House follows LS, passes GST Bill
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 05 2017: The Manipur Legislative Assembly has passed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill today.

Significantly the GST was passed by Parliament with the aim of One Nation, One Tax earlier.

As the respective State Governments have to pass the Bill passed in Parliament, the Manipur Legislative Assembly also passed the Manipur Goods and Service Tax, 2017 .

The Bill will be implemented as soon as the Government issues a gazette notification.

Finance Minister Y Joykumar tabled 'The Manipur Goods and Service Tax Bill, 2017' for discussion on the last day of the second sitting of the second part of the first 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly session held today.

House follows LS, passes GST Bill

From the Opposition side (Congress), MLA P Brojen Singh, MLA O Surjakumar, MLA K Ranjit Singh, MLA Kh Joykisan, MLA K Meghachandra Singh, MLA Y Surchandra, MLA AK Mirabai, MLA P Sharatchandra, MLA Th Lokeshwar Singh participated in the two hour long discussion.

During the discussion, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said that the new Bill would benefit the consumers more than the producers of goods and services.

He said that the State would generate revenue of around 150 to 200 crores annually under GST adding that the figure may even climb to Rs 200 crore with the only potential bottleneck being the infrastructure needed to collect the tax.

The Chief Minister further said that around 4500 entrepreneurs have been registered for GST in the State.

Biren assured that the State Government is trying to exclude items like Ngari (fermented fish) and Soibum (fermented bamboo shoot) from the GST Bill and to lower the taxes if in case they are included.

He further urged all the House Members to support the Bill as it was passed in Parliament and the State Government has to follow suit.

Explaining the Bill to the House Members, Y Joykumar said that the Bill has been in discussion since the last 10 years.

Stating that "one Nation- one tax" is the soul of GST, he said GST is a 'Destination based Consumption Tax' and such tax will flow to the State where goods and services are consumed.

So, States like Manipur which are consumer State will benefit from GST, he added.

He further informed the House that there are three kinds of GST namely Central GST, State GST and Integrated GST.

Addressing the House, Joykumar assured that GST would bring a uniform taxation in the country and curb the imbalance in tax variation and price variation in different States.

He stressed that the implementation of GST will not push up the prices of goods and services and the people should not panic because of implementation of GST in the State.

The GST Council will not determine the prices of goods and services and there are still many items not covered by GST, he added.

Explaining further, he said that most of the dry fish in Manipur are imported from Gujarat and 5 percent tax would be charged according to GST and this tax would not be given to the State of Gujarat but to the destination State (Manipur) as per Integrated GST.

"The GST rate for silk needed for the manufacture of handloom products is also 5 percent but this does not mean that it would cause inconvenience for the women weavers of the State because GST will not be applicable to the entrepreneurs whose turn over is lower than Rs 10 lakh", Joykumar clarified.

"For those entrepreneurs whose annual turnover is less than 1.5 crore, 90 percent of them should vest under State GST and the remaining 10 percent under Central GST.

If the taxpayers' annual turnover is above 1.5 crores, then it would be divided equally (50-5) between Central and State GST," he added.

Y Joykumar stressed that the Union Government would provide compensation for a period of five years from the date of GST implementation.

He further informed the House that the taxation on alcoholic liquor for human consumption would be exempted under the Goods and Service Tax Bill 2017 .

In today's session, two Audit Reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on the Accounts of Manipur Legal Services Authority, an annual report and memorandum of action taken on the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission, India for the year 2013-14, six regulations of Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for Manipur and Mizoram regulations 2016 and a corrigendum of Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission for Manipur and Mizoram were laid on the table of the House.

Later, Speaker Y Khemchand adjourned the House sine die after passing the Manipur GST Bill 2017 .