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New Delhi: Bihar became the first non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state to ratify the constitution amendment bill needed to roll out the proposed goods and services tax (GST) on Tuesday.
Its legislative assembly and council approved the landmark legislation, making it only second to BJP-ruled Assam which ratified it last week.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) needs at least 16 states to ratify the bill. The alliance is in power in 14 states.
Significantly, though Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) is politically opposed to the NDA, he was among the first chief ministers to offer to call a special sitting of the legislative assembly to ratify the bill.
The GST is a far-reaching tax reform that aims to create a common market and remove all tariff barriers across states.
It will subsume most of the indirect taxes levied by the centre and states, including excise duty, service tax, value added tax, luxury tax, entertainment tax and entry tax.
The bill was passed through a voice vote with all the key political parties in the state, including the JDU, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and BJP in its favour.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), however, staged a walk-out from the legislative assembly ahead of the vote. The bill was later ratified by the legislative council, too.
Bihar being one of the earliest states to ratify the bill is significant also because the Kumar-led JDU had a bitter parting of ways with the BJP in 2013 following the nomination of Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 general election.
According to a news report by the Press Trust of India, Kumar highlighted the significance of the bill during a discussion on it in the legislative assembly and said it was beneficial for a consumer state like Bihar and that it would bring transparency in tax collection and distribution among the centre and the states.
The state would have its share from service tax on telecom, railway, bank and power, among others, which would be financially beneficial to the state, he said.
The 122nd Constitution amendment bill received Parliament’s nod last week and has subsequently been sent to the states for their consent.
The bill needs to be ratified by 16 states before it can be sent for Presidential assent.
“The support given by chief minister Nitish Kumar is natural—his stand has remained the same and, therefore, he had offered that Bihar would ratify the bill at the earliest. We believe that it is in the state’s interest that the GST is implemented soon,” a Rajya Sabha leader from the JDU said requesting anonymity.
The NDA needs the bill to be ratified by 16 states by the first week of September in order to meet its 1 April 2017 implementation deadline.
“Nitish Kumar has supported the bill since the beginning and so, if you are supporting the bill, it is natural that you will take a constitutional step ahead to make it a reality. It was very clear in the Parliament that what we saw was indicative of mature politics and Kumar is taking that ahead in a true form,” said A.K. Verma, a Kanpur-based political analyst and political science professor at Christ Church College.
Once the constitution amendment bill is enacted, the government will set up a GST Council that will take all decisions on crucial issues such as tax rates and threshold and finalize three GST laws.
The government is aiming to table the central GST law and the integrated GST law in the winter session of Parliament.
The state GST law will go to all the states for passage.
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/2Y...mes-first-nonNDA-govt-to-ratify-GST-bill.html
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Another reason why bihar is better than south "India".
Its legislative assembly and council approved the landmark legislation, making it only second to BJP-ruled Assam which ratified it last week.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) needs at least 16 states to ratify the bill. The alliance is in power in 14 states.
Significantly, though Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) is politically opposed to the NDA, he was among the first chief ministers to offer to call a special sitting of the legislative assembly to ratify the bill.
The GST is a far-reaching tax reform that aims to create a common market and remove all tariff barriers across states.
It will subsume most of the indirect taxes levied by the centre and states, including excise duty, service tax, value added tax, luxury tax, entertainment tax and entry tax.
The bill was passed through a voice vote with all the key political parties in the state, including the JDU, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and BJP in its favour.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), however, staged a walk-out from the legislative assembly ahead of the vote. The bill was later ratified by the legislative council, too.
Bihar being one of the earliest states to ratify the bill is significant also because the Kumar-led JDU had a bitter parting of ways with the BJP in 2013 following the nomination of Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 general election.
According to a news report by the Press Trust of India, Kumar highlighted the significance of the bill during a discussion on it in the legislative assembly and said it was beneficial for a consumer state like Bihar and that it would bring transparency in tax collection and distribution among the centre and the states.
The state would have its share from service tax on telecom, railway, bank and power, among others, which would be financially beneficial to the state, he said.
The 122nd Constitution amendment bill received Parliament’s nod last week and has subsequently been sent to the states for their consent.
The bill needs to be ratified by 16 states before it can be sent for Presidential assent.
“The support given by chief minister Nitish Kumar is natural—his stand has remained the same and, therefore, he had offered that Bihar would ratify the bill at the earliest. We believe that it is in the state’s interest that the GST is implemented soon,” a Rajya Sabha leader from the JDU said requesting anonymity.
The NDA needs the bill to be ratified by 16 states by the first week of September in order to meet its 1 April 2017 implementation deadline.
“Nitish Kumar has supported the bill since the beginning and so, if you are supporting the bill, it is natural that you will take a constitutional step ahead to make it a reality. It was very clear in the Parliament that what we saw was indicative of mature politics and Kumar is taking that ahead in a true form,” said A.K. Verma, a Kanpur-based political analyst and political science professor at Christ Church College.
Once the constitution amendment bill is enacted, the government will set up a GST Council that will take all decisions on crucial issues such as tax rates and threshold and finalize three GST laws.
The government is aiming to table the central GST law and the integrated GST law in the winter session of Parliament.
The state GST law will go to all the states for passage.
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/2Y...mes-first-nonNDA-govt-to-ratify-GST-bill.html
____________________________________________________________________________________
Another reason why bihar is better than south "India".
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