Maharashtra Assembly passes State GST Bill

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Assembly passed unanimously the State Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill Monday, the last day of a special session of the state Legislature.

After the passage of the bill in the Lower House, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis thanked everyone for their cooperation.

"All political parties had unanimity over the GST Bill. Today, this supreme House has unanimously passed this bill. I thank the House for this," Fadnavis said.

The three-day special session to discuss and ratify the bill, to pave the way for the national roll-out of GST on July 1, began on Saturday.

During the session, the Assembly passed three bills, including the State Goods and Services Tax Bill, related to the compensation to local authorities and a bill on the existing laws to be repealed when the GST is expected to come into effect from July 1.

Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said in the Assembly that the government would ensure GST did not hamper financial autonomy of local self government bodies.

"The government has accepted the responsibility of compensation to local bodies for five years for the loss of revenue due to abolition of octroi and local body tax due to GST," he said.

Mungantiwar also took potshots at former Finance Minister Jayant Patil of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the latter's speech in the House yesterday targeting the state government.

"It seems Patil is in a hurry to come back to power," Mungantiwar said.

Patil was a minister during 1999-2014 when the Congress-NCP combine held power in Maharashtra.