The proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) will benefit most of the states from Day 1 as well as industries and common man Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said. Speaking at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry, he said GST will help reduce tax-on-tax and will be beneficial to consumers.
"GST will benefit most of the states from Day 1, especially consumer states," he said. As the volume of trade expands and growth momentum picks up, every state will benefit with the rise in their revenue collections, he added.
A Constitutional Amendment Bill on GST was introduced in the lok Sabha on December 19. It would be taken up by Parliament in the next session. Government intends to roll out GST, which will subsume most of the indirect taxes, from April 1, 2016.
Jaitley said GST will be beneficial to the Centre, states, industrialists, manufacturers, the common man and the country at large since it will bring more transparency, better compliance, increase in GDP growth and revenue collections. He also said government was open for any suggestion for making further improvements on the GST Bill.
"GST is a continuing process which would further evolve and improve with time," said a statement quoted him as saying. To remove apprehensions among states about the fall in their revenue collections, provisions have been made in the GST Bill.
The government, he added, was in favour of strengthening the cooperative federalism and will make all out efforts to evolve as much consensus as possible on GST. The Finance Minister further said the Centre will compensate states for any loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of the GST for a period of five years.