The Telangana state legislature has ratified the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill passed by the Parliament early this month. Both the houses unanimously passed a resolution ratifying the GST Bill (122nd Constitution Amendment Bill, 2014).
In the state assembly, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao hailed the passing of unanimous resolution and said this would set a good precedent. As soon as the House met for the special session to ratify the bill, the Chief Minister moved the resolution. He said the bill need to be ratified by the legislatures of half of the states before it is presented to the President for his assent.
He told the House that nine states had already ratified the bill, which will introduce a uniform tax system for the entire country as is being followed in 150 countries. Rao said no state was ready to let go its tax revenue and all states had urged the Centre to protect their interests. He told the members that the Centre has assured that it will compensate the states for any revenue loss caused to them on account of implementation of GST for a period of five years.