President Approves GST Bill 

President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday gave his assent to the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
The central government had sent the Constitutional Amendment Bill to the President after 16 states ratified the legislation. The government targets to implement the GST system from April 1, 2017. The Centre will have to pass the Central GST and Integrated GST Bills, while the states will need to approve their respective GST legislations. The Bill was earlier passed unanimously by the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

The Goods and Services Tax is a single indirect tax that proposes to subsume most central and state taxes like Value Added Tax, service tax, central sales tax, excise duty, additional customs duty and special additional customs duty.

The GST rate has to be decided by the proposed GST Council, which will be chaired by the Union Finance Minister. All state finance ministers will be its members. The Council also has to put in place a dispute resolution mechanism.
The Centre is to compensate the states for revenue losses for the first five years after the implementation of the GST if the states’ revenues come down under the new tax regime.