Special midnight session of Parliament.for GST

Special midnight session of Parliament.

A special midnight session of Parliament on June 30 has been proposed by the government to mark the roll out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The new tax regime under the GST will be rolled out on July 1.

According to HOT LINE sources, to mark this historic moment, the Narendra Modi government is planning to convene a special one-hour midnight session. The session will start around 11 pm on June 30 and end at 12.10 am on July 1.

Outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are likely to address the special midnight session.

This will be a joint session of Parliament, with both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha participating in it. The midnight session will be held at the Central Hall of Parliament.

Arun Jaitley recently dismissed speculations around the unpreparedness of the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) for rolling out the new tax regime on July 1.

"The GST Council has categorically decided to implement GST on July 1," the Finance Minister told reporters.

Earlier, industry body Assocham and Civil Aviation Ministry had requested the Finance Ministry to defer the GST roll out. Both were of the view that the machinery to roll out GST from July 1 was not in place.

WHAT IS GST

The Goods and Services (GST) is an indirect taxation wherein most of the existing taxes will be merged into a single taxation system.

In other words, the GST will put all taxes levied by state and Central government in one basket and merge them into a single-tax system, thus doing away with multiple taxation and promoting the concept of a common market for all.

The GST Council approved a four-tier uniform tax slab of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent on goods and services, plus an additional cess on demerit goods such as luxury cars, aerated drinks and tobacco products.

Food items will not attract any tax and have been kept in the zero-per cent slab.

Central taxes such as Sales Tax, Excise Duty, and state taxes such as Value-added Tax (VAT), Entertainment Tax and Luxury Tax will be subsumed into the GST.