This blog was last updated on June 27, 2021

The four bills that would implement the long-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India have taken their first step towards enactment, passing India’s lower house of parliament (the Lok Sabha) on March 29, 2017. The State of Jammu and Kashmir is notably excluded from the scope of one of the bills, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Bill, and will need to take special legislative steps to adopt IGST. The other bills passed on Wednesday were the Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, the Union Goods and Services Tax Bill, and the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Bill. Although the roll-out of GST was originally scheduled to take place on April 1, 2017, subsequent political entanglements required that it be delayed to July 1, 2017, a date on which the Indian Finance Minister is holding firm.