Assam Goods and Services Tax Bill tabled in state assembly

GUWAHATI: Assam finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday tabled Assam Goods and Services Tax Bill.

Around eight states including Telangana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana - have already passed the State Goods and Services Tax ( SGST) Act.

Centre rolling out the new indirect tax regime nationwide from July. The financial memorandum of the bill states that “due to subsumation of taxes, inclusion of tobacco products under GST and shrinking taxable base due to exclusion of excise duty, state might face drop in revenue in the initial years. Such revenue will, however, be offset to a great extent by taxing the service sector by the state, the most buoyant source of revenue.”

The bill stated, "The GST council has decided four slabs of rates of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%, “but the exact fitment of commodities into the above slabs is yet to be done. Therefore it is not possible to ascertain the exact impact of introduction of GST on revenue of the state."