New Delhi, Aug 4 (KNN) After the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill passed the Rajya Sabha by historic unanimous votes, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the ease of doing business will become easy in the country now.

Minister said, "Yesterday a very major step forward has been taken in direction of having a uniform tax in the country."

He also said that it would help the traders and people doing business across the country.

Addressing the media, Finance Minister Jaitley further said, "The constitutional amendment was pending for a long time, predominantly because Rajya Sabha was not able to reach a consensus. Most important thing is that it was passed with unanimity, except for the AIADMK who walked out. We rarely saw a situation where there was a sense of public anxiety over the delay of a Bill."

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, who was also present in the conference, said, "The roll out target date for the GST is April 1, 2017."

"Prices of some goods and commodities may come down after rolling out of GST,” Jaitley said.

He assured that by December 2016, all back-end and front-end IT systems are expected to be ready; followed by testing," Finance Minister added.

he conference was attended by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha and Revenue Secretary Dr Hasmukh Adhia, amongst others. (KNN Bureau)