Goods & Service Tax (GST) will become from April 2016

The Finance Min­is­ter in his Bud­get said that The debate whether to intro­duce a Goods and Ser­vices Tax (GST) must now come to an end. We have dis­cussed the issue for the past many years. Some States have been appre­hen­sive about sur­ren­der­ing their tax­a­tion juris­dic­tion; oth­ers want to be ade­quate­ly com­pen­sat­ed. I have dis­cussed the mat­ter with the States both indi­vid­u­al­ly and col­lec­tive­ly. I do hope we are able to find a solu­tion in the course of this year and approve the leg­isla­tive scheme which enables the intro­duc­tion of GST. This will stream­line the tax admin­is­tra­tion, avoid harass­ment of the busi­ness and result in high­er rev­enue col­lec­tion both for the Cen­tre and the States. I assure all States that gov­ern­ment will be more than fair in deal­ing with them.