Odisha Becomes 16th State to ratify GST today

From : B.Maharana

01 September, Bhubaneswar

The Odisha Legislative Assembly Thursday ratified the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the Special session.Odisha becomes the 16th state in the country to ratify the GST Amendment bill.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik tabled the the statutory resolution ratify the bill which was passed by the house unannimouly in voice vote after two and half hour discussion by members belonging to both ruling and opposion.

15 states have already ratified the constitutional amendment bill. With Odisha passing the bill in its legislature, this will touch the magic number of 16, which is required to turn the bill into a law.

Chief Minister Patnaik thanked all the members of the house for supporting the resolution unanniously and said that with enforcement of the uniform tax regime would help reduction of prices of various commodities .

The state has claimed over Rs. 2,755 crores owards CST compensation for the loss on account of the phase-wise abolition of the tax.

The Constitution 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed by the Parliament on August 8, marking a historic step for tax reforms which Prime Minister Modi said was ‘crucial’ for ending tax Terrorism besides reducing corruption and black money while making the consumer ‘king’.

The government has set a deadline of April 2017 for the GST rollout.