Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: In a desperate move to bring the Congress on board and pass the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill in the Parliament, the BJP-led government may opt for more than one GST rate.
According to report in The Times of India, the government may back more than one GST rate while doing away with the proposal allowing manufacturing states to levy up to 1 percent additional tax.
This additional tax (not to exceed 1 percent) on the supply of goods in the course of inter-state trade or commerce would be levied and collected by the centre from manufacturing states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
However, with the proposal to do away with this tax, it is very likely that the government will have to compensate these manufacturing states.
Moreover, the NDA government is weighing the option of accepting a revenue neutral rate of 18 percent in move to meet the Congress halfway.
While the government and industry are in favour of a slightly higher rate of 20 per cent to 22 per cent for GST, the Congress has been demanding that the rate be kept at 18 per cent.
The government is keen that Congress is onboard in the passage of the Constitution amendment bill as it is primarily a Congress bill.
"We want to take Congress along. That is our motive," Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, adding that Congress did not oppose the bill in Lok Sabha but did so in Rajya Sabha due to political reasons.
GST, which will subsume more than a dozen state levies to create a single market, is to be implemented from April 1, 2016. A Constitution Amendment Bill could not go through the Rajya Sabha in the last session of Parliament due to opposition from Congress.
The April 1 deadline may be missed if Parliament does not pass the Bill in the ongoing Winter Session from November 26 to December 23.
