Chronology of GST in India

2000    :   Initiating discussions on GST, Vajpayee government appoints an Empowered Committee headed by the then finance minister of West Bengal Asim Gupta. 

2004        :   Vijya Kelkar, then advisor to the Finance Ministry, recommends GST to replace the existing indirect tax regime. 

28.02 2006:  GST appears in the Budget speech for the first time. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram sets an ambitious task of implementing GST by April 1, 2010. 

28.02.2007:  Chidambaram said in his Budget speech that the Empowered Committee of finance ministers will prepare a road map for GST. 

30.04.2008:  The Empowered Committee submits a report titled 'A Model and Roadmap Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India' to the government 

10.11.2009:   Empowered Committee submits a discussion paper in the public domain on GST welcoming debate. 

 12.02.2010:    Government launches project for computerisation of commercial taxes. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee defers GST to April 1, 2011. 

22.03.2011:    Constitution Amendment Bill (115th) to GST introduced in the Lok Sabha 

29.03.2011:    Bill referred to Standing Committee on Finance. 

15.11.2012:   Finance minister and state ministers decide to resolve all issues by Dec 31, 2012. 

12.02.2013:  Declaring government’s resolve to introduce GST, the finance minister makes provisions for compensation to states in the Budget. 

28.03.2013:    Goods and Services Tax Network, (GSTN) is a Section 8, non-Government private limited company. It was incorporated on March 28, 2013. Under new companies Act, ‘not for profit companies’ are governed under section 8. The Government of India holds 24.5% equity in GSTN and all States of the Indian Union, including NCT of Delhi and Puducherry, and the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers (EC), together hold another 24.5%. Balance 51% equity is with non-Government financial institutions. The Company has been set up primarily to provide IT infrastructure and services to the Central and State Governments, tax payers and other stakeholders for implementation of the Goods and Services Tax . The Authorised Capital of the company is Rs. 10,00,00,000 (Rupees ten crore only).

 29.08.2013:  The standing committee submits report to Parliament suggesting improvements. But the bill lapsed as the 15th Lok Sabha was dissolved. 

18.12. 2014:  Cabinet approval for the Constitution Amendment Bill (122nd) to GST 

19.12. 2014:  The Amendment Bill (122nd) in the Lok Sabha 

06.05. 2015:  The Amendment Bill (122nd) passed by the Lok Sabha 

12.05. 2015:  The Amendment Bill presented in the Rajya Sabha 

14.05. 2015:  The Bill forwarded to joint committee of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha 

   .08. 2015: Government fails to win the support of Opposition to pass the bill in the Rajya Sabha where it lacks sufficient number. 

03.08. 2016:   Rajya Sabha passes the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill by two-thirds majority.

08.08.2016:  Lok Sabha passed the amended Bill.

12.08.2016:    Assam became the first state to ratify the GST Bill

16.08.2016:    Bihar ratified the Bill

17.08.2016:    Jharkhand ratified the Bill

22.08.2016:    Chhatisgarh and Himachal Pradesh ratified the Bill

23.08.2016:    Gujarat ratified the Bill

24.08.2016:    Delhi (Union Territory) and Madhya Pradesh ratified the Bill

26.08.2016:    Nagaland ratified the Bill

29.08.2016:    Haryana and Maharastra ratified the Bill

30.08.2016:    Mizoram Sikkim and Telangana ratified the Bill

31.08.2016:    Goa ratified the Bill

01.09.2016:    Odisha ratified the Bill

02.09.2016:    Rajasthan and Puduchery (seventeenth state) ratified the bill

08.09.2016:    Hon’ble President accorded assent to the Bill to be called the Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016

08.09.2016:    Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh ratified the Bill

09.09.2016:    Meghalaya ratified the Bill

12.09.2016:    Centre has notified 12th September, 2016 as the date on which Section 12 of the Constitutional (101st Amendment) Act shall come into force

12.09.2016:    Punjab ratified the Bill

15.09.2016:    Vide F. No. 31011/09/2015-SO (ST) dated 15th September, 2016, Hon’ble President has constituted the Goods and Services Tax Council (“GST Council”) consisting of the following members, namely:- The Union Finance Minister as the Chairperson, Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue or Finance as Member and Minister in charge of Finance or any other Minister nominated by each State Government as Members GST Council can now hold meetings and take decisions on various issues entrusted to it under the Constitution which includes Model law, rate of taxes, exemptions etc.

16.09.2016:    Ministry of Finance has vide Notification No. S.O. 2986(E) dated 16.09. 2016 enforced Sections 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 and 20 of Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act, 2016 and, thus, has appointed the 16th day of September, 2016 as the date on which the above Sections shall come into force.

22.09.2016:  First meeting of GST Council held. In the first meeting of GST Council, the threshold exemption has been decided at Rs. 10 Lakhs for North-Eastern States and Rs. 20 Lakhs for the rest of India. Further, it is decided that States will have sole jurisdiction over assessees having a turnover of Rs. 1.5crores or less. The existing service tax assessees will continue to be under jurisdiction of Centre. The Centre will pay 

30.09.2016: 2nd meeting- The GST Council finalized five subordinate legislations relating to payment, returns, refunds, invoice and registration. It also reached at a consensus on area-based exemption in accordance with those granted under the current excise regime. The Council decided that under GST, taxes will have to be collected and it can be reimbursed from the annual budgets to the exempted categories. However, the Council faced differences over approving the minutes of the last meeting as certain States disagreed with the decision of Centre assessing the existing service tax assessees in the new regime. This discussion remained inconclusive.

19.10.2016:     3rd meeting- The GST Council reached a consensus on state compensation; the base year will be 2015- 16. A four-tier rate structure comprising a lower rate of 6%, two standard rates of 12% and 18%, and a higher rate of 26% with an additional cess for luxury and demerit goods were proposed in the third meeting of the GST Council. Such cess has been proposed to be used for payment of compensation to the States. However, consensus could not be reached. The Finance Ministry has set the November 22 deadline for building consensus on all issues in the Council.

03.11.2016:    4th Meeting- A four-tier GST rate structure of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% was decided by the GST Council. Essential items including food will be taxed at zero rate. The lowest rate of 5% would be for common use items. 12% and 18% would be the standard rates. The highest rate would apply to luxury and de-merit goods, which will also attract an additional cess. The collection from this cess as well as Clean Energy cess will be used for compensating states for any loss of revenue during the first five years of implementation of GST.

08.11.2016:    GSTN made the www.gst.gov.in portal live for migration of existing assessees. The migration will take place in a staggered manner. The new portal is expected to be simple and will enable easy filing of returns and tax payments through credit/debit cards and other modes. A new provisional identification number will be generated for assessees who move to the new portal.

03.12.2016:    5th Meeting of the GST Council was held on 2nd and 3rd Dec. 2016. In the meeting, consensus could not be reached on the issue of sharing of administrative powers between the centre and the states.

12.12.2016:    6th meeting of the GST Council was held for two days wherein the issues between the Centre and States could not be resolved. However, the Council went clause by clause of the draft legislations comprising of 195 Sections and discussed 99 Sections. A few clauses are slated to be redrafted.

23.12.2016:  Provisions contained in the draft Model GST Act are approved. However, the issue of administrative control over the assessees could not be resolved.

3-4/01/2017:  No decision could be taken in the meeting

16.01.2017:  GST rollout deferred to July 1. It was resolved that all assesses with GST turnover of Rs 1.5 crore or less, 90 percent of them will be assessed by States and 10 percent by administrative machinery of Centre. Power to levy, collect IGST taxation will be with Centre but by special provisions in law, states will also be cross-empowered. States will be empowered to tax on any economic activity in territorial water up to 12 nautical miles. Next GST Council meeting will be held on February 18 to approve drafts of supplementary legislations.

18.02.2017: In its 10 meeting, the council approved the draft compensation law.

4-5/3/2017: The Council approved the draft legislations.

20.3.2017: Union cabinet approved the draft legislations and the same would now be introduced in the Parliament in the current session.

29.3.2017: The Central GST Bill, 2017; The Integrated GST Bill, 2017; The GST (Compensation to States) Bill, 2017; and The Union Territory GST Bill, 2017 were passed after negation of a host of amendments moved by the opposition parties.

06.4.2017: Rajya Sabha passed the four GST Bills.

06.04.2017: Hon'ble President of India has given his assent to the four GST Bills

12.04.2017: Ministry of Law and Justice published in the Gazette of India - Extraordinary, the four Acts viz. The CGST Act, 2017 (12 of 2017), The IGST Act, 2017 (13 of 2017), The UT GST Act, 2017 (14 of 2017) and The GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 (15 of 2017). Dates of implementation will be notified later by issuing Notification.

Information collected from lots of sources like newspapers and other GST articles, errors may arise. THANKS FOR YOUR SUGGESTION & FEEDBACK.

-CA Ashish Patel, Ahmedabad