Nagaland Assembly ratifies GST Bill

Minister of social welfare and parliamentary affairs, Kiyanilie Peseyie, who introduced the Bill, said that the Centre would provide all necessary support for infrastructure and software systems before GST was put in place.

Responding to a question by minister school education and SCERT Yitachu on the department preparedness to carry out the online transaction of taxes, Peseyie said that almost all activities of the department were online even under the current VAT regime. He said there was a substantial parentage of payment of taxes online already.

When the parliamentary secretary, Er. Levi, asked whether the bill would be advantageous and the certainty of the state to get assured tax compensation, Peseyie said the compensation to be given to the states on account of loss due to implementation of GST would be passed on to the concerned state through the existing mechanism of devolution of state share and central tax. He informed that this was the procedure under which the state was receiving share of taxes as recommended by 14th FC.

Parliamentary secretary, Hukavi, expressed apprehension that Nagaland would not be benefitted as tax would be levied directly at source. To this, the minister informed that the GST system was a tax based on destination principle and not at source.

In response to parliamentary secretary Khekaho Assumi, who asked the minister to enlighten on the GST Bill, Peseyie said the ratification was only for enabling the parliament to amend the constitution, adding that the specific laws applicable to the centre and the state would be framed separately at a later stage in due consultation with the stakeholders. On being asked by MLA Imkong L. Imchen if the GST would benefit the state government, Peseyie said that a purely consuming state like Nagaland would benefit even more since GST was based on the destination principle.

Further, Peseyie informed that GST was an indirect tax regime that did not include income tax but a direct tax. However, he added that all indirect taxes would get unified under the GST regime.

NLA speaker, Chotisuh Sazo, said that the current session was for ratifying the constitutional amendment bill that seeks to amend taxation powers of the centre and the states. Subsequently GST act and rules would be framed and would have to be passed by the parliament as well as the state legislature before GST was affected, Sazo said.

He said GST council would first finalize the draft laws before it was placed in the respective houses. Speaker said the document made available before the public domain was just the model of GST seeking comments from all stakeholders. He said it was not felt necessary to place the draft laws before the august house during this current session as it will be circulated prior to the session when the State GST Act was taken up for passage in the house.

Following a brief discussion and clarifications, the bill was put to voice vote by NLA speaker Chotisuh Sazo after which the Bill was passed unanimously.

The special session began with the obituary reference to former member NLA late Y. Shangyu. A two-minute silence was observed for the departed soul. Parliamentary secretary veterinary and animal husbandry (V&AH), S. ChubaLongkumer, laid a copy of the Nagaland Veterinary & Animal Husbandry Services Service Rules, 2016.

After finishing all the business of the special session in approximately 45 minutes, the speaker Chotisuh Sazo adjourned the house sine die.