Meghalaya became the 21st state in the country to ratify the Goods and Service Tax Bill which was unanimously passed in the first day of the assembly session here.
It is the third Congress-ruled state after Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh to ratify the GST Bill. Assam was the first state in the country to ratify it.
The Bill was passed without any discussion after Minister in-charge of Law Roshan Warjri moved a government resolution to ratify the Constitution (122 amendment) Bill, 2014. It was approved by the House unanimously by voice vote.
Earlier, when Speaker Abu Taher Mondal asked if any member of the House would be interested to participate in the discussion over the resolution, none participated.
However, Opposition Chief Whip James Sangma said they could not participate in the discussion over the resolution as the government did not supply the necessary papers before the session.
“Time and again, we have been saying that MLAs should be supplied with necessary papers. When we were not given those papers, how you expect us that within half an hour after seeing the papers lying in-front of us today we can discuss it?” he told reporters after the session.
“A bill is not an ordinary document, it has a lot of nuances that need to be understood, and then go ahead and debate,” he added.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma expressed his happiness over the passing of the Bill, which he claimed that it was a long drawn exercise of the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.
“The GST will bring in much needed transparency and higher investments in the coming years,” he said.
State Taxation Minister Zenith Sangma said with the implementation of GST Meghalaya would benefit a lot.
From Agencies, Feature image courtesy cloudfront
