What Rajya Sabha can do for the states, no other House can do, the Prime Minister said.
Industry experts said the major pain point would be tax collection at source, which would create a rift between sellers and e-commerce companies.
GST will also make our exports more competitive and also provide a level playing field to domestic industry to compete with imports, the President said.
The GST has been a great achievement, but it does suffer from weaknesses, says Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian.
Elections may be a few months away, but the government may get into election mode much earlier than that, predicts A K Bhattacharya.
Under the GST regime, most manufactured goods will turn cheaper.
They are evaluating realignment of warehouses and supply chains, besides exploring locations to set up hubs and shutting down some distribution centres
It has hiked prices of diesel variants of Ciaz and Ertiga models with smart hybrid technology
The interest charged on an inter-state loan given to a credit card holder without the use of a plastic card would not be subject to the integrated goods and services tax (IGST), a two-judge bench of the Calcutta high court has ruled. In this connection, it recently set aside a ruling by a single judge of the high court. The issue was a loan of Rs 650,000 granted by Citi Bank with an EMI of Rs 58,056 for 12 months and inclusive of integrated GST (IGST) on each installment of interest.
With audits and greater emphasis on anti-evasion measures, more tax demands will lead to more litigation. So, it is a bit early to start celebrating. GST is still work in progress.
The problem is not GST itself, but the nature of an economy dominated by small businesses unable to cope with the complexities of the tax, points out T N Ninan.
"At present, there are two main rate slabs under which sa majority of goods are covered -- five per cent and 12.5 per cent -- which will now increase to three (five per cent, 12 per cent and 18 per cent).Will this result in multiple litigations is anybody's guess."
The GST will be a national sales tax that will be levied on consumption of goods or use of services
In yet another instance of his confrontation with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam dispensation in Tamil Nadu, Governor R N Ravi on Monday concluded his customary address to the House within a few minutes, making certain remarks over the content of the address that were 'expunged'.
With a view to keeping inflation under check, essential items including food, which presently constitute roughly half of the consumer inflation basket, will be taxed at zero rate.
According to the draft, in the northeastern states the threshold is at Rs 500,000.
Analysts believe the GST could boost India's economic growth by up to 2 percentage points
Jaitley further said the country would eventually move to a two-tier GST, however, this depends on the revenue position of the government.
India opened up its economy to the private sector in 1991.
"There will be some challenges" in the switchover to GST in the short term, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has warned.
The Opposition said that the government was 'bull-dozing'.
To meet the yearly target, each of the next five months has to yield Rs 1.107 trillion GST collections.
'These provisions may even be seen to be a threat to burgeoning businesses, since they would view every announcement of a rate cut as a starter's pistol that triggers a long race to adjust prices and to justify the adjustment,' argue Rashmi Deshpande and Anjali Krishnan.
It will reduce compliance cost as the assessee will not have to maintain multiple records for a variety of taxes
An area of worry relates to simplification of the refund procedure where the inverted duty structure prevails
'In practice, GST will increase the pain of compliance, if not the cost, a lot.' 'It also has clauses that offer scope to create a single market for corruption,' warns Devangshu Datta.
The Centre's revenue from GST registered a decline of 10 per cent in 2017-18 compared to revenue of subsumed taxes in 2016-17.
States are apprehensive of losing their rights to raise revenue during emergencies.
The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill.
According to DBS, GST has growth, inflation and fiscal implications.
Jaitley promised the states that they would be fully compensated for any loss of revenue arising from implementation of GST.
The transition to a single, nationwide tax on goods and services will streamline business and boost the economy by tearing down barriers between 31 states and union territories.
"The industry is looking at a rate of 12-16 per cent. So, it entirely depends on how it gets. But the bigger concern is how the GST is applied," said R Chandrashekhar, president of Nasscom.
The forthcoming Budget, the last full one before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is expected to contain a number of sops and feel-good announcements, especially regarding social sector schemes.
Criticising various provisions in the proposed GST regime, Moily said it will be a "technological nightmare" and the anti-profiteering provisions in it are "far too draconian."
All eyes will be on whether Sitharaman will deliver a populist budget leaving more money in hands of the common man or push the reform agenda by staying on the fiscal glide path to lower the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26.
A well-established tax system would have a predictable buoyancy - how fast the collections grow as a proportion to the growth of the economy. But that is not the case with GST. It is still undergoing substantial changes as the government responds to structural as well as administrative glitches.
The GST will alter the very face of fiscal federalism in India.
'... the government provides adequate cash and kind support for the poorest of the poor for survival... ...conditional cash and skilling support for the economically poor to raise their incomes to adequate levels... ...and make functional arrangements for providing unemployment allowance to the vulnerable poor during disasters like the present one.'
The business would also not be allowed to claim any un-availed input tax credit for "goods lost" or "destroyed".
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