Quote from KPMG on GST Bill Passed in Lok Sabha

Santosh Dalvi, Partner - Indirect Tax, KPMG in India:

“It is indeed a great milestone to achieve as it has happened after a decade of efforts by all concerned. Thank you to all the legislators who voted for this. Hopefully, the bill is passed in the upper house in this session of parliament itself. This will help the Central Government to achieve their target date of 1 April 2016 for a GST rollout. Still there is a lot of work which needs to be done in terms of preparation for the government such as appointment of a GST council, draft legislation, GSTN IT infrastructure, overall change management, etc. However, it will bring a lot of positivity around GST implementation in India. Of course, for the industry it means a lot of internal preparation is required within 11 months of time.”

Pratik Jain, Partner - Indirect Tax, KPMG in India:

Lok Sabha passing the GST bill is a great news for industry and this brings GST closer to reality.  It's also an indication that there is broad based alignment on GST amongst major political parties.  Now even if the Bill goes to a select committee of Rajya Sabha, one would hope that GST meets it's deadline of April 1, 2016.  In any case, it seems almost certain that is now GST is going to happen in the calendar year 2016.  It leaves very less time for the industry to prepare for this major transformation.