Steps ahead for July 1 GST rollout

New Delhi, Mar 30 (KNN) After the passage of GST Bill in the Parliament, the next step would be states taking up SGST Bills in their respective assemblies for adoption.

This would more likely be like CGST and UTGST Bills.

With just 3 months to go for GST rollout, the Government is also planning a massive outreach to increase awareness and get stakeholders trained and ready for the tax.

The Government has also set up working groups to take up issues faced by various industry sectors to ensure smooth transition to the new regime besides the major countrywide outreach programme.

Further, the next thing to look at is the subordinate rules that the GST Council will take up in its next meeting on March 31.

The Council will also start work on fitting goods and services in the tax slabs, which will be recommended by a committee of officers next month.

In an interview to CNBC TV 18, Najib Shah, Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), said that the law is in public domain and the rules will get firmed up in the next meeting of council.

"July 1, as FM mentioned, is a target which is very optimistic", he said.

On industry urging to push GST rollout date to September 1, 2017 instead of July 1, 2017, Shah said, “there have been some requests from some quarters. However, I think those are calls the government will take slowly. However, we do believe July 1 should be a date in which we should start going on the GST road.”

The introduction of GST proposes to do away with this multiplicity of taxes by subsuming approximately 15 indirect taxes, and allow for goods and services to be taxed at the same rate.

Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said that India Inc should work for the July 1 dateline for rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax.

Speaking at an ASSOCHAM managing committee meet in New Delhi, Lavasa said. "We should all work towards July 1, if it gets achieved". Along with the government, industry should organise training sessions for trade and industry for roll out of new tax reforms.

The four crucial bills, the Central GST Bill, 2017; The Integrated GST Bill, 2017; The GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017; and, The Union Territory GST Bill, 2017 , were passed after voting down of a slew of amendments moved by Opposition parties.