President Pranab Mukherjee today approved the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill that would pave the way for implementation of a common Goods and Services Tax (GST) across the nation.
Modi government is working to implement the new tax regime from the next financial year beginning from April 01, 2017.
The passage of the bill will pave the way for setting up of a GST council that will decide the tax rate, cess and surcharges.
Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament, had approved the constitutional amendment bill on August 08, 2016.
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.
The Parliament had on August 8 passed the bill which was then circulated to state governments seeking its ratification.
A Constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by the legislative Assemblies of at least half of the states.
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 other states which have passed the legislation include Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Haryana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Goa, Odisha and Rajasthan, Legislatures of National Capital Territory of Delhi and Pudducherry have also approved the bill.
