President Pranab Mukherjee has signed the government’s flagship GST Bill, which will do away with the indirect taxes and usher in one tax for the entire country.
With the President’s assent, now GST council need to be formed. Sixteen of the country’s 31 states have already ratified the GST.
The GST Council also has to be formed, which will take care of some “pending issues”, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.
With the President giving his assent to the bill, the government will notify the GST Council. Union Finance Minister will head the Council, which will comprise state Finance Ministers.
The GST is a single indirect tax which will subsume most of the central and state taxes such as Value Added Tax (VAT), excise duty, service tax, central sales tax, additional customs duty and special additional duty of customs.
