The Rajya Sabha considered and returned two Bills — the Central Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill and the Provisional Collection of Taxes Bill — on December 20 in the absence of Opposition members, who boycotted the proceedings demanding a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue of breach in Parliament security.
While the first Bill is to align the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act with the Tribunal Reforms Act “to initiate the administrative process for operationalisation of the Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunals at the earliest”, the Provisional Collection of Taxes Bill is to repeal the 1931 Act of the same name and for imposition or increase of duties of customs or excise, with or without change in tariff classification.
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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman piloted both the Bills. The Bills were taken up separately and both were returned to the Lok Sabha. Ms. Sitharaman said the amendment to the CGST Bill was brought as suggested by the Chief Justice of India and it makes the law in tune with other regulators. “Since it was a valid suggestion and pointed out by the Supreme Court, we quickly thought it was important for us to respond and we responded in time. Therefore, we have come up with these two amendments,” Ms. Sitharaman said. It also seeks to raise the cap on age for president and members of the GST Appellate Tribunals (GSTAT) to 70 years and 67 years respectively. At present, the age limit for the president is 67 and for members is 65.
Replying to the debate, she said that after the introduction of GST, prices of daily items such as toothpaste, brush, and hair oil, have come down. On the issue of bringing petroleum under GST, she said: “I wish the State governments see the point and eventually customers will pay less tax if the GST is brought in; the overlapping, the doubling of tax will not be there.”
On the Provisional Collection of Taxes Bill, she said the Centre had to wait till April 1 to see the announcements made in the budget on February 1 become effective and it led to a gap between the two dates. Pointing out that such a gap could result in various kind of speculations, exploitation etc, she said the Centre decided to start the collection of taxes from midnight on the day of presentation of the budget. “Otherwise, the speculation can hurt the market,” Ms. Sitharaman said. “If that approval doesn’t come, it (the Bill) also tells you that can get a refund,” she said. “It is part of a larger re-look at the Bills so that any colonial past residues are in these Acts, we want to remove them and make them reflective of modern India, the new India that we are trying to build,” Ms. Sitharaman added.
Members from the BJP, BJD, AIADMK and the YSRCP participated in the debate on both the Bills.
