TN GST Bill introduced in State Assembly

Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 was passed in the State Legislative Assembly session, which began on Wednesday, to debate on demand for grants for various departments, amidst ruckus over the horse-trading of the MLAs.

The Bill was introduced before the House by Commercial Taxes Minister KC Veeramani.The Bill was subsequently allowed to be introduced through voice-vote.

"The proposed legislation will confer power upon the State government for levying Goods and Services Tax on the supply of goods or services or both which takes place within the State. The proposed legislation will simplify and harmonize the indirect tax regime in the state.  It is expected to reduce cost of production and inflation in the economy, thereby making the trade and industry more competitive.

 Due to the seamless transfer of input tax credit from one stage to another in the chain of value addition, there is an in-built mechanism in the design of Goods and Services Tax that would incentivise tax compliance by taxpayers. The proposed Goods and Services Tax will broaden the tax base,  and result in the better tax compliance due to robust information technology infrastructure", the Bill read.   

Before the Bill was introduced, Leader of Opposition MK Stalin pointed out about the recent expose of the bribing of the ruling party MLAs. Speaker P Dhanapal expunged the remarks citing that the matter was subjudice as the DMK has moved the Court in this regard. As DMK members continued to demand time to rake up the issue, the Speaker ordered the eviction of DMK MLAs from the session.

Led by Stalin, DMK members squatted on Rajaji Salai blocking the traffic to register their protest. 

Congress Legislature party leader KR Ramasamy registered their opposition for evicting DMK MLAs, and staged walkout. The DMK MLAs were removed by the cops and were detained in marriage halls.