New Delhi, April 22 (KNN) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said that he is optimistic about introduction of GST, which will create a nationwide unified market and remove trade barriers in the form of cascading effects of taxation, from April 1, 2016. A Constitution Amendment Bill for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be passed in the current session of Parliament as there is a broad consensus among states on the issue.
 
A single rate GST will replace central excise, state VAT, entertainment tax, octroi, entry tax, luxury tax and purchase tax on goods and services to ensure seamless transfer and end of "inspector raj" as well as "tax on tax.
 
The Centre is working towards addressing concerns of all states for rolling out GST on the scheduled date. The Centre and states are also working on a new Revenue Neutral Rate, which is currently pegged at 27 per cent. RNR is one at which there will be no revenue loss to states after GST implementation.
 
Jaitley had last week said that the implementation of the landmark GST regime would increase India's GDP by 1-2 per cent. (KNN/DB)