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Finally historic GST bill gets Rajya Sabha nod, govt to announce its implementation roadmap

Yesterday, Rajya Sabha approved the long-delayed historic GST bill. On Thursday, the NDA government will announce the road map for the national sales tax regime.

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It is the biggest tax reform since Independence. The GST Bill or national sales tax was approved by the Rajya Sabha yesterday. Now the GST Bill will replace a group of local taxes and different state taxes with a single unified value added tax system. The GST Bill can turn the country into the biggest single market of the world.

The 66-year-old Constitution was amended the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill. The constitution gives power to Central government to levy taxes like customs, excise, and empowers states to collect retail sales taxes.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the government will also try and keep the rate as low as possible, certainly much lower than what the present situation is.

He also said that the tax rate would be decided by the GST Council with Union Finance Minister and representatives of all 29 states.

Earlier, the GST bill was passed by the Lok Sabha. It will now go back to the Lok Sabha to incorporate the amendments approved by the Rajya Sabha. The GST bill will also have to be approved by 50 per cent of all the state assemblies.

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