Legislative assembly ratifies GST; two bills receive assent

KOHIMA, AUGust 26 : The 13th (special) session of the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly saw a “debate” among members on the constitution (122nd amendment) Bill of 2014, commonly known as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, in Kohima town. During the deliberations, parliamentary secretaries Levi Rengma and Hukavi Sema raised concerns on whether the GST would benefit a “consumer state” like Nagaland; if the state would receive the assured tax compensation and whether or not the taxes department was well-equipped to ‘handle any eventualities’ that may arise in the future. The parliamentary secretary for Information & Public Relations Khekaho Assumi also sought the assembly to ‘give a clear concept of the bill for the understanding of the general masses, to avoid confusions and misunderstandings.’ To this, the minister for Social Welfare, Kiyanilie Peseyie, said that the GST system would ‘bring transparency and broadening of tax base, as taxation system will be online, and that revenue should go up due to check on tax evasion.’ Also, he said that the industries may prefer setting up units ‘here because of the uniform tax policy’ across the country. The advantage enjoyed by some states due to their policies will ‘go away’ too, he said. Kiyanilie explained that a ‘purely consuming state like Nagaland’ will benefit even more because the GST is based on the ‘destination principle.’ He added that the GST would benefit the common man as the price of goods in general would fall ‘while goods will arrive much faster and also make our products more competitive both in the domestic and international market.’ The speaker of the assembly, Chotisuh Sazo, clarified that the current session was to ratify the constitutional amendment bill, which seeks to amend taxation powers of the centre and the states. GST act and rules, he said, would be framed and passed by the parliament as well as by the state legislatures before it comes into effect. Therefore, Sazo said that the document in the public domain was just the ‘model GST law’ seeking comments from stakeholders. Therefore, he said, it was ‘not necessary to put the draft laws for the session,’ he said. The speaker also clarified that the GST was related to tax laws. There is no infringement on the special provisions with respect to the state of Nagaland, he said. Once ratified by the requisite number of states, the bill will become law and shall be applicable to all states in the country. The house has unanimously ratified the constitution (122nd amendment) Bill of 2014, as passed by both the houses of the parliament. The commissioner-secretary of the assembly, Benjamin Newmai, also reported the assent of the governor to two bills namely the Nagaland Salaries, Allowances and other Facilities of the Chief Minister, other Ministers, Speaker, Leader of Opposition, Deputy Speaker, other Members of the NLA / Parliamentary Secretaries and Pension for Ex-members Act of 2005 (5th amendment) Bill of 2016, and the Nagaland Appropriation (3) Bill of 2016.