On 3 February 2017, while addressing separate sessions, the Finance Minister and the Revenue Secretary set specific timelines for the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Draft Laws, GST Rules and GST rates.
The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while addressing a post-budget interactive session with industry associations at Vigyan Bhawan, made an announcement saying, ''My target is to finalise GST drafts and take them in the second part of the Budget session of Parliament''. Furthermore, on the issue of black money, he appeared hopeful that under the GST regime, the scope for generating black money would become difficult.
In a separate event, the Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said that the GST Draft Laws and GST rules might be finalised by March-end and GST rates should be expected to be announced during the May-June period.
SKP's comments
Based on the news reports available, the second phase of the Budget Session is likely to start from 9 March 2017 and end on 13 April 2017. Accordingly, if the final GST Law is ready by the end of March with complete consensus among all parties, we can expect the final GST Law to be tabled in the Parliament (Lok Sabha) in the first week of April 2017. With timelines for the final GST law pegged around mid-April, the implementation date of 1 July 2017 seems to be a realistic target set by the government. Companies can calculate backwards and plan their GST transition accordingly.
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