GST Important Facts, History, Dates for Exams

Goods and Services Tax (GST), Bill 2017 Important Facts, History, Dates for Exams:

• GST begins its journey in year 2000, the Vajpayee government started a discussion on GST by setting up an empowered committee headed by Asim Dasgupta. He was the then Finance Minister of West Bengal.
• GST was letter discussed in the report of the Kelkar Task Force on Indirect Taxes in 2003.  In 2005, the Kelkar committee recommended rolling out GST as suggested by the 12th Finance Commission.
• After the fall of the BJP-led NDA government in 2004, and the election of a Congress-led UPA government, the new Finance Minister P Chidambaram in February 2006 continued work on the same and proposed a GST rollout by 1 April 2010. 
• In 2008-09, Kelkar Task Force gave a report on the draft of GST called 'A Model and Roadmap for GST in India' and the first discussion was done after the arrival of this report in November.
• In 2011, the 115th Constitution Amendment Bill was introduced for the levy of GST on all goods and services in the Lok Sabha.
• In 2013, the Standing Committee presented its report on GST and in November 2009, the proposal to include the government's petroleum products in GST was rejected by the Empowered Committee.
• Seven months after the formation of the Modi government, the new Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the GST Bill in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP had a majority. In February 2015, Jaitley set another deadline of 1 April 2016 which was postponed.
• After two years of waiting, Rajya Sabha passed the GST the on August 3, 2016 and received President's approval in September 2016.
• Assam on 12th August 2016 became the first state in the country to ratify the constitution amendment bill on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the assembly unanimously passed the bill.
• On 22 September 2016 GST Council was formed. This council will decide on tax rate for the new indirect tax system, the exemption given in it and its limits. The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is the Chairman of the GST council.
• In 2017, the government introduced four types of GST bills, including Central GST, Integrated GST, GST Bill of Union Territories and GST Bill.
• On June 20, 2017, Arun Jaitley announced that GST will be launched on the lines of the night of Independence, on the midnight of June 30. and GST bill come in to effect from 1st July 2017 in India.
• 101st Amendment w.e.f 1st July 2017 is done for Goods and Services Tax Act. It do Amendment of article 248,249,250,268,269,270,271,286,366,368,sixth schedule,seventh schedule and Deletion of Article 268An.
• GST is officially known as The Constitution 122nd Amendment Bill, 2014.
• GST Definition: Goods has been defined to mean every kind of movable property. Services have been defined as “anything other than goods”. If we go by the literal meaning of this definition, even immovable property will be treated as services for the purpose of GST. GST will ensure seamless flow of credit across the supply chain, thus overcoming the inflationary effects of cascading of taxes. Further, GST will open up the Indian economy to FDI by foreign investors who are reluctant to invest in India due to its complicated tax structure.
• GST Council in India has proposed a 4 rate structure with two standard rates – 12% and 18%. However there are total 5 tax slab availabe: 0 percent, 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent and 28 percent. Moreover there is a special rate of 0.25% on rough precious and semi-precious stones and 3% on gold. In addition a cess of 15% or other rates on top of 28% GST applies on few items like aerated drinks, luxury cars and tobacco products. the government may even levy a cess on sin goods over and above the higher rate of 28%.
• Presently, there are around 160+ countries that have implemented the GST or VAT in some form or the other. France was the first country to have introduced GST.
• India, being a federal country, is going to have a dual-GST structure – Central GST and State GST. The only other country with a dual GST is Canada.
• Lok Sabha in August 2017 passed the Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017 and the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017. The two bills will replace the ordinances promulgated earlier in this regard to complete rolling out GST regime the Himalayan State.

Check More GK Notes on various Topics Free at INDIA GK Mobile App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.csurender.dune.indiagk