The Constitution Amendment Bill for roll out of GST was introduced in Parliament during the last Budget session and has been referred to the Standing Committee on Finance.

The issue of declaration of natural gas in the declared goods category that will limit the rate of Value Added Tax is also on the agenda. Earlier this month, the government came out with a revised draft negative list which indicates that health facilities, non-AC train travel, education, metro and taxi would be kept out of service tax net. At present, only a limited number of services come under the tax net.

By way of a new negative list, the government proposes to tax many of the services by making the new list effective.The negative list will include services like funeral, burial and mortuary agencies, interest paid on deposits by bank, services provided by independent journalists, dividend on investments, and passenger travel in public transport.

The other services which figure in the negative list are copyright, dramatic and artistic work, services provided by recognised political parties, advertisement other than those published in newspaper and broadcast by radio and TV or displayed in other electronic media.