India: GST Bill cleared:

Here's what some of the Indian business tycoons think

As the Goods and Service Tax bill clears its way with a thumping majority in the Rajya Sabha, the Indian Inc. has responded positively on the move where several corporate heads said the bills passage would 'ease' doing business in the country.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday moved that the GST Bill - The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-second Amendment) Bill, 2014 be discussed and passed in Rajya Sabha.

The discussion on the GST bill came after months of discussions between the ruling party and the opposition - with both sides meeting multiple times to negotiate amendments.

Here is what some of the business tycoons in the country think about the GST bill:

Rajesh Agarwal, Co-Founder, Micromax Informatics

"We welcome the clearance of GST Bill in the Upper House and would like to congratulate the Government and the Opposition for constructively working hard towards building the consensus on the same for greater good of India.

This is a historic landmark in the country's taxation history as it makes the country one unified market and will bring uniformity to the structure. While we understand the nitty-gritties of the GST Bill, it is too early for us to discuss the real impact on the mobile ecosystem but it will definitely make the tax structure more transparent and less complex. We hope that the government will work together with the industries to create a strong draft of the bill."

Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India

"I am pleased that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha today. It is a positive development and I hope the Government will implement this long pending reform by April 1, 2017.

The Government's idea of a single tax regime is crucial to improve ease of doing business in India and address the ambiguities of the current indirect tax landscape, proving beneficial for the economy, at large."

Aditya Gupta,Founder The Furniture Republic (TFR)

"While the actual tangible benefits may take a couple of years to trickle down, the "meaning" of this positive step is important in the immediate context also. It signifies the ability to cross political challenges in creating long term impact reform.

The "signal" that goes out to the global community of investors is also of crucial importance."

K Ganesh, Promoter of BigBasket, Housejoy, Portea

"The passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the Rajya Sabha is a progressive measure as it can facilitate seamless movement of goods across inter-state borders enabling better efficiency and spurring growth of the (eCommerce) sector. However, like every regulation, it needs to be implemented correctly, and should not make lives of eCommerce players even more complicated by burdening them with more administrative hassles."

Bipin Sapra, Tax Partner, Telecom Practice, EY

"While the telecom service will become costlier as the rate of GST will be higher than the present service tax, a lot of cost will also accrue on account of difficult place of supply rules, decentralized and multiple compliances and credit blockages. The law, procedures and administration mechanisms need to be simplified to allow the prices of the mobile service to be low in the hands of the consumer."

Narendra Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director of Intex Technologies (India) Ltd

"Finally India gets united, which was living in a legacy of almost 30 different markets within the country. We were saddled with a plethora of diverse state-level taxes and levies of around 25-30% - or even higher in the case of some sectors. GST will ensure India finally emerges as one common market with an approximate tax rate of around 18%, with no double taxation and no cascading effect of multiple levies.

Being a manufacturing entity, Intex Technologies stands to benefit from a uniform tax regime because this will boost operational efficiencies, increase cost savings and make products more competitive. This will help in a major way to simplify the way we do business and will boost government initiatives on "ease of doing business in India". The world will now recognise India's potential and the government's willingness to take bold steps to boost the economy.

As 1.3 billion consumers across India benefit from lower prices, GST will spur higher consumption and increase the tax base through better compliance with the held of information technology enablement. In the long run, these factors will raise India's GDP growth by 1 or 2 points, generating millions of new jobs and driving greater prosperity.

I wish all the success to the Indian government for the biggest reform after Independence."

-The Indian Express