President's Assent to GST Bill

Today, Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent & signed the Goods & Services Tax (GST) Bill, provide a way for it to become a law. As it need ratification thereby 16 of the country’s 29 states has ratified it over passed two weeks. This is the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill passed by Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha in August this year. Enabling would now have to be passed by both the house.
The GST Council also has to be formed, which will decide the tax rate, cess and surcharges -some “pending issues,” as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley put it. “We have the months of September and October and parts of November to do that. So there is a lot of work to do,” the minister had said yesterday.
The other states which passed the legislation include Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Haryana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Goa, Odisha and Rajasthan.
The Andhra Pradesh assembly ratified the bill today.
GST is the greatest milestone in th history of Tax Laws. Before this bill, consumer had to pay tax at each stage i.e. from first dealer to last dealer but now after the passing of this bill consumer has to pay only single tax on supply of goods and services to the last dealer in supply.