This refers to the editorial, “For unified tax regime” (June 16). It portends well that the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill has
mustered a great deal of support in terms of its long-standing passage in the upper House. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu has all the right to have its reservations saying that the Bill will take the State's right to tax manufacturing companies and that it will in turn, affect the fiscal autonomy of the States and cause huge loss of revenue, even as the Congress has put the proposal to create an independent mechanism to redress such-like revenue sharing problems among the States.
However, such apprehensions may be addressed in the next meeting of the Empowered Committee of the Finance Ministers of the States in July. With Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley agreeing to consider these concerns, there appears a silver lining that the coveted Bill will soon see the light of the day. The passage of this Bill will facilitate inter-State movement of goods.