The Constitution Amendment Bill had been approved by the Lok Sabha in May last year but the amendments made to it by the Rajya Sabha would mean the legislation would again travel to the Lower House before going to states assemblies.
At least half of the 29 state legislatures need to approve the bill, after which Parliament will have to pass two legislations-- CGST and IGST-- detailing the new tax code, including the GST rate and other modalities.
This could happen in the winter session of Parliament in November.
Similar tax laws will also have to be passed by the states. Also, the government will need a new IT system, on which work has already begun, for the rollout of the new regime.
Despite widespread consensus on its desirability, the GST was stalled for years, first by the BJP and then by Congress.
Congress originally mooted GST in 2006 and a constitution amendment bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in March 2011 but was blocked by BJP. The Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha. And when BJP took power, Congress returned the favour.
The amendment was passed by Lok Sabha in May last year but got stuck in Rajya Sabha as the Congress made several demands, including a cap on GST rate in the statute, abolition of 1 percent inter-state tax to favour manufacturing states and a legislated dispute-resolution mechanism.
The Bill had been pending Rajya Sabha, where the ruling NDA does not have a majority, since August last year because of opposition from Congress.
Under the modified provisions, GST Council will be required to establish a mechanism for adjudication of disputes, which could arise between the Centre and states or among states themselves.
The 2014 bill authorised GST Council to decide upon the modalities for resolution of disputes.
With these official amendments, the government has partially met the demands of the Congress party which has been blocking the bill in the Rajya Sabha. One of the three demands of the Congress was to do away with the 1 percent additional manufacturing tax.
On the demand for a Supreme Court judge-headed panel for resolving GST disputes, the official amendments say that the GST Council will establish a mechanism for solving disputes.
With regard to the demand for putting a GST rate cap in the Constitution, Jaitley said that the decision would be taken by the GST Council which will have representation from the centre as well as states.
