NEW DELHI, May 6: Lok Sabha today has passed the Goods and Services Tax Bill (GST Bill) where as the Real Estate Bill has been referred to a 21-member select committee of Rajya Sabha.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured the states that the Centre would compensate any tax losses suffered by them over the next five years. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley told the members that GST will bring a uniform tax structure across the country, adding that certain products like petroleum and alcohol have been kept out of the purview of the bill and have been kept under the domain of the states.
The GST rate will be "much more diluted" than the speculated 27 percent and the final rate will be worked out by the GST Council.
"We have decided to keep petroleum out and every state finance minister is not interested in imposing higher taxes on its own people, and neither [is] the central government. Therefore, this figure (RNR) is going to [be] much more diluted compared to the figure (27 percent) which has been mentioned," he said.
Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) is the rate at which there will be no revenue loss to the states after GST implementation.
In the Rajya Sabha, where the ruling BJP is in a minority, the Congress has said it will insist on sending the bill to a parliamentary committee for review as here in Lok Sabha the Bill sailed through as the government has enough numbers.
On the other hand, the Real Estate Bill that seeks to regulate realty business has been referred to a Select 21 members Committee of the Rajya Sabha where the panel will submit the report by last day of first week of Monsoon Session.
The proposed 21 members of the Select Committee are Anil Madhav Dave, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, Shamsher Singh Manhas, Shantaram Naik, M V Rajeev Gowda, Kumari Selja, Naresh Agrawal, K C Tyagi, Md Nadimul Haque, A W Rabi Bernard, Munquad Ali, K N Balagopal, A U Singh Deo, C M Ramesh, Majeed Memon, K P Ramalingam, Anil Desai, Naresh Gujral, Nazir Ahmed Laway, D Kupendra Reddy and Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
Last month, in April 2015, PM Modi and the council of Union Ministers in the Cabinet had given their green signal to the pending Bill but later the government was forced to defer the bill after opposition insisted on sending it to a Select Committee for proper scrutiny.
- with inputs from PTI
