In a bid to meet the deadline of July 1st, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday introduced major tax reform Goods and Services Tax (GST) bills in the Lok Sabha.
The opposition Congress party opposed the presentation of the bill by FM Arun Jaitley. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said that the Goods and Service Tax bill needed to be passed in this session of the parliament.
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The government wants the house to debate and pass the bills latest by Thursday this week. It will then present them in the Rajya Sabha.
The mega tax reform bill aims to subsume excise, VAT, service taxes among other levies. This leg of the budget session comes to a conclusion on April 12.
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It was reported that the GST bill would be introduced in the parliament as Money Bills as the government has expressed the need to discuss the topic in both the houses.
There will be four tax slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28%, plus a levy on taxes on items like cars, aerated drinks and tobacco products to compensate states for any revenue losses in the first five years.