The Telangana State Assembly today unanimously ratified the Constitutional Amendment Bill for Goods and Services Tax, in a special session held here. With this, Telangana became the 10th state in the Country as the Centre needs the support of 15 states for the GST Bill to go ahead with its implementation. The Legislative Council has also ratified it today.
As the House met, with the Speaker S Madhusudhan Chary’s permission, Chief Minister, K Chnadrasekhar Rao introduced the GST Bill ratification resolution and explained about its advantages to the states. The GST is one nation- one tax regime and the state government is readily agreeing to it, he said.
The house unanimously approved resolution, and KCR thanked the leaders of all the political parties. After approval by all the states, the Centre would set up a GST Council to formulate a new tax regime across the nation, he maintained. Though no state is ready to lose its revenues in terms of taxes, ‘we are in favour of the crucial bill as the Centre has promised to extend all financial support to the states’, he remarked.
Keeping the long term advantages of the nation, the Centre has come up with a constitution amendment bill for GST to push in for big financial reforms, KCR stated. The GST Bill provides for a single tax across the country, and the revenue is shared with the states 50 per cent of service taxes. The Bill, he said, will also help the states by devolving funds for the first five years to face the financial deficit.
The services tax which was confined to the Centre so far will be shared with the States through the GST Bill, KCR said. It will bring in significant financial reforms across the nation and provide sufficient funds to the coffers of all the states. There will be no problem for Telangana State to ratify the GST Bill as it will prove handy for our exchequer, the chief minister maintained.
The GST Bill will not have any adverse impact on services sector that will fetch revenues to the states, he said. However, the chief minister maintained that the GST will have its say on value added tax (VAT). ‘Indeed, we have to support this bill as it envisages the states to share 50 per cent of service taxes from the Centre’ besides extending financial assistance to fill the gap of financial deficit. Growth rate of service tax in the state is 35 per cent, he added. The Assembly was adjourned sin die after passing three other bills.(NSS)