition Congress staged a walkout while voting in the LS was on.  Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be levied both on goods and services. GST will convert the country into unified market, replacing most indirect taxes with one tax. 

What is New in Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill:
- It would have a dual structure
- A Central component to be levied and collected by the Centre
-A state component administered by states
-At the Central level, it will subsume Central excise duty, service tax and additional customs duties
-At the state level it will include value-added tax, entertainment tax, luxury tax, lottery taxes and electricity duty
-Central sales tax (CST) will be completely phased out
- Entry tax or octroi would be subsumed from the start
- Petroleum products will continue for a few years
- State taxes on alcohol and tobacco will remain
-Rate for GST is proposed to be 26.88 per cent
-12.77 per cent for Centre Share and 13.91 per cent for state share respectively