This State Became the First to Ratify the GST, and it's not Telangana!

Assam is the first state in India to ratify the GST. But do you know when GST was introduced in India and when it was implemented and came into force?

Let’s explore this article in detail and know about the GST and its features in detail.

First State to Ratify the GST in India

Assam is the first state to ratify the GST in India. Hemant Biswa Sarma, the Finance minister of Assam in August 2016, who introduced the bill on behalf of Assam CM, Sarbananda Sonowal, and said, “A historic resolution was passed in Assam Assembly as Assam became the 1st State to ratify the Constitutional Amendment Bill relating to GST”.

A historic resolution was passed in Assam Assembly as Assam became the 1st State to ratify the Constitutional Amendment Bill relating to GST

— Sarbananda Sonowal (@sarbanandsonwal) August 12, 2016

What is GST?

According to the NCERT, Goods and Services Tax (GST) is the single comprehensive indirect tax,operational from 1 July 2017, on supply of goods and services, right from the manufacturer/ service provider to the consumer. It is a destination based consumption tax with facility of Input Tax Credit in the supply chain. It is applicable throughout the country with one rate for one type of goods/service. It has amalgamated a large number of Central and State taxes and cesses. It

has replaced large number of taxes on goods and services levied on production/sale of goods or provision of service.”

When was GST introduced in India?

The idea of GST was first proposed by the Kelkar Task Force on Indirect taxes in 2000. The main objective was to replace the older complex and fragmented tax structure with a unified structure which is causing double taxation problems.

To resolve these problem, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has prepared a design and road map for the GST, and released it first paper of discussion om 2009.

In 2011, the Constitution Amendment Bill was introduced, but faced various challenges regarding to compensation to other states.

But in 2014, after a long deliberation and discussion between the Central and State Government, it was again introduced as the Constitutional 122nd Amendment Bill in parliament.

Later in May 2015, this bill was passed in Lok Sabha, after small changes in the GST Bill, it was also passed in the Rajya Sabha, and finally in August 2016, this GST bill was again passed in Lok Sabha.

Further, this bill get ratified by different state of India, and got the assent from the President of India on 8th September, 2016, and this bill has been enacted as the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016. Later on on 12 September, 2016, the GST Council was notified and for assisting the GST Council, the office of the GST Council Secretariat was also established.

Salient Features of GST

Goods & Services Tax (GST) is the levy of tax on the value addition on every transaction of the supply of goods & services up to the final consumption. With all these, GST have various salient features, which are given below in the table format:

Here is the information structured into a clean, scannable table format highlighting the salient features of the Goods & Services Tax (GST):

• One Nation, One Tax: After the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016, the GST came into effect, multiple taxes have been removed.

• Dual Structure: GST follows the the dual structure, which means it consists of both CGST, i.e Central, and SGST, i.e State. In the case of an inter-state transaction, then IGST (Integrated GST) is applied.

• Destination-Based Tax: GST is destination-based tax, which means at every stage of the supply chain, from manufacturing of the goods to the consumer, it is levied.

So, this article was all about the Assam, which became the first state to Ratify the GST in India.