Govt to announce GST implementation roadmap today

With the Rajya Sabha approving the long-delayed GST bill, the government will today announce the implementation roadmap for the national sales tax regime, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said. 

"It is only the end of a beginning. The real work starts now," he said. "We will announce implementation roadmap on Thursday."

Stating that work has to be on a war footing from now on, he added, "We want to implement it as soon as possible." 

In the biggest tax reform since Independence, the national sales tax or GST Bill was today approved by the Rajya Sabha to replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value-added tax system to turn the country into the world's biggest single market. 

The 66-year-old Constitution, which gives power to Centre to levy taxes like excise, and empowers states to collect retail sales taxes, was amended through the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill. 

The legislation was approved by the Upper House with 203 votes in favour and none against, after a seven-hour debate.

"We are ready with state-of-the-art IT design for GST implementation," Adhia said. Hardware and software will all be ready for testing by January 17, he said. 

Commenting on the passage of the GST Bill, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said it was a historic achievement for India, Parliamentary democracy, economy and citizens. 

The GST Bill was an important new experiment in cooperative federalism, whereby States and Centre pool their sovereignty on tax issues, Chief Economic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian said. 

Noting that the GST created a fiscal balance between the Centre and States, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said that both were equal partners in indirect taxation - including service tax. 

"The GST will make the Indian economy far more efficient, lower cost of production, lower logistics and transaction costs," he said, adding that it would lower the cost of production due to seamless input tax credit across the country. 

Manufacturing will be far more competitive, Das added.