GST Constitutional Amendment Bill gets Presidential assent

The much-awaited Goods and Services Tax now becomes a law with President Pranab Mukherjee signing the bill after 16 states ratified it. Honorable The President of Indiagave assent tothe 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill 2014 on Goods and Services Tax GST)and now it becomes One Hundred and First Amendment Act, 2016, a major milestone for the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) expected to be implemented by1st April 2017. The Bill was passed unanimously by both the houses of Parliament in august 2016 and ratified by the legislative assemblies of more than 50% of the states. Assam was the first state to ratify the Bill and the other states which have passed the legislation include Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Haryana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Goa, Odisha and Rajasthan. The bill was sent to the President's secretariat after as many as 17 states, BJP-ruled Assam being the first, ratified the bill. The government plans to roll out the new indirect tax regime from April 1, 2017. GST, the biggest tax reform since Independence, will create uniform market for seamless movement of goods and services with one tax rate. The GST is a single indirect tax which will subsume most of the central and state taxes such as Value Added Tax (VAT), excise duty, service tax, central sales tax, additional customs duty and special additional duty of customs. Now GST Council will be formedwithin 60 daysof the enactment of One Hundred and First Amendment Act, 2016. CGST and IGST laws will be introduced in Parliament and SGST Laws in State Legislative Assemblies for the rollout of GST.